A Songbird, A Snake, & A New World

08

I DO NOT OWN THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES.

Howell House. Logan, West Virginia. Later that night.

While the dead body of Laurel Simms lay dead on the ground, Coriolanus Snow was trying to come up with a plan. Lucy Grey Baird was clinging to him, trying to comprehend having almost been raped and Samuel Howell was blubbering like the baby bitch that he was.

"Coriolanus...he was gonna...I can't..." Lucy Gray cried as she couldn't bare to say the R word; to describe what had almost been done to her with Samuel's involuntary compliance.

"Shh, Lucy Gray, its all right; you don't have to say it." Coryo told his songbird as he held her tightly jn his arms as she shed her tears on his shirt.

"He's dead Coryo...they'll string you up for this!" She said in pure terror as she couldn't lose her capitol boy. She had never known love like the way he loved her; had sacrificed time and time again for her to live.

"No one is getting strung up." Coryo promised Lucy Grey as he kissed the tears from her cheeks before holding her face in his hands. "Listen to me, I am going to get us out of this. I swear to you Lucy Grey, I will get rid of the corpse and no one, except us, ever has to know about this."

"But Coryo...I can't stop...thinking of him...grabbing me." Lucy Grey whispered in fear as the bruises on her arms were still fresh.

"Yes Lucy Grey, you can and you have to." Coryo insisted as he made her look him straight in his blue eyes. "You can't show any fear and you can't let them see your trauma. The second that they smell fear on you, they've got you and they'll never let you go."

"I can't hide this...what that bastard wanted to do to me..." Lucy Grey shook her head as her Capitol boy silenced her with a passionate kiss.

"Yes you can, Lucy Grey. If you can survive the Hunger Games, you can survive anything." Coryo promised her as he took her hand and put it on his heart while he put his own hand on hers. "Now, you are going to go in there and get Esther ready for bed. You're going to tuck her in and sing her a lullaby and act like nothing is wrong."

"OK..." Lucy Grey whispered as she knew that she had to control her emotions if she wanted to protect Coryo and herself. She kissed him once more before rushing into the house, leaving Snow with a sobbing Samuel.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this..." Samuel wept as a wave of anger bubbled up inside Coriolanus and he grabbed the Howell boy and pinned him to a tree.

"For once, shut up!" He growled as he was putting the fear of Snow in young Samuel. "You pimped out my girl behind her back, you sold her to that pig for a fucking fraternity, you arranged her rape!"

"NO!" Samuel hollered in pain as he struggled to get free. "Laurel said...he was just going to take Lucy Grey out for a couple of drinks, he didn't say he was going to do her. You really think I would have set this up if I thought he was going to rape her?"

"I don't give a damn what you thought; you knew she was mine!" Coryo snarled as Samuel looked like he was seeing a monster before him. "You are so lucky that I stopped him before he could help himself. Because I swear...if Lucy Grey had been raped, you'd be lying dead next to him."

"It's all my fault..." Samuel wailed as the tears fell from his eyes like fat rain.

"All of this is your fault and now you're going to help me clean up the mess." Coryo demanded angrily as he let go of Samuel.

"How, we can't just hide a stiff?" Samuel asked incredulously. "Besides, the ground's still hard from winter. We'd never be able to dig a hole deep another to bury him in."

"We don't need a hole." Coryo said with a smirk as he grabbed Simms's arms. "Your dad told me about the crawl space under the house that hardly gets used. It's covered in gravel and we can bury him there."

"What...we can't just stuff in the crawl space." Samuel argued desperately as the thought made him sick to his stomach.

"We can and we will, now grab his legs!" Coryo commanded as the young man reluctantly did as he was told. The 2 proceeded to carry the body into the house as carefully as they could. Luckily for them, Joshua and Ruth were still watching ER as they carried the body past the living room. Meanwhile, the door to Esther's room was almost closed, but Coryo could hear Lucy Grey singing a lullaby for the young girl. He and Samuel eventually made their way to a closet near the back of the house. Coryo went in and found the trap door that Mr. Howell had mentioned. He opened the latch and looked down at the gravel covered crawl space. Coryo motioned for Samuel to climb down and then he followed suit with the corpse in tow. The space lived up to its name as the 2 couldn't stand up and had to crawl around. They held onto Laurel's shirt as they pulled him to the farthest part of the space, away from the door.

"Can I go now?" Samuel asked as he wiped his tears with his sleeve.

"No, you're going to help me cover him." Coryo snapped as they began to pour handfuls of gravel onto the body. They kept this up for about 10 minutes until the body was more or less covered. The covering wouldn't hold up under close inspection, but it would be sufficient as long as no one looked too closely. Coryo and Samuel then crawled back to the opening and climbed out with their clothes covered in gravel.

"So...we're done now?" Samuel asked wearily.

"Yes...just remember that you will join your frat boyfriend down there if word of this ever parts your lips again." Coryo warned as he gave Samuel a cold look as he went to the bathroom to take a shower and wash the filth off him.

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