SmilingPanda19

“…Promise.” She snickers, laying back. “Now shut your face.” She rolls over, smiling to herself.

“I will.” She mumbles. “You just go to bed, we get to roam the district tomorrow with Tony and Mirabelles faction. I’ll catch up on some sleep in the grass tomorrow.” She smiles at him a little, sitting on her bed. “Now shut your stupid eyes and go to bed.” She jokes.

“It was a short flogging. I only counted ten lashes on his back. I’m guessing it was three tailed, lucky he didn’t get a seven.” She’s seen things like this enough to recognize the kind of whip they used. Considering some of the more extreme floggings she has seen this is mild, doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. “You need to get some sleep.” She whispers.

She smiles a little at his voice. “What are you still doing up? I was just taking care of Tony. You should be sleeping.” She walks over towards her bed, setting down the bucket and sliding it underneath.

She slips in, the bucket in hand. It’s hard to see her in the door, but you see a figure move through the door crack. It’s probably about three in the morning by now.

Antonio eventually falls asleep on the bed, laying on his stomach. The girl cleans up the cloth and warm water while Mirabelle just sits there, sighing and playing with Antonio’s hair. “You should really get to bed.” The girl stands up, patting Mirabelle’s head. She looks up at her and nods a little. She stands up herself, brushing off her dress. She stands there silent for a moment just as the girl leaves before calling to her quietly. “Liz?” She turns around, still holding the bucket, the moonlight highlighting her silhouette through the cracked door. “Can you…tuck me in? Tony would usually do it, but…” they are both quiet for a moment before she can hear a soft huff. “Of course, honey.” She watches as Liz sets down the bucket and cloth, walking over and scooping up Mirabelle. She slowly steps over to her bed, setting her down on the cold mattress and pulling the thin cover over her. ”Goodnight.” She runs her hand over her cheek and kisses her forehead before picking the bucket up and slipping out back to her groups barrack. Mirabelle sits in silence, staring up at the ceiling. There are lots of thoughts to think. Some are worth thinking about. Others are not. She would say that these thoughts are worth thinking. Why must someone be at fault? Somebody always has to get hurt. Somebody always has to pay. She didn’t understand it at all. Why must someone be flogged for her talking to that nice man. Why must there be blood shed? She just sighs and rolls onto her side, closing her eyes before saying out. ”Goodnight everyone.” ”Goodnight.” Thirty voices whisper out in unison. Every single child in that barrack couldn’t sleep despite the exhaustion. She lets go of a breath and lets herself succumb to sleep. Maybe this is just one big dream and it will all be over when she wakes up tomorrow. Yes. That sounds like a very reasonable hope. She’ll definitely stick to that until she wakes up, and then she will find a new hope to hold onto. There’s always something…

The night grows cold and the temperatures drop as the moon rises into the cloudy sky. The tromping of peacekeeper boots walking around the camp sound. The children are in the barracks for their rest time, their eight hour shift is over. Tomorrow morning they’ll be let out, let to roam the district as they please until their next shift. Of course they can’t go far and they’ve got trackers inserted under their chin so they can’t be lost. At this late hour all the children lie in their cold beds, more so mats than beds, awake and staring up at the ceiling as they listen to soft groans. ”It’s okay…” A young girl cooes, nearly the same age as Antonio, possibly a year or two older. She must have snuck in from one of the other barracks, most likely she wouldn’t be caught, not this late. She sits on her knees next to Mirabelle by the bed with a warm cloth. She pats his back very gently. He hisses through his teeth. “It was a short flogging, you got off easy.” She whispers. “You need to be more careful.” ”It wasn’t me, it was that stupid man. None of this would have happened if he has just listened.” He croaks. Mirabelle just sits, her head laid on the bed just above his head, ruffling his hair. “I’m sorry Tony…” she whispers softly. He lets go of a breath. “Don’t be sorry…I’m alri-“ he hisses, as the girl puts the cloth on his back again.

Antonio looks up at the peacekeeper as they try to take Mirabelle away from him. “Please-please- take me, please don’t touch her-“ The peacekeeper looks to the Head Peacekeeper and he just nods. The peacekeeper rips Antonio away from Mirabelle and push the group out of their shock and forward, on their way to the factory. The other children pull Mirabelle along silently as she screams. Antonio just hugs her until he is dragged away, whispering to her. “It’s going to be okay, Tony will be right back, he will be right back.” The group moves to the factory in the late afternoon. @Edema Rue

A peacekeeper shoots the ground, all the children screaming and huddling together. A peacekeeper moves through the crowd, everyone moving out of the way as he grabs Antonios wrist. “That’s enough, you’ve had your chance. Leave now.” The peacekeeper barks to Ryn.

She runs over and hides in Antonios arms. They aren’t siblings, that much is obvious, there is no blood relation, but somehow their bond is stronger than blood. He hides her, letting her hug around his waist. “Please sir…” He whispers to Ryn, flinching. The peacekeepers look to each other. “Responsible for what exactly?” One blurts out, the rest shooting him a glare.

