The Scent of Roses || Coriolanus Snow

Chapter XXXVI

It wasn't a surprise that Doctor Gail had demanded to speak with you. She wasn't willing to let you leave so easily, and her urgency to try and persuade you did offer something to be proud of.

Doctor Gaul didn't seem like the kind of person to ask for what she wanted. Like Coriolanus, she believed in taking what one desired without caring how it affected others. For her to act desperate to have you remain under her guidance was an impressive accomplishment on your part.

Coriolanus was not happy that she had demanded to see you either. Mostly because he knew you would react so poorly to such a decision. He tried to change your mind and have you send a letter saying you didn't mean it, but you weren't willing to let that happen. If you were to spend the rest of your life alongside him, then you needed only to see the side of him that had nothing to do with the Hunger Games.

You tried to shove him off, though he was busy brooding like a mother hen. He didn't like the idea of you talking to Gaul, which really meant he didn't want you to speak to her alone. He wanted to be there to witness every little detail.

It wasn't surprising he had grown increasingly paranoid, considering you had found out almost every single one of his deepest and darkest secrets. You had even shocked yourself with that power you held. You had never even tried to snoop; people had just given all they could to you. And yet, you still couldn't rid yourself of him.

You knew how pathetic it was, and it wasn't like you had a shortage of people telling you that. There had to be some deeper reason why you couldn't let Coriolanus go. You had tried the excuse; I fell before I knew him because you had seen his authentic self the second you met him. He was practically hard while listing out ways to make watching children slaughter each other more entertaining.

The truth had been right in front of you from the very beginning, and you took every warning sign with a grain of salt.

As you walked through the main entrance of Doctor Gauls' lab and headed for the secretary's desk, you came to the only conclusion you could that didn't make you feel like a liar. You had only looked past Coriolanus's flaws to save yourself. Who knows what a man with his kind of power could do?

The secretary picked up her head at the sound of the door shutting behind you. The peacekeepers outside hadn't been as friendly as usual, but you hoped there might be a change of pace as you approached the desk.

"Hello," you said shyly. "I'm here to see-"

"Yes, I know who you are," she interrupted rudely. "Go ahead inside. She's ready for you."

This seemed more like a doctor's appointment than a meeting. But, she was a doctor, after all, in a strange sort of way.

You walked inside and felt deja vu pour over your body. The room was as blindly white as before, and you tried not to squint over the bright overhead lights. However, changes had been made since you were here last. There were new additions to the rows of mutt experiments, the preservation looking fresher in some than those around them. One looked similar to the aquatic creatures used in the recent games.

"They're glorious, aren't they?"

Doctor Gaul strutted towards you like a bird, and her usual terrifying smile adored her lips. You turned back to the creations and found yourself less disgusted by them. It was weird to understand, but you could see why Gaul would view them so highly, as she treated them like her own children.

She probably put in as much effort as most mothers did, and she seemed to love them as if she had carried them to term. You wondered if she cared about the expenses or created them simply because she wanted to. You wouldn't have been shocked if the creation of these beasts had been utterly unrelated to them later being used in the Hunger Games. After all, some of the monsters did make good company. The hideous, the better.