all the { shattered } things // ridley day 3 reaction
Jul 4, 2020 21:08:27 GMT -5
Post by Stare on Jul 4, 2020 21:08:27 GMT -5
There wasn't a single fragile surface in her room that Ridley hadn't shattered.
The first to go had been the television screen. With a single scream and one of her shoes she'd reduced it to shards and sparks, Emmett's corpse and Caeser's unwelcome commentary blinking into darkness in an instant. But she hadn't been done. Tears streaming down her face, blood roaring in her ears, Ridley had proceeded to destroy everything she could get her hands on. Her sheets had been ripped in two, there were several holes in the wall, and all the decorative figurines lay in a riot of colorful pieces on the floor. It was at the center of the ruin that she had eventually lowered down onto her heels, gasping, sounding not quite human as she sobbed.
"You idiot!" She shrieked at what was left of the television, not caring if the other Victors could hear her, not even caring if there was some hidden camera broadcasting her meltdown live to all of Panem. "All you had to do was survive the stupid fight! You had the coward from Nine, you just had to kill one more and I would have gotten you out of there! I - I would have - "
Ridley broke off abruptly into a keen, bringing her trembling hands up to the side of her head and sobbing. I'm finally being seen, I can't just give that up. This is what I want. His voice echoed again and again her mind, juxtaposed against those dead eyes, and Ridley just couldn't stop shaking. She couldn't breathe. No one had been there to save her but she would have been there to save Emmett because he'd deserved to live to see his stupid family again. Even if he had come out of the Games boastful and arrogant and convinced of his own invincibility, she'd have been happy.
Maybe she doesn't want to be a lion. Did you ever think of that? Maybe none of us do.
"Fuck the family name," she spat out between sobs, curling deeper into herself. In that moment, she hated the Le Rouxes almost as much as she hated herself. "I - I would have - "
Would have meant nothing when someone was dead. And Emmett was. He was truly, irreversibly dead. One of the few who had stood up for her, one of the few who had dared to try to understand her. Sometimes she'd even hoped that he hadn't cared about her blood.
With another scream Ridley sprang back to her feet and slammed her golden fist into the remnants of the television screen. It went straight through, the shards digging into the flesh of her wrist as her knuckles drove into the plaster of the wall. Ridley stood there in the aftermath, still trembling, still crying. Every inhale stung like a reminder of how badly she had failed him. Her forehead came to rest on her outstretched arm, knees threatening to buckle beneath her.
"I w-would have brought you home."