“The Hunger Games…” Antonio mumbles, he just watches him. There is no way this man survived the hunger games, nobody survives the hunger games. Mirabelle just giggles. “Tony talks about the Hunger Games a lot! He said he is so excited for his name to be pulled so he can go, he even put it in thirty times! They wouldn’t let him put it in any more!” She nuzzles her nose into the back of his arm. Antonio listens, hearing this. He just looks away. He had to make sure she was fed somehow. He had to lie somehow to her, he didn’t know how to tell her what it really was and how it worked. “When I get big I want to put my name in thirty times, but Tony said cause I’m so tiny I can only put my name in once. We don’t want me to explode with so many names, I can only fit one name in my tum tum.” She pats her stomach a little, smiling at Antonio. It’s the first year her name has been entered, she could put it in more, but Antonio would never let her. He needed some kind of excuse. Antonio doesn’t dare look at them.

Antonio doesn’t move, he just glares at him with hatred. This man could get them both killed or flogged by just trying to help. He looks about thirteen at the oldest. She smiles up at Ryn, hanging on his hand a little, quite giggly. “I’m Mirabelle Crestwood, who are you?”

The peacekeepers look between each other, not sure how to address this. The best and most logical course of action is to shoot and kill the man, which they would most likely do if he wasn’t in contact with one of the children right at this moment. Mirabelle holds his hand, smiling. “No, my mama is off in candy land and my dada is with her, buuuut that’s just what Tony said.” She smiles at the boy and he just stares at her sternly. She leans up on her tip toes up to Ryn and whispers loudly, “That’s Antonio, he’s a little grumpy today.”

He just grunts, taking another long gulp of his drink. ”Come back when you are of some use.” He slurs.

The peacekeeper stumbles back, going to intervene but one of the other peacekeeper stops him, muttering. “He has one minute.” The little girl steps out despite the boy trying to pull her back. She steps out from the crowd. Her short dress fluffs out a little and sways in the sun, is a dirty tan color, covered in coal dust. She smiles up at him sweetly, an innocence in it. She can’t be very old, maybe eight? “I’m Mirabelle…” She says quietly, fiddling with her dress excitedly. She looks back at the boy, he doesn’t seem happy, she is blissfully unaware of the consequences of her action, but he knows you can see it in his eyes.

He slaps him hard across the face, enough to cause him to bend over. The children all pause, without being commanded, a few quiet gasps come from them. One of the other peacekeeper yells, “Keep moving!” But none of them listen. They all just stand staring. The little girl looks at Ryn, terrified. “Mister?” She says quietly.

“I’m going to have to ask you to stand back. These children will be off their shift in eight hours, hold all of your comments until then.” He looks back at the children and they all look away, the little girl hiding under the boys arm. “Continue walking.” The peacekeepers in the back quickly push them forward to start them walking, they go a slow pace, but they do begin moving again.

The little girl grins when he waves back and turns to an older boy next to her, they look nothing alike so it’s hard to think they would be siblings. (She has shoulder length blonde hair and brown muddy eyes that sparkle with the dance of the light and he has a deep tanned skin with short black hair and dark green eyes.) She tugs at his shirt slightly and whispers very quiet. “Did you see? That man waved to me!” He brings his hand up, shushing her and pulling her under his arm as peacekeeper walks past, noticing the approaching man. They both watch the peacekeepr, going completely silent. “They are at work, do not interrupt them.” He says through his helmet, stepping in front of the children, bringing the mass to a halt. They all pause, staying dead silent. They wouldn’t dare move or continue walking, not when the Head Peacekeeper of their faction is speaking.

A peacekeeper pushes him forward with the side of his gun, their voice muffles through the helmet. “Keep moving.” He is at the rear of the group of kids assigned for this eight hour shift, there’s at least twenty of them here, if not more. One of the recently relocated factories, formerly a school, was rebuilt to be turned into a weaponry factory. After all, who needs an old broken down school when the districts were able to afford new buildings. The group of kids in front of him, ranging in all ages, is silent as they walk along the path to the factory.

A line of peacekeepers is escorting a small crowd of capitol children towards the technology factories. The children already look overworked, but this load of children hasn’t even been here for very long. They seem like new faces to most of the district folk. They almost certainly just arrived within the last week, most likely coming from District Amyra Ay where they were formerly working in the mines. It’s easy to assume that because of the dust and grime through their hair and over their face and hands. Its been nearly eight months since the rebellion, it took two months to round up all the capitol citizens and separate children from adults. The groups of children were sent out to the districts six months ago, some of the groups shifting around to work with the room they had. A young girl in the group, no older than eight spots him as she looks out at the streets. She catches his eye and gives him a little smile, the edges of her lips lifting up slightly. She brings up her hand and waves to him a little.

He stands up, swaying a little. “For #@$% sake!” He picks up his chair and turns it just a little bit so that he can see out the window past her. He could have certainly done this while sitting but he wasn’t really thinking. “Give a man a break.” He mumbles, his words slurring slightly.

He just stays silent, the clock ticking in the background as he stares out the window.