You wake up with a groan, rolling over and snuggling your face deeper into your pillow. Wait? My pillow? Your body jerks up and you look around, realizing your still in the living room. The red and black checkered fabrics of the loveseat is underneath you, and your pillow is resting on the arm. Your knees are curled up slightly, and the lamp is turned off, leaving only the dim light of the tv to let you see your surroundings.
You reach over to the in-table, twisting the small knob on the lamp until it clicks, and the room is illuminated with an orange tinted light. "Dad? Trinity," you call out tiredly, hoping to hear a response. That is until you hear the sweet, caring, unforgettable voice of your long lost mother.
"How could you let this happen," she whispers, making you jump. She was gone. She had disappeared five years ago. This wasn't possible, she was gone! You jump up off the small couch, spinning around to try and see where the voice was coming from.
"Mom," you call out, the word coming out worried and confused.
"How could you let this happen," a different voice calls out this time, a deep almost growl like sound coming from behind you. You know this voice, but the tone that seeps into the words makes it almost unrecognizable, because it had only ever been used around you a few times. Your fathers. But now it's angry. No angry isn't a strong enough word. Hatred seeps into his words like venom into a snakebite.
You spin around, only to be met with the wall that separates the kitchen from the living room. "Dad," you cry, running into the kitchen. Nothing except clean counters and old pots on the stove greet you. Heavy breaths escape your lips as another voice calls out to you.
"Why didn't you save me," the sad voice of your little sister calls out from the living room. Tears are dripping down your cheeks as you run back into the front room. There you are met with your mother, father, and little sister all standing in a short row, holding hands.
Three different emotions are displayed on their faces. Your mothers face is calm but heartbroken. Pure hatred is showing on your fathers face, but your little sisters expression is the worst. Pain. Pure pain. But it's not physical.
"Why didn't you save me," she begs a second time, sounding on the verge of tears. Your unable to say anything. Just stand there as tears run down your cheeks. It's like your feet have been superglued to the floor, and no amount of strength would be able to pry them loose.
Suddenly three peacekeepers walk up behind each member of your family, walking straight through them like they weren't even there, dissolving them to dust and ash, but a scream comes from your sisters lips, dissolving just like their images. The peacekeepers stride up to your frozen body about five feet in front of you and lift their guns up, aiming them at you. The last thing you hear is the bullets leaving the small pistols.
"No! No," you scream, strangled cry's originating from the back of your throat. Tears threaten to fall down your cheeks as you frantically look around, realizing your in your bedroom. Your blue quilt is pulled up to your shoulders, and your lamp is turned off. With shaking hands, you reach over quickly, fumbling with the lamp switch before your bedroom is illuminated with the same glow the living room had in your dream.
Remembering the horrifying image, you jump out of bed, rushing out of your room and into the hallway. You hear voices coming from the kitchen and you practically roll down the stairs, landing with a loud thud on the first floor. Quickly recovering from the rough landing, you run into the kitchen, almost sobbing with relief when you see your dad and little sister playing a card game on the dining room table.
"(Y/n)," your dad asks worriedly, standing up and rushing over to you. "What's wrong sweetheart," he asks, wrapping his arms around you tightly, and you melt into his embrace.
"It's nothing. It was just a nightmare," you pant, still trying to take in the fact that they were safe. You rest your forehead against his chest as Trinity shuffled around with something you can't see because your dads body is blocking it. He holds you in his arms, reassuring you that everything was fine.
Eventually you pull away, and he releases you from his embrace. You look down at your wrist, checking the time on the scratched up watch on your wrist. It was almost 11 at night, which meant you had been asleep for almost 4 hours if Sonya had started the movie at 6:30. You look around and realize Sonya and Newt are nowhere to be found.
"Hey where are they," you ask, but mentally facepalm at the question. Where else would they be other than back at their house?
"They left a few hours ago," Trinity says in her sweet voice, walking over to you with a steaming cup of tea in her hands. She passes it to you, and you almost chug it down, not realizing how thirsty you were.
"Ya that boy of yours is pretty sweet. He carried you up to your room after you fell asleep," your dad smirks at you, and your cheeks practically burst into flames.
