maw of the lamb / roe, day 4

It would be terrible to describe. You can imagine the cameras cutting away from this part, some underpaid intern searching through the arena for something a little more feel-good. A reunion maybe. Or the tender healing between two allies. But not this.

Not this.

There's something very uncomfortable in the scene - a boy, because that's all he really is now, trembling against a sink, using the sharp edge of someone else's knife to rip into his own stitches. His skin crawls with it, the only prevalent thought - out. The only motive, frantic, scourging - out.

At least he looks appropriately pathetic. A little disgusting. A lot gross. The gore gets worse as he works. The top tip of the A wells up with blood and then streaks down his back like a faultline.

He ends up making an appropriate mess of it.

His hands are shaking though, so the lack of finesse is somewhat understandable.

The full uncensored, uncut footage will be floating around the cyber vastness of the Capitol soon enough. $29.99 for the latest version of some college kid's sfx demo tape. It's a steal of a deal. Just don't eat before you watch.

The most heinous part is the end, when there's very little actual skin showing through all that red.

That's another byproduct, though. The tap of the sink doesn't work. Neither does the shower. That's not his fault.

The next part is though. It's very much his fault. And the consequence will be too.

Roe tosses the bloody knife into the sink and then rips into the roll of duct tape with his teeth - where the hell did he get that - tearing strip after strip until he has enough to semi-cover those awful new slashes of his back.

(Yikes.)