#savebelindamorganstern {avriel/belinda}

a v .

"Hope I don't die
inside a plane
I'd like to die
a better way."

Three is a bullet hole through an old painting, all singed torn edges and empty of subject.

After three hours of presentation and touring, Avriel has been left to his own devices for once. He's got dinner plans with Atticus, there's some sort of show the other victor wants to take him to. Avriel's pretty sure he said 'opera' over the phone but he's never actually heard of those happening for real, he was pretty sure they were just a fictional thing.

Whatever.

Gloria told him he could do what he wanted for the next few hours and Mauve still haunts his dreams, he's never forgotten that look on her face as she was skinning that mutt in the training centre the first time he saw her. Part of him wonders if he could put her to rest finally if he could just meet her family, see what she came from.

It's selfish, but maybe seeing that she was just a normal girl who grew up in a house, probably much like his, could be enough to make her memory leave him alone.

"Mrs. Morganstern?" he calls out as he knocks on her front door for the third time. When Avriel had asked about going to see her, Gloria had laughed at him.

"Why would you ever think that family would want to see you? Your alliance killed her, remember?"

Gloria never has understood him, Avriel doesn't mind when she talks to him like that.

There's still no answer, Avriel steps back. Maybe she's just out. It's two o'clock on a thursday, it'd make sense if she was at work or something.

Av stoops down and pushes open the mail flap idly, maybe it'd just be enough to get a peak, see knick knacks on shelves and a worn staircase or whatever, confirm that it's a home.

It's a trespass but in Nine, people started bolting their mail flaps closed anyway. Turns out, they're kind of unsafe in a district ruled by turf wars. So Avriel decides it's the Morganstern's fault for still having one, and he pulls the flap up to take a look.

The home is empty, dust has settled over the staircase and there are photo frames on a little cupboard beside the door. The pictures are so covered in grime that it's hard to see anyone in them. Avriel glances down, he heard a little shuffling sound when he pushed the flap open, and sees a pile of mail.

A cold feeling slips down the back of his neck.

He leans back and the flap falls closed. There's a musty smell in the air. He shuts his eyes, then leans his forehead against the door.

That same uneasiness that he always felt when Mauve was near comes crawling back. There was something about her that was just off-putting, like the way she smiled was too wide, or the way she moved was off, as if she were a robot watching the rest of them for social cues.

Everything in him begs him to turn around and just leave, but it seems the home is empty anyway. He tries the knob and it doesn't budge; locked. Av looks up and down the street, no one's around. He pulls his jacket off, bunches his hand up in it, and punches the window beside the door.

It shatters and Avriel grimaces, arm shaking from the impact. Then he kicks glass out of the frame and steps into the house.

The first thing he notices other than the dust, is the scent. That mustiness that he caught a little of before is back but there's a sour smell too, like rotting milk. He walks through the living room, floral patterned couches and grime covered photos line the walls. He wipes his thumb across one and Mauve is gazing out at him, eyes cold.

The kitchen is the next room over and Avriel stares at it from his place in the doorframe. There are dishes, long dried now, sitting in the rack beside the sink. A butter dish sits covered on the counter beside a teapot with a cozy on it. It seems pretty normal but that smell is stronger here and something else is off but Avriel can't figure out what that is.

He pulls the fridge door open, the light doesn't flicker on and an overwhelming smell of mold hits him. "Damn," he mutters and slams the door shut again. That's what it was- no electricity. It was too quiet without the sound of the fridge running. Judging by the contents, no one's been here for months.

Avriel leans against the wall, trying to understand what's gone on. His heart is racing but he feels calm enough. There's a logical explanation probably, Mauve's parents were so upset about her that they moved or something like that.

They moved and left everything behind and didn't even empty the fridge out.

No.

There are three exits from the kitchen, one's the door he came from and the others are a shut door, then a doorframe leading back into the hall. Avriel tries the knob on the shut door but it's locked so he goes out into the hallway instead. There are the stairs leading up, a small bathroom and beside the front door is a set of hooks with various keys on them.

"Scout?" he asks.

The Kodama raises its head from his pocket and blinks at him. "What am I doing here?"

