[80th] The Reaping - District 12

Carter Laws was born to live.

A legacy walking among the graves glittering with grey skies and stone names. Flowers blooming like a beacon of something more than just death among the names with legacies of their own. A pack of cards, worn by use, with red backs and vanishing ink passed from hand to hand like it might explode if he's to let it sit for too long. Anxiousness in his skin as he marches through a graveyard of the past. A brother and an adopted brother laying in graves with words of legacy and death in their dirt covered corpses. Carter doesn't move from his stand spot, only moves the deck out of the box. Words slipping from his lips like a fire into the icy chill of open air.

"Gabriel. Mitchell. I learned a new trick."

Silence as he waits as if they might talk back to him.

The dead do not speak.

Shuffling the cards, he tosses two cards into specific spots, remembering bits of when Mitchell showed him this one as a kid. Sleight of hand with the distracted fact of moving cards too quick for the eyes to focus too hard onto the two missing ones. One by one, he flips cards over, knowing that the cards that were picked in the open air were somewhere else. Ace. King. Queen. Jack. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Silence continues with a fresh bit of wind that reminds him of Mitchell's silence and strong words. Feet take him to the graves and he pulls the two cards, a King and a Jack as he holds them from behind the grave as if he had just pulled them from the stone.

"I believe these are your cards."

Silence. Emptiness that fills the pit of his heart and into his stomach as he silently continues doing more tricks for a few more hours. Carter Laws was born to live. Mitchell Laws was born to die. There's no changing what is decided by the universe. Raisa Mortuus talks to the dead. Despite being rather creepy, Carter's found some serenity in her words. Despite the fact that his heart still aches at the sight of Mitchell and Gabriel still. Jack's been on him since catching him watching Mitchell's words to Asha Lumiere over and over again.

Like the scene might come to life in front of him and he could be able to tell his brother that he's carrying his legacy still. Jack only pushes the fact that Carter needs to find his footing and eventually, he did. He found his footing in the form of Gabriel and the rest of the family. Big brother Carter meant to entertain with his knowledge and overly practiced card tricks. Tricks that Mitchell had done to him years ago that still make him question if magic truly was real. If only it were, Mitchell could still be alive and telling him all about everything. The graves glare at him like the weight of death on his shoulders, chaining him to the name of Laws and hoping that he can live up to something more.

Unlike Asha Lumiere, he hasn't found his method to his madness. The quiet path home fills with nothing but a silence that sounds of static, flickering in his ears until he lets out his breath. Leaving always hurts just as much as going. Jack offered to go with knowing that mornings like this one were hard. His brother's word ringing in his mind once more like a record telling him what his brother wants him to believe. Carter, we'll be okay. And like every time before, Carter stops, closes his eyes and throws the pack of cards as far as he can, until the sight of red, white and black mix with browns. And like every time before, he leaves the cards scattered to the wind, waiting for a sign that he will be better. Like he had told Jack before.

"Don't lie to yourself. I won't ever be okay."

The truth hurts, but Carter doesn't have time for bullshit anymore.

Unlike Desimae Warble, red was more of his color. Like a rage at the sight of everything that had once lived and died and been reborn. Like the wind of Mitchell Laws and the flowers of Hyacinth Mortuus. Red reminds him of the cards that he still picks out due to frustration. Red reminds him of the color Asha Lumiere had wanted to see so much of. Red is the color that shines in his dreams like a thick pool flowing around Mitchell's throat as his own scream reaches out into nothingness and he falls into a black pool of noise. Jack's never there when he wakes up, but his father is with a worrying glance as he nods to give him privacy.

A whisper of something comes as he climbs into the busy house of bustling family members, adopted or not. Clothes, meals, cards, and all sorts of things scattered like the room was a hurricane of preparation. All of them knew what came with the Laws' name now and every single one of them were capable of becoming another legacy of Mitchell Laws. Another card among the deck of cards that were being dealt. As the door shuts, Jack's already fussing over him with a sigh of something more that he can't read. Eyes meet and Carter can feel the air grow heavy between them. A false promise being passed between them as he can feel himself rip that tension down, escaping into his own room that had once had Gabriel in it.

Tension fills the walls with figurative water that makes his chest hurt and air almost impossible to breath. Never once had he been a good brother to Gabriel, letting his brother die in the arena alone. A silent static flickering once more as the sound of rushing water in his ears fills the room to the brim, until the door opens and it releases outwards into the house with Jack Corradi-Laws staring at him. Words on his lips as Carter fixes the tie on his button up and pockets a pack of cards that weigh like the weight of a legacy on his pockets.

Falling in reverse as he steps into the hall and ignores Jack's words of comfort. "It won't happen again, Carter." It won't. It will. It won't. It will. The words repeat over like a gunshot to his brain, hopefully then his own legacy would be born, but he carries Mitchell's like a coat away from Jack as Carter can see faces of others that belong to the Laws. Jaime Laws gives him a frightful look, but smiles at him all the same, knowing that there's emptiness in his chest. Knowing that for a third time, Carter Laws might regress back into his shadow once more and forget about the reason he carries his cards.

