Stray {Mary Ellen x Henry}

[Gone5eva]

And there’s more to life than taking this pain and
There’s more to gain when you’re out there being insane.
Being sane, that’s another thing.
That’s another thing baby.

My hands gripped around the handle of the axe, fingers flexing and contracting in swift movements as I weighed it. I was reminded of the days Peter, Zachary and I worked the forests. The scent of heavy fog and forest greets me as my eyes slide closed, and I sway only the slightest bit. Around me, the sounds of tributes slicing through styrofoam, crying out in pain, and the murmur of others speaking drifts away to be replaced by mockingjay calls and axe slams.

For a split second, I am home. There are no tributes, no Hunger Games.

Simply wood to be chopped, and the lumberjacks who chop it.

The metal and rubber of this blade feels strange clutched between my digits compared to the natural wood and iron ones we have back in seven. With that thought, the perfect dream vanishes, and I am left standing alone in the center.

I long to hold onto the weapon I wish I could carry everywhere with me, but I end up putting it back onto the weapons rack. It is much like me- lonely, dark. The only axe I feel comfortable wielding. Calloused hands rise to run through my ebony hair as I attempt to shake the feeling of dread rising from the pit of my stomach. I have not spoken to anyone yet, but I can already see tentative friendships forming.

This realization hits me harder than a ton of bricks. I still haven't come to terms with my impending doom, and I doubt heading into the afterlife I'll accept it then. My jaws tense, almost glued together. I should be training, I should be learning how to fight or how to make a fire... Something useful. I wish I could depend on someone other than myself, if only to have that human contact in the final few weeks of my life.

My hands fold behind my back and I allow my blue gaze to wander. I have not yet seen Claire, the female chosen for my district, and none of the others seem too interested in what I'm doing- not yet anyway.

I release a tense breath before I turn, and begin my way back to where my axe lies. My axe. Like I would be guaranteed to have it when the games started. It slips back into my hands with ease, and I carry it as I pace towards a standalone Styrofoam human, standing before it.

My eyes close- I feel nauseous and terrified.

The swinging begins.

Loud thunks echo through the room as I plunge the weapon into imaginary flesh and bone. My face contorts uncomfortably while I butcher my prey, and I finally step back to analyze my work.

If that was a person, you would have killed them.

The thought twists my gut and I depart the scene, replacing the axe. I need to get away from it- go somewhere, anywhere. Probably somewhere I can throw up without alerting the other tributes to my weak stomach.

[Anna Banana]

[presto]

Mary Ellen Goulding

I couldn't tell you why I was even bothering to participate in this, why I had bothered to pick up any of the weapons here. The sword felt cumbersome in my hand as I swung it around pretending I was one of the warrior kids from the Career districts. I wasn't holding my breath that I'd make it out of this alive, but I could sure as hell try. I had made that promise to Jesse, I had promised her I'd make it home and that I would give her the life she deserved. It was an impossible promise to keep, but it was a promise I intended to keep to the best of my ability. I couldn't be the first one to die in this living hell, I had to at least make it our of the Bloodbath. That's why I was gripping this sword in my hand until my knuckles shone a pearly white, why I was pretending I was a warrior.

I paused briefly in my "training" to scan around for the other tributes, and so far none of them seemed that intimidating. My own district partner would be easy prey should it come to a fight, I might be small but I was still strong enough to take him down with relative ease. Of course there were the typical Careers, brutish and enough to take me down easily with one swing of their sword. I wasn't ready to show them all what I could do yet though, let them wonder what I was capable of, let them wonder why I wasn't doing anything to try and impress them. My eyes wandered over the other tributes that were around me, finally setting on the boy from 7. He was fairly well built I suppose, not nearly as scrawny as some of the lower districts, but then, he had the benefit of working all day in an environment that would promote muscle growth...what did we have...coal.

He seemed to be sick though, hacking away at one of the dummies with his axe until it was nothing but torn remains. Apparently he hadn't seen much death, either that or he just had a low threshold for his gag reflex. Either way it looked like he was about to puke, and honestly I didn't want to smell that crap while I was training here. It was bad enough that I had to be here in the first place. I couldn't help but feel a little bad for him though, he must be innocent to the point that he hadn't seen much death, if any at all. He'd need a good friend through all this, and Jesse would want me to try and help him out. One of our own "family" was like that, and we protected her to the point that she didn't have to go through that. I thrust my sword into a dummy and followed close behind him, waiting for him to make his way to wherever his destination was before I attempted to talk to him.

