.:Bold Riley:. [Avalanchers Day 3]
Mar 2, 2018 15:27:50 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2018 15:27:50 GMT -5
The cold made sewing up your skin easier. You bit your lip and felt the tears start to spring from your eyes when you pressed the needle into your calf. Threading the needle back and forth, you did as best as you could to make sure the gaping wound left from Mahlah Shea was stitched. Little hands pressed a curl of white bandages to keep it in place and soak up the extra blood. You wiped your fingers into the snow and took up huge scoopfuls together to wipe away the dried blood. You stopped to watch the snow drift in front of you, and how your breath scattered in a cloud in front of your face.
Fire was just about the only thing that took your thoughts away from what you’d just experienced. The warmth felt good against your skin, and the smoke smelled of something other than the rotten flesh that had stunk up the space behind the back of your throat. What did it all mean, if you could die here and now, and they would twist your body up like a marionette just to dance again? First, it made you sad because you had never been taught that there was anything more than this life—yours was rapidly fading, until there would be nothing much left at all. Second, that you wondered if you were much the same as Mahlah, with a family that had loved her, condemned to such a short life. And finally, you were angry. Angry that you’d been the name in that bowl, that your own district partner was heartless enough to try and cut you down, that you were alone.
Maybe the other boys and girls were just stronger than you.
None of this came easy. Just playing pretend, pirate hat and all, seemed so far away from your spot on top of the mountain. Thoughts dark as the coming dusk passed through your head. What would they do if you threw yourself off the side of this mountain, down to the rocks and trees below? But that was wrong, too. How much had Mercy, Raven, and Gabriel given up so that you could still be alive? Would they leave you, and would you lose them just as Mahlah had lost her Elon? You stared at the red and orange flames, your face so close you could kiss them.
“I miss you, mom, and dad.” You whispered out. It felt good to let them know you still loved them, even if they couldn’t tell you back. But maybe it was more for them than you, anyway. “I just want to go home.” Except—and you know that meant so much more, with sixteen others wanting the same thing. But tonight, shivering against the backdrop of ice and flames, you’d have given anything to be in your own bed.
[delivery word catch attempt]
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