jonas de lange | d4 | fin

A light beckons across the ocean, ever so bright as if a star were exploding along the sea, a father and a son steering across the oceans of a war, a hurricane brewing in their hearts as it comes crashing down with the arc of light. The silent shore weeps as they dock hard onto the island, rope tossed out as the sand reaches their feet. Hands quickly tying the knot to hold it steady as the island of stranded soldiers watches with amazement at a young kid and his elderly father smile back to them with a kindness in their hearts; many of these soldiers would have starved, many of them were losing hope, but a boy and his father were their saviours.

The son speaks with a soft voice, anxiety in his chest as rubs his neck, watching his words carefully.

"Um, I'm Jonas, this is my uhhhh pa. Sorry for the wait, but uhm if you want back to the mainland we can take ya?"

Silently, they march onto the boat with their morals high and a war no longer in their eyes. A silence fills as the boat rocks of the island and into the raging seas, ignoring the danger of helping soldiers. Rumors spread about capitol forces and rebel forces taking not too kindly to neutral parties, but he's seen it all. Gruesome war at a young age, where people lost sight of everything they cause. Only at the ripe age of fourteen when it ended, barely a teen in the world, but he heard of the families torn.

Hell his own had been torn.

From the moment he had turned twelve, Pa would take him out to sea, silently with their little dingy light. A fisherman who tried to make his own living off the crop of the seas, but he always was smiling as if taking his grandson fishing was the most exciting thing in the world. That was the first taste of what war truly was. Sailing into the waters, they had come across the wreckage of a capitol ship, war was gruesome, but he had always worked with Ma around Four, so the sight of dead bodies and injured soldiers had set a tone in his eyes. Some days, he still has nightmares about those men drowning in their own blood and water.

Except, he had spoken to his pa, words of a different form on the tip of his tongue.

"We have to help them, Pa!"

Those brown eyes staring back at him before something flashes across his face. The only emotion he could understand back then was that it was regret, regret for something that Jonas may never learn. That day, they saved as many soldiers that they could, shoving them onto their tiny boat, slowing their return to the shores of four. It became the start of Pa and his secret in Four. Silently, slinking into the sea to save soldiers on both sides from being shipwrecked or lost at sea. Never truly supporting the war that happened upon their shores, but always stuck in the thoughts of if it were his father or mother stranded, he'd want someone to help them get home.

The waves were always against them, but through the storms, there's always an eye to a hurricane, always a place where the seas calm and the world glows in a brilliance. This war was the rocky seas, but there will be another side where the seas will calm and they'll see a calm sea. A new era of something new, where the violence he's seen ends for once, where buildings don't suddenly collapse or the sound of people hurting. A chill runs up his spine as they silently make it back to Four, ushering the soldiers off the boat.

There's always a peaceful end to the storm, but he never could have predicted the next one to appear.

---

No one told him of the storm that brewed over panem.

No one could have predicted the storm of the hurricane of consequences for Panem.

A yearly game meant to punish the rebels and the civilians who sided with them. War had caused ruin in Four, he'd seen it with his own eyes. Uncles graves set up in the meadow on the top of the cliff's shore, cousins mourning their fathers, and so many broken families lost in this place. The aftermath of the rubble from buildings destroyed by both rebels and pro-capitol forces lays broken in the streets. The old bakery on the corner where he used to get his daily fix for breakfast before the war still lay in rubble piles of what once was a bustling business in the middle of town.

A chill runs up his spine as he remembers the way rumors had spread in four about Alicia Sykes and Anapos Jinx. Forced to fight to the death in a game created by the capitol as punishment for the violence, for the act of disagreement. If only he could have seen this new storm brewing, but he was blinded by his distaste for violence and war. Silence fills his steps as he passes the rubble of buildings from the sorrows of war, buildings were starting to be rebuilt, but the damage had been done.

Instead of focusing on the violent hearts and heavy feeling of distress in Panem, he drifts back into the task he had been told to do. Ma was getting sicker and sicker by the years. It had been bad before now, but it continued to get worse for her. A silence fills him as he carries the herbs and first aid kit with him to his cousin's house. Ma had showed him how to heal, how to put his distaste for war and violence and fix the wounds that filled the people's hearts. Jonas had always been a kind soul, never quite understanding the seriousness of the world they lived in.

He's seen a lot more blood than a kid of his age should, but that's what war does.

It builds up an immunity to the sight of horrible things. It blinds the people with a hatred for one another, until those wars turn into broken hearts and misplaced families. There's a reason why Pa lived with them, his father left for a war that ended up killing him. His father had became a soldier on the capitol's side, but Jonas is still here, watching as his family crumbles in half. Uncles having chosen one or the other side, their family had been falling apart for ages. After the start of the war, his ma had fallen sick and maybe that's why he always ended up with Pa at their house.

