darling. safe, 92nd.
Oct 24, 2022 20:23:43 GMT -5
Post by ✨ zozo. on Oct 24, 2022 20:23:43 GMT -5
![](https://i.imgur.com/ah4ot5H.png)
She wants to hold her children tight, never let them go.
Whenever death strokes a bony thumb against Saffron Lowe's cheek, she wants her children. To clutch them to her and keep them from harm. A mother's instinct, or perhaps one of innate, blistering fear - every parent who gives a damn in this country feels it. That panic. That adrenaline rush each year, birthday candles blown out and graves covered in dusty orange District Ten dirt - Enzo is safe, Quinn is not. She still wants - no. Needs them. To reassure herself that their hearts are still beating.
There were three cannons today - then a fourth, right in the middle of the room.
"Breaking News..." the announcer reads - even they look solemn. Saffron doesn't hear the words, she reads them scrolling at the bottom of the screen.PATRICIA VALFIERNO DIES AGED 42
Shortness of breath, fourty-two candles waiting in the kitchen cupboard for her next birthday cake. Saffron blinks - stumbles forward, arms outstretched, and clutches Mace with a death-tight grip.
"Today, Panem mourns the loss of 68th Hunger Games Victor - Patricia Valfierno."
Saffron wants -
needs -No. No no no no she had just-
hadn't they just seen-?
No. No, they hadn't. Not this year. Saffron had thought it was just the changing of batons, a victor's inheritance, business as usual. Lethe then Patricia then Lysander. That's all. That's all-How?
Please Ripred don't tell me she-
At that terrible thought her grip tightens around Mace, pulse racing to hear his own. He's alive, she tells herself. He is alive he is alive he is alive.But I wouldn't blame her
if she-
Fuck.
She can't look at Mace. Not yet. Doesn't want that confirmation, the pain in his eyes, to reaffirm what she fears most. He is heavy in her arms, like stone - shock, she remembers being too stunned to speak for days and months and years.
And now it is her turn, debt repaid.
"Call the kids," Saffron asks someone, everyone, no-one. Her voice is hollow. Her mind is anything but.
Still, she clings to Mace.
"Get me on the phone with my children now."SAFFRON.
table by elegant