Once he came to a halt I walked up behind him and put my hand gently on his shoulder. "Hey...kid...it's okay to be scared you know, it's okay to not want to kill anyone out there." I tried to smile reassuringly at him, but I'm pretty sure all I managed was a weak smile that would appear more as a grimace. I knew I was lying to him right now, but sometimes we needed to be lied to so the harshness of reality didn't distort us. Lamely I tugged on the red and blue medical bands that adorned my left arm and looked back at him. "I'm Mary Ellen Goulding by the way...but back home my friends call me Rainbow because I'm...sort of a druggie" I couldn't help but laugh, a genuine laugh as I remembered the day Jesse had given me the nickname, and I smiled at the boy, a friendly sort of smile considering we would probably have to kill each other some time soon.

[/presto]

[Gone5eva]

And there’s more to life than taking this pain and
There’s more to gain when you’re out there being insane.
Being sane, that’s another thing.
That’s another thing baby.

I stared at the whitewashed walls with my heart in my chest until I felt that gentle, reassuring touch. Normally, I would have recoiled away, but I accepted it. This time. My shoulders shudder and both of my arms lift above my head to rest against the concrete. Supposedly, this is rumored to stop the convulsions in my gut.

"I'm two years older than you." I manage, my voice soft and mangled by racks of shivers down my pitifully weak spine. "Rainbow." My knees grow weak and I slide down the wall. "Yeah... I can call you that." I murmur, seconds away from completely falling apart. Iris... Gods, I miss her. Everything- her touch, her scent...

My eyes close and my hands lower to rub at the blue orbs. "Well, Rainbow..." My tongue catches on the name. "I am Henry." I turn to offer her my trembling fingers in a firm shake. None of the others seem to be paying us any mind, so I feel comfortable allowing my fingers to clear my eyes of dampness.

I feel as though crying is all I do anymore. I relax before this stranger, and allow my form to slip down the wall until I am sitting with my feet flat on the floor, my back against the stone. Shaky fingers point to the number seven embossed upon my shoulder. "I am from district seven." I mutter to the girl who dared speak to me.

She must have a thing for the broken kids, the underdogs. Me.

My fingers clutch at my hair, tugging my face down. "You don't sound afraid at all." I echo my thoughts. "You seem... Confident. Do you think you could do it? Kill another person just to ensure your own survival?" I couldn't. The thought alone is almost enough to send me into another fit of gagging.

[Anna Banana]

[presto]

Mary Ellen Goulding

He was an odd sort of fellow, I can't figure out why he responded that way, why he seemed to be afraid of my name. He seemed more like he was ready to collapse and start crying at a moments notice, and if I wasn't mistaken I was pretty sure he was crying. His bright blue eyes were wet with tears that were spilling from his eyes and threatening to spill forth and create a scene. Didn't he know he may as well just list his name among the dead if he starts bawling here in the corner. Sliding down along the wall to sit next to him, I brought one of my hands up and wiped at his eyes, resting my cheek on my knees as I looked at him. "Chin up 7, you don't want the Careers to see you crying, you'll just put a huge target on your head. Look, don't show them fear, it's like sharks to the first scent of blood."

I looked up at all the people training further out in the center, reveling in how easily some of them were able to wield their weapons, and how large some of them were. It made me wonder what I'd gotten myself into, maybe I should have just run away all those years ago. If I had done that though I wouldn't have met Jesse, and I wouldn't have the family that I left behind. I would have no reason to be here, to try and fight for them. "To answer your question though...I'm deathly scared, I'm scared of dying, but I'm not scared of killing. I've done it before, and this is no different for me. I glanced at him and frowns a little, trying to remember the first time I had taken a life for survival, how I had felt when it had happened.

"It's okay to be scared though you know...I only know how to kill because I had to do it to survive. I don't kid when I say that I was brought up in absolute poverty, even a crumb was a king's meal for me. I have a family to protect too, I have the girl I love and the kids we brought together to make a broken sort of family." I could feel tears of my own threatening to come now as I thought about Jesse, and my fingers instinctively went up to the necklace that hung around my neck, her necklace. It was one of the last things I had to remember her by, it was the one bit of something we could call "riches" that was among our belongings. She had given it to me not long after we had gotten together as a couple. I had to get home to her, I had to...I couldn't let her live alone in that poverty.

"Just remember kiddo, you aren't here as a pawn for their entertainment, you're here to show them that they don't own us. If there is one thing I've learned it's that we're not the livestock the Capitol tries to make us out to be. I'm a human being just as much as you are, and yes, we're forced to play their game, but we'll do it on our terms, not how they want us to. They can force us here, but they can't force us to be something we're not." I looked at him seriously and stood up, giving his back a tap as I did so. "I'm a rebel with a cause, my cause it to get back to my girl and my family, and give them the life they deserve...what's yours?" I offer my hand down to him and smile reassuringly, I'd make sure that if we didn't make it through this hell that he'd at least have a friend with him every step of the way.

[/presto]

[Gone5eva]

And there’s more to life than taking this pain and
There’s more to gain when you’re out there being insane.
Being sane, that’s another thing.
That’s another thing baby.

