You start to smell roses first. As you’re taking your walk, it’s like the begin to pump it through the vents when he’s nearby, or he was following behind you like a ghost. You don’t see him until you reach the clearing. He’s sitting on a bench, undisturbed, cane in hand.
“Hasn’t this year been full of surprises?” He says mindlessly, keeping her gaze out the window as you step further into the room. “I wont bother you for long, Fava, I imagine you’re very busy trying to keep your sister alive.” He tilts his head, glancing her way. “I just came to share that I’m greatly disappointed in you.” He presses his cane into the flooring, and pushes himself up. “We would have made such a great team. But you’re young and reckless and I should have taken that into account more.”
He’s stepping closer to you, the smell of roses is becoming overpowering. It’s beginning to make your stomach lurch. “So I will do everything in my power to make your sister is not one to make it out of that Quell alive.” As he brushes past you, his hand wraps around your shoulder, gripping with the full weight of iron, before he releases you, and leaves the room with his peacekeeper.
The stench is overwhelming. It’s thick in her throat before she even sees him. He looks so pompous, sitting there without a care in the world.
Now’s your chance, her brain so kindly reminds her. Her chance to end it all – more like a chance for a swift death. She doesn’t have any weapons on her; she only has her fists and determination, neither of which would do her much good when there’s Peacekeepers lurking in the shadows.
He starts with pleasantries, pleasantries that go unanswered because Fava knows that the question is rhetorical. She doesn’t shrink beneath the weight of his insults – his disappointment. She digs her heels into the ground and stands tall, like she knows she should. How many people get the honor of being under the President’s skin?
As he stands, she snaps her jaw shut and bites against her teeth. The fragrance is all around her, all consuming, and she chokes back a cough. And then –
Fire ignited, Fava whirls around, her eyes desperately hoping to burn holes into his back. “You won’t,” she promises, “you’re spineless.” The door closes with a distinctive bang. Only then does she realize that she’s left the remnants of crescents in her palms.
