I have nowhere else to go | Flynnshots [post 95th]

I have nowhere else to go | Flynnshots [post 95th] Jan 28, 2024 13:54:30 GMT -5

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Post by ☢️ on Jan 28, 2024 13:54:30 GMT -5

FLYNN GARNER

Flynn closes his eyes; he doesn’t need to see that reflection looking back at him. His head rests on the glass window, it is dark out, this is the last train of the day. The return to Six was longer than what it should’ve been. He didn’t even intend for it to be a rest stop, just a grab and go but instead he got grabbed and they wouldn’t let him go.

It is a nearly empty carriage, just a few shadows that he has not dared to make eye contact with. The victor has his hood pulled up and he is curled up against the window in his seat, back turned to whoever is nosy enough to look in his direction.

Nobody is expecting him at this destination. A surprise arrival, it is either going to be added to the long list of Flynn Garner’s worst decisions or he’ll be welcomed with open arms.

He can already imagine those hands, the warmth from the other’s breath. Skin touching and being able to feel his pulse, sometimes they’re even in synch. Flynn’s arms wrap around himself and all he can feel is Andal. He squeezes himself and all he can see is Andal. It is all he really needs.

Except there is the trouble of his hiatus, the troubling anxiety that Andal has given up on him like everyone else. It is only the delusion of Andal sharing the same feelings as him that is making him pursue this journey and probably the pills. It is feels like he is using Andal as an escape but there is nowhere else for Flynn to go.

District Six has abandoned him but will Ten take him? After what Nessa did to Emerson? The train will pull up to Ten in the evening, the next train to anywhere won’t be until the morning. He has a whole night to figure out where his escape is. None of this running away will be permanent, the Capitol won’t allow that. Six is engraved in his skin and he will never be able to scrub away. It is just a vacation, a temporary relocation to figure himself out. To figure out this future, however long it will be.

A heavy rucksack balances on the seat opposite him, it is filled with screwed up clothes and everything for him to survive a night. There are packs of medicines at the top, zipped away. One will help him sleep on the streets if he gets turned away. Another will help dry the tears if he gets asked how he is doing. The last one will turn down the volume of his anxieties, without it he wouldn’t be on this train.

Flynn opens his eyes, it has been hours and hours, everything looks so open through the glass even in the dark. Lonely trees overseeing crops in fields and hedges containing cattle that seem to be freer than him. Even if most of them are destined for the abattoir but isn’t that the same tale for District citizens anyway?

The carriage slows and the brakes squeak on the track as the train approaches District Ten’s station. It takes him a few seconds to uncurl himself from his seat and to take the rucksack that he has packed his life in. It is not too late to stay on the train, he could keep riding it. It is the one that goes from District to District. He could spend a year just watching Panem from a distance.

But he is on his feet. Flynn is standing on the platform of District Ten’s station. Nobody is here waiting for him, a small part of him wanted a romantic reunion, running into Andal’s arms. Instead, he needs to find the other victor’s home and be that unexpected knock on the door in the night.

ELEGANT

I have nowhere else to go | Flynnshots [post 95th] Feb 19, 2024 15:20:29 GMT -5

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Post by ☢️ on Feb 19, 2024 15:20:29 GMT -5

FLYNN GARNER

All he’s got navigating him is a memory of having a barbecue at Saffron Lowe’s house. How is his victory tour becoming a distant memory? It won’t be long until Flynn’s ten-year anniversary. All it has taken is a decade to rip apart his family, his heart, his head, his childhood. So much trauma crammed into just a few years, it is why he is clinging onto the memories that don’t make him feel numb. He is thinking about the burgers grilling on the barbecue in District Ten’s victor’s village. They smelt so much fresher than the ones in Dale’s Diner.

Flynn has walked a fair bit from the train station. In the right direction? Who knows. District Ten is so restless this evening, his hood is pulled over his forehead, the strings are tight because there are so many folks about in this built-up part of Ten. He can’t remember if the village was far from the station or if he had travelled through farms and land the last time he was here.

Something hits the side of his foot on the cobbled road –

”GREAT DEFENSE! Pass it to me – “

”No! Over here!”

He has just unknowingly saved a soccer ball. A whole bunch of kids are waving and running at him. Makeshift goals are set up on the road with sweatshirts and…. piles of animal dung in straw. Flynn boots the soccer ball to the kid that asked for it first. It has been a while since he’s played soccer, but it is the perfect pass and it is noticed too.

”We’re a guy down, do ya wanna stay in defense ‘till he comes?” The kid in the makeshift goal asks him.

”Uhh…I uhmm actually,” Flynn is hesitant, there is somewhere he needs to be or at least he is trying to get somewhere. Will a few minutes playing soccer harm? It has been years since he has played a game like this, especially one that hasn’t be orchestrated by the Capitol for a sponsorship event. Just a few minutes being nobody. Being someone that is needed and actually wanted. These kids don’t know who he is. He is just someone who is good at kicking a ball.

”Okay but I can’t stay long!”

Long lasts thirty minutes.

Ten minutes in, Flynn wondered when the kid he was substituting for would show up.

Fifteen minutes in, Flynn helped defend three attempts at scoring a goal.

Twenty minutes in, Flynn forgot he was probably at least six years older than these kids and ending up tackling one to the floor. His team loved it though, there’s no red cards on this cobbled pitch.

Thirty minutes in and Flynn suddenly remembered where he had to be.

Most of the kids look exhausted and the ball is picked up.

”Why are you all playing out so late?” Flynn asks the goalkeeper. Despite it being night, the clear sky with its stars and moon are enough the light up the road that is being cleared of sweatshirts.

”We all gotta work or go to school during the day! Why ya asking?” The goalkeeper looks suspicious, he walks around Flynn who has had his hood up the entire time. ”Not from around here are ya?”

”No, uhh I am here on a work permit. Can you tell me where the victor’s village is?”

”Ya doing work on the victor’s village? That sounds sus!” Another kid whose been listening in asks.

”What business ‘ave ya got with our victors?” Questions the goalkeeper who reaches out for Flynn’s hood. Flynn steps back but he is too slow for the other kid that snatches it, and his dark brown curly locks are out in the world to see. It wasn’t exactly the best disguise.

”You! You’re…” It takes the kids awhile to figure out who he is, Flynn doesn’t want to wait around long enough for one of them to say his name but there’s at least ten of them surrounding him now.

”Flynn Garner!”

”Take the next left, then go right. Straight ahead a few hundred steps and then when you see the-“

Flynn just about catches the directions; he is gone before anymore questions can be asked. Nobody is chasing him, but he is running down the road, leaving behind a group of head scratching kids. After game of soccer and a sprint, he’ll be knocking on Andal’s door so flustered.