how long before the judgement day?

lysander vaughn, district 9.

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

A Moonless Sky || Lysander and Mirelly

[mirelly-kenne-blog]

  “I’m not sure if you have…”I responded a crease forming between my eyebrows. Had he introduce himself? I looked away trying to remember if he had, I searched and searched my memory but nothing came up, I felt horrible, what if he had said his name and I had not remember? I bit my lip wanting to know but my brain just was not functioning right, it would not bring anything up.

His voice brought me back to reality and I turn to look him in the eyes. Lysander. That was a cute name. 

“Lysander…that’s a really cool name!”I squealed and had the urge to hug him but he had reacted a little to weirdly to my touch that I outed it. Holding my place I gave him a smile still waiting for him to shake my head. After a couple of heartbeats my hand still hung in the air, left untouched. Maybe the boy didn’t like anyone touching it, shrugging it off I let my hand fall and turn around to work in the fields.

“It’s okay…”I called back a bit dumbfounded by the fact that he was still their beside me. I made a mental note to myself not to tell father about him, or he would probably freak out, a mental note I would not remember. “not really…all I have to do is plant…”I explain picking up my sickle and turning back to him. “you can go home if you want, I bet you’re probably wanting to be in bed instead of here…with…me…”

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

"Don't worry about it," I said and a tasteless, humourless grin spread across my lips. Of course the girl wouldn't remember. She wouldn't remember anything about me, anything at all. So why was I still here, then? I figured my conscience forbid me to simply abandon her like a lost child. 

"Thank you," I said and coughed lightly. "I'm not quite sure what my parents were thinking, but whatever floats their boat." According to them, they had chosen my name after I had been born. If it were truly so, then one or both of them was probably intoxicated, and the thought that they would choose their child's name while under the influence of drugs or alcohol or whatnot made my blood begin to boil. 

My gaze flickered down to her hand one time, wondering if I should shake it simply to entertain the girl. After a few moments, she let it fall, and I cleared my throat to kill the awkward silence. "It's quite alright," I said quietly, looking up at the sky and taking a deep breath of air. 

"I'm not tired at all," I elaborated, and I blinked several times, almost as if I were trying to prove my point. "I couldn't fall asleep anyways, this is the best I could do, might as well keep you company." 

I wondered briefly if she had ever been to school, then dismissed the thought: she was far too shy of human interaction to have ever been in a public setting like that before, if her inability to hold eye contact and her soft-spoken voice were any indicators of the fact. 

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

A Moonless Sky || Lysander and Mirelly

[mirelly-kenne-blog]

  “I didn’t mean to make it seem so…nasty? You can also call it a stranger, I never met anyone else except you because no one comes out at night. Sorry if I insulted you…really…”I began placing my hand on his shoulders but the minute it touched it I pulled it back not wanting the boy to despise me any more. 

I was actually starting to like him, and not because he was the first human I had encounter but just because he seem different which was stupid because I had never met anyone else but threw my window I had seen different kids running around and having fun and doing what normal kids did but he seem like he was hiding something. He seem to serious, to mature but I liked it and it was stranger.

My shoulders fell when he responded to my question. I was actually kind of hoping that he was enjoying my company but what else did I expect. I was just a stupid little girl who would probably forget him sooner or later, he didn’t care, I was just entertainment. 

“Oh…okay.”I whisper standing up placing my hands behind my back. “Well it was lovely to meet you…stranger…I’ll leave you to your thoughts, have a nice day.”I spoke in a confident voice stretching my hand out for him to shake.

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

“You didn’t insult me,” I waved her apology off. “It doesn’t really matter to me what you call me...” I wet my lips and sniffed once, running a hand through my hair. “Have I even introduced myself?” I felt silly. “I’m Lysander, Lysander Vaughn.”

Mirelly touched my shoulder and I shrank back ever so slightly. I wasn’t used to human touch, not in a long run. Most of my friends—the people I considered family—weren’t ones to stand on ceremony, and they never really touched me unless I was injured or something very serious happened.

My mother and father were jokes. They hadn’t cared for me since they succumbed to morphling when I was three, and after that, touch had been either harsh and abusive or nonexistant. My parents had never been there for me, and if they expected me to care for them in their old age, as they had told me so many times before I finally gathered enough courage to get the hell out of the house, they were completely wrong.

She withdrew her hand and I relaxed slightly, my eyes flickering towards the spot where her hand had been and then back up to her face again before moving towards the fields again.

She seemed a bit insulted when I answered her question, and I felt a bit of guilt in my gut. The girl wouldn’t remember me the next morning, anyways, so I might as well be kind to her as long as she did.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” I protested and stared at her hand that she had put out for me to shake. I shook my head, trying to find the right words that wouldn’t make me seem like a prick or a clingy, annoying idiot. “I mean, I wouldn’t be here if I hated you.” I shrugged and stood up, looking around at the fields.

