The World May Disapprove {Dusty JB Oneshots Pt. 1}

"Our lives are stories,
waiting to be told."

In the Justice Building, after the reaping, Joseph Spark, the brother of Industria Spark, had been her first visitor. The next to enter the room was the mayor of the District and mother of Dusty, Catherine Spark, immediately embracing her daughter in a tight hug as the young girl had with her brother when he’d come in not too long before. Beginning to speak, Dusty was silenced by her mother.

”Mama, I’m sorry, I-” she had started.

”Shhh,” her mother responded. ”You need not apologize. You’re brave, my darling. I’m sure you have reason for what you did, and although I don’t want you to go into that arena and fight, I won’t scold you for following your heart at the reaping, as I’m sure that’s what you did.”

It sounded like the woman’s voice was breaking as she spoke to her daughter in this way. She was clearly pained by it all, but just not quite ready to show her sadness.

Dusty nodded into her mother’s shoulder, still wrapped up in her hug. When released from the hug, she looked at her mother and saw the tears in her eyes that she was clearly trying to hold back, so as to not show her daughter her pain. She was trying to be strong for Dusty, but Dusty wanted to tell her that she didn’t have to be.

”It’s okay, Mama, you can cry if you need to,” Dusty said, a tear running down her cheek from her own eyes, not holding back anymore. If she was going to tell her mother that it was okay to cry, she needed to let herself know that it was okay, too. Therefore, she let that tear fall, followed by another, and another, and another, before tears started falling from the eyes of her mother, too.

”Dusty, my sweet baby,” Catherine Spark began again. Dusty truly was Catherine’s baby, the youngest of the bunch. ”I love you. I love you so much, and I don’t want you to forget that, okay? We all love you so much.”

More tears fell from Dusty’s eyes. She was sobbing at this point, and as she tried to speak, her words shook, but they still managed to be formed.

”I love you too, Mama,” she assured her mother. ”I love all of you.”

There was silence for a few moments, mother and daughter simply looking at one another, crying together, unsure of what to say next. That is, until Dusty broke the silence.

”Mama, I need to tell you why I volunteered,” she told her mother. The mother nodded in a way of telling her daughter that it was okay to continue with what she was saying.

”That girl, Plunder? She was part of the Theft family. Auto and Larceny survived the arena, but there’s nothing that promises that Plunder would,” she explained. ”I don’t want them to know what it feels like to really lose someone, Mama. What if they’re not strong enough for it?”

There was a pause. Silence.

”The Sparks are strong enough for sure, Mama. We’ve done it before, and if you lose me, you can all keep on living. It’ll be okay,” Dusty tried to explain.

”It’s never okay, losing one of you kids,” Mrs. Spark explained. ”but I understand why you did what you did, my dear. You’re braver than you or anyone else ever knew.”

There’s another hug shared between the two before their time runs out.

One last ‘I love you’ is exchanged between the two, and Mrs. Spark leaves the room.

Industria Spark is alone once again.

lyrics: "Sinners" by Lauren Aquilina