Scout looks over the edge of his pocket and then points down at the ground silently. Avriel scoops it out and sets it on the ground but the kodama only keeps pointing at the ground.

"Basement?" he asks.

Scout nods. Avriel was afraid of that.

"We need a key."

He moves mechanically over to the hooks and just grabs every key hanging there. Part of him knows that he doesn't want to do this, that he also doesn't have to. He could still just leave, just push open the front door and go and leave all this. He knows though that his nightmares will only get worse, that whatever is down in that basement cannot be as bad as anything he can come up with.

Except this is Mauve's house, Mauve's last words, her final act before leaving forever.

It could be anything down there.

His fingers shake as he tries keys and Scout bumbles around below, knocking into the door over and over again, adamant that this is the way he has to go. Months after the game's end, the kodama still leads Avriel. He wonders how much of those last few days in the arena were the gamemaker's plans and how much of it was Scout's meddling.

Why me? He wants to ask the little creature sometimes, why'd you choose me?

The seventh key he tries slides in easy and turns with a gentle click. Avriel pauses, quiet fear slipping over him. The scent of decay slides away, replaced slowly by burning cherry pie.

He's afraid of what he's going to find but Avriel knows that it's too late to turn away. He turns the handle slowly and pulls the door open.

A waft of stale air, punctuated by the scent of human shit and rot hits him hard and Avriel stumbles back and retches. He clutches the edge of the counter and gasps over the sink, trying his best to keep himself from throwing up.

Scout is already jumping down the steps and Avriel watches its little light slowly grow dimmer and disappear into the dark. He leans over the top step down to the basement and tries the light switch on the wall. Even after flicking it up and down a couple of times, there's nothing.

"Mrs. Morganstern?" he calls out quietly.

Scout rattles from somewhere below in response.

Avriel steps down into the dark, a hand over his nose. It's dark but Scout's light is enough to outline some things and the closer Avriel gets, the clearer things are.

The Kodama crouches beside a small withered figure, little stub of a hand petting the form's head. Avriel shuffles closer in the dark, mind racing, body tensed with fear over a girl who can no longer hurt him.

"Mrs. Morganstern?" he whispers.

He's frozen, unable to go closer. He shuts his eyes and sees blood-spattered curtains all over again, he sees his mother and father laying in blood, eyes wide open, seeing nothing. He sees dirt beneath his nails, or no, blood, he sees blood seeping into the floorboards, Duke's eyes when he tells them their parents are missing and their coats still in the closet, why didn't he get rid of their damned coats?

Avriel crouches down in the dark, breathing too fast, eyes wide.

This shouldn't be happening, not here.

"Fuck, what the fuck," he says through quick breathes.

Scout lets out a low cry and he's in front of Avriel again, stubby hands tugging on his pant leg, trying to pull him forward.

Avriel stays in place for a moment longer, letting his eyes adjust to the dark as much as they can. It's dark but still not as dark as the arena. The smell is the worst part, his eyes water from the stench. He pulls himself up and shuffles closer to the prone body laying in the dark.

She's all skin and bones, skeletal. Avriel stares for another long moment and then reaches out to touch her shoulder gently.

Her skin is warm.

"I've come to-"

To what? To save you?

"I'm gonna help you," he whispers.

a v .

"Hope I don't die
inside a plane
I'd like to die
a better way."

Mrs. Morganstern is paper-thin, as if she's not even made from skin and bone anymore. A phantom trapped in the basement, how can she even still be alive? It doesn't make any sense but Avriel doesn't have the brain power to question it, he's stuck somewhere between fight or flight?

"She's dead," he tells Mauve's mother, "Mauve's dead." His words feel more like a promise than anything and he adds, "She's never coming back." Avriel isn't sure if that's for Mrs. Morganstern's benefit or his own. Mauve was more of a monster than any of them fully realized.

It occurs to him that he has no idea what to do here. Avriel doesn't know District Three, the hospital could be anywhere, he's not even equipped to help her. Panic threatens again but then Scout is chirping at the bottom of the stairs, pointing back up.

"I'm... I'm going to lift you, okay?" he tells her.