Softly Whispering (open)

It was a beautiful night outside. The moon was big and bright in the sky and thousands and thousands of stars shone like sparkling diamonds. Hazel left her parents house and headed towards the beach. During the summer, she would use a night like this to go to the beach and go for a swim in the ocean but now it was just too cold to lunge herself into the bitter cold waves. It felt nice to go for a walk though. Her feet took her down the stairs behind her parent’s house and down to the beach. Even though it was too cold to go for a swim, it was still nice to walk along the beach, the sound of waves crashing softly on the sandy shoe in her ears. As soon as she reached the beach, she took off her shoes. Her mom would freak if she saw her walking barefoot with the temperature outside being so cold, but her mom wasn’t here and Hazel didn’t care. The feeling of sand between her toes was well worth a pair of cold feet. She walked a little bit closer to the water and shivered as the cold waves hit her toes. Immediately, goose bumps appeared all over her body. Goosebumps followed by a bright smile on her face. No matter how cold it was outside, nothing could keep her away from the ocean. The water, the waves, the salty air, for Hazel this was such an important part of her life. Depriving her from the ocean would be like taking away her life.

When her toes started to tingle from the cold water, Hazel decided it was time to move on. She turned her back to the ocean and walked, still barefoot, across the beach. The sand stuck to her wet feet, but that didn’t bother the red haired girl. She slipped into her shoes once she reached the tarred roads that lead to the center of town. During the day, the streets are filled with people but as soon as darkness falls over District Four, the streets are deserted. It was nice and quiet outside. As she reached the first intersection, Hazel stopped and looked down the streets in front of her. She could keep walking straight ahead and go to one of the cafés in town. Maybe she would even meet some of her friends from school there. It would for sure be fun to hang out with them and gossip about the other classmates. But she didn’t feel like going to town. She felt more like being alone with her thoughts. So she turned left and walked down the street that lead to the lake that lay just a little bit outside of town.

Hazel walked along the side of the lake. She was so lost in her thoughts that she almost didn’t see the boy sitting on she lakeside staring at the water. When she did see him, the red-haired girl stopped walking and tilted her head a little bit. “Are you all right?” , she asked with a soft voice, careful not to scare him.

Even though she spoke with a quiet voice, Hazel noticed the boy jumping ever so slightly. She couldn’t blame him. If someone had walked up to her in the middle of the night while she was lost in thought, she would have jumped. She would have jumped and ran away so really it was amazing that he stayed as calm as he did. Maybe this was because he was a boy and for sure a couple of years older and a good deal stronger than she was. Or maybe it was because she didn’t give the impression of being a threat. Whatever it was, Hazel still just stood there, looking at him with her head still tilted to one side. When he turned his face and looked at her, it didn’t seem like everything was fine. In face, he looked like nothing was fine at all. She knew the look on his face. It was the same look that crossed her face when she started thinking about Cade. When she dared to think about the boy she thought she had been in love with. He had just about disappeared, vanished from her life as fast and as sudden as he had appeared. Hazel hadn’t been to the secret beach that used to be their meeting point and the place where they first met ever since. She dreaded going there out of numerous reasons. For one, she feared meeting him there. And for two and even more so because of all the memories she connected with that little piece of beach on the shores of District Four: Him playing the guitar. His soft voice singing…

Hazel had to push those thoughts aside and swallow hard. She didn’t want to start crying. Not again. She had already shed too many tears for him. Her thoughts returned to the boy just in time to hear him answering. Hazel wasn’t surprised by his answer because the look an his face had already given away that nothing was ok really. She was surprised though that he so openly admitted that he didn’t feel well. Well at least he said that he wasn't sure if everything was ok. Most people would just say they were fine to avoid any kind of conversation.

Hazel stepped forward and sat down on the ground next to the boy. She still kept a safe distance but it was a lot more comfortable to be able to talk to him when they were both sitting. The ground was cold and Hazel shivered a little. “Do you want to talk about it?” , she asked in her same soft voice. She didn’t know if she wanted to talk at all, let alone with her, because after all, she was a complete stranger to him. But she wanted to make him the offer and maybe he would feel better if he talked about what was bothering him.

„Resting out here in the middle oft he night might cost you your life…” , the stranger said. He was right and thinking about it again, she knew that it had been careless and even stupid to go out at night all on her own. There probably was no safe place in Panem at night outside one’s home. But right now it was too late to think about the possible consequences and the only thing she could do was hoping that the stranger wasn’t as scary as he looked. He kept talking about a storm moving in. A storm coming and bringing hail and snow. Not good. Hazel had lived in District Four long enough to know how fast the weather could change. In the summer you could sit at the beach in bright sunlight and an hour later the sky turned pitch black and it seemed like hell broke loose. Winter storms usually didn’t move in from the sea but from the north but they were as bad as the summer storms and sometimes even worse. Sitting by the lake with no shelter at all wasn’t a good idea.

Hazel shook her head at his next question. “Sorry, I don’t have any cough drops and neither do I have whiskey.” , she said and patted her pockets to emphasize her statement. The stranger was, well, strange. The people of Panem didn’t just carry alcohol around in their pockets. Alcohol was some kind of luxury good and whoever was able to afford the good stuff, and whiskey certainly was part of the good stuff, kept it in his house and savored it all on his own. Plus, Hazel was too young to be allowed to consume and, or buy liquor.

“There’s nothing wrong with resting here. I feel like I’m finally alive .” , the boy next to Hazel said and she raised an eyebrow. Something really bad must have happened that it took the middle of the night and a deserted lake for him to feel alive. But Hazel understood that he didn’t want to talk about it anymore. He might have talked about it while he was still alone with her but with the strange strangers company she didn’t blame him for not saying anything about it anymore. “There’s and old barn not too far away it you two don’t want to go home.” The boy didn’t answer directly to the implied question. Still it was obvious that he didn’t want to go home. Hazel wouldn’t mind going home and if she stayed away the whole night her parents would probably be worried but she didn’t want to leave the boy alone with this weird stranger. And her parents would understand if she told them that she had needed to find shelter from the storm. “A shelter sounds good to me.” , she said and got up. She didn’t feel like being surprised by snow and hail outside and if the storm was moving in as fast as the summer storms usually did, it would be better to find a place with a roof above their heads. And now that the stranger had removed his hood and flashed a bright smile at the two of them he didn’t seem too scary anymore.

“Can we introduce ourselves now?” , the boy whose name Hazel still didn’t know asked and she nodded. Since the stranger didn’t answer to basically the same question before when she asked, she figured it was hers to make a start. “I’m Hazel.” , she said and smiled at the two of them.