FAILURE TO COMPLY ┃ f. odair

5.13 death itself

"You should get some rest," Katniss said. It was softer than Calypso had heard her speak to him since the Quarter Quell.

"You're still trying to protect me," Peeta remarked. "Real or not real?"

"Real. That's what you and I do. Keep each other alive."

Calypso's eyes involuntarily drifted over to a sleeping Finnick, whose head was resting on Monica's shoulder, and hers on top of his. She smiled at her small family being so close. Always protecting each other. Always keeping each other alive.

The silence amongst them returned as Peeta began to drift off, leaving only Katniss and Calypso awake. The latter's eyes returned to the tunnel, watching streaks of inky black twist together into indiscernible shapes, becoming ghosts for mere moments, and then fading into nothing again. Occasionally, they'd lash out towards her, but she gave no reaction.

It was when the darkness started to make noise that she grew concerned. She was in the middle of staring down Payton's shadowy form when an incredibly faint rumbling sound carried through the tunnel. She stood quietly, walked through the ghost and looked beyond into the black abyss. Even with a torch, it was simply impenetrable.

"What?" Katniss questioned, arriving behind the woman with an already activated and beeping Holo. Calypso pushed the device away from her person so she could better hear the distant noise.

A whisper. One at first, oddly familiar, then one that was louder and angrier. They spoke phrases Calypso could barely remember now, threats she'd said herself in a haze of deep and dangerous psychosis. Those four white walls suddenly had her trapped again, and she was willing to say anything to get out of them.

"I'm going to fucking kill you..." the whispers spat. It was definitely her voice, reverberating off the tunnel walls and slowly awakening their comrades. Katniss' face pulled into an expression of confusion. "I'm going to gut you like a fish... I'll make it hurt... I'll slice you open..."

"What is that?" Jackson asked.

"Blood Mutt," Calypso muttered to herself, hoping Finnick and Monica were not yet awake to hear the ghosts in the tunnels say such things. Maybe they'd think it was false words, things she hadn't actually said. But she knew the truth. She remembered it just enough to know they were, for certain, hers. "Me."

"We gotta go," Peeta called out frantically, pulling himself from the ground and urging the others awake. "We gotta get outta here now. Mutts! They released mutts!"

"Pollux, what's the fastest way out?" Katniss questioned.

"Shhh," Calypso urged. She pushed Katniss forwards in the opposite direction of the whispers, no matter whether it was the right way out or not. Behind her, Finnick's hand once again caught her shoulder, and Monica behind him. He gave a gentle squeeze, but it was not nearly enough to stop the panic that was spreading through her body.

"I'll pull out your organs..." the whispers came, echoing more and more as they moved through the dark sewers with as much silence as possible. Gale took up the head of the group, firing his incendiary arrows that lit a clear path. "...use them to decorate my walls."

Calypso clung so tightly to her spear. Somehow, the tunnels grew smaller, especially after crawling through a tight gap that threatened to squeeze all the air from the lungs. Monica and Katniss were on the other side, pulling her through into the more open space. She could not meet their eyes as her sinister whispers continued to echo through the thick air.

"I'm so hungry... I miss the taste of human flesh..." they said. She felt like dying. "Payton's was delicious, tender meat... bloody and rich..."

A growl. A screech. Calypso looked over her shoulder to see Jackson was the only one who had not made it through. The pale mutts piled atop her, no longer sounding like Calypso. No longer were they stalked by the Blood Mutt. This was what true mutts sounded like and looked like. Humanoid, but lacking any real face or discerning feature. They were nothing. They were just beasts bred to kill.