My digits stretch to take her palm in my fingers, gently pushing the back of her hand against my own cheek. "It's the opposite with me. I don't want to die, but I am not afraid of it. You only die once, right? It's the killing I'm afraid for." I choose to keep the blackouts to myself for now. This girl, the first potential ally I've spoken to, had no need to know something was wrong with me. Not yet.

She might get to see it first hand soon enough, but I promise myself to tell her before the bloodbath. I honestly had no idea what happens when I blank out- does my body grow limp? Does something, someone take over?

By now the crystal tears have cried themselves out, and I have finished sobbing uncontrollably. Still, my face is wet, and my eyes burn red as they tilt towards her pretty neck. "My girl... Iris... She gave me something similar." I lift my left wrist and flash the bronze chain wrapped around my arm with the heart-shaped charm.

This girl and I, we are more alike than I would care to admit. "I was implicated for more crimes than I'd like to admit back home." I explain to her. "Nothing like murders or... Y'know, we didn't kill people to survive." I pet the heart as I think. "We were... Almost like Robin Hood. Steal from the rich, give to the poor." I smile at the woman, offering a sigh.

"I want to live. I need to live. My family will fall apart without me there, and I need to appologize to my brother for things I said when I was.... When I was younger." Rose and Kristoph had no buisiness burying another child when I was perfectly alive and well.

Her fingers come paralell to my gaze, and after a hesitant moment, I take her hand and haul myself to my feet. I stand taller than her- more than a head. "Alright... Well... I saw you over there." I tell her, guesturing towards the weapons station. "I guess... I could help you out. I used to cut trees when I was employed... I suppose... People... People..."

My jaws clamp shut and I shake my head, feet clack-clack-clacking against the tiled floor as I take her to the steel weapons. "Go on, pick it up." I tell her, emmiting a sigh as I thought. Please don't make me regret this choice, Mary-Ellen.

[Anna Banana]

[presto]

Mary Ellen Goulding

I guess my pep talk did something for him, after all he was a little more open about things than he had been before. At least I knew some of his past and about why he was so sad, and if I'm being honest with myself there aren't that many differences between the two of us. Both of us wanted to make the ones we loved happy, it wasn't about the glory with us, we were here for someone other than ourselves. With that thought I glanced up at the Careers and made a face. How disgusting that someone could actually enjoy killing another person, I had done it before, but it had never brought me enjoyment. It was a relief when he took my hand because it snapped me out of my thinking, always a terrible thing for me, and brought me back to the real reality of him and I talking.

"Well 7, I'll make you a promise now, only one of us is going to walk out of this hell, and should I think my chances are looking slim...I'll make sure it's you that has a chance." I glanced at him as we made our way towards the center of the center, him motioning for me to choose my weapon. Like it wasn't obvious that the sword and I had a thing for each other, I was far too small to be effective with the axe, and the spear just felt awkward. "This isn't to say I won't try and kill you should that time come Henry...but if I think my life isn't going to last much longer I will do my best to make sure you survive." Taking one of the swords from the rack I tested the balance in my hand and took a few experimental swings with it.

It was a good weapon, sturdy, and definitely more capable than the little knife I had back in District 12. This was a true killing weapon, something I could swing at someone in the arena and make them bleed. I couldn't hesitate, not now, it was too late for that, and every ally I made in this arena was going to turn into my enemy if I should make it as far as I hope. "Henry, it's only fair to tell you this, as if it wasn't already obvious...you may wind up being my enemy eventually in the arena. I won't hold back either, a friend you may be but the harsh reality is only one of us makes it out of this place. I HAVE to get home to my girl, and no one, not even a good friend will stand in my way." I drew my sword up and rested it across my arm, taking a stance that was as familiar to me as my own name, it was the same stance I took when I knew I would have to fight.

[/presto]

[Gone5eva]

And there’s more to life than taking this pain and
There’s more to gain when you’re out there being insane.
Being sane, that’s another thing.
That’s another thing baby.

Her form slips from stance to stance, and I awkwardly pick up my axe once again. It slings over my shoulders as I listen to her words- they curl up right against my brain, and fill me with a warmth I cannot explain. "Thank you." is all I can say, turning my back on her.

"You watch mine, and I'll watch yours... If... I'm probably going to die... When I feel like I'm about to, then I swear to get you out." My arms slide high above my head, the axe lifting. The vicious fluorescent lights shimmer and flash on the sharpened blade as it cascades in the chest of this dummy, slipping deep in its chest.

I cringe a little- it is completely embedded within the humanoid's chest. "You remind me of myself." I tell her, a foot lifting to the foam, both hands tugging and tugging, pulling some more until the axe falls free with a sickening 'Pop'.

