《Silence Hayley anderton》Chapter Eighteen
Advertisement
I finally pulled myself together, and headed off to Logan’s room. The events of that hour in my room will always be a strange mess in my memory, and I don’t even know if what I remember is true. All I knew was that I was on the brink of madness. One final push, and I’d have been over the edge.
I knocked on his door and waited. He came out several seconds later, looking rough. His hair was ruffled, and the shirt he wore was creased.
“Sorry. I fell asleep,” he admitted sheepishly “I thought it was best to get as much sleep as possible.”
“Sorry to disturb you.”
“No worries. I invited you, remember? Come in.”
I stepped inside and sat down on the bed to make myself comfortable.
“I see you still haven’t tidied your room.”
He laughed “Funnily enough, I have things I would rather be doing.”
I smiled back, but got back to business “So. What’s the plan? Go to the Cornocopia or run?”
“I think we should go to the Cornocopia. Think about it. We have no idea where we might be put. Our skills will be useless without food to keep us going and weapons for attack. And we have an advantage over most. There are two of us.”
“But what about the Careers? And Roger…”
“If we don’t go to the Cornocopia, they’ll hunt us down anyway. We at least need something to fight them with.”
I considered it quickly, then nodded in agreement “Ok. Sounds good.” I paused “Do you think we have a chance? Really?”
“I think you need to put it out of your mind and get some sleep. But yes. I think we do. I think you do.”
I hugged him, and said the words that needed to be said “I love you, you know that?”
“Of course I know. Who doesn’t?”
I laughed, a proper laugh. He was the only person able to make me laugh. I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek.
“Good luck, Logan.”
“Good luck, Raven. See ya at the Cornocopia, okay?”
“OK.”
* I headed back to my room and clambered under my duvet, but I knew I wouldn’t sleep. To keep myself occupied, I closed my eyes, stretched my fingers and imagined I had a piano sat in front of me. I bent the index finger on my right hand, and I could hear faintly in my mind the blissful sound of middle C. How I had missed music. I let my fingers soar through the air, hearing each note louder and louder each time. I played all the songs I knew. And then I finally came to the one I wrote myself. Once more, I wiggled my fingers to prepare, and began to play. And in my head, I sang to myself the lyrics
Advertisement
With trembling knees
And only the devil to please
You stepped into shadow
They have no room for the brave
All that they crave
Is your fear
Souls are made to be broken
The darkness has already spoken
And there is no going back
The road ahead is forever black
An undesired way to die
Another tear that will never dry
Gone forever
And even should you return
Hell doesn’t come without a burn
That lasts forever
Souls are made to be broken
The darkness has already spoken
And there is no going back
The road ahead is forever black
I couldn’t hear the piano any more, not matter how hard I tried. The magic had gone, and I was left with a feeling of complete emptiness. And I felt alone. More alone than I thought it to be possible. I couldn’t stand being on my own any longer, so I headed to Drew’s room. I know he told me he’d see me in the morning, but morning was too far away from my liking. Besides, I knew he’d be awake. The day before the Games? He’d be suffering as much as me, if not more.
I found him huddled in the corner of the room, like I had the last time I had been there, but he wasn’t screaming. In fact, I think what I saw was worse. He stared blankly ahead of him, seeing nothing, or maybe everything, I don’t know. I sighed and shook his shoulder. Luckily, this seemed to work and he snapped out of whatever trance he’d been in.
“Raven, what are you doing here?” he asked wearily.
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“That makes two of us then. Order me a hot drink, will you?”
I rolled my eyes at his rudeness “I’m the guest! It should be you waiting on me! Where are your manners?”
“Well seeing as you barged into my quarters uninvited, I’d say your manners aren’t up to scratch either. Now shift!”
Grudgingly, I ordered him a coffee, and myself some herbal tea. He raised his eyebrow at my choices, but said nothing. He clambered to his feet unsteadily, as though drunk, and wobbled his way over to the couch. He clutched his head and moaned.
“I have the worst headache ever.”
“Maybe it’s because you haven’t slept in over a week?”
“I never sleep,” he said with a small smile. I handed him his coffee, and he sipped it, the creases in his face softening as the drink warmed him up.
“That’s much better. Thank you.”
I nodded and sat down next to him. We weren’t the chattiest people in the world, but it was unusually quiet. Drew looked to be thinking hard about something.
