Nadine began braiding Evelina's hair, her hands folding the strands into their usual beautiful pattern. Nadine cracked a joke about her hair which in turn made the brunette laugh. Their giggles echoed throughout the room as they continued to wheeze. Evelina bent over in pain, her stomach twisting from all of the laughing. She looked up and saw Nadine doing the same, but she wasn't laughing anymore. She was suddenly very serious. "You have to leave," she says. "Evelina, you can't stay here."
Evelina hollers as an arrow is plunged into her friend's stomach. Nadine collapsed just before Evelina could reach her. And when she did, when she had held her dying friend's head in her hands, she finally woke up.
Evelina jumped, her forehead drenched in sweat. It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness, and her mind had to register where she was. Something shifted in the bed next to her. She turned to see a sleepy Coryo lift his head and mumble something.
"What?" She asked. Her ear was ringing slightly.
"Another nightmare?" He repeated.
"Yes," she breathed. She has them every night now. There was a moment when she was back home with Coryo that they seemed to disappear. But after watching this years tributes kill each other all over again, the nightmares poisoned her sleep.
He rolled over fully to look at her, and propped himself up on one elbow. She could barely make out the features of his face, but she saw a shimmer of blue in his eyes. "I could get you some help. Maybe a doctor, or something."
She groaned. "I don't need a pill, Coriolanus."
"It doesn't have to be that," he sighed. "Maybe there are some techniques to trick your mind into sleeping through them." He couldn't help but feel sorry for her, but deep down, he wished she would just get over it.
"I just didn't want this to change me," she says.
"Hm?" He asks, moving closer. He reaches out and pushes a lock of hair out of her eyes.
"Being here in the Capitol," she starts, "I didn't want it to change me."
"It hasn't," he laughed. "You're still the girl I fell in love with."
She shook her head. "I feel different. I even look different!"
"No, you don't," he insists.
"You wouldn't notice," says she. "But I'm certain that if I went home now my parents would notice something was off. I've gotten paler somehow, and even skinnier."
"Why wouldn't I notice?" He asked, his voice raising slightly. He seemed offended.
Because you don't notice anything, she thought. But she didn't say that. "We spend too much time together, you'd never know. It's not a bad thing." This seemed to reassure him.
He wished he knew what she was thinking, but it was so hard to tell sometimes. Her eyes never told what her mouth spoke. That upset him at times. "Just try not to think about it."
She gave a half-smile and nodded, lying back down next to him. She rested her head against his shoulder as he wrapped her in his arms. After a few hours she fell asleep to the sound of his soft breathing, and only awoke when the break of dawn emerged through their window.
꧁༒☬.☬༒꧂
"I really like your dress," Tigris, Coryo's cousin, commented. "The blue looks lovely on you."
"Thank you," Evelina smiled. Today was no celebration to her, but to the rest of the Capitol, it was. Evelina had a feeling Tigris didn't love it either. There was a look in her eye that didn't spark joy. Still, she had a spot as a stylist for next year's Games, and that seemed to brighten her spirits.
YOU ARE READING
Panem Forever
Fanfiction"hope. it is the only thing stronger than fear." Anyone would tell you that Evelina Sanders was not a "go getter". She was a gatherer, not a hunter. She wasn't particularly good at anything, though she could fancy herself a painter if she were aske...