“Is there anything I can help you with?”I asked and motioned to the sacks that she had just been carrying around. If I was going to be here, I might as well help her a bit with her work—maybe it would alleviate her stress a little bit. 

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

Gavin, FC: Callan Enhart

Lennox, FC: Tom Felton

Lark, FC: Sarah Bolger 

Hamish, FC: Colin Ford

Lysander's father, FC: Jeffrey Dean Morgan

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

A Moonless Sky || Lysander and Mirelly

[mirelly-kenne-blog]

  I sat still waiting for the moment he would run away screaming or grab one of the sickles near us and kill me. I was waiting for the worst but…it never came. Sure, I felt the boy shudder and fidget a bit but he was still their probably feeling sorry for me. 

“You’re the first human, well outer human, that I have met and I just wanted to say I’m sorry that I lied to you, I was just following my fathers order.”I explain in a whisper bowing my head, I was not ashamed of what I had, I felt ashamed that I had lied. Even though I knew that by tomorrow or maybe even before the boy’s face would most likely be forever gone of my memory, never to be found until one day maybe in a week or in a year or maybe when I was old his face would pop up. My life was a never ending cycle, I hated it.

After a couple of minutes had passed I notice he was still their, beside me. I lifted my eyes, meeting his I gave him a smile to let him know I was alright.

“Don’t think I don’t want you here but…why are you still here? why haven’t you run away or made fun of me?”I asked deep inside I was scared he would get up and leave, he was the first stranger I had met, he was the first person to know about my condition, I kind of didn’t want him to leave just yet.

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

“Outer human.” I scoffed at the term and shook my head. It was only a bit pitiful that she referred to any human she hadn’t come in close contact to by that term, but I decided that I wasn’t offended. The poor girl probably didn’t know any better. Part of me wondered if her beliefs were pounded into her by her father. She couldn’t be that insane, at least not to the point that she was a public menace. She should be outside during the day, at least, and she was most certainly capable enough to work.

Instead, she had been shoved into the background, probably locked into her room like she was some sort of malignant tumor or unfortunate relative that had to be ignored and shoved aside, like she wasn’t important. It was disgusting.

It was like she wasn’t even human, in a way—it was as if her father [and perhaps even her mother] had treated her as if she weren’t a child. How long had she been like this? How young had she been before her forced isolation? My childhood had been spent roaming outside, and I couldn’t imagine being caged in like a rabid dog. I shuddered at the mere prospect.

I heard her question, faintly, and looked up to see her giving me a faint smile, which I registered but didn’t quite return. I looked over at the almost-empty fields, the grass ruffling in the cool breeze of the night. It was almost Reaping time, I remembered.

My name was in there too many times this year, and I shuddered. I wouldn’t have a chance in the Games. I wasn’t weak—I wouldn’t die in the bloodbath, hopefully, but I would never be a contender. I wasn’t stupid or uninformed, I wasn’t untrained in basic weaponry—but the sheer force and numbers of the other tributes would make it too easy to defeat me, and knowing me I wouldn’t make any allies.

Pushing the disturbing thought aside, I pondered for a moment, then answered her question. “You see, I don’t have anything better to do,” I drawled and leaned back, resting my body weight on the palms of my hands.

“I’m not exactly sittin’ here because of you,” I continued and shrugged nonchalantly. “I’m sitting here cause’ I can’t sleep and you just happened to be the person I ended up following over here.” I paused for a moment and chewed my bottom lip. “And I’m not making fun of you cause’ I’m not that kind of person.”

Mocking people was petty, it was juvenile, it was insecure and immature—I was far beyond it, and if the others in the District weren’t, then that wasn’t surprising. This District was full of people who thought they were better than everyone else although they lived in the same filth, it was full of people who said that the others stank the worst although they all reeked the same. It was full of people who claimed that we were useful to Panem, that we were their breadbasket—it was all lies. We were nothing more than an extension of District 11. We did nothing. 

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

A Moonless Sky || Lysander and Mirelly

[mirelly-kenne-blog]

  I could tell he was lost in his own thoughts just like I was when I had them, right at the minute the only thoughts that were in my head were.

Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar.

That was all that could describe me right at the minute, I was liar, a stupid, ugly, miserable liar. I had no way out of here, if I ever wanted to be friends with him all I could do was tell him the truth but would he think I was freak or like other citizens think my illness was contagious and run away screaming at top of their lungs to run away from me, or would he stay and be with me. Not possible but I had to try. 

