Hey, Everyone!

It's TTUUUUUEEEESSSDDAAAAYY! I had my Spanish final today, and I could barely focus on the beginning portion of the test because I was SO tired! It's not even funny how tired I was! I think I got a good grade, though...if I didn't pass it, I would have to retake it next year...XP

Enjoy!

Chapter 6

Arriving at the Capital

The train station was packed with Capitol people in large skirts and outrageous shirts and fancy eye make-up for all.

I was disgusted, honestly.

"She looks like she's sunburned," Jeremy whispered in my ear, pointing to a woman with red foundation all over her face and bright green eye shadow on her eyes.

I laughed.

Lots of capitol people were nearly throwing themselves at us, trying to get a glimpse at us, and a few tried to touch my hair.

All the young girls were throwing themselves at my brother and Winchester, and I made me want to throw up.

One girl, however, was standing by the back of the crowd with a green carnation in her hands.

She was staring at me. But she wasn't staring at me like the others were. She cocked her head to the side and stared curiously at me. And then her gaze flickered to Winchester and then my brother, back to Winchester, and lingered on me.

She didn't make me nervous. She made me curious.

She had a pale blue gown looking thing on that clung to her hips and her bust and then fell in thin layers around her legs.

I couldn't see past her thighs because of the crowd, but the way she held her flower made me think it was important to her.

We were ushered through the crowd at a quick pace. I tried to ignore all the people that tried to touch my shoulders and my hair.

We finally reached our room, and Winchester made a grand sweeping gesture about the huge place. I looked around at the periwinkle walls and the soft, white, fluffy rugs on the dark brown wooden floors.

The dining room table had chairs that looked like they were made of twisted pink coral and the dining table was tinted green, as if to resemble sea-glass.

There were pictures and paintings of the ocean and the beach and underwater hung all along the walls, and there was a full length mirror by the doorway that led to a hallway.

In front of the dining table was a living room area with a flat screen TV hanging up on floor to ceiling windows, surrounded by a wrap around aqua couch.

All the lampshades were pink and the glass was green tinted. I could definitely sense what the accent colors here were.

"Impressive, huh?" Winchester asked us. "And this isn't even the pent house!"

That pent house must be fabulous, I thought, looking up at the ceiling, which was painted aqua, to match the couch.

"I need a glass of water," Daphnia looked around, her ball gown dress swishing was she did so. She called out, "Are there any Avoxes here, yet?"

A thick haired brunette came running in and nodded at Daphnia.

"A glass of water, chop-chop," she clapped her hands and the girl bowed her head and scurried off.

Rage boiled inside me. "You didn't have to treat her like that. Just because she can't talk doesn't mean she can't hear!"

My brother grabbed me in a hug from behind as Daphnia cocked her head to the side and gave me a confused once over. "Are you feeling alright, Dear? You've seemed a little…over dramatic, since we got on the train."

I wanted to scream at her, but Jeremy answered from right next to my ear, "She'll be fine, Daphnia, she's just recovering. Post Traumatic Stress, you know?"

Daphnia shook her head. "No, I don't know. What could have caused that?"

I got picked for the Hunger Games, you witch! I wanted to scream, I wanted to growl, I tried to wiggle out of his arms but he pulled me back to him and held me tight.

"Mother didn't come to say good-bye," Jeremy said quietly, and his eyes fell down on me with a soft look.

Understanding washed through me. He was trying to protect me from myself again. I had a habit of loosing things when times got rough for me, and he was always there, telling people watching it was Post Traumatic Stress and then he'd say something sad and I would pretend to break down and cry about it.

Sometimes it was real.

This time it was.

Tear welled in my eyes and I stopped fighting as I looked up at him. They ran down my cheeks and a soft moan lurched from the back of my throat.

All the anger seemed to be leached from me and poured into his loving eyes as he filtered out the anger and recognized my pain.

I collapsed in his arms and I just couldn't keep myself together much longer.

Jeremy cradled me in his arms and carried me from the main room.

