Chapter 3- Departing
A/N: Here's chapter 3 and I'm hoping this will encourage some people to review! Maybe? Please? I know people are viewing it so it'd be fabulous if you'd give a review, just a word or two is all I need! Ok, on with the story.
Her whole body was shaking and she felt nauseous. It felt similar to when she had the flu when she was ten and her parents were afraid she wouldn't make it. This felt just as awful and just as terrifying only this terror was somehow so much more real than her sickness had ever been.
Sparrow could not believe that this was actually happening to her. She kept closing her eyes and pinching herself, willing to wake up in bed and have this whole thing be a terrible nightmare. Unfortunately, she would open her eyes and they would fall without fail upon the steel door and plain walls of the room she had been lead to. This time when she opened her eyes she saw the doors bang open and watched as her family rushed in.
"Not my baby, please not my baby," her mother was hysterical and began clinging onto Sparrow with all her might.
Her father gently pulled her away and kneeled down in front of Sparrow, his brown eyes that were so much like her own boring into her.
"You can do this, Sparrow, I know you can," he said quietly. "You're smart, clever, and you've known your way around an axe for years now. You know many things about survival and the woods. You have a fighting chance."
Sparrow simply leaned forward and wrapped her arms around her father's neck, possibly for the last time. "Thank you Dad for always believing in me," she whispered, tears spilling onto his shirt.
He gently patted her back and stood up, allowing Lichen to take his place.
"You knew didn't you? This morning you acted as if you knew I'd get picked," I said looking at Lichen's thin face.
"I had a feeling," he said simply.
He sunk to the floor in front of her and hugged her as tightly as he possibly could and she began crying in earnest. The truth of the matter was, this would probably be the last conversation she ever had with her family. The last time she would feel her mother's embrace. The last time her father would give her comforting words. The last time that Lichen would look at her with his hazel eyes, always knowing more than a boy his age should.
"Time's up!" a Peacekeeper demanded from the doorway.
"Win. Please. You can make it home, I know you can!" Lichen pulled back and stared into her eyes, his lower lip trembling slightly.
"Make good alliances with those you can trust the most. Just remember when it comes down to it that you have to be willing to try anything to survive if you want to come home," her Dad said while holding up her sobbing mother.
"Thank you for everything. I am so grateful for the family I have," my voice cracking as tears sped down my face. "I will try my hardest for all of you. I will try to make it home."
The Peacekeeper came in and lead her family out then. She could hear her mother's sobs long after the door closed. She tried to compose herself as best as she could and had mostly finished wiping the tears from her face when the door sprang open again and Eleni came in.
"Oh, Sparrow why did it have to be you?" Eleni grabbed her friend's hands in her own and stared at her with red rimmed eyes.
"Don't worry about my Eleni ok? I'm going to try my hardest out there to win for you, my family, and my district. I won't go down without a fight and you can count on that."
Eleni collapsed into Sparrow's arms and they simply cried together until the Peacekeeper ordered her to leave as well. Sparrow watched the steel door slam shut and thought about how truly alone she now was. No matter what, from now until the end she was completely and utterly alone.
0.0.0
She stepped into her room on the train and gazed around, dumbfounded by the extravagance of it all. The rest of the train had been the same; chrome fixtures, expensive bottles of every drink imaginable, plush arm chairs. She sat down on what was to be her bed for the duration of the train ride and marveled at how large it was. Her whole family and then some could fit on it.
Suddenly all of her sadness and shock melted away and was replaced by an unquenchable anger. All at once she was on her feet pacing back and forth across the room, her hands balled into fists. I can't believe this, I can't, this is all too much to take in. Why can't I just be at home with my family? Tears were streaming down her face as she lunged towards her pillow and screamed as loudly and as long as she possibly could. Her throat burning and raw, she rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling, her vision too blurry to make out any of the details. How dare the Capitol do this to her, to twenty-four children every year? This wasn't just punishment anymore for the rebellion of the districts. No, this was cruel entertainment made to scare the districts into behaving. In that instance she felt more hate for those people than she ever had before in her life.
After about an hour she had calmed herself down enough to be somewhat presentable and decided she might as well have a look at the rest of the train. She stepped out of her room and ran right into Everest who jumped back with surprise.
"Sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going," Sparrow said, feeling herself blushing at her stupidity.
"Oh no, its fine don't worry about it," Everest said softly, looking up at her with wide eyes.
"Hey do you maybe want to walk around a little bit? Get to know each other a little more?" Sparrow asked.
"Sure I would like that very much," Everest stated, a faint smile pulling at his lips.
They walked aimlessly around the hallways talking about their school and family life. Sparrow found comfort in this action and it was clear that Everest did as well. It was nice to pretend for a little while that they were just two children talking together instead of two terrified tributes being forced to kill or be killed in two weeks' time. During the hour or so that they talked, they both came out of it understanding one thing. When it came right down to it, they would protect each other with their lives when the time came.