The Hunger Games has been proven to test everyone's virtue, not just the young and unfortunate kids plucked from their districts and thrown into the arena. Venus Hummingstill has never cracked under pressure. Regardless of everything being stripped...
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The moment Ma said it, Venus knew she was right.
Only a mother could make the connection in that gloom, but, Coriolanus could see that Venus sensed it as well. She turned white as a sheet, lips growing pale as she wanted to throw up in anxiousness. Something about the posture, the slight stoop, the line of the forehead. The fact that his white Academy uniform shirt glowed faintly in the dark, and Coryo could almost make out the bright yellow mentor badge, still hanging by the lanyard on his chest.
How Sejanus had gotten into the Arena, Venus had no idea but she was livid. A Capitol boy, District-born, but a mentor no less had snuck his way past Peacekeepers. A seventeen year old boy who was suddenly at the mercy of the Districts who hated him. Why did no one protect him from himself? Why was there always little regard for Sejanus?
On-screen, a shadowy Sejanus knelt, set down a parcel, and rolled Marcus onto his back. He did his best to straighten the legs, to fold the arms on the chest, but the limbs had grown stiff and defied arrangement. Coriolanus couldn't tell what was happening next, but, he looked to Venus who had not once torn her eyes away from the sight. She knew what he was up to, the ritual to provide Marcus's spirit food for his journey to the other side. She knew this meant the world to Sejanus but in this moment she was not pleased.
He could have used his resources to extradite Marcus's body from the Arena and proceed with the ritual where it was safe. The money and pull he had in the Capitol was his greatest asset and every single time he refused to use it, she wasn't sure why and was sure she'd never understand. Why he always insisted on providing change the hard way opposed to the smart way.
Coriolanus had a sinking feeling that his supposed friendship with the sensitive boy would come back to haunt him. As if on cue, the phone rang.
"Excuse me." Venus crossed to the phone near the hallway. "Hello?" She said into the receiver, hoping it was a wrong number.
"Miss Hummingstill, it's Dr. Gaul." Venus felt her heart drop. Insides contracting at the sound of the woman's voice. She turned to catch Coryo's gaze, her fearful expression letting him know exactly who was on the other end of the call. "Are you near a screen?"
She sighed. "Yes. I've been watching."
"What's going on with your friend?" Gaul asked.
She turned her head away from the gathering, gritting her teeth in frustration. "He seems a bit upset, don't you think so?"
"And I would think someone who knows the consequences of making a scene, would have advised him against such .... upset." She retorted smoothly, rolling off the tongue as if she anticipated an ounce of pushback. Dean Highbottom must have warned her about their ticking time bomb they created. "Is Coriolanus with you?" Venus took a pause, there's no way they could know he was there. She could cover for him and get him out of whatever she was being roped into. "Your hesitation tells me all I need to know. Place Mr. Snow on the phone."