"It might." Jack frowns as Carter marches out of the house and to the square where they prick them of their blood. The cards weigh down on him even more as the winds furiously change directions like the caress of Mitchell Laws' fingers upon his cheek or the shout of worry upon his brother's lips like he used to have before. If only he could reverse his own fear and have thrown himself into the mix instead of Mitchell, everything would be better. A better world without him, but he doesn't dare think of it anymore.

Unlike Jenoah Rasoio, he doesn't have a reason to follow his parents in life. They wave to him as he marches to his spot away from the others where Gabriel had once stood and where Mitchell stood before him. They would stare at him with worry in their stomachs, until the reaping was over whether he breaks down once more or leaves like the names of the next two won't follow in his brother's legacy. There was no Hyacinth Mortuus anymore to be the savior. Stella Blakesley had already become that. A silence fills as he can feel his hand playing with cards once more, a nervous tick that now spreads through his body like a wildfire.

The dead don't speak, but Raisa Mortuus does. The dead speak through her, despite Jack saying none of it was truth. Words tumble from her lips in a sharp prick like the tools they use to register them. Eyes glance to the pretty crazy girl of the Mortuus family. A legacy of her own on the edge of her lips. Hyacinth Mortuus, the queen of hearts, always within a fingertips reach for her. Belief in higher entities wasn't for him, he was no Ansgar Todd, but he still believed her words as truth. Helps him sleep at night when the red pool grows thick and his own screams whistles out into nothing.

"Mitchell hopes to see you soon."

Confusion plasters itself like a mask on his face as his heart thumps in his chest. Legacy or madness. A whisper of static cracking louder and louder, until it goes silent with the escort approaching the stage. Unlike Pillar Fray, they were not as graceful as they could be. Paper within bowls of fate and legacy swish with the sound and the wind picks up in his ears. Unlike Samira Hart's confidence, the words are spoken in clarity and Carter hears it with no L attached to the last name. A breath of relief as the crashing sound of water fills the space around them.

Words fall from another girl's lips and he doesn't dare pay attention to them. Like Ansgar Todd's god, he ignores Jack's frown from across the way and waits for the males. A sharp pain as his throat goes dry, unable to swallow down the pride that was the Laws name right now. Gods, legacies, death, and lady luck ringing in his ears as the swishing of paper fills his ears like a rush of water and the static crackles as he can remember the day Mitchell Laws was called and the tears that fell. The time spent watching his brother cut wounds into Myara Lowe, Bolts Spark, and the damned yetis. The memories of the screen flickering as Asha and Mitchell bicker about legacy and death. Cards spread across bodies of people reborn onto the earth as something more than just a name and a person. And finally, Mitchell's bloodied throat by furry creatures, the first thing to take his blood in the arena.

All of it comes in a flurry as the escort lifts the paper to read it.

Carter Laws was born to live.

Mitchell Laws was born to die.

Live. Die. Live. Die.

Carter Laws.

Unlike Mitchell Laws, he was born to live. Live for as long as humanly possible. Suffer like a piece of his very own deck was lost among the brown mud. Living and dying, what were the difference when all there could be was suffering and as soon as his name is in the air, a gasp of his family fills the windy sky. A rush of something collapsing around him as he frantically tightens his grip on the deck of cards in his hand. The escort looking around for him like Carter Laws wasn't as noticeable with the crowd of people scattering away from him.

"Where is Carter?"

He was meant to live. Mitchell was meant to die. A legacy safe from the suffering that would happen in an enclosed area with twenty four other legacies. Remember him. Forget him. Break him apart. Tied up for the world to see him. A deep breath as he doesn't listen for Jack. A static that reaches his ears as he doesn't dare look for his other siblings among the crowd. Eyes glancing only slightly towards Raisa Mortuus like she had know that he was born to live and his brother was born to die. Feet take him to the stage as he prepares for the world to shatter into a million pieces and for some random entity to tell him that this was all just another nightmare that he wasn't real.

It doesn't happen.

No more bullshit for Carter Laws.

Unlike Ansgar Todd's fake god, Carter ignores Jack because he already knows that their false promise is as false as Ansgar's god. Dear ripred save him from the anger that sort of bubbles up at his chest as he thinks of his adopted brother who Mitchell had saved from a fire. Maybe Mitchell should have left him there to burn to the cowardice place he belonged. A small step forward as the peacekeepers march like the jacks on his cards. Memories of a queen and king on the stage as he takes place next them where their legacies now reside.

Unlike Mitchell Laws, he was born to live.

Born to live.

Then live to die.

Memories of the Hart girl at the statue garden in the capitol. A dream of a graveyard where they shed tears like the legacies they were. All this time, he was born to live and meant to live for death. A silence fills the crackling until he stands on the stage with one last glance at all he's ever know. The fear in his chest rising as he remembers the dark red pools of dreams and screens come to life. Soon enough, he would have to become like them. All of them from before. Hyacinth Mortuus and Mitchell Laws, he was their legacy now, despite never meant to be.

Born to live.

Living for death.

The cards weigh heavy on his side.

A King. A Queen.

An Ace.

Carter Laws will live to die.