"So are you ok," Trinity asks once you set your cup down, repeating your fathers words, but you know she isn't talking about your red cheeks.
A shuddering breath escapes your lips as you stare into your sisters eyes. The eyes that meant almost everything to you. The eyes that you had seen tears fall out of, that you were the only one who was able to ease them. The eyes of the little girl who looked up to you. The eyes of your little sister.
You crouch down, wrapping your arms around her tightly just like you had earlier today. "I'm fine," you whisper in her ear as she hugs her arms around your shoulders. Her grip tightens as continue to hold her, her calm inhales and exhales tickling your neck.
After a minute you pull away from her arms, standing back up and tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. "So I'm assuming I missed dinner," you joke, looking at the counters to see them cleared off, and the pots sitting on an old worn out towel to dry.
"Ya we didn't know if you would sleep through the night, but we made some garlic bread," your father says, opening a cabinet and pulling out a small foil covered tray. He pulls the foil off to reveal half a loaf of garlic bread, the small green specks of garlic visible on the pale white bread.
"Thanks dad," you smile at him, pulling the next slice from the loaf and taking a bite of the flavorful goodness. You moan dramatically, making your sister giggle. "You made this didn't you," you accuse sarcastically, smiling down at your little sister. She nods her head, a proud look on her face. "Well that would explain why it tastes so good," you compliment, making her cheeks turn red as she hangs her head down, an embarrassed smile on her face. Your father chuckles, patting you on the shoulder before letting a long dramatic yawn come from his mouth.
"Welp girls I think it's bedtime," he says, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
"Awww," Trinity whines, a pout forming on her lips.
"Hey how about this," you tell her, stuffing the last bite of garlic bread in your mouth and swallowing. "If you go to bed right now," you put emphasis on the words, "I'll take you to my job tomorrow, and we might even go on a walk with Newt and Sonya. How does that sound?"
"Ok good night," she screeches, running out of the kitchen and running up the stairs, the stomps echoing through the house. You and your dad chuckle as he ushers you up the stairs and to your room.
"Goodnight sweetheart," he tells you sweetly before turning into his room and closing the door. You walk into your room, keeping it barely cracked open just in case Trinity needs you sometime during the night. You surround yourself in the large bundle of your light blue quilt, laying back and resting your head on your pillow.
All night you toss and turn, the horrifying dream still imprinted into your head. You could still hear your mothers voice whispering 'how could you let this happen' over and over again as if you had never heard any other words. You just resort to laying there, begging your mind to let you think of anything else other than the nightmare.
...
You were walking down the street the next morning, Trinity on your back as you made your way towards the hardware shop. Skipping along, every once in a while bouncing up to get a better grip on your sisters legs, just talking about anything that came to mind.
"Oh so how's Devon," she asks, sounding almost exactly like Sonya did from the day before.
"Oh come on sis not you too," you whine, turning your head back just enough to see the wide grin on your sisters face. She looks back up and her eyes go wide before she started frantically tapping your shoulder and pointing forward.
"Look it's Newt and Sonya," she exclaims, wiggling until she hopped off your back and ran up to them. You were to far away to hear anything they were saying, but you watch as she grabs onto their hands and curls her legs up so she dangling her weight on their arms and they start to swing her back and forth. You shake your head with chuckles as you walk up to them and smirk at your little sister.
"Ahh there's the second part of the package," Sonya laughs, giving you a side hug as she keeps swinging Trinity.
"Ok Trinity give them a break," you laugh. "They probably need to get somewhere, and we do to."
"We were actually walking to your house to give these back," Newt says, readjusting a small drawstring backpack on his shoulder that's filled with what you assume to be the clothes from yesterday.
"Oh thank you. Here you want me to take that," you ask, reaching out to take the backpack from him, but he shrugs his shoulders.
"I got it. So where are you two going," he asks as you all turn back in the direction you were originally walking.
