The Story Never Ends [Teddy Oneshot]

[Dana Lheureux D9F [Tom]]

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The stories that he used to read as a child don't feel as memorable anymore.

Fantasy and fairy tales were nothing more than stories that people told their kids to ease their innocent hearts. That's how he's found himself nose deep in some old fairy tale book that was laying on the shelf on the train. Miles and miles passing his eyes as he glances out the window to the green of the districts he's visited. Exhaustion seems to lay as a thick coat along his skin. Excitement was not what he would describe the feeling that laid dormant in his chest. Nerves seem to shock his senses as he freezes in place. Fairy tales abandoned for the compartments of the train that he's gotten to known over time. A safe place from the ghosts that hide in the districts that he's seen. The families of the dead still ring in his ears about the memories of them. Saffron Lowe's fists still bruise his heart with emotions that he can't figure out. Guilt. Sorrow. Punishment for the horror that he committed to someone that held a heart of gold.

Could he be strong enough to carry them?

He didn't know.

Their stories will never end. Logic tells him to ignore the pounding need to scream into a pillow cushion upon the bed in his cabin that he's been living out of since the start of the victory tour. Home was next. Home was the last place on the tour, which still felt like it was too long since he's even thought about District Six. Celebrations about the curse of Six being broken for the first time since decades. Rotting flesh and hollow bones lay in their graves, no longer hoping for someone to get home. Their stories end with meaning as Teddy Ursa is victor of the Seventy Sixth, but he can't feel like a star when all he can feel is the guilt of his heart at the dead.

Ree. Emberly. Lux. Chester. Rory. Rhetoric. Adelaide. Titus. Kaiser. Basil. Lorenza. Wendell. Cam. The pressure of them in his mind only sends him spiraling down into himself as he leaves his room to find something else to focus on. Something else to keep his mind busy before he drives himself mad once again. Alone. It's how he would live his life once it was all over. An empty home that could fit a large family built just for him. The home that he would live in without the reminder of Ma's death stained into the carpet. Hand grips the table that has chairs surrounding it. Star, District Six's escort sits there looking pretty and yet he can't seem to avoid eye contact. Impressive that she still had enough energy in her to smile, but he avoids her like the plague and moves towards the opposite side of the train car, window zooming past a forest of green and grass that blows gently in the breeze.

Eyes meet Officer Moon's as he gives him a small smile. There's a comforting feeling of knowing that he's there with him. They don't talk much even if Teddy tries his hardest to, but they have a mutual bond of safety. Comfort surrounds him in his presence that is just magical in all words, but Teddy shifts back to the window. Home was on his mind for the rest of the trip. A hand gently teases the glass as he thinks of what his parents will do. The childhood friends that he played with. The gentle memory of two others that he can't quite put into his mind. They're on the tip of his tongue, but it doesn't click.

That's when everything clicks to a halt. His heart begins to beat out of his chest at the thought of seeing the parents that made him bleed long ago. The parents that made him believe he was a waste of air upon their beautiful earth. The parents who kicked him out of the home in the middle of a major storm that took his life away from him. The train lurches back and forth for a moment as someone says that they've arrived in District Six. Star speaks of up happily to him as she stands up.

"Ready to go home, Teddy?"

No.

He wasn't ready to see it.

He leaves the train, even with that lack of prep in his skin. People were waiting outside for him, a celebrity of sorts as victors seemed to be treated as. He was only a killer and survivor of a games that had put him through hell and back. A crowd is forming outside the train, but he ignores it as the sun shines in his eyes. Hand moves to block the light for a second. Everything was fine in District Six. The same appearance with the same buildings that glow with lights from hospital rooms. He's able to breathe air into his lungs as he feels at home. Home was still the same place, but it felt different in every way. People used to not pay attention to him. People used to pass by him without a second glance, but now all eyes were on him.

Including the cold eyes of his mother's that reach across the small crowd of people. Ice chills his chest as he can remember her words upon his skin as his father puts blood upon his skin for disobeying. Just a child that knew what was right. Just a child who had to obey or else blood would become his friend. His father was there with his mother, but they seemed to ignore it and wait for the crowd to disperse a little bit. People leaving after seeing him to do what they were meant to do that day. Every story has an ending, but his only continues to have new chapters of suffering waiting for him.

There's a smile upon his mother's face as she approaches, but he can't help but feel his stomach fall. They never looked for him. They never wanted him. That's why he stayed in a hospital rotting away with no memories. His subconscious fighting his own body to protect him from the truth that he's never been loved. Love. A word that he's always wanted, but love doesn't exist for him. Not in their arms. He knew what they wanted. He knew that their own personal goals were at stake in this. Hands shake as they approach, but he stands tall, ready to scream them away, but he knew something was up.

Sun gleams into his eyes and he blocks it again to see his parents.

Everything comes crashing down.

Green eyes meets two children that look at him with different looks that he can't read. Looks that he might never understand, but his heart breaks. Out of everything. Out of everything that he could have forgotten, he forgot the two people that mattered the most in his past. A switch that flicked back to life the instant that he saw them approach. They had been much smaller since he's last seen them. He's crashing into reality as his lungs cry for air. Tears come to his eyes as he can feel himself losing to the sounds surrounding him. Panic sets into his skin as he wants to scream for help, but feels breathless.

He can't breathe.

Everything is spinning.

The two children stare at him with curious eyes.

Stories of fairy tales read at bedtime to them before they even could remember him. Fairy tales of princes, princesses, knights, heroes, heroines, and all sorts of things. The suffering never ends. His memories still haunt him and he knows the truth now. He knew who Theodore Ursa was and it made him feel sick. He's drowning in it again. He's drowning under it all again as he feels ashamed and terrified. All he can hear is Wendell in his ear speaking.

Little bear.

He truly felt like a little bear.

A little bear who had just learned what pain he truly carried.

It happens in a flash as he looks to Officer Moon. Tears in his bloodshot eyes of the terror that he's left behind for them. He's falling again, but even worse than before. Lux's eyes come to his mind as he can see the black hearts that threaten him. Wendell's laugh as he cuts away his foot and then the inevitable fall. He feels it again. The way that Emberly calls him selfish because he was. He's always been selfish. That's why he cries out for an escape to someone anyone. The crowd surrounding him feels too close. Breaths are not getting through as his heart hammers in his ear. The fear that was in his veins on the second day of the games comes to his mind as he jumps back into the chest of Officer Moon now.

Words barely fall from his lips in an attempt to escape.

"Get me home. Please."

Home.

Everything was different now.

All of it comes crashing down.

Teddy Ursa knew now.

He knew who Theodore Ursa was.

He wished that he didn't now.