prisons of our own perceptions - day 4 {rot/rev/eul}

The ocean would not leave him alone; he still tasted salt in his dreams. As he drifted awake, ghostly yellow lights burned into his vision, he was left with a sinking feeling in his stomach, and a kind of breathlessness. His lungs pulled air, but weakly, and his limbs felt heavy. It was irrational to feel like something bad was about to happen, he knew it was just the remnants of a nightmare carrying over, but still, he felt it.

Then, in a drowsy haze, he noticed their matching scaly patches, dark grey and crackled like dried paint. Only it wouldn’t rub off. And, like scar tissue, the patch felt nothing when he touched it, or even when he scratched at it. Almost like all the nerve endings had burned up. The only sensation was the cold underneath.

Not good, he thought. Slowly.

He blinked up at Thompson when the younger boy approached, dripping wet. August could have sworn Thompson spent the night next to him and Tsiuri. Or had that been the previous night? Time felt fuzzy, maybe it was the sleep wearing off of him.

”Good morning,” he said.

”Good morning,” August echoed, his voice feeling distant.

”Let’s get going, I guess.” Maybe he had grown bored with swimming and wanted to explore.

August nudged Tsiuri’s sleeping body. ”Tsiuri, you up? Thompson’s on the move again. Hey, you have something on your neck.” Frowning, he brushed her hair aside to show her the scaly grey patch peeking out of her shirt collar. Then he remembered he had found a mirror on the beach the day before, and fished it out of his bucket. ”Wait a second… here.” He hurried to hold up the brass mirror in front of her.

”I have one too, look,” he said, holding out his wrist. ”You don’t have a salve or anything, do you?”

When they were all packed up, he said to Thomspon, with a hearty salute, ”Lead the way, captain.” The gesture reminded him that his limbs felt like lead. It was like he had a hangover, though he hadn’t been drunk. Then again, he had stayed up late meeting Florentine, hadn’t slept all that well, and saltwater did tend to suck all the energy out of one’s body. And he had only eaten a bit of bread. Maybe that was it.

He and Tsiuri followed Thompson, their trio falling into formation, a quickly-learned habit. August found this comforting, the intimacy of protecting each other’s backs without needing to ask or say a word about it; it was better than the moments when he dwelled in anxiety about the inevitable future where they’d be wrenched apart.

Thompson led them into one of the boats along the shore; the boy clearly had a plan, though it was a mystery to August and Tsiuri. August followed dutifully because he didn’t really think it was Thompson’s fault that they had run into trouble each day. Avoiding danger in one place would have only ended them up somewhere else, and at least they hadn’t had a weapon aimed at them since that stone demon had attacked them in the forest. Maybe this was Thompson’s plan, to get them further from the other tributes, so they could wait things out unharmed. In that case, it made just as much sense as anything August could have come up with.

As he and Tsiuri rowed towards the island, Thompson leading at the bow, the bay receded behind them, the waves that had battered them yesterday now a calm backdrop of periwinkle. But tranquility soon turned into eeriness. The trees grew clearer, but everything started to go silent. When they disembarked and set off through the treeline, it was like they had passed through a soundproof curtain. Uncanny. August turned back a moment, dumbfounded, and his heart rate accelerated in a moment of panic.

”I wonder how they did that,” he muttered to Tsiuri beside him, they meaning the Gamemakers. ”I can still see the ocean through the trees, but I can’t hear it. Can you?”

At least it wasn’t as dark as the other forest, with its fireflies and wooden platforms. This place would have been its opposite, if not for a similar unsettling feeling. Sunlight warmed everything in a foggy glow, making all the ferns and mosses stand out in an oversaturated green. August could have sworn he saw a huge, multicolored bird dash across the forest floor; he jumped in alarm, but it was gone before he could get a good look at it.

One thing became clear: they were not alone. This forest was teeming with life–whether it was friendly or hostile remained to be seen.

Then, footsteps, the whizzing sound of Thompson’s knife. August scrambled for a weapon, caught off guard. Despite not being a career, Thompson clearly had a District Two-quality reflex, but August hadn’t even noticed the shape of a human being stepping through the trees–Eulalie, alone.