"I was just gonna let Trinity see me at my new job," you tell him as you continue walking, putting your hands in your pockets. Trinity and Sonya are distracted, having their own conversation about five feet away, so you and Newt just walk along side each other in silence. That is until you remember last night, and what your dad told you. "Oh uh- s-Sorry about last night. I guess I was tired," you stutter, suddenly wishing you hadn't chosen to put your hair up in a ponytail because now you had nothing to hide behind.
Newt chuckles as you continue to walk, one hand in his pocket, and the other gripping the straps of the light weight backpack just below his shoulder. "It's no problem. I mean at least you don't drool or snore. You can probably hear Teresa all the way down on your side of town just from her snores," he laughs, but a pang of something you can't explain rams itself into your gut, almost making you physically wince. Shaking the feeling away, you laugh, coming up with a sarcastic response for his joke.
"Well I guess some girls aren't as bad as others." Facepalm. Facepalm, facepalm, facepalm. Did you really just say that in front of Newt? He responds with an awkward chuckle, and you decide at that moment that you'll cheer if your sent into the Hunger Games. "No, no that's not what I meant," you panic, trying to figure out how to reword what you said, but every response that comes to mind is worse than the last.
"Hey so are we almost there," he asks, interrupting your embarrassing rant.
"Uh- I Uh-" you stutter, looking around to see if you recognize the area, when you spot the shop. "Oh it's just over here," you say a little too excitedly, running over to the entrance and pulling a key out from your pocket.
"Ooh. Look who's getting all fancy with her own key and stuff," Sonya says in a dramatically proud tone. You stick your tongue out at her before sticking the key in the keyhole and unlocking the door. A set of jingle bells ring as you open it, and you and your friends walk inside even though it's already June. (I don't remember when the games are)
It was a pretty small store with only a few rows of metal shelves, the top two so high that you couldn't even reach them. The check out counter, which happened to be a small desk, was at the front right next to the door. There was a slim wood door at the back corner of the shop which led to the storage room, about the size of your bathroom at your house.
"(Y/n) your late," a dramatically deep voice exclaims from the front counter. You sigh with a laugh before walking up to the small desk and leaning over so you could rest your forearms on the old piece of wood.
"Ya looks like you are to," you retort, gesturing to the set of jingle bells and holly hung above the door. "So who's the girl your waiting for to walk in," you ask slyly, staring Devon down. His cheeks flush red as he turns his gaze away from you.
Devon was a well built guy kinda like Minho. He had short brown hair and bright blue eyes that could put the sky to shame. He was basically the supermodel of District 5 with girls tripping over his heels. It's actually a bit of a shock that he doesn't have a girlfriend. But then again he's not a snob like the people from District 1 are, so he doesn't want to be one of those guys who goes through five girlfriends in a month, and it is something you admired about him.
"No one," he stutters, refusing to look at you. Sonya is trying her best to hold back laughs, but Newt has an expression on his face that you can't place. Trinity had wandered away to look around the store.
Deciding you had had enough fun embarrassing him, you realize that Newt and Sonya have probably never met him. "So guys this is Devon my work partner," you say, gesturing to Devon. "Devon these are my best friends Sonya and Newt."
"Ya I think I remember you from school," he says, pointing a finger at Newt, and Newt nods his head once.
You look around the shop, and are surprised when you don't see Mrs. Dana, Devon's grandmother, the lady who owns this place. "Hey where's your grandmother," you ask in a worried tone.
"Dunno," he shrugs. "She left a note on her door that said she was gonna take a break for a few days. She's probably tired from having to walk back and forth across town since before she hired you, and now that she has someone to run the shop, and deliver the orders she's taking a break."
You nod solemnly, feeling pity for him. He was trying his hardest not to say it, but he knew his grandmother didn't have much longer left. She was going on 85 years which is the oldest anyone's ever lived to be in District 5, but the worst part is that when she dies, he will have no more family. Both his parents were killed in a house fire while he was at his grandmothers, but no one knows how it started. So ever since he was 9 he had been living with Mrs. Dana.
