The Silent Conversiation (Storm-Closed)

Voices. There were voices above her. Willow opened her eyes only to shut them again to escape the bright white light and blurry images that filled her range of vision. Where was she? Why was she here? The cold surface under her must have been metal. Willow tried to move, but couldn’t; there were straps holding her down. She opened her eyes again in complete disregard of the light, someone was looming over her, slowly moving closer to her, something bright and shiny was in their hand. Willow tried desperately to move, whatever the shiny thing was, it was dangerous. Suddenly she felt a prick of pain on her arm, the pain grew and she felt something enter rushing through her bloodstream. Willow started feeling fuzz, she couldn’t see straight, something was wrong. She looked around for something or someone to help her. She looked at the person looming over her and despite the fuzziness of her vision she saw a tattoo covering the right side of the person’s face, which could mean only one thing; she was at The Capital.

Willow woke suddenly to a banging on her cell door. If she didn’t get out of bed the peacekeepers would come in and drag her out, so she grudgingly got up. She shook her head to clear it of the dream that was more like a memory. The white jumpsuit that she’d been given had been cleaned overnight, so Willow put it on again. Avox. That’s what she was now; a silent girl, with a blank face, one who was dying slowly inside. Why? Because The Capital’s killed almost everyone I cared for. She answered. It had been two days, two of the longest and most agonizing days of her life, since she had attacked the peacekeepers, and three days since Storm had been chosen as District Two’s male tribute. Willow hadn’t even thought about the consequences, she’d been blinded by rage and hate for The Capital, which was her new home. The young avox wondered why they hadn’t just killed her, it would have been easier than dragging her to The Capital to silence her. She walked to the service elevator, which was empty save her, she balanced the large bowl of various bread in one hand as she pressed the button that would take her to the training floor. The door slid open to reveal the tributes’ dinning hall. She walked in slowly, her feet made hardly any noise and she walked across the slick tile floor. Willow quickly distributed the bread in the bowls on the table, and then walked back to the elevator right as the tributes began to file in. She shut the elevator door quickly, she couldn’t let Storm or either of the District Eleven tributes see her.

Storm sat on his abnormally soft bead with his head in his hands. He had been sitting in that position for a while. Actually, that's all he did anymore. Sit. Sure, he had been to training, sure he had been displayed to the whole Capitol to show off 'eye candy' as his designer had put it. But aside from that, he was confined in his room. There wasn't much to do there but think. However, he assumed that's what the Capitol wanted. Sit ...think ...slowly drive yourself crazy in anticipaton for the games. Storm was also very torn at the moment. He 'met' Al again. They were already friends, but they had to try to act as if they were meeting for the first time again. Storm and Al were good friends but the thought of possibly having to fight each other drew them apart. Al had already decided that he would team up with the Careers purely to stay alive. Storm knew that's what he had to do as well in order to stay alive - team up with them as well. Yet the thought scared him. Doing exactly that stood against what he lived for. He had learned to accept his past, but having it thrown right back in your face was a complete other matter in itself. He had run away from that just a few years ago. That was the reason his family was dead and the reason that drove him to be a rebel.

Storm's thoughts were scattered as a bald man with green flecks on his face and bare scalp walked in. "Time for lunch!" He said in a cheery voice. 
Cheery. 
He was freakin doing chores to tell all the tributes. But then again he was happy. He was allowing all the tributes to stuff themselves. Look healthy if they didn't already and love them up for the games. It was all more of that 'eye candy' nonsense. Storm pulled his head out of his hands and slowly stood up. "Why the long face?" The bald man chuckled.

"Um... Just tired." Storm mumbled trying not to look annoyed.

He crossd the room and walked to the dining hall. Michiah, the girl from his district, quickly joined him. The Disctrict 1tributes were just ahead of them. They opened the doors and walked into the large room. However, Storm froze. At the other side of the room, he saw the back of a girl's head vanish into an elevator. She was wearing a white jumpsuit like the Capitol's slaves, but Storm recognized her firery hair. She was the exact height too. "Oh no." He said under his breath before quickly running to the other side of the room. He was shot many quizzical looks. He shouted back with uncertainty, "bathroom?" He realized that if anyone saw him talking to a slave ....an avox, the girl would be punished. He slowed and clicked the elevator to open. As the white doors slid down in front of him he realized that there was no way it could be Willow. He was just getting ahead of himself. The thought crossed his mind that it could be Kaya. Maybe she wasn't dead! That thought was wiped away quickly when the doors clicked open. He saw Willow walking away from the elevator. It was still the back of her head but by her hair, her height, and the way she carried herself, Storm knew it was her.