“My father does not trust the citizens with me…”I responded his question putting down my sickle. Taking a big gulp I went over and sat beside him. This was the moment of truth. No going back. “I don’t function right…up here…”I began pointing to my head. “I…I…I have alzheimer. One day I remember the next I don’t, it’s a never ending cycle. I tried to fit in once, with the rest of district but they thought I was contagious and I almost ended up dead so that is the reason my father arranged with the mayor for me to come out and do my duty at night.”the words came out my mouth so quick I didn’t know if he would understand them but what I knew was that it was out, now my life and fate was in this boy hands. I stared at my hands.

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

"Your father," I repeated quietly, muttering under my breath. Was she perhaps dangerous? Or insane? My unease continued to grow, but I managed to keep it under check. There was no reason to assume the girl would hurt me, she had already had ample opportunity to do so and yet I was fine. Stop assuming the worst in people, I thought to myself, and turned my attention back to the girl. 

"I don't function right up here..." she said, pointing to her head, and I felt a stab of pity in my gut. So she was insane, perhaps, but not the dangerous kind. 

I had seen the dangerous kind of insane before with wild, feral eyes that threatened violence and blood. They were the kind that lost their temper over nothing, that would scream and shout and stab whenever the smallest thing went wrong. They were the kind that I could be afraid of. Or maybe not afraid of, more like wary-- fear was a weak emotion, and although I wasn't above it, I could proudly claim that I hadn't given in to it, at least not yet. 

She was the confused kind of insane, the kind that was lost in their own minds. I could only imagine what it must be like in her head, a jumble of thoughts and conflicting memories and and thoughts and just--I was beginning to develop a headache just thinking about it, and I lowered my head. 

"I have alzheimers," she continued and I furrowed my brow. I had heard of the disease before, but I had only ever known of it in, well, older people--who knew that people as old as this girl was (fifteen? sixteen? no older than myself, surely) could get the disease as well? "One day I remember, the next I don't, it's a never ending cycle." 

"I'm sorry," I whispered. I didn't know what else to say, and I shrugged uncomfortably and fidgeted in the chair. 

"I tried to fit in once, with the rest of district but they thought I was contagious and I almost ended up dead so that is the reason my father arranged with the mayor for me to come out and do my duty at night." My heart sank and my eyes flickered over to the girl--Mirelly--'s form and the pity in my gut multiplied until it nearly made me sick. 

People were so disgusting sometimes, and I shuddered, just thinking of it. 

[boy-who-cried-wolf]

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

A Moonless Sky || Lysander and Mirelly

[mirelly-kenne-blog]

  Letting my shoulders fall I nodded. Special snowflake? No one had ever call me that and I didn’t know if I should take it like an insult or not. I didn’t want to cause any problems with him.

“I guess you can say that…”I responded in a whisper turning around to haul more sacks around. I didn’t want to tell him, I didn’t want his pity but I kind of wanted someone else apart for my family and Narissa and the mayor to know about me. I wanted a friend. Finishing up stacking the sacks I took the sickle that was in one of the rackets and drove it into the ground over and over again opening up several holes.

“I wish I could tell you…really….”I lifted up my face to meet his as I stopped working. “it happen a long time ago, when I was eight but it really started since birth. Everyone knew about me but now everyone has forgotten me because I never come out only at night…”I picked up my sickle and pointed at the clear night sky.

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

I sat down on one of the wooden benches that lined the outskirts of the field, hoping the wood wouldn't crack under my weight. The stars sparkled weakly, and I grimaced up at them. People liked stars for stupid reasons, he reflected. They liked stars for their shine, for their apparent ability to grant wishes-- all of that was useless to me. I liked stars because they were strong, they were lonely, and yet they still existed, even many lightyears away. 

I had read somewhere in one of the books I found lying around the district that the stars that we saw have all died already. It is only because the light takes so long to travel to earth that we even know where they are, and the thought intrigued me. What must it be like, I thought, to only live after you had died? Perhaps there was other life out there, perhaps there wasn't-- on the off chance that there wasn't, the only time the stars were truly seen where when they were already dead. 

Perhaps people were like that, too. Once, a boy in my class got reaped. He hadn't been very popular, in fact, most of the people at our school found him annoying. They mocked him, they teased him, they called him useless and fat. I couldn't claim that I liked the boy, exactly, but I didn't partake in his torment. 

That all changed after he was reaped. During his time in the Capitol, the class fawned over him as if he had been important, as if he had been popular, even. And when he finally died (though, somehow, taking at least two Careers with him), everyone had wept for him, claiming that they had each been his best friend. 

Shallow, stupid, apes. 

