ky earnest | d1

VI

Golden dusted sweets on a three-tiered tray lit by a single strip of light from curtains not entirely drawn. He remembers this place from last year. There's his aunt staring at him from between her fingers, a grin lighting up her face. She's playing with him. The room had always been grand every year and she'd always come to say hello without fail. He picked up a golden strawberry carefully and placed it on a little silver plate, right in the centre between some crackers and grapes. "You'll spoil your dinner, little sprout," Nightshade whispered.

"For mommy," he whispered back, holding the plate tightly, "She didn't even eat on the... on the train."

His aunt glanced at the shut door to his mother's bedroom and placed her hands gently on his shoulders. "We're going to let mommy rest for now, sprout, why don't you go play with the others?" She took the plate from his hands and guided him towards the apartment's door. Ky stared down at the carpet and saw that it was threaded with the same golden colour that powdered the chocolates on the table. He wasn't allowed to argue with his aunt.

Ky liked the elevator. The buttons lit up when he pressed them and he could ride them up and down as long as he liked. There was a lady with a clipboard and she smiled at him. Her grin looked like honey, there were glittering gold specks on her cheeks. She rode the elevator with him for a while, getting off and on again every now and then. "You look more like your father every year," she said to him before getting off on the fifth floor.

He pressed the button for the thirteenth floor and stared at his reflection in the glass wall of the elevator. Dark hair tickled his ears and his eyes blinked owlishly out from under shaggy bangs. Ky reached into his pocket and unfolded a worn square of paper. He held it up beside his face, the man in the photo smiling beside him. Potato Earnest held his mother tightly in his arms and she was laughing, eyes squeezed shut tight.

Ky smiled at the glass and let out a little laugh too.

He waited a very long time to go back to the apartment, even after the sun started going down and his stomach grumbled with hunger. Ky made a game out of all the buildings he could see out of the window on the highest floor. Every time a light flickered on before Ky guessed it was going to, that was a point against him. There were a lot of points against him but he didn't give up for a long time, not until the sun was long set.

The photo of his parents sat unfolded beside him and he picked it up, absentminded. Everyone knew his mom, she'd explained it to him last year that she was invited to the capitol because of how good her gardening was. He didn't get why everyone knew his father though. When he asked about him, his mom had told him that he'd died in an accident before he was born but every time he asked, she suddenly looked so far away from him. So, so far away that it scared him like some invisible force had wrapped its hand around her and was dragging her further and further away from him.

He'd learned not to ask.

When he pushed open the door to the apartment, the lights were all off and there was a faint glow from the door to his mother's room, which was cracked open slightly. Ky ran his fingers along the wall, waiting until they caught on a note pinned at a height meant for him. He pulled it down and brought it close to his face to sound out slowly in the dim light.

Sprout,

Will be back late, there's a plate for you in the fridge. Be good.

Aunt N

He folded the note carefully and slipped it into his pocket. Ky crept slowly around the light leaking from his mother's door, toeing the line as best as he could. He held his arms out to either side for better balance, sticking his tongue out slightly to concentrate. He was really good at quiet games. Sometimes he pretended he was a cloud, drifting slowly along, barely touching ground.

"...Opal Earnest, née Shore..."

The voice came hollow and hushed from inside his mother's room and Ky stopped at the edge of the light, his mother's name making him hesitate. Slowly, he inched closer to the door until he could see into the room. His mother sat on the edge of her bed, he couldn't make out her features from his position but he could see the large wall screen past her. A man sat at a desk with pictures moving across the screen beside him. There was a picture of his mother, red on her face and then another picture, she wore a golden crown upon her head.

Ky's brow furrowed and he stepped further into the room, eyes on the images slowly moving in front of him. There was a picture of his father, leaning on a shovel in a large field, then another picture, this time the same one that Ky had in his pocket. "....of course, who could forget the tragedy of Opal and Potato, so heartbreaking the way that he died..."

The images flipping turned to a video that suddenly filled the whole screen and a sandy plane filled Ky's vision. Ky stepped closer, eyes on the figure stood in the sand. The man from the photos, his father, so covered in red that Ky couldn't tell where it ended or began. He watched, entranced as his father wavered in the sand and another man moves into the frame, striking at his father, who fell to his knees. He didn't die right away, blood slowly spilt from him and he looked up at Ky, mouthing something.

He placed a hand on the screen, sort of aware of his mom moving behind him, pulling his arm, but he couldn't peel his eyes away, on his father's expression twisted with pain. Ky felt his mom's hands on either side of his face, cupping, trying to pull his gaze away but he twisted his face carefully to match his father's and let out a scream.

XVI

Plum pits that line the back corner of the yard and a crispness just starting to hit the air. He stares at the back fence, flipping his father's wedding ring between his fingers. In a year, he'll be the same age he was when he wore it. It fits on his own hand already but it isn't his to wear. It's his mom's. Opal.

Being a victor's kid isn't everything it's cracked up to be, comes with a lot of strings, Ky learned that at a young age. It's been years since he believed that his father died in an accident, years since he finally started speaking again. Still, his mom treats him like a child. He had to lie to her, tell her he was going to the library when he was actually going to the training centre. He would have kept lying too if she hadn't found out and insisted that if he was going to do it anyway, he might as well learn from her.

She kept her word too, training him from the age of ten, giving him a better education than he could have hoped for without her.

Still, he knows no one else's parents are as protective as she is, not in One at least.

Slipping around his mom is hard but not impossible. She trusts him and he barely gives her reason not to. Ky loves his mom, always has but there's a piece of him that never did start speaking again, that clams up when she asks him where's been. He likes his secrets, his little mysteries. No one's ever really understood his games, the way he slips away sometimes and he can't explain it.

Ky knows there's something missing inside him, a piece that can't be filled.

But she goes away too sometimes, that hand from his childhood gripping her tight and dragging. Ky isn't a dumb kid, by most standards he's pretty smart. He was lucky, always had his Aunt nightshade to tutor him, a woman known to be a genius. Sometimes his mom joked and said he'd inherited more of Nightshade than he had of Potato.

He sees more of his mother in him now when he looks in the mirror. He has her posture and her mouth. When they spend the mornings gardening together, he sees that he inherited her hands. He loves his mom, when he got sick, she'd spent every day with him, always there when he woke up in the night from a bad dream.

He's lucky to have her and he knows it. He knows she's scared of losing him. He gets it.

He weighs his father's wedding ring in the palm of his hand and curls his fingers over it, protective.