Your shot out of your thoughts by a scream coming from the back of the store. But what almost stops your heart is that it's the exact same scream that you heard in your nightmare last night. "Trinity," you screech. All four of you run to the back of the store, trying to find where she is. You turn the corner, and see her sitting on the floor, tears running down her cheeks as she holds her wrist. "Trinity," you snap again, running over to her. Newt gets to her first, skidding to a stop and dropping down next to her and grabbing her hand in both of his large ones. You get their next, and what you see brings tears to your eyes.
There's a long bleeding cut all across her palm, and blood is dripping from her hand onto the floor, and now onto Newts hands. "Sonya," he calls, scooting over so his sister could inspect the wound while you sit there and hold your sisters crying body.
"It's ok, it's ok," you whisper to her as her tears wet your shirt, petting her hair as you make sure she can't see what Sonya is doing. She was training to be a medic just like her mother, so she would know what to do better than anyone else.
"Ok Devon do you have any towels or rags in the store," Sonya asks in as calm of a tone as she can muster, but there's still urgency behind it.
"Ya we have some in the storage room," he says, obviously a bit panicked by the situation.
"Ok go get me a rag and a bowl of hot water," she says, turning back to Trinity's hand as she tries to stop the bleeding.
"Shh. Your doing so good," you whisper to her as a whimper of pain escapes her lips from Sonya having to put pressure on the cut. Devon comes back almost seconds later with three pure white rags, and a bowl of warm water that he got from the sink in the storage room.
"Ok Trinity this is gonna sting a little bit, but it's almost over," Sonya warns her in a sweet voice before dipping her bleeding hand in the warm water. A short strangled cry comes from her mouth, only making you hold her tighter. "Ok it's done," Sonya exclaims after about fifteen seconds, pulling her hand out of the water and pressing one of the rags to her palm. Trinity sucks in a deep shaking breath, mimicking what you did in your head.
"What the hell were you doing," you snap at Trinity as Sonya pulls a roll of gauze out of her back pocket to wrap your little sisters hand.
"I just wanted to see what was in the secret door," she says, her tears still flowing.
A completely baffled expression crosses your face. "What are you talking about? There's only one door in this place, and it's over there," you say frustratedly, pointing to the storage room.
"No it's in the wall," she says, her tears slowing down.
"What the hell," Devon mumbles under his breath, moving and crouching down in front of a spot in the wall. That's the first time you notice a few crumbled bricks on the floor, along with chunks of dirt. Newt scoots over to inspect the hole with him as Sonya finishes tying the bandage off.
That's when you are reminded of your nightmare once again, and how it was the exact same sound. Shuddering, you wrap your arms around your sister even tighter, pulling her into your lap and resting your cheek on her head. You just couldn't help but worry about if you heard that scream in the near future, but it wasn't because of a cut on her hand.
"You can't wander off like that," you tell her, mumbling into her hair. "What if we were outside, and you wandered off and something happened to you. I can't loose you too," you tell her.
Eventually Trinity wiggles out of your death grip, being careful of her hand, and you all walk back up to the front of the store after helping Devon clean up. You never did get anymore information about that hole in the wall, but honestly you didn't care at the moment. Devon tells you to go ahead and take Trinity home and he'll stay for the rest of the day. No matter how much you protest, Newt and Sonya are able to drag you out of the shop, and you pick Trinity up on your back again.
Newt and Sonya walk home with you, and by the time you get inside, Trinity's head is limp against your shoulder, probably exhausted from the incident only thirty minutes earlier. You carry Trinity up the stairs and into her room while Newt and Sonya explain to your dad why she has a bandage on her hand. When you walk downstairs your met with your dad rushing past you, probably going to check on Trinity.
"So do you guys have anything to do today, or do you want to go see if Minho wants to hangout," you ask with as strong of a smile you can muster in front of Newt and Sonya.
"I actually have to go help my dad with something, but she can hang out with you," Newt says, pointing his thumb to the side at Sonya. "Oh and before I forget," he remembers, handing the backpack to you, "thanks for the dry clothes."
"Ya no problem," you say to both of them. Newt ends up leaving after a wave goodbye to you, and a brotherly hug to his sister.
"So you wanna just walk around for a bit," you ask.
"Sounds good to me," she responds and you both walk out the front door.