i feel the light 🕯️toxic v just friends, day 3
Mar 4, 2023 23:30:10 GMT -5
Post by revel latimer, 11b 🔍 jay on Mar 4, 2023 23:30:10 GMT -5
spearNight falls.
The watercolor sunset bleeds into the horizon, around the clouds swirling about the towering mountain peaks, fading into a deep black. You stare gently up at the sky, drinking the waning colors in, counting each breath you take, every silent rise and fall of your chest to make sure you're still alive. It's hard to believe you made it another day, the waif girl from Twelve who goes light-headed at the sight of blood. But you're still here, curled in on yourself under the cracking purple thunder with a misplaced digit and a bloodied boy from Five just a few feet away.
Thistle has nestled into your bag, his light, verdant green glow shining through the cloth. A smile tugs at the edge of your lips, the first one since you've been in here. There's something about the innocence, the warmth of the airy creature, that makes your heart inflate. In a way, it reminds you of yourself, the girl you were years ago, bright-eyed with a heart of sunshine, delicate and loving. Trusting. You hope this tiny thing can hold onto that, hold on and never let it go.
"Tell me, does your entire family back in Twelve fight as crazy as you?" Niko's voice rings out, tearing through the silence. You welcome it though, sometimes you don't want to be left with your thoughts. But as you move to speak, beaming in the moment, mouth slightly opened with a syllable at the tip of your tongue, you remembered what family meant to you now. It's funny, for a fleeting second you forgot what you were even here for.
You cough briskly to glean over your restive silence, turning your head to look at Niko. Only by the beryl-blue lambent of his own creature can you discern the form of his face. "What about your family? I've always wanted to know about life in other districts. I had a few cousins that lived in the Capitol for a while, but you know, I'm here now so I never got to meet them. For real."
He's quiet for a moment, his eyes skim over your own. You wonder if he caught it, the choked word you forced down your throat, veiling it with something else. You pray he didn't, or that he doesn't question it, you'd rather leave all of that unsaid. Bury it in the ground of your mind like Arwen buries a scalpel in a patient's skin.
"Well, I live in a small place with my sister and my dad," he starts, palliating over your false start. You breathe a light sigh of relief, slumping your back against the large rock. "She's really into art and sweets, my sister, so I try to put the excess money I earn into making sure she can grow up a bit better than I did."
You give him a small, reassuring smile, even if he can't make it out in the dark. Then, your heart begins to sink as your mind begins to wander, painting pictures of his family, his father and sister, and their home. He'd have to die for you to live, there's no in-between. And it sounds so simple, that's how the games function, only one person survives, but it doesn't really hit you that everyone has people staring up at the screen, waiting for them to return. It's like a gut punch, your stomach twisting and knotting around the impact, a sinking feeling stirring in your insides.
"Goodnight," you whisper in a hushed voice, wanting to sleep away the guilt snaking its tendrils around your bones, biting at your psyche. You're barely heard over the lightning splitting open the fabric of the sky, bolts of purple cascading down from the cracks. You close your eyes, allowing yourself to be enveloped in the darkness, the raging storm becoming nothing but static in your ear.
You follow the veins of water branching from the stream, the warmth of the morning sun beaming at the back of your neck. You wipe the beads of sweat forming on your brow as they come, never letting them drip and trickle down the curve of your face. The water weaves through trees, rising up as though it leads towards the base of the mountains. Niko stays at your front, throwing a few words back at you once in a while, but you traverse quietly.
Minutes stretch into hours, you aren't quite sure how far and long you've walked, but it's started to settle in your bones. Your legs feel as though they've been lit on fire, burning and straining with each shaky step. You grimace as you move, your bare feet cut and bloodied from the sharpened rocks and ramping rough terrain.
You almost bump into Niko as he stops suddenly in his tracks, his head raised and eyes peering up at a bright, carmine red arch smack in the middle of the trees. Lanterns hang to either side, illuminating the carved mountain path. "Woah," you mutter under your breath, drinking in the sight. You think it should feel foreign and out-of-place here, but strangely, it's like it was meant to be here. As though the forest was made around it and not the other way.
Crack.
The snapping of twigs underfoot behind you, back in the Cherry Blossom part of the forest, shakes your attention away from the newfound path. You swing your head around instinctively, pulling your spear to closer to your chest, guarding your heart. You point it out defensively, two figures materializing from the shadows of the trees.
You turn to face Niko, your eyes wide and your heart beginning to race in your chest, thumping against your rib-cage. You see a look of familiarity spring on his face, recognition swimming in his eyes. You look down, his knuckles have gone white as they grip his sword and you know what that means.
"Just stay away from us," you say, an rounded edge of pleading to your voice. Violence has never been your nature, it's a foreign feeling coursing through you. Your body wants to reject it, to force out the poison, but you feel it slightly take hold of you for a moment. And you swing out at the figures, afraid of what's become of you.ivy attacks mirage vigil | yari, spear
W9bYa|6tjtspear
9.5
