The 'Flower of Panem' or 'The Angel of Mercy', Seraphine Reza is the jewel and pride of Panem. One of their most treasured victors in the history of the Hunger Games and a favorite of President Snow.
While she smiles, comforts and plays her part ev...
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When Sera was five, she remembered waking up one morning and the sky was bleeding, at least that's what she thought at first.
From the small cracked window in the shared room with her sister, she could see the sky clearly.
Initially, she thought she was dreaming and shut her eyes but when she opened them again, the sky was painted with splashes of crimson, vivid yellow and oranges. The white was engulfed completely, hidden away.
"The sky's burning." Talissa had marveled at the sky in awe. However, her fascination with the strange occurrence was short-lived.
Sera remembered her mother before she was called away, rushed to cover the windows with whatever she could find. Her mother made it clear to all of them that the windows and doors should not be opened no matter what happened or who knocked. She had dragged the children to the living room where there were no windows around and the walls were made of the thickest concrete.
What most people in her family except Ramiel didn't know was that Sera didn't listen to her mother. Ramiel and her quietly crept up to aunt Dahlia's room where there was a skylight and opened it to watch the hauntingly beautiful burning skies.
Her first mistake.
Ramiel had stayed on the lookout and let her watch. Again it was a mistake, a mistake either should've known but the two were too young and in awe of the strange phenomena to know what was right and what was wrong as most children are. She didn't know that was the last time she would be healthy. A few years after her stupid childish decision, she collapsed at school and was bedridden for next few years.
During the initial incident, her mother wasn't allowed to stay at home with Sera and her family for long and was later called away to be a medic at Nero, where her father and uncle worked. There was an accident, most had claimed it such and help was needed.
Sera never saw those uncle and father again and when she did see her mother, she wasn't the same.
Though her mother survived, she withered away quickly within a year or two of the incident. Aunt Dahlia lost her sister and husband to the same disaster and was left to raise Sera and her siblings along with her own son alone.
Everyone in District 5 lost someone or something the day the skies burned. Sera lost her parents, her uncle and now she would lose her aunt. It was the unspoken truth that hung in the air at their home in the Victors' Village that aunt Dahlia was living on borrowed time.
Plutarch's words haunted her. Burning skies. Only thing she recalled whenever she heard of the sky burning was the incident at Nero that changed the lives of everyone she knew and loved. She hated to admit, Plutarch was right. She only cared when she was the one affected, selfish, she knew but she couldn't afford to lose what she had.
As a result, she busied herself managing the shop. What she didn't expect was for Zephyr who now lounged on the moss-covered concrete seats, to be there. She also didn't expect Huxley to help out.