Advertisement
“What’s on your mind?” I asked.
“I was just wondering…and I thought I could ask you. How did you… how did you get over your brother’s death?”
I laughed bitterly “I didn’t.”
“Then how come I’m in such a mess and you’re not?”
“I’m not right either. I don’t feel right. In here,” I said, tapping my skull with my finger “I haven’t been right in a long time.”
“Then what is the difference between us?”
I thought about it. “I keep it in. You let it out. I’ve built a barrier, so that nothing gets out, but things still get in. See what I’m saying? One day, I’m going to be holding so much in that I won’t be able to contain it. I’ll explode. You? You explode all the time.”
He laughed “I didn’t realise I was an explosive sort person.”
“You’d be surprised.”
We both laughed then. Okay, perhaps we were both a bit mentally unstable, and it wasn’t actually funny, but we both knew well enough that it’s better to laugh than cry. I nudged him.
“Hey. Tell me your best memory. Your happiest one.”
He wrinkled his nose “I don’t have many.”
“Come on, there must be something you can tell me.”
“I’m a terrible storyteller.”
“I don’t care.”
He closed his eyes, and didn’t say anything for a minute or so. Then they snapped back open “Alright. But this is just between us, OK? I don’t like to tell this story.”
“Of course.”
“Well…” he scratched his chin “I would have been ten at the time. I lived with my mother and father in a particularly poor part of District 10. But to me, it didn’t matter. We were…happy.” The word happy sounded foreign to his tongue, as though he didn’t quite understand the meaning of it “My birthday was approaching, which was always a dull affair. Of course, it was a little saddening that my parents couldn’t afford the time or money to make my birthday special. So I wasn’t looking forward to it, really.”
“This is meant to be happy!”
“It is! Just shut up and listen. Like I was saying, I wasn’t looking forward to my birthday. I thought it would be just like any other day. But when I got home from school that day, I was first of all amazed to find that my parents were home. Normally, they worked late with the animals, but there they both were, smiling with something held behind their backs. The second surprise was a small gift, wrapped in wax paper that they must have got from the butchers. I asked them what it was, and they told me I’d have to open it and find out. Inside, was a red yoyo. It sounds like an average present to anyone who is privileged enough to have a toy of their own, but to me, it was the best thing I’d ever received. Even now, I would trade all my wealth for that yoyo.” He dug in his pocket and pulled out the yoyo “Luckily I still have it. Here, have a go.”
I played with it for a few moments, smiling. The string was grubby, and the wood needed painting again, but I knew it was only because it had been put to good use. I handed it back to him, and he turned it over in his hands, over and over. Then it clicked.
“Hang on! In the arena…”
“Yep. It was my District token.”
“I thought that you had just found it!” I exclaimed. It surprised me that it meant so much to him, that he’d take it with him. His eyes were transfixed on his yoyo as he spoke.
“That’s it. My best memory.”
“If you don’t mind me asking…where are your parents?”
I immediately knew it was the wrong question to ask. He stiffened, and his eyes widened.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
“No!” Drew gasped, sounding like he’d just exhaled all the air in his lungs at once, “No, it’s OK. You just caught me off guard. Do you still want to know?”
I nodded, but with uncertainly. Drew went back to tossing his yoyo from hand to hand.
“Dead,” he said simply, his eyes so distant that if he wasn’t talking, I’d be seriously worried “I was a nuisance to the Capitol. Still am. I did things that perhaps I shouldn’t. More trouble than I was worth, but I was young, and still well known in the Capitol. They couldn’t kill me. I was a victor. There would be questions asked. And so…they killed my parents. And I watched. Pow, pow!” he said, his eyes not moving, but his hands making gun motions to go with the sound effect “Boom! Dead. Gone. Gone. Gone…”
I was terrified. It was like the night of his visions. He stood abruptly and ran to the bathroom. I heard him vomit, and I rushed to his side. He was curled up in a ball on the floor wailing. There was nothing I could do, but lie down next to him and let him cry on my shoulder. The floor was cold and hard, but in comparison to the pain I felt inside, it was a mere tickle. And it was there that we both fell asleep, trapped in a world of misery and torture.