Then Revel, Tsiuri’s district partner, which was somehow more confusing. Maybe because August’s brain was running on very little sleep and just one heel of bread.

But as the brain fog cleared slowly, he wondered, where is Florentine? Why wasn’t Eulalie on bodyguard duty? It was silly but that was how he had started to think of her and Andromache.

”Eulalie, you’re alone?” he asked, stupidly, there was seriously something different with his thinking. Like he had lost his filter. Not even a hint of malice in his voice; it came out like a genuine question.

Thompson’s knife arcing towards her body snapped him out of it. It was a good thing Thomas was the one leading. August shook his head. Literally. Shook it side to side, trying to bring himself back into focus, and into the moment. He reached for Tsiuri’s arm, grounding himself in the comfort of his friend. He had to protect her and Thompson, like Florentine had said, we’ve all got jobs to do, august. yours is with them.

He let go of her arm, and aimed for Revel.

”Sorry, Tsiuri. None of us helped Laurel yesterday, and we both know why. Revel might be from home, but only one of you can go back there."

And he sent his knife flying.

_{D A R S}

The night was freezing, my bare legs shaking long after the water had dried with salt leaving its everlasting presence.

“It’s still wet, but it’s better than nothing”

August places his drenched cloak around my shoulders and I am quick to wrap it around my legs.

“Thanks”

I whisper between the aching shakes of the cold wind. Teeth chattering loud enough for her ally to hear. She rested her head on his shoulder for a moment. He had a bad habit of disappearing and I had a bad habit of refusing to admit; I liked having people around. As the days passed our conversations began to shrink. The laughter in the library turned slowly into silence in the arena.

I wanted to say something, I felt like I should say something. Words were never hard for me to find, but here I sat at the edge of the water lost in a state I could not begin to describe.

That is when I had laid my head to rest with an uneasy feeling that something had be done only to wake up screaming. A falling sensation as I had lost control of my body, arms far to limp to move. All as if the ocean was dragging me back down with it. Truth be told, the worried sensation left me more awake than I had been. I had been the first to rise, but I remained laying down with eyes wide opened as the name of a ship flashed before me over and over again.

”Tsiuri, you up? Thompson’s on the move again. Hey, you have something on your neck.”

My fingers reached for my right side as I sat up in time for him to move my tangled hair to the side. Slowly accumulating knots and dirt like forgotten memories of the days I wished to forget. It was a grey spot, identical to the one that August had on his wrist.

”You don’t have a salve or anything, do you?”

I shook my head, confused as my fingers grazed his wrist carefully almost afraid as if it would break with my touch.

“It has to be from the water, maybe it was contaminated” I suggested aware that the cruelties of the game makers adhered to no limits. Shove us into the water, drown us with heavy waves and of course…don’t forget to poison the tributes in the process.

I pushed my body off the floor, each limb weighing more than I remembered still in a trance of flashes from a dream that had felt all too real.

As Thompson had led us to a small boat, I took a moment reaching out for August’s arm afraid of what horrors this water could entail. Nothing good had yet to await us the past few days, it would have been foolish to think the small boat would protect us against anything more.

But all I had were the boys.

So, I climbed in with not much more of a word but a worried expression. It was not until we had reached the other side that I could finally breath…but only for a second. The trees on the island were thick, almost promising a new danger. Too many days had we spent following Thompson blindly, it had not been his fault as the dangers were not his creations. I had to remind myself again, it was not his fault.

It would not be long for the next foe to find us, and they came quickly from all sides.

It was Thompson who had first spotted Eulalie, her blond hair shining in the darkness. Quick to react, quick to attack. I almost found myself reaching out to object before biting my lip. This was not the training center anymore; this was not a late-night practice session. Before I had the chance to remind myself, August chimed in before throwing his knife into another familiar face.

Revel. The face of home. The face of the person I had known longer than the rest.

