Chapter 2.
Kindle burns. Fast. And I'm not aware just how fast it burns until I am completely engulfed in it. I smell something. I go to the pot with the herbs, now all over the earth floor.
"Don't try and save it." Mylar says grabbing a quilt and stuffing it in a bag.
"I'm not." I mumble. The substance in between my fingers isn't water like I thought. It is oil. Kerosene, by the smell around me. Now I understand why the woods are burning so quickly, the rain was switched to oil after dark so no one can tell. Pieces of ember float all around me. I quickly grab my bag. I had been smart to stuff two small axes in my bag. I quickly take them out and hand one to Palma. We begin to hack away at the fallen logs all around us. Pillar is struggling in the dense smoke. I pick her up and carry her until we reach the lake I was aiming for. We are well into the ruins of District Twelve now. This is the place where Katniss Everdeen lived. This is the rebel base. I feel the heat of the earth as I rub ashes between my fingers. I can hear it before I see it. A hovercraft materializes before me.
"Run!" I scream. I don't know if they hear me because in an instant I'm frozen and a woman in a lab coat takes a hair. I'm shackled and bound to a chair. My heart races. What will they do to me? I was sure they'd kill me. But then I hear someone scream, "A Mason!" and I know why I sit here. It is because of my name. It has saved me. I worry over Pillar and Palma and Mylar. Did they get away? Did they die? I decide this will be my first question. I am taken to a room. A man comes in.
"Where are we from?"
"Where are they?" I scream. "What did you do to them?" He seems perplexed.
"Who?"
"You know who." I shoot back. He races his hand and my cheek becomes hot with impact.
"You will answer my questions. I spared you." We must be far away from Pillar. They are safe. But still, possibly, they could be held captive. He repeats the question. I lie.
"District 2." I say.
"And your purpose in District 12?"
"I was sent to see if it really was destroyed, personal mission." He seems to get the story and begins to walk out the room. But he turns.
"Oh, and Lizza?"
"Yes." Shit. He got me. He smirks and takes his seat back.
"I will tell you where you are from." I lean back.
"Go ahead." He pulls out a thick file.
"Born in… March. To Enosh and Patama. Mother, dead. Father, presumed dead. Sister, questionably alive but alive nonetheless." Johanna. "Other sister, dead. What was her name?" This is just cruel. I grit back my teeth to keep from crying.
"None of our business." He raises his hand, "Nessa, Nessarose." I lean forward.
"My turn. Where are they? What have you done with them?"
"With who?"
"You know who!" I am infuriated. He stands. "The others, with me, Pillar and Palma and Mylar." He smirks, hungry for blood.
"There were, others?" He turns to the guard by the door. "Turn around." My reaction is so animal and instinct, I don't realize I'm doing it until the guard pries me off him and throws me in a corner. I see the damage. His bottom eyelids have sagged with blood. He spits some out. He then drags me to the window. I see them, wandering blindly through the woods. I begin to scream only to be muted by a cloth brought to my mouth. A small vibration in the hovercraft and they all fall down, dead. Pillar looks behind her and straight into my eyes as if she can see me. And maybe she can. Then she falls and I bite the security guard. A jolt in the small of my back and I'm gone. But I have a reason to fight. I have a reason to speak to my sister. I have a vendetta for the death of my family. My mother. My father, even if I don't care about him. My sisters. Now, the only family I have left, dead. I will fight. I will win. Because I am Lizza Shanti Mason and I have a vengeance that needs to be put in action.
They bring in a meal for me. I look at it suspiciously, dissect it and ask for a drink. The same man who interrogated me says, "We don't need to kill you, yet." My heart skips a beat because it looks like a genuinely good meal. If my father had taught me anything it was to never refuse a hot meal. With the rainy weather nearly always over 7 we never really had a fire to heat our 16 by 16 house. I begin to eat it in tiny bites and then bigger ones. But the drink I never touch. There is no telling what is laced in that stuff. I'm about to grab it when two rough hands grab both arms and hold me still as a man all in white with a mask on like I had some catchable disease comes in with a needle and then, the fluid goes into my arm.
I know what they are doing. They are trying to receive memories. I try not to think about Johanna or Nessa because I want their memories untainted. Instead, I unhinge all the moments my father would hit me in sap moments. School lessons about the Hunger Games. Hunger Games, Johanna. The next thing I think about is something so dark I really ever think of it. The last time I spoke to Johanna. If I pull up this memory they will surely kill me. Because I showed Johanna a way to cheat the games. That is never allowed and surely I will die. But what do I have live for anyways? Nothing. And no one. The memory is too strong and I relive it in my nightmares.
After her name is called, my mother begins to weep. We are led into the Justice Building where I sit until it is my turn and we are alone. I brush my hand over the barrette that holds back my hair and I remember something they give us shortly after we are trained to climb. My barrette could save Johanna from pain. I walk in and we talk sentimental crap knowing neither of us are lovey people. Finally, I become urgent and hushed. I take my barrette out.
"Jo. This is something I always keep with me. I wear it to work. I eat with it in. I sleep with it in. Take it. There's, there's this peg right here." My trembling hands take it out. "After they train us, they give each climber this. If we ever fall, and are dying, it speeds up the process. It's called nightlock. It is deadly and I want you to have it. If you are…attacked, and know death is coming, I don't want you to be in pain. I want it to be quick. Not for you, for me and mother so she won't do anything rash. Please, use it if you can." The peacekeeper comes in and drags me out.
"Don't let mother do anything rash, don't let father spend everything on sap. Don't remember me I'm coming back. Keep Nessa alive."
"I will I promise." I swallow. How stupid a promise to keep. Everything she said happened. "I love you." I say it coldly. The memory dissolves away. They have what they need I am coaxed back to life by a slap. I see my interrogator.
"Looks like we have a little rule breaker here. That will not do." I see we are in a firm building. It is deep down and cold. The fluorescent lights hum unforgiving. "Take her away." I am dragged by my elbows down a hallway in nothing but a hospital gown. I scream and flail around but one reassuring kick to the stomach tells me it's no use. I can't keep the promise to stay alive. The kick tells me I have failed at everything including life. And now, I have no barrette to call my own.