"Why don't you ever come out during the day?" I asked bluntly, staring at the ground beneath my feet. I didn't really care what the girl thought of me at this point--based on what she was saying, I doubted she would even remember me at this time tomorrow, if not sooner. 

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

A Moonless Sky || Lysander and Mirelly

[mirelly-kenne-blog]

  “I’m sorry…”was all I could say. I didn’t want to do this but I had strict orders and now I had just been found out by the my first human. Great. “I can explain..”I began and played with my fingers. How could I tell him that I was the night girl, a girl who’s mother had been a rebel and had died and due to that I had alzheimer and that I was not suppose to be know. No one was suppose to know that I was Mirelly, I was weird, I was different and I didn’t want this to scare him away.

Moving forward I picked up a sack from a pile and haul it in my shoulder and moved towards the other pile. I was glad that I could see in the dark, my eyes had adjust a long time ago and this trip did not take long. Soon I was before the human again. “I’m different…that’s all I can say. I’m not like the rest of the citizens here.” I spoke letting out a sight.

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

"No matter," I said and rolled my eyes, waving my hand vaguely through the air. "But knowing someone's name won't change anything." Names are weak, shallow, simple--they're simple, easy ways of identifying people, like typecasting, only without the stereotypes. 

And in a way I was right, wasn't I? Knowing someone's name wouldn't give me more power of them. If I had to kill someone, heaven forbid, it wouldn't help to know their name. It wouldn't help them, either, if I didn't. It would be as difficult or as simple as it was before, and it wouldn't make much of a difference afterwards anyways, as they would be dead and lying in a pool of their own blood, name be damned. 

Her voice tore me out of my musings. "I'm different, that's all I can say," she said, sighing. "I'm not like the rest of the citizens here." I rolled my eyes and scoffed. Must teenage girls be so self-centered? They always thought the entire world revolved around them, like they were really that special, that significant-- the lives of the civilians, the lives of the mere citizens of Panem didn't count at all. 

Really, what were we even good for in the first place? We went to work, we got enough money to clothe our children and feed ourselves, we came home, we sat in front of the television or simply slept the entire night through and then we woke up and repeated the cycle over and over again in an endless, monotone loop. 

Everything was useless. It was one of the first lessons I had learned from Lennox. 

"So we've got a little special snowflake, haven't we," I remarked dryly, not moving as she moved around, presumably doing her work. Really, I thought, irritated, you must be quite the extraordinary girl. 

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

A Moonless Sky || Lysander and Mirelly

[mirelly-kenne-blog]

  “I’m already late….”I let out a laugh and follow him quickly. Narissa would probably be waiting for me and she would probably be surprise. I had never been late, always their at sunset. I tried to keep up but he was walking way to fast. He seem to be in a rush, and I did not blame him I was weird. I was not normal but how I wished I was. I wanted to be, I swear.

He seem in his own thoughts so I did not bother him, I would only smile at him when he checked if I was still their beside him. There seem to be something different about him, he seem to be hiding something but who wasn’t? I wished I would get to know him better, he was the first human I had encounter apart from my family, but by tomorrow his face would forever disappear from my memory. Like he never existed. 

“Thank yo—-“I began as I picked up a lily from the side but a voice interrupted me. Narissa.

“Mirelly! I’m surprise, you are late, exactly 30 minutes. Was their something wrong?”I heard her voice and her clicking shoes coming towards us. Shooting up I gave the boy a glance and return my eyes to Narissa.

“Oh, hey Narissa.”I responded with a shaky laugh. 

“Mirelly…”she repeated my name tapping her shoe. I loved her to death she was like a mother to me but at that moment I despise her deeply. She had just sold me out. This boy would no longer know me as Lilian, he would know my real name. I just hopped he had not been listening. I hoped.

I gave her a smile and raised my finger, opening my mouth and pointed at the boy beside me. I bite my lip and her mouth made a ‘o’ shape. She nodded and left.

“Hurry, you have a lot to pick up today..”she whisper giving me a smile. I kept biting my lip as I turn to face the boy hopping he had not been listening to Narissa.

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said quietly, not quite sure whether I should apologize for making the girl late. I decided that it wasn't truly my fault--after all, she hadn't been looking where she was going, it wasn't at if it was my fault that she hadn't been looking around and had run into me. And she certainly should've been strong enough to handle running into me. A weak smile graced my lips, but I repressed it. 

I strode on though the winding streets, my feet hitting the cobbled pavement in a steady rhythm that was closed followed by the quieter pit-pat of her shoes against the stone. She seemed to know the way, at least I hope so-- but who knew if we were even going the right way? Perhaps, in her confusion, she had named the wrong field number yet again and we were going in the completely different direction. 

