home reunion | nessa&flynn [pre-93rd]

[d7m fraser birk ♚ frankel]

Follow up to this.

The house at the victor’s village is desolate, not a single voice answers me when I call their names at the door. It has not been long since the peacekeepers let me go after questioning, leaving me without answers on my sisters conditions after the mess at my grandpa’s factory. I wonder where Johnny is. I wonder what kind of involvement he has in all of this. But my sisters first, I need to know how my sisters are.

Next place to look is the old house, the one mom refused to sell as she wanted another place just in case. She has been staying there a lot lately, so has my dad. I guess they think I am old enough to have my own place now but I starting the miss seeing them in the morning. They have always been there in the morning and the big house in the victor’s village with all of its empty rooms grows to become so lonely when it is just me. Maybe I will pluck up the courage to have Johnny to stay the night, or a couple of nights. So long as he is not involved in this mess…

It is a long jog to the old house and the last mile is a sprint that causes my heart to nearly tear out of my ribcage. I don’t take a second to even catch my breath before nearly taking the front door off its hinges as I burst through it. ”Nessa? Dorothy? Are you here?” I call out, dropping in and out of the rooms that are closer to the door. Mom is going to be so mad, I have run through here still wearing my shoes.

”Nessa!” My youngest sister is standing in the kitchen alone and she doesn’t look good at all. So many visible bruises on her face and where is Dorothy? Nessa is here though, no longer just a memory of a little girl with a needle nearly piercing her neck by them dickhead staff of Grandpas. I don’t let her refuse a hug, I have really failed as a big brother. There is barely a scratch on me compared to her. ”I am so glad you are okay, where is Dorothy? What even happened after they took me away?”

Rave

[max jones d6 ☠️ kiah]

nessa garner

Good things never seemed to happen anymore. 

I used to think that things would return to normal once Flynn came back home. But each year he left, and each year he came back home with more dark circles under his eyes. Skinner. Sadder. 

Today was supposed to be simple. Take a gift to Grandpa. It was his birthday. I had been excited to go because Grandpa always gave me sweets when he thought no one was looking. Though lately things had changed with him too. He spent more and more time locked away in that stupid lab of his. Just like Flynn, the bags under his eyes had grown. Though, unlike Flynn, his skin sagged more, with too many wrinkles for me to count. 

We had just given grandpa is birthday gift when things started going wrong. I remember hands grabbing my by the shoulders, peacekeepers had filled into the room and threats had been thrown. There was a needle at my throat. And grandpa had had a hold of Flynn, I had thought that maybe he was hugging him at first, and maybe I had read the room wrong, but then a needle was at Flynns throat and I was getting pissed off. 

Flynn was an annoying know it all. He was bossy and he found a way to lecture me about every stupid little thing. 

And sure I gave him a hard time, because thats what little sisters were supposed to do.

And I couldn't fully understand everything that had happened to him.

But grandpa was being kind of a dick. 

Thats when I head tried to wiggle my way out of the hold I was in, catching an elbow to the face, it had caused the crowd around me and Dorothy to start moving. I don't think I fully understood the severity of the situation, because as soon as the elbow found my nose all hell broke loose and I was shoved to the ground, grandpa's lackey had tried to make a run for it. Instantly a peacekeeper had grabbed me, dragging me out of reach. 

They had taken me to the hospital then. Mum had been called and I had sat there is silence as they cleaned up my face. Mum had tried to ask me questions, but I had not heard them. I could still see Grandpa with the needle pressed against Flynn's throat. Why? Grandpa had always been kind to me. He had always made sure that whenever I came around to the lab that he would have my favourite flavoured cupcakes, vanilla with strawberry frosting. 

I was so sick of things changing. 

Once they had cleared me I had snuck away whilst mum was talking with the doctor. She could yell at me later. I guess not everything had changed. 

It doesn't take me long until I am home. At my real home, the house that looked exactly as it had before Flynn had come home. I hadn't been home since mum had forced us to move out. Dust coated the counter tops, and there was staleness to the air. But it was home.

Suddenly the door behind me is pushed open and I half expected Mum come barging in, screaming and shouting but instead it is Flynn. He moves into the house like a whirlwind, and I break into a grin for the first time in days. He looked just like her, his face frantic, easing a little once they landed on me. Instantly he sweeps me into a rib crushing hug and I squirm in his arms, "Flynn! Let me go-"

"I am so glad you are okay," he exclaims and my resistance to his hold eases. 

"I'm okay." I confirm, and for the first time in a long time I wrap my arms around him, hugging him tightly. "I'm okay," I repeat, my voice cracking slightly. The events of the last few days were only just catching up, and I still couldn't really understand what had just happened. "Dorothy... She is fine. With mum, I think." I pull back from Flynn, frowning up at him, "what the hell is going on?"

[d7m fraser birk ♚ frankel]

Everything is just piling up on top of me, now I can’t even escape the chaos in the Capitol as now my own family are writing a drama-thriller series for me to act in. My grandpa of all people. That man we see every weekend, with a wrinkled smile and a word to say. Mom has always shared a negative opinion on him, I guess she is right this time. I can only imagine the argument she is going to have with dad later, the whole being right is really going to add fuel to her fire. I just hope they have the argument out of my sisters’ view.

Nessa is a little hesitant to fall into my hug but her arms wrap round me too. I just need Dorothy here too and then I can breathe. Though I won’t be able to breathe for long, not while the ninety-third reaping is less than a fortnight away. FUCK! The timing of this. I guess there was never going to be a right time, it was going to happen. I just wish I get the chance to ask Grandpa why, wherever he has been taken right now. A victor visiting the detention center is probably not a good look though.

My sister lets go of me, she has just as many questions as I do. And for once, I am not the one with the answers to give her. ”I really don’t know, I think grandpa has been doing bad things in his laboratory. It looked like they were experimenting.” Sometimes it is hard not to explain things to my sisters like they are little kids. They are not anymore. They are growing up. Quickly enough to get their names out of that bowl, I hope. It is going to be a long six years until Nessa’s is freed. Damn, I hope my mom and dad have no more kids. Not that I see them together long enough nowadays for that to even be a possibility.

I lean my head back against the kitchen wall, it has been a long day. The sun is rolling down outside of the window. It was just this morning I was carrying the tray of muffins that dad had planted in my hands. I wonder where they ended up during the chaos. In a peacekeeper’s gut probably.

”Did they question you? I got taken to one of the peacekeeper’s offices. They kept mentioning something called profoundling, I guess Grandpa was working on a new drug. But so are the Thatchers next door and I don’t see peacekeepers raiding them. There must be more going on…” It is all so frantic in my mind, trying to piece the impossible puzzle together. It is not something else my mind can carry right now. Fuck, Grandpa. That man is too old to be causing all the drama. ”I will speak to John-. To dad. Have you seen dad since this morning?” It is Johnny I need the truth from right now. Wherever that fucker is. All this seems to be an important piece of information he has forgotten to tell me after all this time…

Rave