 "Wills!" He whispered loudly stepping out of he elevator. He couldn't take this, not with the stress of the games. It was almost too much. No, it wasn't her, it couldn't be.    

As soon as she was safely inside the elevator, Willow took a deep breath. That had been too close, way too close, they'd almost seen her, the three tributes that would definitely know her had almost seen her. Willow kicked the side of the elevator in a moment of anger and let out a stream of irritated sounds, wishing that they could be words. The elevator slid open and Willow took another deep breath, trying to calm herself. They hadn't seen her, everything was going to be all right, well, as all right as it could be in this situation. She got out and slowly walked back towards the kitchen, putting each step to a beat in her head. The was her free time, walking in between jobs, and it was all the free time she'd ever get.

Another elevator opened along the rarely empty hallway. The ding resonated in the hallway and Willow kept walking, knowing that if then person stepping out of the elevator was security the she'd be punished for stopping on her way to her next job. Willow tucked a strand of hair that had escaped her braid behind her ear. She looked blankly at the white walls as she passed them. All there was here was white, and Willow felt like she stood out a mile, her flaming hair always causing her to stand out. She wondered if Kaya had felt like that when she'd been here, knowing that there was no chance, always on a spotlight. Of course it was different, being a tribute was completely different from being an avox, but still, newer avoxes always had the toughest jobs, no one was looking out for them to make their lives easy, and everyone was looking to give them someone to do...

"Wills!"

Willow jumped at the sound of her nickname spoken by a familiar voice. No. Turn around. Leave me alone. Let me be. See someone else. Willow thought, hoping that he would go away. But who else would he see? The hallway was empty except for her, and Storm. Willow stopped walking, she was torn between running and turning to face Storm. There was nothing she could do now. Willow kicked herself mentally, maybe she could handle this, but he couldn't. Damn it Willow! Why did you have to do this? Why were you so stupid, attacking Peacekeepers? Do you ever think about anyone other than yourself? Did you think about what it would do to Storm and Luke to see you like this? Did the thought ever occur to you that you would be hurting them more than you would be hurting yourself?" She thought, screaming at herself.

Willow bit her lip, it was too late to run, Storm already knew she was here, and despite how much she'd insulted his intelligence, he was smart enough to know that her being here meant she was an avox. She turned to face Storm, hating herself more than The Capital for knowing what she was doing to Luke and him.

When Storm called Willow's nickname, he felt slightly hurt as she kept walking. It had to be her. But did she not want to face him? There was only two explanations why she would be here and one of them he knew was wrong. The only reaping he had witnessed was 1 but he knew she couldn't have been reaped because they had already shown on the television and he had seen the two tributes from 11. Who were obviously not Willow. He also knew she had heard by the jump. No, it will be Kaya and he could somehow escape and come home to Will and tell her that Kaya was really alive and they could all escape and everything would be ok! A voice in his head rang. And he wanted it to be true so much. Everywhere. Every moment, thoughts of despair flooded his brain. He was here in the Games. His direct family was dead and all he had left were his cousins. The ones which he had taken the tesserae for, so that they could have food. And of all the Careers who wanted glory and all the odds of the huge District, he was still reaped. The Games were about to begin.

Storm realized he was going after Willow. She was the only person in his life besides his two little cousins that he cared about at all. He wouldn't let her run away. This would probably be the last time he ever saw her. He didn't like that, but deep down he knew it was true. He would try his hardest to win, but if he did, he would have to remain in his district. Be 'eye candy' as his designer had put it, for the Capitol women. But he wasn't ready to let her go. He reached out his arm to grab her wrist and stop her, but she stopped herself. She turned to face him and a tear threatened to escape his eyes. It was her. All of her ...there... except her voice. He knew it had to be gone. After he was reaped, she lashed out - attacked the Peacekeepers probably. Why did she have to have such a hard life. He knew that his was hard too, but he had the rare gift of easily getting over things.

Storm saw emotion in her eyes. "I may be way off... but you didn't want me to see you ...why? I don't care what you did. If you did something to a Peacekeeper, you of all people would know, I'd be the one to forgive and understand. I did it too. Got my family killed for it too." He paused, panic stricken. "Luke is still..." He froze, awaiting a nod. He had to be alive. Would Willow even still be living if she had lost her brother as well? He had almost committed suicide and he knew if the roles were switched and Luke was dead ...he might have even done it again.

"I'm so so sorry they did this to you." Was all he could manage to say, thoughts swirling. She was pretty much in a prison. With no way of escape.