𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒏𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝑨𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝑼𝒔

𝑨 𝑹𝒆𝒃𝒆𝒍'𝒔 𝑬𝒏𝒅 - 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈

It had felt like a fever dream, one that Prong hadn't felt in a while. Ash had been alive for one minute and then gone the next.

He had been excused from the academy to mourn his brother, but 2 weeks was not enough. His parents had already been busy in the Capitol, but sitting in his home alone, in front of the altar felt wrong.

Prong watched his brother's portrait, studying his face more closely than he had ever had. Was that a dimple on his left cheek?

There was no use mourning when others were not there to help comfort him. He had no friends at school and Dawn's parents had kept her far away after the attack, afraid the same would happen to their daughter.

It had been a rebel attack from the districts, reported the peacekeepers. But it didn't make sense, the Capitol was keeping the districts happy with all sorts of things, why were they attacking?

Prong stood up and bowed once before leaving the room. It was time to clean up Ash's room and send them to the academy, where all his achievements and important personal belongings would be displayed. It was an invasion of privacy but the Capitol wanted to honor his brother in a way "different" from others, they said.

Prong entered into the room that connected to his. The layout was the same, two big windows covering two sides of a wall with posters of education they had received on the other two walls. All that remained was a wooden, dark brown desk to the side and a mattress with blankets neatly folded next to it.

He gave the drawers a look, hoping to find a diary or anything to remember his brother by. Only pencils, more posters, and colored pencils. Great. As soon as he was about to give up, he noticed a hollow sound as the pencil slid across the drawer. He gave a small knock on the bottom, soon noticing a latch nearby. Prong carefully used the latch to open the board under the drawer. A red journal with notes almost springing out of it appeared.

He opened the red journal, something that looked fairly new and written in. Inside, notes and letters were sprawled across the pages, with a red pen that marked everything. Prong trailed his fingers across the squiggly handwriting. It was his brothers. He read the pages carefully, each one talking about the rising of the rebel movement. On the next page, a colored picture was then taped on, featuring notorious rebels from the Capitols and districts, including... his brother.

He dropped the book, landing it with a thud on the now dusty floor. They had been right, they always had suspected Ash as a rebel, but Prong never believed it. Until now. He ran to the bathroom, throwing up anything that remained in him. After, he sat there, sitting next to the toilet.

The Capitol had always been so good to the districts, how could my own brother do this?

He slowly walked back, after cleaning himself up at the sink, to pick up the book and reread it once again. He flipped through the pages, a page that was splattered with blood particularly stood out to him. Across it, written in bold letters, it spelled:

'They lied.'