Nevertheless, I didn't mind--I knew Lysander, Lark, and Gavin wouldn't miss me, they would simply assume that I had gone home. The quiet feeling of speculation turned to mild unease. What if the girl was a sort of bait for robbers? There were several in this district that I knew of, and if a group of strong, older men with better weapons jumped on me, I was screwed. 

I resolved to keep my wits about me and simply stay on track, careful not to let the girl trick me into a dark alleyway. I was simply too clever for that, and I wouldn't let anyone fool me ever again. 

If I was gone for too long, what would happen? Lysander would surely care, he would send out a search party--the thought comforted me, and I resumed my earlier, faster pace with a sincere, eager step. 

We finally reached the fields where another woman stood, one that addressed the girl that had just introduced herself to me as "Lillian" as Mirelly. I raised my eyebrows but said nothing as the other woman (Narissa, I presumed) said the name again, confirming my suspicion that that was the true name of the other girl. 

"It's not like knowing your name would make any difference, Mirelly," I said with some level of spite, spitting out her true name as if it were a curse.  I hated being lied to, I had always hated being lied to-- lying was something that cowards did, and was second only to ignorance. 

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

A Moonless Sky || Lysander and Mirelly

[mirelly-kenne-blog]

  I bit my lip even more causing it to bleed. I shook my head and looked around. I was terrible at lying. Cupping my face my own hands I let out a grunt.  The boy seem lost in his own thoughts and myself had no thoughts. How could one think when one had no memory, no thoughts whatsoever. That was what I missed about being normal and being able to remember, the glory of not having to go threw a ratty old book looking for a memory. Everyone had every moment they loved right at the reach of their finger tips while I, had to look threw a book and put things together, like a puzzle. 

It was like my brain was split into different places and sometimes they would come together and make me remember something about my past but then they would separate again. Almost like taunting me. The world around, also know as Panem, was having their own fight. One where one side was fighting for freedom and the other for control, but me, I was fighting a battle of my own, a battle where I was trying to keep myself. I was trying not to loose myself.

“No…Yes!”I shouted and then cursed myself in my thoughts. Great, I was doing great. I scratched my head and bit my lip even more. “I meant…I work in…number…”I searched my messed up brain for something. A memory. Nothing. My mind was blank. No surprise. “eleven?” I shrugged and let my shoulders fall. He was asking way to many questions for me to keep up. My brain felt like it would explode any time. I took a big gulp at his second question, my father had said not to tell any stranger my name. Everyone had know me when I was born and up until my eight birthday due that everyone was trying to help me but by now everyone would have probably forgotten me. No one would remember me. I was never out in the daylight. “Um..I’m…Lilian!”I shouted the first flower that pop into my head. My mouth was just spraying lies today.

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

"Eleven," I said and nodded quickly, plunging my hands into my pockets and turning around, waiting for the girl to begin walking. "Well then, you better get going, we wouldn't want you to be late." I chuckled humourlessly and began to walk, occasionally doubling back to see if the girl still followed me. 

I wasn't quite sure what to make of her. She seemed fragmented, jumbled, like some kind of a messed up, broken doll that had been fixed but didn't quite work right. The fundamentals were there: the shape of the doll, the fine porcelain of the figure, but the details, the thoughts were off-- she stammered and didn't know what to say, her large eyes roaming around the street as if she were looking for something. 

It was like she was looking for something that she didn't even know existed, like she was trying to grasp onto something that wasn't there--words, or perhaps a thought or a memory or something. For a moment, I pitied her. What must it be like, I thought, to be constantly disoriented, constantly not knowing what would happen? It must be terrible, but I had given up on pity a long time ago. Pity led to helping people, and helping people led to suffering. It was a world where the dogs eat the dogs where they kill for the bones in the streets,and I had to succumb to the natural order of things so my friends and I could survive. 

"Lillian," I repeated flatly and looked over to a flower stand in the seat, where several lilies draped over the edge. "That's a pretty name," I said with no real affection in my voice, and I was fairly sure she was lying. 

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

A Moonless Sky || Lysander and Mirelly

[mirelly-kenne-blog]

  “I was running and I guess the collision of our bodies just made me hit my head hard.”I tried to come up with a good excuse but he would not buy it. I knew this by him checking my head, I had never been checked over except for father. The smile on my lips grew and a shiver ran up my spine, so this was what how it felt to talk to the opposite sex? It was not like most girls said it was but I was different and this I knew and not just because I had alzheimer.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw him study me, I tried to act as normal and cool as possible. Which I had never done. This tale would be a good one to write one in my book of memories, I just hope that I would remember the face of the first human I encounter by tomorrow. Chances were that I wouldn’t, my alzheimer was going into advance stations and we had no money to pay. Sooner or later my memories would be forever erase, the familiar faces would soon become strangers once again, I wouldn’t even remember myself.

