VENUS《 FINNICK ODAIR

Chapter 54. MURDER OF CROWS.

TW: Description of violence, gore, death.

LIQUID GOLD SHE CLASPED IN HER CRYSTAL GLASS, THE SPIRIT SMELT OF FRESHLY PEELED MANDARIN. A dull taste. It melted like ash on her tongue, a thin coating that robbed your senses blind.

She didn't mind.

Such a delicacy ought to be cherished and coveted as if it was piercing gold, but the citrus taste just reminded her of wasted opportunities and how she could never change the world with only silly little words.

Edith felt she could've done so much more for Charley, her first official Tribute. Now she'd be haunted by the sweeter tasting citrus. The way her hands peeled that mandarin nearly three weeks ago, taking control of her sour words, finding the right sentences to get her Tribute to understand she was in the right and not the wrong.

Edith only wanted to help him.

Well, it didn't matter in the end did it?

He would've done just fine if I hadn't taught him how to break down his walls.

Maybe Charley would be the one who slammed the brick into Titus' head.

Maybe he'd be alive right now.

"You okay?" Candy asked kindly, holding both Cecelia's and her own drinks after Cecelia left for the bathroom. To a blind eye, it would appear that Candy was babysitting the poor hollow eyed girl, but neither really cared all too much about what chuckles and smirks were coming from which dignified groups in the fray.

"Just impatient," Edith muttered, taking another sip of the foul concoction, the pain was self-induced at this rate, "Johanna said she'd actually come down. Its been a week since Titus won, and she hasn't done much other than let me into her room. The most luck I had of getting her outside was when we all got moved to the hotel down the street."

"Well in your luck, she kind of has to..." Candy sighed, her eyes scanning the room of crow feathered dresses and iridescent silks, "...this is a Victor Crowning after all. She can't hide from the world for too much longer no matter how much she deserves to. Look at Jira and the rest of District 2, they are all acting civil, playing their part. All of us Escorts tittering around keeping you all in check. Then there's Titus' stylist making sure everyone is wearing one of those damned crow feathered masks. And Gamemakers... well, we are just cogs in a machine, aren't we?"

Edith sighed before responding, not even bothering to poke at how Candy was outwardly bashing the Capitol's societal structure. Her eyes instead narrowed solemnly on a tray of crow feathered, masquerade masks being handed out by an Avox.

She wasn't suprised they had already started the celebrations for this year's Games early - turns out Titus had been scratched and infected by Achilles on that last day. Took five days to get it out of his system.

And yet the whole Capitol scene decided that they'd honour the Victor's triumph by wearing crow masks.

Soon the whole socialite scene would become a murder.

"If we were cogs in a machine Candy, take one away and the system stops. I don't think any of us have that power here. Gamemakers are easily replaced, even Head Gamemakers. Same with Stylists, and sadly even Escorts. For Victors it's the same. Even if you're popular you are objectified. We are characters Candy. Characters ripped from our silly little District nursery rhymes. Characters that can be written away with a single order from our beloved President Snow. Just look out there - all wearing those damn masks as if the feathers itching their ears will add them to this contrived legacy of the 73rd Hunger Games."