the honest truth; lydia&kass

Tom
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the honest truth; lydia&kass Dec 5, 2019 15:56:44 GMT -5

Post by Tom on Dec 5, 2019 15:56:44 GMT -5

I know I'm not supposed to be here.

Noah was gonna get in so much trouble because of me, but how could I not try. I know it's not like me to disobey ma's words, but I had to see for myself who this girl was. People were happy about her winning, something about how District Eleven needed more victors, despite us already having three. I don't see why it couldn't have been my big brother, but life's not fair. I would know that personally. Emotions fill my stomach as I feel the air going tight at the sight of our supposed saviors.

Kirito. Harbinger. Katelyn.

We're they saviors when they let my brother just die?

No.

The train was cool to see, despite the growing feeling of sorrow building at the edges of my vision, holding me on this roller coaster of not knowing anything. Too young to see my own brother's last moments. Too young to be told how he died. Too young to understand. They keep telling me I am not old enough or that I'm not strong enough, but I am not just some little girl. I'm Lydia Fel and I deserve to know what happened to my brother.

That's how I find myself here, pushing my through a crowd of people, knowing my big brother's district partner would be coming out of that train with a crown atop her head. I have to know. I have to find out. He's dead, but I need to know the truth, not what Noah likes to tell me. Victors are supposed to be heroes, but I don't know. I need to find out. Breaking through the crowd, you can see her. The girl with a crown. The girl who knows what happened to him. The girl I push towards. The girl who's face I'm now in.

I'm strong.

I can be strong.

Jacob would be proud.

I have to know.

I love him.

My big brother deserved better.

"You!"

My breath feels heavy in the air, but maybe it's the way my heart is beating or the scary peacekeepers I slipped past.

"How did my big brother die?"

Made by umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]

sbeeg
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the honest truth; lydia&kass Dec 5, 2019 16:29:30 GMT -5

Post by sbeeg on Dec 5, 2019 16:29:30 GMT -5

She's grateful when the doors open and the air smells like home. After traveling across the country she was thankful for Eleven's sun on her face and the smell of wild grass in the air. She stepped out onto the platform, searching for Killian's face. He'd be here to greet her, he had to. She saw him in the crowd waiting for her.

She wanted to cry, to run to him and say that she did it. She made it home like he asked her to.

But someone stepped between them, severing her warm welcome home. They were young like her- no younger. She couldn't even be reaping age by the look of her. And she brought with her such intensity that Kass' hand flew to her hip where her blaster should be mounted but found only frills of fabric.

"You!" the girl sneered. There was something familiar about her eyes. Or maybe it was the way she held herself. Kass' brain connected the dots a millisecond before the girl enlightened her. "How did my big brother die?"

A Fel. Kass swallowed back the bile that rose in her throat. She had been expecting a "why" question not a "how." Everyone knew how. They watched it all live. Had she not been allowed to watch? Had her parents sent her to bed early rather than let her watch her brother fight to the death.

Jacob's face flickered in her mind. Bloodied. Battered. He'd shoved his sword into her chest, barely missing her heart. The blade had hummed and burned, searing her from the inside out. Her palm was thick with scars where she had yanked it out, her chest a display of twisted flesh and long healed stitches. Blood was all over her hands, all over his face.

"Please, make it fast."

Her fingers, gluey with blood, stuck to the trigger of her blaster when she fired it into his heart.

It had aired, they showed it on the stage when she was crowned. The angle of the camera peering up into her face, her purple robes drenched in blood. They had framed her victorious.

And now she stood on trial in front of cameras and Peacekeepers, the victim staring up at her with fiery eyes.

Kassandra narrowed her eyes at the girl. As others on the victory trail had learned, no one would be getting an apology from Kassandra Nerys. Not for the crime of wanting to live.

"You ought to know. They replayed it a million times," Kass said, as cold as the air in open space. As chrome metal on a blaster. "He asked me to."