“Um..”I tried to respond to his question but to be honest I didn’t remember. Damn, I had forgotten my book back home. “Um..Um…Um..”I had to come up with an answer and fast. “number four!”I almost shouted. I bit my lip, this was going into a weird direction. He was probably thinking I was mad, which I was and he would think I was even more madder due that I let out a laugh at his comment. “You’re saying that to the girl who dies during the day, and comes alive during the night.”I used the little frace people use to describe me. I was the night girl. I gave him a smile and thankfully took his hand. The first stranger hand.

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

"Whatever you say," I said and shrugged. She wasn't running. She would have hit me harder, I would have most certainly felt it. But I didn't want to press any harder, after all, I had only just met the girl. I hadn't even seen her before in my life, which was rare, as I was familiar with most of the people in the district. They were all the same, though: tired, old, too thin, cautious, wary of strangers. 

I wondered quickly if it was like that in any other parts of Panem, too. I doubted it was like that in the Capitol--from what I had seen on TV, the Capitol was bright, loud, and robust, the kind of place you'd want to go to just to say you'd been, not because you actually wanted to meet anyone or see anything. It was a flashy place, more show than actual substance, but the little substance that did exist made me sick. 

Their inherent fascination with the Hunger Games, for example: what was the point of locking 24 tributes into an arena to kill each other? It wasn't like punishing the children, the grandchildren, and the great-grandchildren of the rebellion was going to do anything. Wouldn't it even make it worse? And if they were going to kill twenty-three tributes anyways, why not just line them up against a wall and shoot all but one of them? 

Hope, I realized suddenly. They did it for hope. I had seen it before, I saw it every year--the same type of twelve year old who, when reaped, somehow convinced themselves that they had a sliver of a chance at winning the games. The cripples who staggered forwards on Reaping Day, somehow still holding onto the hope that they would return home in a blaze of glory. 

And more often than not, those people would be killed on the first day, slaughtered by Career tributes or the rare brutal outlier. They'd become victims of the Capitol, just like everyone else. 

The girl's stuttering shook me out of my thoughts. "Number four!" She said, almost desperately, and I furrowed my brow.

"You work in field number four?" I asked dubiously and pulled her up. Her hand was surprisingly and almost unpleasantly cold in mine. "That's in the other direction, are you sure, uh," I faltered for a moment, realizing that I didn't even know your name. "What's your name, anyways?" 

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

A Moonless Sky || Lysander and Mirelly

[mirelly-kenne-blog]

  I open my mouth and then close it, open, close, I couldn’t seem to find the right words. My father had strictly told me to never tell anyone about my condition even though almost the whole district knew about it but it seem this new person didn’t. This could be my chance to finally be treated normally by a first human. My lips shaped themselves into a smile and I unwrapped my arms from my body, I could do this. I could be normal. I could.

“I’m alright, just…”I began but I could not lie but I had to. “I’m alright just the hit made me loose track for a minute.”I responded.

~~

“She’s not breathing! Victor, she’s not breathing!”the same man shouted. “She’s dying!”

~~

I shook my head trying to hide my surprise, dying? Me? My eyes open wide and I knew I must have looked like a total weirdo, probably my eyes had gone wide open and I had frozen in mid sentence. I would never know because after today I would probably never remember.

I tried to compose myself, I had to. Normal. I had to be normal!

“I just work up ahead in the fields…”I pointed up ahead, the moon was rising and I was already late for work. 

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

Mirelly's lips quivered and she smiled, but the smile looked a bit more like a grimace to me and I swallowed uneasily. "Are you sure? I didn't hit you that hard," I claimed, and checked her head quickly to see if it was bleeding. Perhaps she had been shaken up, but I doubted that that was the only thing that was going on here. 

Perhaps she was drunk--yes, that must be it. Her acts and mannerisms were certainly that of a drunk person, I had most certainly observed them enough, and a quick smile spread across my lips as I remembered the first time Gavin had gotten drunk off his ass. He had pranced around, proclaiming he was the king of the world, and could only be silenced by a harsh slap from Lennox. 

Her eyes froze mid-sentence and she seemed to enter some kind of trance. I stooped towards her and looked at her, worried. Was she having a stroke or something? 

Her eyes focused quickly again and I relaxed. Hopefully it wasn't a serious medical problem, though, that would truly be an issue. "I just work up ahead in the fields," she said, pointing, and I furrowed my brow in confusion. 

The fields? They weren't exactly the safest place in the district--especially with the tools being handled and the blades. Perhaps the girl was delusional, but at I could at least make sure she got into familiar hands. "Which one?" I asked and got up, holding a hand out to her to help her get up. "It's not safe alone at night." 

