equilibrium // peter & esther

In the Capitol, sleep was not so much a fickle friend. Esther had spent the first night wide awake in bed and the following morning Sparky had- in perhaps the most intelligent words to fall out of their mouth- suggested a sleeping pill. They were of course, given out as yet another carrot on the stick. Giving a view of how the other half lived before in roughly two weeks, would be snatched out away from them. Tonight however, Esther just stared at the single pill that had been lain out for her on a silver dish as if it were the most prized item of a six course meal.

And yet she felt no desire to take it.

With a small sigh and shrug, she pushed off the bed and crossed the silent apartment. Atticus and Sierra were probably fast asleep and neon warmth of the glow of the capitol cast through the large open windows of the apartment like a forgotten sunrise; if Esther had watched the sunset from the balcony she might have considered if they had been plunged into an eternal twilight. Moving slowly, she crept to the elevator, calling it down. Instincitively she rubbed her arms, despite the fact she had not felt warmth like this in the seventeen winters she had spent in the slums of Three.

As the empty lift opened up before her, she stepped inside and closed her eyes, allowing the sinking feeling of the lift wash over her. It didn't take long for her to reach the training floor and she stepped out into the silent empty room- she was about to make a bee line for the chemical table when she realised there was a shadow mirroring her steps out of one of the other lifts. Esther turned, her eyes wide, like a white rabbit caught in the headlights.