The Forest Again (Shrimp, Rosetta, Closed)

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

I'm just... furious at her. Her father or mother could have been in District 9. We didn't get any confirmations. Now what? Are we just going to move onto 8? She can't give up just like that. She's better than this.

Look, I understand that she's frustrated. But if she's going to find her parents, she must have more patience. A move like that could have cost us her chance of reuniting with her parents. And she needs to find them.

She lies down, and puts the blanket on her stomach. The letters CT are fading, but they're visible. CT. I don't like them. Why would they get rid of this child? Ariadne is wonderful and amazing and sensible. She's reliable, responsible, logical, she's all of these. So why didn't they want her? Maybe they weren't able to take care of her, but why would they leave her in the woods? Something just isn't right.

There's this nagging feeling in my stomach that just won't go away. It started soon after we were in the Forest, when I knew everything that happened. I just don't see why they'd leave her in the forest to die. It's not right. They should have taken care of their child. Ariadne's lucky that Asimila found her. But what if the woman had been too late? Ariadne would have been dead.

Death. I'm positive that the parents wanted this baby dead. Why? So they could cover up their "mistake"? I'm a mistake. It hurts to know that. But if that's what happened with Ariadne, I don't think I'd be able to tell her. The pain inside me is just so... real and raw with hurt, that I'm not sure how she'd handle it after searching for so long, only to be rejected.

All is quiet as we sit on the grassy floor. The trees towering above us sway slightly from the slight breeze that blows my quickly whitening hair up and down. My eyes, redder than normal from lack of sleep, glance at our surroundings, making sure that nothing's here that would be able to harm us. In the past week that I've been here with Ariadne, I've grown harder, stronger. It takes much more to make me break down than before. I guess being out on your own really does toughen you up.

She wants leads now. She's done fine without them before, why couldn't she do without them now? It's because she's tired, isn't it. She wants to just find her parents and be done with it. Well tough luck kiddo, you've got Districts 1-8, and the Capitol to look in. Hell, we might even have to travel to District 13 - if people can survive there, that is.

I sigh. I regret yelling at her before. She doesn't need anymore stress.

"Look... I'm sorry. I know that it's hard, you know? There's like what, thousands of people in Panem, and we're looking for two of them. But you can't just go the easy way now. There are no more shortcuts. Sure, we have maps, and a few cans of food, but once they're used up, that's it. So we have to keep going. Okay?"

No Ariadne, there's no possible way to narrow our search down. You've already eliminated three (I'll count the fourth one if it's absolutely necessary) Districts, leaving 10/13^ths of the population to possibly be your parents, not counting age. You have to do this the long way.

Okay fine. Have it you way. I'll admit, it's a pretty good idea - finding the type of fabric used. Hmm... I don't really know how it'll work though. Don't all types of fabrics go to all of the districts? Yes, I'm positive that happens, because at the mayor's house... There was so many kinds of velvet... But it was just that... District 10 pretty much only had... velvet...

"That's... That's brilliant." I state. And there's only one place that we can find this out in.

District 8.

I grab my stuff.

"Well, what are we waiting for, let's go to 8." I state, and I start walking.

Maybe her parents are in 8. I mean, it's possible. There are a lot of people in 8. I've heard that they live in apartment-like buildings, only smaller. It's not very appealing to me; after all, I've lived in a large house all of my life. But still, these people work long shifts at clothing factories.

The fight? Oh. The fight. My mind almost wanders back to that... horrible period of arguing and bloodshed. I can feel my eyes water slightly, but I wipe my arm against my face, removing the soon to appear tears.

I sigh. I hadn't wanted to talk about it. But she might as well know. To be honest, my father is probably dead or in the Detention Center now, seeing as he burst into a mayor's meeting and disrupted them.

I turn to Ariadne, my eyes solemn.

"While my... father... was at the Capitol, some capitol man burst into the room and said that he was my father - that my mother had had an affair. When he came back from his meeting, he demand...he.. he demanded to know the truth from my mother.

At first she said it wasn't true. But he kept on hounding her, and hounding her until she broke town and told him the truth. She hadn't wanted me anyways, and she had only recently told my real father that he had a son."