Ma had taught him as a kid, the ways to patch up scrapes and wounds. He wanted to be like her long ago, with hands to heal wounds of all sorts. Methods for treating infections and poisons with herbs that Ma grew in her garden out back. A quiet little place in the far distance of Four, away from the hustle and bustle of most of Four. Ma wanted him to take over for her and that's why he became her protégé. Silently, he makes it to his cousin's house, where some argument is breaking out, a knock at the door before the shouting calms.

"Uh, It's Jonas. Ma sent me to help with Lee's hand?"

---

The storm only grew bigger and bigger.

No more lights beckoning for an escape from the hurricane. Instead, the storm's finally reached the districts. Rumors had gotten more and more vibrant. A game of death was being brought upon the kids. Some ceremony was going to be held within the week. Pa had told him they'd go on the water as much as they could. Never know what the future will hold for them. A silence fills them as the seas are calm and nothing but blue surrounds them. A place where it's so quiet that even he could imagine the world was something else.

A place where peace reigns.

A place where there didn't need to be a punishment for the districts.

"We've done nothing wrong. You'll be okay, Jo."

The ease of his grandpa's words melt against his skin. A silent comfort in this new era of something that he didn't really understand. The storm in their hearts brewing heavier and heavier between them. A smile as the fishing rod in his hands yanks towards a fish, pulling the muscles in his arm to reel in what he can. The boat stabilizes as best as it can, but for a second he can hear it. The silent tearing of string until it snaps, leaving whatever fish that had been baited to bite to live a life with a hook in it's lip.

"I don't know yet, Pa."

Worry present on his lips as he speaks.

"I'm not sure what this whole game is. I heard rumors that the Sykes girl and the Jinx boy died. Also heard that it's some death game, but that's just what they have to be, right? Just rumors?"

Silence between them as they linger in the boat for awhile, fishing in the silence of a heavy tension. The storm was brewing over their hearts and none of them could do anything. Instead, Jonas lingers in the feeling of fishing. No more war, no more stranded soldiers, but he's heard stories shared about the horrors of war. He's seen the scars on their skin. Hell, even some of the citizens of four now carry physical wounds, but all of them still carry the mental wounds that'll never heal.

Even himself.

The floating bodies of soldiers will never leave his mind.

Once they dock the boat, Jonas leaves Pa behind to sell the fish they got. Racing home through the district that was now almost rebuilt back to a glory it once had. Up the hillside to the top of the cliff in order to get home, the sounds of waves behind him. Upon entering, there's a silence that fills his heart. Ma's been doing worse since last year. Bedridden and sicker than the fish after the oil spill of that oil supply ship during the war. Fingertips tap lightly to her forehead as her eyes open for a moment.

"Ma, don't waste your energy. I'm home, do you need anything?"

She smiles back to him as rubs soothingly to his mother's forehead.

"No sweetie, I-I just want you to stay here for a bit."

And so he does. Reading from the books around the house, keeping her room tidy, and telling of his day to her. His ma listens with a delicate sort of focus. Fingers spread out in expression as he retells the fish he caught hours earlier and how it snapped his string, exaggerating the details a bit. A smile on her face as he gives one back to her. The De Langes were known to be a shining star among the district four community. Glittering ever so brightly, but under the surface there was a fire eating away at what was there.

It takes all of a few stories before Jonas even dares to speak.

"Ma, is it okay to be afraid of the unknown?"

She doesn't even hesitate with her words.

"Of course."

The hint of the smile vanishes immediately from Ma's face.

"I'm not afraid of dying."

The words were supposed to be too quiet for him before the smile appears back on her face. Something breaks for a moment inside of him as he fakes a smile back at her. Ignoring the pain of loss from his father and the possible pain of loss that could happen when his Ma finally kicks it. Pa would be back soon to take care of her. All he could do was wait and give her the comfort that he could for the evening.

Jonas was afraid of the things none of them knew.

How he wished he could see the storm over the horizon.

No more lights beckoning safety. No escape from the storm.

Violence lingers in the new era of Panem.

All he wanted was to find peace, he's been trying to make it since before the war, but no matter how hard he tries; peace will never come. It's a hard lesson to swallow, but he swallows it with the fear of what's next for Panem after the war. If only he could see the storm. They've done nothing wrong.

They've done nothing wrong.

So why does it feel like he has?

A storm is brewing and there's nowhere to hide.

Jonas De Lange would have to survive it.

Just like all the other storms he's survived through.

All that was left was to find peace, but he would learn.

Peace isn't built easily.