ACT I. CHAPTER III. ❛ God Complex, Blood Sport, Eat Me Alive ❜ tw. mentions of gore, death, blood, poverty. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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Days pass, and Verena is lost. Flynt has ignored her for nearly a week — hasn't come calling, hasn't left any tokens at the step of the school. She wanders through the town square, kicking at pebbles and pieces of trashed motherboards and cables that have been tossed from the big companies.
The threat looms. Peacekeepers grin under their masks; Verena is sure that she heard one laugh when shoving a man over, and surer still that they have been bludgeoning people to death in the back alleys when questioned.
Less than twenty four hours before the Reaping. Less than twenty four hours before Death came knocking. She was away to break Freya and Felix out of school when she saw her.
Flynt is hidden away out-of-sight, in an alley to the side of the market, crouched down over a boy who Verena cannot recognise. He's face down on the ground, with his leg bent at a horrible angle, white bone poking out of pink flesh and bright red blood. Verena was about to approach when she heard the most horrible cackle.
They step out of the shadows and smirk at the boy on the ground. These Three, Verena recognised. Sloane, Kallias, and Naraina. They were as close to Careers as District 3 had. Brutal, aggressive, effortless; in everything that they did. Especially Naraina. God-like. Her name means God-like. And she looks so harmless too, with golden skin and hair so brown it is near green. Her eyes sparkle.
But Verena knows first hand that it is not with kindness, nor with love. She finds joy in inflicting pain. The scar down Verena's back is just a testament to that. She knows that behind pink lips are rotted teeth, as though her inside is dying, decaying from her evil. Kallias and Sloane are her loyal lackeys — they do everything she says and more. Meatheads, with no drive to think on their own. Beautiful meatheads.
Flynt looks up at the Three. For a second, Verena feels peace. She sees that look of disgust pass over Flynt's eyes — the one that she so hates being on the receiving end of. But then, she stands, and Verena, not for the first time either, would prefer to have been hit over the head with a brick, because Flynt grins a horrible grin.
"I told you to wait for me."
The Three had once been The Four. Flynt had been tied with Naraina long before she had become involved with Verena. She only stepped away when Naraina gave Verena the scar — seeing that she had gone too far.
Verena knew that one day she would go back. Pack mentality was the best way to survive. She just didn't expect it so soon. She hadn't expected it to be today. She ducked down behind a dumpster and watched.
