first lines of 2024
share the first thing you have written in the new year once you get there<3 (however long it takes & however brief!)
This is a future chapter for Fishhooks <3
My mouth was full of blood, truly suffocating, really. They didn’t like what I had to say, so they stopped at the source. They could have killed me, but it would have been less fun in their eyes. If only I had kept my mouth shut, right?
What a shame, yet another performer’s voice silenced because they had something to say. All because Snow couldn’t handle anything mentioned about Lucy Gray. If I were honest, I would have thought he was in love. But it wasn’t love, was it? It was an obsession.
It was like Lucy Gray had been a drug he couldn’t resist, and maybe they had a fallout? Was that why she went missing? Why had her memory been erased from all of the records of the games?
I may not have been able to speak, but I refused to be silenced. Peacekeepers surrounded me in the train car, not trusting me to be alone just because of some worthless title that had ruined my life. Victor. If I hadn’t been reaped, I’d still have my little siblings, I’d still have my mother and my father. The train doors finally opened, my home offering the welcoming sea breeze as I took a deep breath.
I was escorted to Victors Village where Rowena looked to have been coming back from the ocean. She had her spear in one hand, a net of the catch in the other. She was walking up to the door as we entered the arches to the little village with a total of two buildings. I didn’t think someone could drop a net as fast as Roe had when she saw us coming. The look on her face told me she knew. She knew something was wrong. With her spear in hand, Roe started walking towards us.
“Mags, you alright?” She asked me, cradling my face with her free hand, eyes on the four peacekeepers walking a few feet behind me. When I couldn’t answer, I shook my head, tapping my chin. Roe’s eyes flickered between the peacekeepers and I, though her voice lowered “Who did this to you.. The capitol? That’s it..”
She dropped her hand from my face, walking past me. “So this is how your home treats the victors, huh?! Taking away their ability to speak? Haven’t you taken enough you sick fucks?!” Roe threw her spear. It went through the visor of one of the peacekeepers. Her mouth twisted into a small grin, ripping her spear out of the peacekeeper's face.
“Who’s next, huh?! You treat one of the people you sent to their death like a PRISONER.” I saw the spear thrown again, taking someone out by the chest before the other two started to run. They weren’t allowed to shoot victors. It could have caused a revolt. Roe was sort of a hot commodity in the capitol. She was called to the capitol a lot, but she had never told me why. I had my suspicions, but I kept them to myself.
As the peacekeepers ran, Roe walked back to me, dropping her spear and leading me into the house. Her face was now void of emotion. I simply slipped my hand into hers, squeezing gently. Roe had so much rage built up in her mind, and sometimes rather than talking through it, she held it all back. I saw the silent few tears run down her face before she looked away from me. I wish I knew what happened in that head of hers, just so I could help. So I could understand.
It wasn’t until that night as Roe held me close to her chest, that I made a realization. Roe was just as scared as I was. She might not have shown it, but she was utterly terrified. I could hear it in the quick beats of her heart, and I could feel it in how tight she was holding me. I could feel her breathing grow shaky, a small tear running down her face and landing on the back of my neck. I just pressed a soft kiss to her collarbone, hoping it conveyed the message that I had wanted it to.
“I’m so sorry, mi amor.. You didn’t deserve this” Roe said quietly. Her voice was thick with tears that she refused to let fall. She knew that I knew they were there, but she hated crying. The only times I had seen her cry were when she was so angry that she couldn’t contain them. Like when she had gotten onto the train to go to the capitol, just after her brother was killed. And when she came out of the arena.
Tagging @kat-xox @autistpride @marzst4rz @rinney4ever and whoever wants to <3