I DO NOT OWN THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES.

FACE CLAIM

AMSTERDAM BECKER- JON HAMM

Logan, West Virginia. 3 days later.

Coriolanus Snow sipped his glass of sweet ice tea as he watched the sun set. He had put off the favor that he owned Enoch Eldridge for 3 days and he knew that the GOP fixer wasn't going to wait forever. If he and his songbird were going to have a future in this pre-Panem world, he needed to make connections. Enoch was exactly the type of person he needed to please so that he could stop being a grease monkey and finally become what he was meant to be: a man with power.

"Ruth sure knows how to make some sweet tea." Lucy Gray Baird remarked as she came out onto the porch. She was dressed for bed in a purple t shirt and a pair of yellow panties.

"It's nowhere near as sweet as you." Coryo remarked as he pulled her in for kiss.

"Flattery ain't gonna get you everywhere, Sugar." Lucy Gray teased as she rested in the arms of her capitol boy as he inhaled the scent of her long black hair.

"How are you doing?" he asked, not needing to elaborate on what he meant.

"Better...the nightmares ain't coming as much. But Coryo...we're still in danger." she replied as she looked up with her chocolate eyes.

"What do you mean? Laurel's dead and Samuel won't talk." Coryo insisted as he caressed her cheek.

"Missus Howell wanted me to get the vacuum cleaner from the closet above the crawl space. Coryo...he's stinkin'." Lucy Gray whispered anxiously. "When I was in the arena, the whole place reeked of death. Once that smell gets inside your nostrils, it don't ever get out. If I can smell him, it's only a matter of time before the others do."

"Lucy Gray...I will not let anything happen to you. I'm going to take care of this, I promise. I just need to take care of some business tonight." Snow said as he pressed a kiss to his songbird's lips.

"What business?" She asked.

"Enoch's cashing in the favor we owe him for the fake id's." He answered.

"What's he asking you to do?" Lucy Gray inquired nervously as she didn't want her boyfriend's hands to be stained with more blood.

"He's not asking me to kill anyone...it's best if you don't know more than that." Coryo said as he held her face in his hands. "I'd rather ask for forgiveness than permission."

"Be careful, Coryo." Lucy Gray cautioned as she pulled him in for a deep kiss which went on for a whole minute.

"I always am. I'll do the favor and then, we won't owe anyone anything. We'll answer to no one but our own selves." Coryo promised as he held his songbird close as he prepared himself for the task ahead of him.


Madison, West Virginia. Later that evening.

After everyone in the Howell house has gone to sleep, Coryo grabbed a ski mask from the closet and got in Joshua's pick up truck. He had driven the family car back in the capitol before having to sell it to pay the rent. Coryo had also been trained in driving trucks around the peacekeeper base in District 12; so he was able to handle himself in an old pickup truck.

Borrowing a map, Coryo was able to make his way to the town of Madison: the seat of Boone County. Enoch had given him the address of the patriarch of the Becker clan. They lived in a 3 story house on the outskirts of town, but they didnt have a tenth of the land that the Eldridges possessed.

It was damn near midnight when Coryo broke into the Becker home by using a boxcutter to slice open the screen door. He tiptoed through the house; looking for Amsterdam Becker. As he moved through the house, he found young and old people alike. In his pocket, he had a snapshot of Amsterdam that was mailed to him by Enoch. After 15 minutes of searching, Coryo found his target in a master bedroom at the far end of the top floor of the house.

Snow quickly snuck in and withdrew his belt from his jeans. Luckily, Amsterdam was sleeping on his stomach, so Coryo quickly pressed his face into the pillow before pantsing him and bringing the buckle part of the belt down hard on the man's ass. Amsterdam immediately woke up and yelped into the pillow as Coryo gave him a belting. The man screams of pain mixed with the sounds of the metal striking flesh.

After several minutes, Amsterdam's buttocks began to bleed and Coryo ceased the belting. He then pulled his face up frok the pillow and looked into the man's eyes with all the anger he could muster.

"I'm here on a friend's behalf and you're making his life more difficult than it needs to be." Coryo growled as he socked Becker in the nose. "You're going to stop helping the democrats or else i'm coming back and the pain you feel now...will be doubled; do you understand?"

"Fuck you...piece of shit..." Becker growled as he spat blood onto Coryo; who in turn delivered another punch to his jaw.

"You better understand." Coryo warned Amsterdam as he spat on the man before making his exit from the Becker estate. While Coryo was driving down the road, he was relieved that his debt to Enoch Eldridge was paid. However, before he and Lucy Gray could begin to build their lives, Coryo knew that he needed to tie up 2 loose ends. Samuel and Laurel's corpse were liabilites and they needed to be put to grass before they could cause him or his songbird any more grief.

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