Stay with me, always.

Chapter 47. Willow

When I woke up, Soarynn was missing.

I had to calm myself down and remind myself that we were on a moving train and that she couldn't have gotten too far. So I went to the viewing car, figuring it was the best bet.

I was right, she was looking out the window as we glided through the forest. District Seven was lumber, so I had a feeling we'd be seeing some trees, a lot of trees.

Soarynn turned to look at me, "Hey," she whispered, and I gave her a small smile, "Morning."

I sat down next to her, noticing the half-empty mug of hot chocolate that sat on the table next to her. "How long have you been awake?" I asked, hoping it hadn't been for too long.

She waved me off, "A couple of hours, but I've nodded off a few times, one of the attendants found me and brought me hot chocolate."

I raised my eyebrows, I never got offered a hot chocolate during my sleepless nights, but I had a sneaking suspicion that people tended to favor her over me these days.

Winning the Hunger Games tends to have that effect.

"There's a lot of trees," I gestured to the foliage surrounding us, she sighed contentedly, "Isn't it wonderful? Reminds me of the woods in Twelve." I looked through the windows, watching as the trees blurred by, "Did you go into the woods a lot?" I asked, not sure if I wanted to know the answer.

She hummed, "I was really little when Mr. Yearwood would take us, he wanted us to get the lay of the land, get comfortable in the woods," she explained, "they were like a second home to us, I'd run around with the boys for hours, and it was always a place to escape."

Escape? I suppose you could try to escape through the woods, you'd have to be pretty knowledgeable to survive though, and desperate.

"From the heat," she added, "and just from everything in general, we didn't have to think about anything in there, our families, being hungry, the Games."

I nodded, "That's why you were so comfortable in the arena," I remembered her and Jessup kicking off their boots the second they noticed the mud, and the way she knew about the rain before it even started just by feeling the bark of a tree, or how Jessup had so easily tracked down the wild turkey he shot.

They got very lucky with that arena.

She nodded, "Jessup obviously knew more than I did, I couldn't make a fire to save my life, even after the instructor showed me in the Tribute Center."

I perked up, what had the Careers said? I think it was Cleo who had mentioned Jessup. "What was Cleo talking about? She said she didn't want to run into Jessup after what happened in the Tribute Center."

Soarynn frowned, "They were...picking on me, not that it wasn't expected, almost all of them hated me. They had good reason to. But Beckett was relentless, pulling my hair, cutting me in line, spitting in my food, I mean it was awful, I was surprised he didn't hunt me down the second the gong went off. But one day he kicked me hard, right in the stomach," she reached down as if remembering the pain.

"The instructors and Peacekeepers told me to avoid him, but it was pointless. But once he kicked me, Jessup lost it. He would've killed Beckett, almost choked him to death that is."

No wonder the Careers were wary of Jessup, he truly was unhinged.

She laughed to herself, "He took out Cleo by accident, sent her flying across the room when he attacked Beckett, think it scared her pretty bad, even though she was scary on her own, she was pretty tiny."

She had a point, Cleo was shorter than Soarynn, and even though she was ferocious, most people trumped her in size.

"No wonder she was worried about him," I murmured, "Jessup was pretty scary." She nodded, "He wasn't always that way," she said quietly.