I catch it, flipping it horizontally with a lopsided smile. "I suppose I'm lucky then, coming from seven." I tell her. "I don't want to say it gives me an advantage, but... I at least know how to chop down a few trees." Still, I try not to think about the predicament I would be faced if I allied myself with not only Mary, but with anyone else in this room.

Only one comes out alive, after all, and I wouldn't want to think about me killing any of my 'friends.'

Oh gods.

The convulsions started once again in the pit of my gut as I thought about past hunger games- arrows in eyes, swords in chests... Bare organs laid out for everyone to see, minds wiped blank by the long arm of the capitol.

[/quote]

[Anna Banana]

[presto]

Mary Ellen Goulding

I watched his stance shift just as mine had, taking a more aggressive tone to it, or defensive depending on how you looked at it. His deceptively thin frame had some muscle to it that's for sure, and he handled the axe he was wielding with an incredible amount of dexterity. It was beautiful to watch it arc through the air, the blade on it so sharp that you could hear it whistle through the air as he swung it. I knew as I watched him that I still had much to learn about the finer points of battling, that my crude fighting style wouldn't keep me alive if it came down to a one on one fight. With a sigh I cast a weary glance at everyone around me wondering how much of a hope I really had here with all these people. At most I could maybe stand a chance against my fellow lower district friends, but the others...it was a long shot.

With what I felt was the best amount of grace I could muster in an attack I swung my sword at the dummy, a sickening crunch resounding in my ears as the blade cut into the ribs of the dummy. I swallowed back some bile and bit my lip, maybe I wasn't built for this after all, for some reason all I could picture now was Henry standing there in front of me as I swung my sword. I could hear its deadly whistle sounding in my ears as it came at him with enough force to tear him in half, and finally it buried itself in his ribs, rending him in two. Why had I submitted myself to this, why had I allowed myself to fall down this far and make friends here? That was your first mistake Mary Ellen, you had made a friend, and now you were worried about killing him. Glancing over at him I felt like I knew how he felt before, how he was feeling now as his axe bit into the dummy.

"Henry...can I ask you something about this whole situation?" I look him over and lean against the broken dummy I had swung my sword into. "Do you regret your life to this point? Do you wonder if that after everything you did to this point it will all just have been a waste?" I start to attack the dummy in front of me again in the hopes it will distract me from that line of thought, but the more I stand here the more I wonder if I left open too many loose ends. "I can't help but wonder if the people I left behind in 12 will be okay without me, my girlfriend, my family...the girl that's as good as Jesse and I's daughter." It was painful to talk about them so freely to someone that was as good as a stranger to me.

It was my fear though, that I was leaving them behind to endure the world without me. I was the caregiver of the family, the master thief and the little warrior girl with the spunk to take on the people who treated our family poorly. With me gone they would be living far worse than before, it would be up to Jesse to fight for the family, and she was no warrior, she was too timid for that. "Henry, you're probably as close a friend as I'll make here, you might even be a bit more than just a friend, but I have to get home. I have to get home to the people I love and I have to get home to my girlfriend."

[/presto]

[Gone5eva]

Tell me something, something that can move me
T-tell me lies and I swear you're gonna lose me
Like an ocean jealous of the fish
It feeds you devotion, swimming inside of me

"Hrmm? What?" I questioned, my voice a quiet purr as I stroked the axe blade, lost in my own memories of home. The lumberjacks calling out old responses to each other, songs from before the war.

"I said Eyyyo' Chop

'Eyyyoo' Chop

"I said Heyeyyeyy' Chop

'Heyeyyeyy' Chop.

The wind whistles around me, and I feel the tug again at my gut. My head lifts to the ceiling while Mary-Ellen's back is turned, and I whisper to myself, 'Please, please, please be nice.' just before the blackness envelopes me.


My fingers stroke the rubber handle of the blade, my darkened eyes staring at the girl before me. I fet no guilt at her words, and knew them to be true. "I feel the same as you." I say cooly, my eyes oogling her up and down.

She had muscle on her, probably from work in district twelve. I cared not for her name, but simply smirked, my left hand gently lifting her elbow closer to her center. "Keep it there- less effort on your part. Energy is going to be important in the games, make sure you spend it wisely." I tell her. When I shove Henry down, I feel a physical change- I stand taller, filling my entire six-foot-five form. I don't slouch, and my language even changes. Henry doesn't like contractions.

I don't give a shit.

Henry offers little, comforting smiles, but I only grin when I've done something worthwhile- like chopping that damn dummy in half. "I don't expect anything else from you, Mary-Ellen." I say, pacing around her work, eyeing it with disdain. "But you shouldn't expect any less from me either. I won't hurt you, if you don't hurt me first. But the second you make a wrong move-"

Ow.

I cringe, a hand rising to my forehead. Henry didn't like that.

"The second I feel my integrity compromised-" Better. "I will turn this blade on you."