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

A Moonless Sky || Lysander and Mirelly

[mirelly-kenne-blog]

  “I’m okay…I’m okay…I’m okay…”I kept whispering over and over again. It was the only thing that seem to be able to come out of my mouth at that moment. Who was the man in that memory? Was it my father? Why was he begging me?

I shook my head again and again, trying to respond but shake of the confusion again. Great, Mirelly you finally meet another human apart from your father and you act like a crazy person.

“Yes…I live just around the corner…”I responded in a whisper, raising my eyes to meet his. I finally took in his looks, he was a blonde headed and for the first human to meet he was not that bad. I try to give him a small smile but I suppose I fail. “I’m sorry..”I whisper again lowering my eyes. “I was just going to work…”

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

"Do you want to go home?" I asked, and I looked up at the sky quickly, checking to see if it was going to rain. It had been drizzling earlier in the day, and I didn't want the disoriented girl to get caught out in one of those raging thunderstorms that swamped our district from time to time. "I mean, you don't look alright..." my sentence trailed off as I wondered if I had accidentally insulted her. 

I had no idea how to talk to girls. I had no idea how to talk to most people, really, my cynicism carefully guarding me from any sort of proper interaction. I hadn't gone to school in a few weeks at least, and when I was there, I sat in the back row and traded sarcastic remarks with Gavin about the curriculum. I hadn't talked to a girl, save in passing, that wasn't Lark in at least a few years. 

Slowly, I was beginning to realize exactly how isolated I was--I was stuck in my own little group, in our own little lives. We were preoccupied with getting food, making sure we weren't caught by the Peacekeepers whenever we nicked anything. 

We were stuck in our own little bubble, just like this girl was stuck in her own mind. 

"Or do you want me to walk you to work?" I glanced around nervously almost. I didn't know of where she could work, really--there were no shops anywhere around here, and most certainly none that were open this late. I ruled out the fields, she wasn't mentally stable enough to work there, that was sure. 

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

A Moonless Sky || Lysander and Mirelly

[mirelly-kenne-blog]

  That was all. A sorry. That was all I got from the first human I ever spoke to? This left me a bit dumbfounded. I began to mumble a bit but he just walked away, with an eyeroll? If I was not so lost in my thoughts I would have said something, or maybe not but I kept quiet, letting him walk away….

~~

“Mirelly..Mirelly…respond! Please Respond to me!” a voice begged, tears were being spilled and someone screamed. “MIRELLY!!!!!!!” the man screamed again and fell to the floor, “Come back to daddy! Please,baby!”he begged and begged…

~~ “do you need any help?” where the words that brought me back to reality. Shaking my head a tear fell out of my eyes. Another memory I did not have record off. More tears spilled. I slowly licked her lips.

“I’m okay…”I whisper and stood up brushing myself of. “I’m okay…I’m okay…I’m okay…I’m okay…”I kept whispering as the pleading screams of the man kept ringing in my ears.

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

Shit. She was crying. My stomach dropped, and I looked hastily in my pockets for some sort of tissue before finally finding one that was pretty clean. Thank God for Lark, I silently thought, and made a mental note to myself to thank her for her insistence that we carry tissues around everywhere the next time I saw her. "Uh, you don't look okay," I offered unhelpfully and looked around for someone else, holding the tissue out to her in a vague attempt to be helpful. 

She couldn't be alone, could she? 

"A-Are you lost?" I asked. "I know my way around this place, I could help you if you needed to get somewhere..." she shook her head and I bit my lip, trying to decide whether to help or to continue on. She didn't look alright, though, and I opted for staying next to her, at least until I figured out exactly what was wrong with her. 

I had never seen her before, which was strange--I had seen most of the people in my district before until they just melded into a blur of strange places. But she was one of the few unfamiliar faces, and I found myself curious about her. 

"Are you from around here?" I asked, and she stood up, but was shaking and swaying back and forth. I gripped her arms to help support her until she steadied herself and then let go, staring at her with a worried expression. 

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

A Moonless Sky || Lysander and Mirelly

[mirelly-kenne-blog]

  “Mirelly…”I heard a soft but demanding whisper coming from behind me. Crap, I must be late for work! 

“well I guess this is it…I’m off to work, I’ll be back though!”

I quickly scribble on my notebook, where I had been recording that days’ thoughts, but I still had the whole night to go. That was my life, dead at day, alive at night. I stuffed my notebook in my secret compartment and ran out of my room. 

“Sorry dad…”I let the words come out of my mouth as I planted a kiss on his cheek. 

