In Every Ripple // Shelby x Lightning {blitz}

[Arrows]

District Four Male of the 75th Hunger Games

     Splash. 

    Ripples revolt across the pool's calm crystal surface while a single stone slips into the depths. With irises illuminated by the dim light above me I stare endlessly into the rippling abyss. In every edge and every inch of shifting set forth by the stone I see faces and hear voices. I remember the cries of children whose bones broke and whose tears trickled. I see the hellish home I left behind and the wicked wretches who built their beatings on the back of alcohol. I again can feel the blood burbling from beneath my skin as fresh as when first forged. A tear threatens to drip down my cheek when I wipe away the phantoms of the past with another stone slipping through the surface. 

    The weight of my worries pull me from my place above the pool to a wall nearby. A sigh slips as I slump to the floor stones scattering from their security within my palms. I press a bottle to my lips and let it burn all the way to the pit of my despair. Internally I am ignited with the anger of an abused boy, externally I am stiff as a statue carved from stone. My gaze never meanders from its meticulous lock on the water. I just sit. I just wait for something, for anything. Was there even a point? Did I really want to live if it meant Chaos would die? Did I really even want to go back?

    I hear a door creak carefully open and against my better logic let it go by without breaking from my trance. The footsteps follow and all I can bring myself to do is let another stone sail from my side into its new salty sanctuary. A laugh lightly lifts from my mouth as I move away from the wall letting my feet fall into the chilling current. "Is it bad that I don't want to go home? There's nothing but pain back there, a family built on abuse. It's stupid isn't it? I'm certain nearly every other person here wants to go back, but I don't know if I do?" Silence sits for several seconds before I let out another laugh and surge another slug of Ripred knows what down my throat. "I'll blame my sister for making things more complicated."

LIGHTNING  O'HANA

Sometimes our heads slip beneath the sea, and sometimes there's no way to breathe

[heather - d2 [mylee]]

s h e l b y ♔ l e v i a n e

I have never been a girl of small talk or pointless conversations.

I give weight to words with meaning, and I find comfort in the silence that gives one the necessary time to absorb said ramifications.

Any words without point are nothing more than wasted space— wasted molecules of the universe that a human of all things had the audacity to take for their own. It was a crime in the constitution of my mind, but when another bottle of whiskey offered to be split and consumed alone had drowned the decency swimming in my throat, I could not stop speaking.

It seemed then that every word had some practicality even if it could not be seen. It seemed each letter falling from my tongue was gathering at my feet and giving me some reason for existing other than wasting space.

Damned if I do; damned if I do not.

I do not know where I am, but I’ve taken two left turns and then a right and then one more left and suddenly I am pushing open a door that gives way to the storm and the rain— I cannot tell the two apart when he speaks, “Is it bad that I don't want to go home? There's nothing but pain back there, a family built on abuse. It's stupid isn't it? I'm certain nearly every other person here wants to go back, but I don't know if I do?"

I let silence absorb the impact as I sit down beside him, cross-legged and watching his feet disturb the water like it had no reason to be tranquil, “I'll blame my sister for making things more complicated."

I suppose I had no use for tranquility, either.

In that moment, I felt just sober enough to be absolutely terrified.

Humanity was nothing more than glass shards stuck into my skin whether or not I was aware of their presence, “If you decide that you do not feel like returning home, I know about fifty-one other people who would take you up on the offer.”