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Tom
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the honest truth; lydia&kass Dec 5, 2019 17:09:17 GMT -5

Post by Tom on Dec 5, 2019 17:09:17 GMT -5

"You ought to know. They replayed it a million times,"

They had played it a million times, but my ma never let me actually watch it. Noah wouldn't even tell me who, despite me blackmailing him. Darn older brothers and their knack for not budging on these things. It's not like I was gonna do anything rash. Kassandra Nerys is different than what I thought she would be. The way she reached for something that clearly was not there anymore. I stare back at her as she lets the words out.

My heart shatters with those cold words.

"He asked me to."

Jacob asked her to kill him.

My big brother asked to die.

No. Fuck. No. Jacob wouldn't have done that. Not after all the years he spent telling me her loves me. Not after all the memories our family has together. Not after all the days I spent wanting to be just like him. My big brother couldn't have asked to die, especially not to someone like her. I feel my palms tighten into fists as I can feel the beating of my own heart in my ears. Maybe this was why ma told me to not watch. Maybe this was what they were trying to protect me from.

Or maybe-

Maybe they were trying to protect Kassandra from me.

"You're wrong!"

My voice echoes out loud with a shrill. There's not going to be any tears, I swear. I won't cry in front of my big brother's killer. She had to be lying. My brother didn't want to die. He would make it home to me no matter what, unless someone got in his way. Words keep falling from my lips as my blood feels like it's boiling and my vision starts to blur a little bit.

"My big brother wouldn't have asked that! You'r-You're a big fat liar!"

That's when I charged with all my strength. Kass was nothing more than a liar. I can tell she was no good. Jacob may have died, but he didn't ask her to kill him. He couldn't have!
The only answer is Kass killed him. I'm tired of being too small or too young. I'll show her.

"If you killed him, then why would you do that? Why do you get to live and my big brother gets to die?"

Maybe it's the way the Peacekeeper is holding my wrist or maybe it's the tears now pouring down my cheeks, but all I want is him.

All I want is my big brother.

She took that from me.

I'll never get to tell him that I love him.

"W-Why..."

Emotions fill my chest as I let the tears fall down my cheeks and the peacekeeper's grip tightens just a little more.

Made by umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]

sbeeg
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the honest truth; lydia&kass Dec 5, 2019 19:17:35 GMT -5

Post by sbeeg on Dec 5, 2019 19:17:35 GMT -5

Kass honestly thought she already knew. Just as a child she kept asking where her parents were, but had known they were gone. She thought this child was only checking her knowledge, still not ready for the reality.

But now she knew. She knew who killed Jacob Fel and Kassandra had told her in the worst way possible.

And she's crying. This poor child who only loved her sibling is crying and screaming at her.

Liar! the girl screams. The child launches herself forward. Kassandra doesn't step back but raises her good arm to defend herself. There's no need. A Peacekeeper grabs the girl's wrist and it takes little effort to hold her back.

Just a child. A grieving child in pain.

"Why do you get to live and my big brother gets to die?"

She thought of the Sparks and their similar faces missing their child. Of Red's sister missing her twin. Of the families with holes in them standing in the square while she stood as a representative of why their child never came home. Their cousin, their sister. Their brother.

She thought, looking at sea of red hair and puffy eyes, why had the universe spared Kass? Of all the families to keep whole they preserved the one with none. Nerys was dead name. Not like Sparks and Stone. Like Fel.

But the universe did not send her home. The stars did not make her heartbeat and other's fade.

Kass had made it home. She had fought and bled and screamed her way until she reigned over a empty space station and twenty three corpses.

The easy answer was I don't know but it wasn't the answer.

Why did she live?

Because she wanted to. Because she was stronger and nastier. She had wanted to live.

The Peacekeepers hold the girl back as she collapses into tears. Crying, begging her why?

Why?

"The odds were in my favor," Kass said with a shrug.

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