My hand reached out for August’s shoulder, squeezing it for a second to let him know it was okay. How can I be mad at someone just wanting to survive another day. Still, he had spoken the words out loud…for him to survive. In the end that would leave both Thompson and I dead. A pill not ready to swallow, even if our connection was withering away…I was not yet ready to cut the string.

I took a step back, wanting to get a better picture of everyone in-between the twisted trees. Just in time for the mist to clear for a second, skeletons far to big to be anything but capitol made carefully on display for a second. A reminder that they were lurking everywhere we went. The y occupied our minds at night, robbing us of rest as they chased us down during the day. I almost jumped as I felt a shoulder press against mine. For a moment Eulalie become a twisted friend once more. The only career I would consider trusting. Sharp words of sentiment that could have meant the world or nothing at all.

“I hope you haven’t.” A smile of mischief, the first time I smiled in a while. “Feel like another late-night training session, I could use some perspective” A brief invitation or a plea for help right before she went after my friend, but the offer still stood.

However, it was not Eulalie’s back I was supposed to have in the moment, but I was not ready to stab it either. A treacherous feeling guilt was, the same feeling I felt last night as the faint screams grew ever louder and louder. How much longer till I recognized the screams in our own voices. It was now August’s shoulder next to mine, rightfully so. The one I had trusted from the start, but even he has his secret escapes of which remain a mystery.

“Let’s do this.” I sighed “Just make it quick.”

I should have apologized. I should have said anything. It would have been better than the silence I held. Quiet enough to blend into our surroundings with only my breath to be heard as I lunged forward with my spear.

(Tsiuri attacks Revel; Striped Jousting Lance (Spear))
rAjs2eOJLYspear
(4.0)

Thompson signed a contract last night.

Not that anyone knows it, really. But once he placed his pen onto paper, he began to inspire the stone curse to explore a new course in his veins. Initially creeping toward his fingers, the graying poison that started to paint his nails wilted. Like a summer flower in the fall bowing into itself as the sun met its hibernated state. It would soon begin to eat itself from the inside, food bore by their essential functions to live.

He didn’t know it, but the curse read his sorrowful heart last night. Like the damned verse itself. Instead of preserving bodies or limbs or torn, scarred faces like the ones that remain in this arena, it found interest in saving a boys’ heart while it was still young.

The other bears a crown marked by the sun. Eulalie apparently exited the gates of whatever heaven that exists after their passing in the arena. August knows her. August knows everyone. That boy has a heart for everyone. Thompson’s heart metaphorically sinks, having felt the impact he’s had on so many people. August has a lot of people that would root for him, alive or dead, even if those deaths were by his own hands.

”You didn’t get the jump on me.” She called to his cold psyche. ”You went and gave yourself away.”

When his body is pierced by daggers and blades, his blood pours out slow and thick. The pair of blonde dames opened up a mix of concrete that began to store itself in his veins, kept warm by bodily function. It waits for the chambers of his heart to open up, offering a pocket to mold itself into. Thompson notices that Tsiuri’s partner doesn’t say anything. The instinct of his heart wants to open, to beg and invite the tribute to speak. But his head can’t find the space to, the corridors of his mind dedicated to emotion blocked. In the wilds they’re surrounded by the prisons of their own perceptions, subjected to what they think.

His first instinct was to blink, hold his eyes tight for whatever pain. Though the right hemisphere of his brain began to act as a barrier to pain, and all he felt was another open vein. Like a pillow to a c

"You have to own something to give it away." The boroughs of his mind felt lost in the capitol’s fantasy, but he understood that he was only a smaller character in the overall tale. "I was given away a long time ago. You don’t get to own me." His speech knocked on regret, but his tone held the compassion of concrete. Ever since his arrival to the Harvard home, Thompson was just a boy that wanted to let the world hear his heart. He never knew his heart would be the only thing they wanted him to leave behind.

[attacks eulalie blake, throwing knife]
Ra22A|eBbdthrowing knife
[9120 - miss 0.0]

Eulalie’s honest answer to his ill-advised question only left him with more questions. ”The storm washed me away,” she informed him with a shrug, before striking at Thompson, effectively teaming up with Revel. Though he felt a twinge of panic at watching them both try to butcher his friend, August stayed by Tsiuri’s side. Thompson was capable of defending himself, they both knew by now.

