givcnup:
AS MUCH AS Griffin has tried to ease her into this the past days, nothing can fully take away the fact that this is all coming in so suddenly. Griffin had felt it himself, in that room with Plutarch earlier today, and he’s certain Silver had too. The pressure and the responsibility were heavy on both their shoulders, having to spread the word to as many loved ones in the tower as they could, but perhaps it was precisely that same pressure, that weight of responsibility, that kept them from spiraling into what-ifs. Griffin sees it happening to Nelly now, and he doesn’t blame her when he knows how unused to this sort of thing she is, but he needs to keep her grounded, otherwise they’ll be getting very little done.
“Nelly… Nelly, we can’t afford to think like that right now,” he says, moving in closer, squeezing tightly against her palm, one hand on her hair. “I know it’s scary, and I know that things could fail, but that’s precisely why we have to do everything in our power to make sure this ends well for us all. Okay? We can send in last minute sponsors for those in the arena, make sure they hold on until we’re able to pick them up.” Of course he’d thought about it all going down in flames; in the interim periods going from floor to floor and person to person, stuck inside the eerie silence of the elevator, he’d considered that. But consider is all he can do because he knows that once he starts to take that seriously, he’ll falter, and there will be no going back from that.
“Now I need you to listen very carefully to what I have to say,” he says, inching even closer, before proceeding to give her quiet instructions to the safe meeting place.
--
She knows she has to pull herself together. Has to think very carefully and listen to every word that leaves his mouth. He’s trusting her with this information. Well, of course he is, but it’s still a big deal. Nelly doesn’t want to disappoint him by falling apart right at the end, but not being able to handle this. She must hold herself together, or else, what will have been the whole point of this?
Nelly just has to remind herself of the world that will be on the other side of this. Of the peace and the joy she and griffin will be able to find. But there’s intruding thoughts even after she nods with furrowed brows to show how deeply she was thinking about this. “But my mother...” She thinks out loud, her eyes wide and beginning to fill with tears. “I never got to properly put her to rest.” Considering there was still a jar in her home that was waiting for it’s final resting place, she knows with these instructions, she’ll leave the woman behind forever, with no send-off. Not when she deserves one so much.









