Pure Driven Snow

The lab- Chapter 6

Atherea's word hung in air while he tried to fall asleep that night. He felt that her eyes bore into his soul and saw him in whole. He tried to shake off the thought. She cared for him now but if she knew what he did in the arena, in district 12 and Highbottom; She would rightfully fear him. Losing the only sense  of sanity he had ever felt. Coriolanus tried his hardest to push those feelings down. He finally felt that after all the pain and suffering he endured that she was the light at the end of the long and treacherous tunnel.  

Coriolanus loved what she brought to his life. She made it feel like nothing had existed before her, he felt that his life was as fresh at the newest sheet of snow out his window. His days started to melt together as his new life took on a seamless pattern. He barely spent anytime where he wasn't completely consumed by her. His whole world revolved around her, everything he did was to make her his center focus. They spent most afternoons with the grandma'am having tea and listening to her rambles. A few evening dinners at the Plinth's which he usually found unbearable but she made it breeze by. They spent every night talking into the early hours of the morning. He was always tired, but she energized him with just a glance. Every three days he would meet with Gaul and Bulwark make further advancement for the 11th hunger games. They were almost finalized with phase one, the mentors. They had come up with incentives and a plan to split the 24 tributes amongst the surviving victors. Phase two was creating a new arena, one that would shock the nation of Panem.  

Coriolanus waited in his usual spot for Atherea. He never understood how she could spend as much time here as she did. It was cold and the concrete walls amplified all noise, making it sounds as if you were fully engulfed in it. As he was waited,  he heard noise from down the hall, it was mutts. The mutts, it was always the mutts. He had learned how to drown out the noise for the most part but here and there it would get loud. Right now in particular it was loud and only growing louder. He tried to ignore it until he heard an eerily familiar noise. There was a harmonious whistle coming through. Their were no words but he could remember. The hanging tree. He balled his fists so hard the tops of his knuckles turned white. It sounded like her...he felt a rush of chills down his spine. The same as when Lucy Gray would sing this melody he knew the feeling all to well. He pushed those thoughts out. He knew the jabberjays were in there. The jabberjays collected from District 12. He helped collect them, he sent them here. They knew the hanging tree. He winced as  he waited to hear the chorus ring out from the other birds, but it remained just one.

He couldn't avoid the sound any longer. He quietly walked down maze of the hallways, following the sounds of the melody. As it grew louder and louder he felt his body tense. At the very far end of the twisted hallway he saw a door ajar as he approached the song pounded his ear drums, just like in his nightmares. He carefully moved into the room. He scanned it with his eyes before fulling stepping in. He was right, the room was full of the failed experiments.All the jabberjays locked in their pathetic little cages. He had been in here once before, which felt like a lifetime ago but in that moment he was felt exactly the same. Every inch of the room was crammed with cages to hold these despicable creatures. He cautiously proceeded in the room and as he reached the very back almost placed perfectly center was a bird cage far larger than the other almost large enough to hold a small human. 

The creature inside wasn't a jabberjay or even the dreadful mockingjay. The large mutt was a mangled creature. He could only see from behind as it faced away from him. The wings starting to form from what looked like arms. Loose and ugly feathers appearing sporadically on its body. Coriolanus stepped forward to get a closer look, his shoe slightly scraping on the cold concrete floor. The creature turned abruptly making Coriolanus stumble backwards. The creature locked eyes with him. Dark curls surrounded it's face like a lion's mane. The body misshapen, it's back rounded out like a birds instead of human. A broken beak sprouted in front of its face which looked to be a reconstructed human nose but 5 times as large. 

 The body twisted and contorted itself to face him, its flesh morphing into grotesque shapes. The once-human features dissolved into something nightmarish— the twisted bird-like creature emerged from the shadows. The sight was chilling, sending shivers down Coriolanus spine and instilling a primal fear. In the dim light, its presence loomed ominously.  Coriolanus landed on her eyes. He knew those eyes. He had dreamed of those eyes for months. They were Lucy Gray's eyes. He fell to his knees staring at the creature in the cage. It can't be Lucy Gray in that cage. She was dead.

He stared longer. Hoping she would speak. He slowly moved towards her his hand on the bars of the cage. His hands on another cage she was kept in. "Lucy Gray." he barely whispered. Letting the silence hang in the air hoping he was wrong. He had to be wrong. He begged to be wrong. The creature turned it's head to the side looking at him more closely. She let out a squawk. Was she trying to speak? He saw Lucy Gray in there in, those eyes. Those were her eyes he could see it. The creature straightened its head back up and the look of familiarity in her eyes disappeared. He looked has her hands they were long and mangled. they had claws growing at the edge of her fingertips. He repeated himself a little louder his voice shakier than ever. "Lucy Gray... is that you."

He was so entranced that almost missed the sound of glass shatter behind him. He quickly rose to his feet to turn around. Close to the door he saw Atherea with shattered class at her feet. He started walking slowing to her. She stood frozen in place and waited for him to approach. He stood there looking back and forth between the creature and Atherea. Then the idea hit him like a train. "My pretty bird needs feeding." Dr. Gauls voice rang like a shot. "Corio- I." Before she could finish speaking Coriolanus had slammed her against the way lifting her a good foot in the air. His hands wrapped around her throat. "What is that." He screamed. "You know exactly what it is." She choked out. He released her, letting her fall to the ground. No hesitation was in her voice, no fear in her eyes from him slamming her into the wall. She looked like she had been waiting for this. 

He didn't even know what to say. Thousands of thoughts ran through his head. He just stared at her, as if the answer was explainable and all of this was some silly misunderstanding. "It's her." Atherea said. Her emotions unreadable. He gritted his teeth. Holding back from destroying anything in his path. "Why is she here." Was all he could muster to say. Atherea looked in Coriolanus' eyes. " I brought her here."