welcome to your nightmares {DO}

[Arrows]

The sky shatters. Songs of suffering spill forth from cracking clouds while winds whip across my skin. Bodies break beneath tumbling trees as shouts of sorrow swarm the chaotic symphony. A lone raven takes flight from a burning branch calling towards the coming of its master. A frenzied flocked of death bringers joins their lone leader diving towards my sinking spirit. Talons tear flesh until rivers of red begin bursting from the surface of my skin. The last lingering touch of lightning is concealed in feathered darkness as my stretching scream in suddenly silenced. I feel myself fall into the darkness of the swarm death reaching for me, reaching for me, reaching for...

Cold compresses my face sending sudden shock splitting through my spine. Sweat spills onto the tiled floor I now find myself fallen onto. Gasps grip my bent body as shakes shudder across my skin. The reflection of a girl stunned into absolute fear finds my eyes in the tiles of the floor. She is weak. She is scared of the coming days of devastation. She feels powerless. She is me.

Bringing myself off of the scene of my fall, light illuminates the room at a finger's flick. Stars still sit shining in the sky as morning is only just beginning to merge colors into the dark expanse of space. My fingers fall against the glass of a window and for the first time tears trickle down my swollen cheeks. For the first time my mind crumbles around a terrible truth. 

I don't want to die.

Movement brings my body into a simple shirt and simple sweats of similar grays. I leave my room quickly forcing the water falling from my eyes to cease its downpour. Surrounded by the electrical hum of the elevator my forehead presses to the cold of a wall. How many tributes have come into this elevator knowing, just as I knows, that only in a matter of moments death would soon be calling for their attention? The thought turns my stomach bringing more water to the verge of breaking the dams I have built. 

On the lowest level of the center I find peace by a window to the main streets. Outside lights of breathtaking colors curl and fill the dark sky with warmth and wonder. Here by this window I can focus on present instead of the future. Here by this window I don't feel as lost without my flock by my side. Here by this window I escape the knowledge of knowing what happens to a bird when its wings are clipped. 

[Cameo {RIP Charlie}]

Stars gleam amongst the darkness of the sky, surrounding the illuminating moon that glistens upon the house that the baby strays encircle around in a few final laps before bed. Neck and neck Mini and Ollie sprint to claim the victory of bragging rights, Piper nipping at their heals in a threat to join the true competition, while Odie and Norbert struggle to catch up. The eldest remained within their viewing stand of the front porch. The stern features of the secretly-gentle Maggie protects the pack from the lowest step, prepared to guard them against any intruders though it’s solely bark that backs her intimidation. Rogue sits beside, her eyes constantly rolling in annoyance, though it seems a hidden smile curves the lids of those very eyes. The personal guarding angel of Ollie’s, Warwick, sits on the step above - a proud grin quietly seeping from his features. Even the mother of the hounds, Bella, has joined the family’s union, standing above them all in her gentle observation.

Laughter sprinkles from the Pound as a whole, everyone enjoying the precious moment - whether in secret or openly. Speed engulfs the youngest in a sudden burst, as Ollie takes the lead. The giggles of the others fade behind her as she gains the distance, until suddenly they disappear completely into the night’s abyss. Feet scurry to a halt, her heart doesn’t begin settle from the pause however - but rather speeds faster in the abrupt isolation. The return of those chuckles doesn’t catch up to her, the souls of bare feet aren’t gaining her way. A bottom lip quivers upon Ollie’s face as she gazes back, baffled by what happened to her friends.

A cautious trail now carries her back to the front of the house. And though the eldest fosters have vanished as well, a more joyous sight somehow greets her. “Mommies?!” The tiny Blonde questions, unfazed by the circumstance as she knew they’d retrieve back to her eventually. Automatically she’s sprinting again, but as she reaches closer and closer to her three original Guardians - they evaporate into the night as well like mist. “Mommies?!” Ollie screeches in desperation, as tears of dire disappointment collapse down her face. And again, she’s left utterly alone.

Those very tears follow her into a realm, no better then her former dream, of actual reality. Silence rattles across the floor of her district; whether in the others slumbering, or her being tardy, she wasn’t sure - but fearful of the latter, she scurries to retreat to the training she so severely needs.

Chaos welcomes her into the hustle of the center. Weapons she’s foreign to pierce into inanimate object. Spars too violent for her liking clash before her eyes. Future opponents threaten to destroy her with mere gazes. A glimpse of peace instinctively draws her to a window to the outside Panem, where a not-so-scary Tribute resides with similar sorrowful eyes to Ollie’s own. It appears that she to doesn’t have a savage bone within her existence, as she seems to be gazing outward for an escape.

Quietly Ollie joins her a couple feet away in an attempt to not disturb her. But her tongue eventually portrays her seek to not bother, in it’s need to converse with another. “You okay?” She questions rather naively, as if anyone within their predicament could ever truly be okay. Eyes of shared despair peer up to the older Tribute, in seek for another who relates.