“Yeah,yeah..no go! You can’t be late for work!”he rushed me out the door, the cold wind wrapping me in it’s arms. I had the temptation to get back in the house into the safety of the warmth but instead I wrapped my arms around my body and hit the deserted road. No one was alive during this time, everyone would be in their beds getting some sleep for the next day but not me, my day had just begun. My long legs carried me forward, pulling me towards the plantations up ahead but instead I ended up on the floor. 

I sat up leaning on one hand and with the other I rubbed my head. “oww..”I whisper and looked up to see who it was. 

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

"Sorry," I said without a second thought, rolling my eyes. Couldn't people watch where they were going these days? I shook my head skeptically and continued walking, plunging my hands deeper into my pockets and scowling into my jacket. I hated interaction, I hated people--and it was best if they hated me as well. 

On a second thought, I turned back around and walked back to the girl--it was obviously a girl--who hadn't moved from the ground. Perhaps she was lost, perhaps she was confused--I didn't want to let a lost child wander around alone at night, and although I did so with a flicker of my eyes that was more like a roll than a glance, I reached her and squatted down. 

"Do you need any help?" I muttered and looked over her features once. There was nothing special about her, she wasn't bad looking, but she wasn't stunning either. But it was her eyes that caught me slightly off guard, and not the way they looked, either--

It was the look in them. She looked lost, confused, even, like the world had stopped turning and she was the only one who witnessed it. She looked like she was grasping onto some fragment of her sanity but slowly losing hold of it only to regain some illusion of control. 

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

A Moonless Sky || Lysander and Mirelly

A dog faintly barked in the quiet of the night and I shot bolt upright, my shoulders relaxing as I realized it had only been a dream. "It's only a dream," I muttered, the words mirroring the thought inside my head. "I'm safe." I lay back down on the small stack of hay and tossed a bit my thoughts filled with turmoil: I couldn't sleep. 

Groaning, I got up and pulled on my jacket, the feeling of warm leather comforting on my skin. If I couldn't sleep, there was no use in hanging around-- it was almost nightly that one of us snuck outside for a walk or simply to sit and stare at the sky, lost for words and trying to make sense of everything that was out there. 

The District was silent, almost peaceful, though I knew better. The faint barking of dogs returned, more prevalent this time, and I traced my way down the narrow, dirty streets of the place I had taught myself to call home. 

I passed by my house and paused for a moment, wondering if I should go inside. It's useless, I decided. Mother and Father--I refused to call them by any other name--were sure to be asleep at this time, asleep or cackling wildly under the mad influence of drugs. I turned. I had no use for that. Quickening my pace, I continued walking, staring down at the ground. 

[lysander-vaughn-blog]

The Talk || Side Task Five

Lennox stared down at the ground and cleared his throat, a dark, rumbling sound that made me reconsider just exactly how serious this situation was. He strode towards the table and sat down, drumming on the tabletop with his fingers

 “You wanted to talk to me,” I reminded him in a low voice, coughing gently as I pushed my chair in and set my elbows on the table, leaning forwards.

Lennox paused for a split second and coughed lightly before fixing his gaze on me. A look of worry flickered over his face but was gone before it was truly there. “You know how many times Lark’s name is in the Reaping bowl this year,” he remarked quietly, tracing the pattern of the table with his index finger absentmindedly. I nodded once, swallowing.

“More than once, I presume,” I said bitterly and rubbed my face with a hand, shaking my head. “Too many times.” She wouldn’t survive a day in the Games, I thought. She was too weak, too pretty, too dainty. It would be a disaster.

“Yes,” Lennox said and straightened himself, his gaze flickering from me to the floor. “I-I just need to know, Lysander,” he said and squared his shoulders, looking at me directly again and closing his eyes for a split second. “I would do it myself, but—”

“You’re nineteen, you’re too old,” I said quietly and took a sharp intake of breath, coughing gently as the soot from the stove settled in my lungs. “Of course.”

“You’d volunteer?” Lennox asked, and his eyes were as pleading and desperate as they had ever been, as I had ever seen them. “You’d volunteer, you’d take care of her, right?”

“Yes,” I said, and my voice was unusually thick in my throat. “Of course I would, you know that, Lennox.” I stood and pushed my chair in where it grated against the floor noisily. “Anything else?”

Lennox remained silent, and I strode past him. Reaching out, he gripped my arm, nearly vise-like.  “Lennox, let go,” I said in a low voice, but he ignored me.

“You’ll keep her alive,” he said, but it was a command instead of a question.

“Yes,” I replied in a harsh whisper, and he let me go.

“And if you get reaped,” his voice trailed off, and he cleared his throat a few times before attempting to speak again. “If you get reaped,” he paused again. “You’ll keep yourself alive.”

“You know I will,” I promised, and then I brushed past him and was out the door.