Chapter 20- Silver Bellcreek
Violet leans against me, half asleep as the train rattles through the night. I keep one arm wrapped around her, the other propping me up so I don't fall back. I should be sleeping, but I can't; not yet. I'm not the only one still awake; Willow holds her lit candle close to her, Cass, and Osa, but I can't hear anything that they're saying.
I hold Violet tighter, trying to protect her from the world around us. I don't know why I feel like I need to protect her, but I do. She's only thirteen, and she's alone. I'm alone too, but not in the same way. Trying to keep her safe makes me feel braver. My ally.
Someone on the other side of the train begins to sing; I can hear her rough voice even over the rattling. Aldera; I think it's Aldera. I'm proven right when the singing stops abruptly, interrupted by a coughing fit, before continuing.
"Once I was a rose, growing steadily in the sand
Once I was a cherry, picked by a steady hand
Once I was a tree, reaching up into the sky
Now I am forgotten, and this is where I die.
Soon I'll be a thorn, cut into the sand
Soon I'll be a stone, thrown by a forgetting hand
Soon I'll be a stump, cut down without a sigh
Now I am forgotten, and this is where I die."
"Lighten up," Glow growls. "And shut it; we're trying to sleep here."
"Screw you, District 1," Sanguin snarls from behind me. His voice is still hoarse from screaming.
"Shut the hell up!" Buck shouts on the opposite side of the train. Violet wraps her arms around me tight; I find myself stroking her long curly hair. Aldera's stopped singing, returning instead to coughing and crying, her usual standbys.
I want to go home. I want to be back in my bed up in the attic with Shine; I want to pick flowers with Flaire. I want to go to school and forget about the war completely. Most of all, I don't want to die; don't want any of us to die. Beade's awful and mean, I know now, but I don't want her dead, or Glow or Rigg or Flick- or anyone else!
And especially not Violet.
"When do you think we'll get there, Silver?" she whispers so only I can hear.
"Soon. It has to be soon," I whisper back, still stroking her head.
"I'm scared."
"Me too. But it'll be okay; I'll watch out for you." I don't know what to expect when we reach the Capitol.
The train shifts under me in its familiar way. "What's going on?" Violet whispers; I can hear the fear in her voice. "Are we at the Capitol?"
"Welcome to District 2," Rigg says. "Last stop."
Last stop before the Capitol. Who are we bringing aboard?
Violet holds me tighter around the middle as the train slows and stops, leaving the world quiet at last. Nobody talks, and even Aldera pauses her crying. Willow blows her candle out; I can still see the red tip of the hot wick, until it burns itself out into blackness.
The lock comes off of the door, making Violet bury her face in my lap. She's never done a pickup, and this is our last one.
What then?
The door flies open, revealing more Peacekeepers than we've ever had accompany the tributes before. One holds the leash of a large, brutal looking dog, the others hold guns or flashlights whose beams burn into my eyes, making me squint.
"Raoul, you go," a Peacekeeper further back shouts, and a tall and muscular looking Peacekeeper jumps into the train car with us, gun in one hand, flashlight in the other.
"Watch where you shine that," Oak snaps, half closing her eyes.
"Or what?" the Peacekeeper replies, smirking at her.
"Or I'll shove up where it won't shine again."
"You shut it," the Peacekeeper snaps, shining his light around the car, focusing on each of us in turn. When the beam hits Violet and me, she squeezes me even tighter, if that's possible. The light reflects off of her hair, making it glow like burning embers.
Beade and the rest of my old alliance don't react much when the light hits them; the bright light only emphasizes how tired and worn they look. How I must look. I've been on this train for a thousand years.
"Get your goddamn light off of me!" Buck growls when the Peacekeeper focuses his flashlight on the boy from 11.
"Try anything and we'll put a dog and ten guns on you. Try me," the Peacekeeper, Raoul, says before moving the beam on. Aldera's started crying again, and I can feel Violet trembling on me.
"We've got everyone accounted for," Raoul finally shouts, looking out the door. "That's supposed to be in here, anyway."
"Get in you little cretins," another Peacekeeper says, shoving the last pair of tributes towards the door. Raoul shines his flashlight directly in the girl's face, giving me a proper look at her.
She's taller than me for sure, with dark brown hair that's been pulled back into a messy bun. She must have been reaped days ago, but has been waiting for the train since. She's pretty, but in a regal way, like everyone she looks at is below her. It's what I see in her black eyes that worries me though, reflecting the stark white light of the flashlight.
She looks cruel.
"So you're the little volunteer," Raoul says softly, not moving the flashlight from her face. "Eager to get into that arena, are you?"
"I will be when you move out of the way and let me get on this train. I've been waiting for a long time to get on, and I'm tired of standing around," she says coolly, yet politely. Again, she acts like she could be the queen of Panem and get away with it.
"By all means, lady," Raoul says mockingly, stepping to the side and letting the girl climb aboard. She doesn't sit; she turns to look out the door at her partner who still stands below.
"And then there's you," Raoul continues, flashing his light down at the short boy who looks up at him. Curly brown hair, pointed face, and worried eyes, that's the boy from District 2. "Get up here."
The boy's a little too short to climb into the car (is he shorter than me?), so Raoul reaches down and hauls him up, leaving him to sprawl on the wood floor. "Enjoy the Capitol, vermin," Raoul snaps as he jumps down out of the car. The flashlights go out and the door slams shut, leaving us in darkness again. Violet trembles but she doesn't cry.
"So who are you?" Volt asks as the train starts up again, its ceaseless rattling drowning out the outside world.
Willow lights her candle, giving off just enough light for me to stop panicking. I don't like the dark right now. Violet slowly lets go of me, sitting up and leaning against me instead. I've known her only a few hours, but I feel like she's mine, my girl, my ally, my responsibility.
The girl from District 2 is just barely visible in the faint candlelight, her head held high and proud. "Curia Whitetree," she says, each word annunciated crisply. "And I'm supposing that you all are my fellow tributes?"
"Wonder how you guessed that," Volt says sarcastically. "Who's your friend there?"
"I'm Lar," the District 2 boy says, getting up carefully from the floor. "I'm not her friend."
"Are you loyalist or rebel?" Beade cuts in.
Curia's face curves upwards into a sharp smile. "Loyalist. Why else would I have volunteered?"
"Then you can come right here and sit with us; we're loyalists too," Beade says smugly, patting the ground next to her. Curia hesitates only a second, adjusting her cuffs awkwardly, then walks smoothly over to take her place next to Beade. Lar doesn't get a similar invitation; he sits down near the door and rests his elbows on his knees.
"Silver?" Violet whispers so that only I can hear.
"Yeah?"
"What do you think is going to happen when we get to the Capitol?"
I don't know what's going to happen five minutes from now, let alone when we get to the Capitol. I know that they're going to make us fight, that they're punishing the districts by making us die, but I can't help but hold onto the chance that they'll let us go free. That they'll show Panem that the Capitol is merciful and will let us go.
But I can't tell Violet that, get her hopes up that we might go free, only to have them dashed to pieces.
"I don't know," I finally say. "But I'll take care of you no matter what. I promise."
Violet leans into me, her face against my shoulder, and I feel her smile. "I'll stay with you too."
My girl. I don't know why she's my girl, but she is. And if I can keep her from dying, I'm going to do it. No matter what.
Please let the Capitol be merciful.