We passed a sad-stricken Daphnia with a hand covering her mouth. But no tears from her eyes.

She didn't feel a thing.

And it would have ruined her make-up.

Winchester guided us from the main room and down the hall into the bedroom at the end of the hallway.

Jeremy placed me on the soft bed with a thick, royal blue comforter and I stared at the royal blue ceiling and the tears ran from the corners of my eyes, touched my ears and welled up a little inside of them before dropping onto the comforter.

"Dyla," Winchester reached a hand out and wiped a tear off the side of my face.

My lips were parted and my eyes were narrowed and I was thinking about Mom and how she didn't…even…think…about…me…

My breathing became harsh and my teeth gnashed and I kicked out at no one and I screamed.

I pounded my fists on the bed until my scream turned to sobs and I squeezed my eyes shut and I curled into a ball on my side and hugged my knees, each sob wracking my body.

"Dyla," Winchester's voice was calm but scared.

"She's fine. She'll be fine," Jeremy's voice was calm but sad.

I could feel him looking at me as another sob shook my curled up form.

"Has this happened before?" Winchester asked, his voice lower, more concerned than scared.

"After you left," Jeremy started, but then stopped. He took a second before starting again. "After you were Reaped, my mom got kind of quiet. I took over the responsibility of the house. Cooking, watching Dyla. My sister…she didn't know how to handle it. She started shunning Mom, just a little bit. Their relationship became distant, and when our mom kind of started getting back into it, after watching you win, she remembered thanking me for doing the work and taking care of the house and keeping my sister alive. But it was almost like she didn't remember my sister except in context.

"And that's how she got herself together. Dylila was kind of a vague memory. And from that, little Dyla developed a sort of version of abandonment issues. I learned this from watching, so it might not be perfectly accurate. And she'll get really defensive and really angry sometimes and lose herself. And after all those times I've seen them in the past two years, I've learned how to deal with them. This, however, this was not one of those things. This Dylila is going to need some getting used to. Just, pay attention to her, okay? And don't silence her when she's trying to talk. Even if she interrupts someone. She just needs to be heard."

"You said this wasn't one of her melt downs," Winchester commented.

"It wasn't, but don't call it that. It really is kind of a form of post traumatic stress. And abandonment."

"Sorry," Winchester whispered. "But what was this?"

"Dylila doesn't think the idea of Avoxes is right. At all. It horrifies her that they even thought about doing something like that to someone. And the way they treat them is even worse for her to handle. Actually seeing it…it made her mad. Made her want to snap back."

There was suddenly a hand in my hair, a hand I recognized to be my brother's. After I stopped shaking and I just laid there, he would run his hand through my hair.

"What did you do?" Winchester asked.

"I didn't want to see Daphnia getting seriously injured, or have Dylila turned into an Avox herself—it would ruin her—so I made her think of something really recent and really sad that she hadn't had her cry about yet. And that was Mom, not coming to say goodbye when we were leaving for the Hunger Games."

"She didn't say goodbye to you guys?" Winchester asked, shocked.

"No, she said goodbye to me. But not Dyla."

"How could she…"

"It all wraps back around to her growing back into her comfort zone. And the abandonment issues she had with Dyla. I tried to get her back. I tried to make her recognize Dyla, but it was brushed off like she wasn't even there. Dylila really took damage from that."

"Oh my God…"

"But we developed a bond," Jeremy ruffled the hair on the top of my head, and I wiped my eyes and sat up.

"We understand each other now, and it's nothing like any other brother-sister combo we've seen." Jeremy looked down at me. He smiled.

I looked at Winchester. "I'm sorry I've changed."

He opened his arms to me. "It's not your fault."

I leaned forward and gave him a hug. "I missed you."

"I missed you, too."

Jeremy wrapped his arms around us and he smiled into my hair. "I missed you, too."

This chapter made me really sad writing this, so I hope you guys didn't get hit with a feels too hard...

Thanks for Reading!