among the dead-[Nofo]

Rowan lit a cigarette and popped the end to her lips. The smoke filled her lungs as she leaned against a cobblestone gate to the graveyard. If she were caught, she'd be punished with swabbing the decks of ships or something of the sort. Rowan was good at flaunting her body and getting what she wanted. It would be considered hypocritical, considering her stance of the objectification of women. Still, Rowan had to keep herself out of trouble. She would never let her father have more reason to be angry at her.

As the end of the cigarette grew shorter and shorter, she looked out across the graveyard. Fog from the late evening air around District Four was thick across the graves. She blew out a puff of smoke and began to walk towards the grave she visited often. It was made of stone, and now a green layer of grime inched it's way up the grave marker. The stone read Lyra Collins Duncan. Lyra Duncan was her mother. It still seemed like just the day before when an eight year old Rowan walked in on the thirty-nine year old Lyra on the carpet dying. Rowan was numb as she stood knelt in the grass before the marker. After hundreds of visits, Rowan had learned to control her emotions.

She smiled and took another puff of her cigarette as she pushed her blonde hair behind her ear. It was then that she realized she wasn't alone. She looked over to see a boy she knew from school. Rowan didn't know his name, nor the person he was visiting here, but Rowan knew that he was crying. The dim lights of those solar powered grave marker lights showed Rowan the tears that ran down his face.

Rowan wondered if the boys loss was new. She questioned whether or not he was like her, numb from years of mourning and visiting the same grave. She got up from her space and walked the couple hundred feet spaced between the two in two puffs from her cigarette. She read the grave marker he was at. Abigail G. Taylor. She knew who this girl was immediately. Those Games highlights were shown the night before. Stabbed during the Quell. Rowan cleared her throat, letting the boy be aware that he was not alone in more ways then one.

Rowan watched the boy take a golden flower and lay it on the grave. "Beautiful." He mumbled as he pulled his hands back. She watched the tears roll down his face. Of course, the tears made her incredibly uncomfortable but she didn't want to seem rude. She had approached him, it would be rude to leave with just a passing glance. She took another puff of her cigarette and flicked the ashes into the moist grass.

The boy turned to Rowan now. She shifted her weight and cleared her throat again. "Could I have a hit?" He stuttered as he said it. Rowan's appearance must have made him a bit nervous. A graveyard wasn't the most peaceful place to have a conversation. Without thinking twice, she drew another cigarette from the pack and handed it to him. She lit it for him and sat back.

"I'm Rowan. Sorry I startled you." She said looking over her shoulder for peacekeepers. Rowan put her hands into the pockets of her jean shorts. He looked back to the grave he was at. "The Fifth Deca-Quell." He said as she noticed a light shine over his shoulder. She cleared her throat again but let him finish. "The worst Games in the history of the Games. The name's Jay."

She threw herself behind a tombstone and soon enough Jay joined her. She knew quickly who this grave belonged to. She had been their when the body was delivered. Rowan and the rest of District Four was there when they lowered his coffin into the grave. Seaborgium Storstand. He was her age and she had seen him once before at the beach along with a girl she now knew as Serenity. Rowan looked over at her right hand and realized the cigarette was all but burnt out. She put it out against the grave marker, half-caring about how this might be considered offensive. Rowan put the bud into the right back-pocket of her jeans and stood up.

The peacekeepers were gone now so she walked around in circles looking to make sure another wasn't making their rounds. "So, Jay Taylor, you look hungry. Want to go get some leftover grilled fish from my house?" She gave him a seductive smile and started to walk, not looking back to see if he'd follow.