constellate | romeo & greer { district four train }

[eulalie blake 1a 🍒 tris]

Good fortune and bad luck are sister spirits. Where one ebbs, the other must flow.

Romeo Wilder has been sentenced to die for crimes he did not commit — the eighth prisoner to don these very same shackles. Now he sits in a quiet train car, receiving no guidance for the experience that awaits him and the equally ill-fated girl who joins him. She sits a short distance behind him, perched on a windowsill, watching in silence as everything they have ever known blurs by and fades into unfamiliarity. Ocean into trees into a world neither of them has ever known. Might possibly never know.

For a long moment, they allow each other the time and space to process their situation. This is the one nightmare all the children in Panem have been sharing for eight years now. And for the both of them, it has come true.

In this life, there is no fairness.

But, hey. They didn't take away his guitar. Even with his face pressed down into the mud, he can still recognize that things could always be worse. He begins to strum a tune not long into their quiet exchange, a steady and peaceful rhythm so as not to disturb Greer's contemplation. Honestly, if his melody has the desired effect, he has always found that music allows the mind a healthy outlet to express the emotions threatening to brew storms.

His smile is a ripple across still water, his eyes dark and shining like a beetle's wings. Between the two of them, his song echoes until only the whir of wheels spinning on a track remains. They are left alone with the quietness of their horror. Maybe it says something about him that he is the first to speak up, daring Greer to look away from their terrible reality and pretend while they still have the chance to. "I'm on my way to the Capitol for a peace concert. They're abolishing the Games, and I'm the headlining act." It's an obvious lie, his smirk betrays the trick he is trying to play. His rebellious words are spoken only to humor and not to enrage.

If their lives are destined to be this miserable, what's the harm of pretending that they are other people entirely? Just for a moment.

Other people have it better, after all.

"What about you, then? What does the Capitol need from Greer Halstead?"

[gamemaker sloane ♕ kaяi ♕]

It felt like a dream.

A nightmare is more like it.

Whatever it was and wherever it was, she was trapped. Greer Halstead is no longer the girl from Four who worked behind the counter of the local fish shop. She is no longer the girl with the gentle smile and soft-spoken words. Now, she is a pawn in their Games. A Games that is supposed to end in her untimely death and the death of twenty-three other children.

There was a point to be proven.

And the Capitol was determined to prove it with blood.

Most would pinch themselves to wake up, but not Greer. The nightmare kept her at peace, the nightmare hid her from the reality of the situation.

She was going to die.

But at least in this dream-like state there was a glimmer of hope, no matter how small. She had no plans of waking herself up until she drew her last beath or left with a crown atop her head.

The first hour or so of the train ride was silent, but Greer didn’t mind. She much preferred it this way. The silence of her own thoughts and the strumming of Romeo’s guitar to fill the empty spaces. She wasn’t sure why they allowed him to bring an instrument, much good it would do him in a fight to the death, but she wasn’t upset by it. The tune was peaceful and light.

It somehow reminded her of home.

The strumming finally came to an end and the silence was almost unsettling. Greer had lost track of time. Had it been an hour? Two? How close were they to their impending doom?

”I’m on my way to the Capitol for a peace concert. They’re abolishing the Games and I’m the headlining act.”

It didn’t take long for the silence to be shattered.

The soft smile that her mother loved oh so much spread across her lips. She didn’t laugh, but you can tell there was amusement sparkling in her eyes.

”Perhaps they want me to teach a lesson in customer service. Or maybe how to filet a fish? I’m not quite sure, but I have a feeling yours will be much more entertaining,” She takes a moment to stare at the guitar sitting in his lap. Romeo had a piece of home and all she got to bring were the clothes on her back. It should anger her, but it didn’t. Greer was never one to be quick to fury. She had too much patience and too much sense to allow rage to control her actions. Besides, if she kept a clear head it was easier to focus on what matters most.

Survival.

”Do you think we’re close?” It was barely more than a whisper, a shiver drifted down her spine. She was terrified to hear the answer, but she had to know. She needed to know how much longer she had until the nightmare within her head would end.

Death was near.

And she needed to know how close.