Advertisement
- In Serial6 Chapters
Northwoods Trapper
In the wild places of our planet, dark vestiges of our paranormal past yet cling to twisted life. In the past, the hunters and trappers of the world were tasked with removing such blights from society's fringes - legal assassins, enlisted to enforce the will of civilization against those unnatural, otherworldly hosts. Nowadays, we're not so lucky. With the idea of proper monster-hunting fading from public perception, the once-prestigious mantle is donned by amateurs, hobbyists, and self-taught warriors. It pays poorly, it's dangerous, and people would rather do something that gets them rich or famous or drowning in attention. Most often, new-age monster hunters are born from tragedy. They lack the tact, training, and funding of hunters passed. Instead, they have only their wits and brawn to carry them through. So it is with our hero. In the woods of the American Midwest, foul creatures lurk. Tabitha Varna, a young college drop-out scarred by her past, is determined to uproot them or die trying. Sometimes she hopes for both.[Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]
8 198 - In Serial13 Chapters
Chimera Carnage: Brotherhood of Blood and Steel
The story of a man who woke up from a Cryo-Stasis Preservation after 189 years with the help of an AI.Due to some abnormalities, aside from his own name, he does not know who he is and how he arrived in an unknown planet inside a ruined ship. Much more, he wore a suit that seems to be what is keeping him alive!
8 207 - In Serial25 Chapters
Glitch — Alpha [Swedish] [Svenska]
Otilia jobbar på förskolan när ett barn försvinner rakt framför ögonen på henne. Sekunder efteråt kommer barnet tillbaka, som att inget hänt. Hon tror att hon är överarbetad, men när försvinnanden börjar hända överallt och de som kommer tillbaka inte är sig själva, förstår Otilia att något, någonstans gått riktigt snett. När hon och hennes pojkvän får en idé om vad som kan vara orsaken gör de allt för att informationen ska komma fram till rätt personer. Detta är en skräck/thriller som innehåller ganska mycket blod och våld. Även mot och med barn. Om detta stör dig råder jag att du håller dig borta. Detta är också den första boken jag någonsin skrev (2015, och knappt rörd sedan dess) och var ämnad att bli en trilogi. Eftersom den bara har legat och skräpat i hårddisken under alla dessa år tänkte jag att jag lika gärna kunde släppa den här. Trevlig läsning! ********* For English readers: (Might as well add this information in English to save the lovely souls looking through our works some time) I probably won't translate this work, but I'm working on another translation within YA, if that's something you'd be interested in. This one's horror/thriller, so.. yeah. Maybe sometime in the future. Otilia works at a daycare when a child disappears. Seconds later, the child reappears, like nothing had happened. She thinks she's worked too much, but when disappearences start to happen all around the globe, she and her boyfriend realize that something has gone really, really wrong. When they get an idea about what could be the cause, no matter how unbelievable, they will do everything in their power to get the information to the right people. This was my first-ever-novel and my first gamelit story (though I had no idea that was a thing/genre at the time). This novel contains a lot of violence and blood and can be uncomfortable to read for some people. There is also some violence from, and off-screen violence to, children.
8 185 - In Serial17 Chapters
The Tale of A Fortunate Slave
In the world of Valeria, The capital of The Kingdom of Albert is besieged and yet our story dose not begin in a stronghold or castle. Our protagonist is not strong or powerful, quite the opposite in fact, she is a ex-slave. An ex-slave that got "lucky" in a way that some fear and despise while others enjoy and like her. This is the story of the quite Ash the slave turned personal servant of the daemon princess Lucy Darkheart. This is very much a work in progress so please understand if there's any mistakes or errors. Not only that but I am a novice so that kind of thing is to be expected. Thank you! Edit: Updates are whenever I make one or two new chapters so expect them to be as inconstant as a dragons fire breath. *Tags and Genres may be added as the story progresses. I have a Twitter now cause it would not stop bugging me when I wanted to look at news for a game, the link is here, https://twitter.com/JustAPhoenix2 . I don't know if it works or not on the edit screen, but you can copy/paste it anyway. I may do stuff there like give insight to some of the more trivial parts of the characters lives. (That refers to ALL character, not just Ash.)
8 80 - In Serial9 Chapters
Love island 2019
Daisy goes on love island to neet love and have fun, but never knew it would actually happen.
8 176 - In Serial27 Chapters
ρυℓѕє; chanlix. [BOOK ONE] ✓
"Whenever, you know, I got up and someone called my name; My heart started beating faster for some reason. I guess I always wanted to check my pulse to see why its beating so hard? Natural instinct, I guess." - Felix Lee.
8 296