When Thompson shouted an answer to Eulalie’s taunt, August felt a wave of pride warming up his sluggish chest, strengthening his arms. Truly, nobody could own Thompson Harvard. He was a talented artist, a fast friend, a light in the uncertain darkness and, August thought, a boy turning quickly into a man before their eyes. Even his voice sounded different. It was a shame that it had to be now, with Eulalie and Revel drawing his blood, though even so, it was something to be witnessed.

”Thompson, you have more talent in your little finger than everyone in this arena combined,” he asserted with a shake of his head, inspired by his friend’s bravery.

He was about to start wondering about Florentine again when the giant spiders arrived out of nowhere, big hairy ones that diffused along the forest floor like shiny black goo. As if they all needed any more convincing that it was time to fight for their lives. They didn’t attack all at once, though; a few of them hung back behind the trees, watching them all fight, maybe. August had never been the type of person to go around killing spiders, and he taught his sisters to leave them alone. Clearly these spiders weren’t here to say thank-you, and when one of them leapt for his throat, he was seriously regretting his eighteen years of pacifism.

Crying out in alarm, he swiped at the arachnid with his dagger, but he was too late; it sank a set of sword-like fangs into his collarbone. The wound barely bled, just began to burn like hell underneath his clothes, and he could swear he felt his blood curdling like milk. ”Get off!” he shouted, thrashing around until the thing lost its grip on him and fell towards the ground, where he punted it away with the top of his leather boot, like a football.

By the time he regained his footing, he saw that Revel was aiming at Thompson again. August understood that he and Eulalie were acting like predators, taking advantage of the most injured among them. It was a testament to Tsiuri’s strength that she could remain focused when their partnership, which had anchored the three of them this entire time, was crumbling around them. August tried to do the same.

”Alright, that’s enough,” he growled as he swept for Revel’s neck.

_{D A R S}

It’s the way her eyes shine blue like the water that tried to tear them down. It should have been a warning, the first sign not to dance with girl with golden hair. Seamlessly cut from the same cloth as the angels, but they were not to be worshipped. Creatures of violence and righteous narcissism. My mother warned of the things that seem too good to be true.

Everything always had its price. If you did not pay with possession you paid with a part of your soul.

I had lost a bit of mine a while ago, lost my innocence and struggling to hold onto my optimism, however a façade it was. Eulalie had me hoping, I caught myself allowing to believe in something greater than a fleeting moment; an alternate version of events where it was just the two of us dancing in the dark with no weapons insight.

But reality was harsh.

There was no time for smile and laughter, no intimate moments could last a lifetime. Not with death knocking on all our doors. The last few days had brought us close, allowing us the fear of what could come. The feeling of drowning and water filling our lungs, grasping for breath. I knew I wanted to live, but I was not quite sure how ready I was to fight. With the tip of my spear pointed towards home, it became abundantly clear that I was prepared to do anything.

Blood had been drawn; it was spilling from all direction. My own spear tainted red, my hands the enforcers of violence. I wanted to curse a thousand apologies under my breath, find redemption somewhere…even when I knew this was just the beginning.

Had I frozen in time?

Just for a second, trapped in a world elsewhere than the present.

Once again waking up to screams and August’s body hitting the ground. Above us was a spider, if I could call it that. A creature just as large as the skeletons I had gotten a glimpse off.

“You got to be kidding me” I cursed under my breath holding my weapon and stance steady. It was time to choose, Eulalie inched closer but kept her distance, just to be far enough out of reach. August and Thompson were right here, they had always been here, and it was August’s back I chose to cover.

Not before throwing the girl from one another glance.

“Maybe this time I won’t try and cut your head off” I smiled at my own joke right in the face of my own hypocrisy; in the very same moment I tried to slice the throat of the one from home.

Whatever it takes.

Even if it meant falling from grace and paying the devil’s price.

(Tsiuri attacks Revel; Striped Jousting Lance (Spear))
bkTiye3L|rspear
(4.0)