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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
IN THE ARENA
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THE PENTHOUSE OF the Snow family was nothing like that in her memories. Even though she had only walked down the hall to the living room, she could see the lack of furniture. And that smell...

Was that boiled cabbage?

Not even the jasmine tea that Tigris had made for her and Mrs. Plinth was strong enough to overpower the smell of... what exactly? Poverty?

Aurora turned around on her chair and stared into the dark hall. The Snows had been rich and she had always thought that it had stayed that way, even after the war.

Coryo had certainly done a job of fooling everyone or maybe only her. Maybe she had spent too much time being in her own head the last years that she had been ignorant to her friend's wellbeing.

It made sense now why the boy had always demanded to meet either at the library or at her place for their studies.

His grandmother, on the other hand, was the same as the woman in Aurora's memory. Still not being the nicest person in Panem, she sat on her own chair and watched Mrs. Plinth quietly crying in her handkerchief.

Aurora had no recollection of her own grandparents. They had either died before the war or before she was born and the only stories she had heard from her mother hadn't been good ones.

The girl stared at the teacup in front of her. She watched the steam rising, almost being hypnotized by it. Coryo wasn't home yet, so the four waited. Mrs. Plinth had told the Snows the same story she had told Aurora before.

And now, thinking about him throwing the chair, leaving the auditorium, and walking away from her, the girl couldn't help it but get worried herself.

What if he'd done something stupid? Of course he had been upset about what they'd done to Marcus, she had been too, but not even coming home? It was already dark outside.

"Coryo!" Tigris jumped up from her chair at the sound of the front door opening.

The blonde stepped into the living room, surprise on his face as he saw his visitors. The situation was quickly explained and all he did at first was to stare at Aurora. She thought that he wasn't happy about her being here right now.

"He was upset, ma'am. But I don't know that it's any cause for worry. He probably just needed to blow off some steam. Took a long walk or something. I'd do the same thing myself." He nodded at his words, like always being the polite boy that he was.

"Aurora already told me that he's been upset. But it's so late. It isn't like him to up and disappear, not without letting his ma know," Mrs Plinth answered, still having this thin voice. She was on the verge of crying again.

Coriolanus looked at his friend again, an eyebrow raised to which she shook her head barely noticeable. She hadn't told the woman that her son had thrown a chair around the auditorium in his rage. She would probably worry even more if she knew.

"Is there anywhere you can think of he might go? Or somebody he might visit?" Tigris asked the woman softly. She sat across from Aurora on the table, only being illuminated by the television and a soft glowing chandelier that had seen better days.

Aurora had seen more luxury in her own home during the war than she saw here now.

"No. No. Your cousin and Aurora are his only friends," Mrs Plinth sobbed.

She smiled at the woman, one hand wrapped around her teacup and the other laying on the table. Her pinky finger was itching again, it was insufferable.

Aurora glanced at Coryo again. She had always seen him as her friend, even now, although he had so effortlessly lied to her for years. But she always listened to her intuition and that told her that he was a good person.

It wasn't long after that they decided to get home again. Sejanus was probably in his bed now after running around the entire city, they thought.

But Mrs. Plinth stopped at the door, turned around to the television, and ignored Aurora and the boy next to her.

"Shall I walk you to your car? I bet you'll find Sejanus in bed," Coryo repeated. It had been a long day for all of them.

Mrs Plinth continued to stare at the tv.
"No, Coriolanus. My boy's right there."

Aurora furrowed her brows in confusion, thinking that it wasn't possible that the boy had materialized out of nothing into the Snow's living room. But then horror overcame her as her eyes found the tv.

The arena was dark, only illuminated by a soft glowing moon, but she recognized the figure that stood in front of Marcus's body in an instance.

It was Sejanus, sprinkling something over the body.

The horror grew even more at that realization. He was in the arena. What on earth was he doing in the arena?

"What's he doing?" The grandmother asked.

"He's putting bread crumbs on the body. So Marcus has food on his journey," the woman replied, her eyes glued to the screen.

Aurora's stomach dropped, presumably even to ground level. What if the other tributes noticed his presence? What if they hurt him?

"His journey where? He's dead!" The elderly woman exclaimed.

Yep, Aurora thought, she's still the same kind old lady that I remember from my childhood.

"Back to wherever he came from. It's what we do, back home. When someone dies," Mrs. Plinth replied quietly.

And although it wasn't the right time for that, the girl felt touched. How thoughtful of a tradition that was.

"That's beautiful," Aurora remarked as she watched Sejanus kneel in front of Marcus. She ignored the disgusted look that the grandmother sent her.

The phone rang, interrupting the silence that had settled over the five, and the blonde boy answered it. He spoke a few words and then after a few seconds of silence he said, "Yes, Dr. Gaul, she's here with me."

He waved for Aurora to come over and suddenly, the warm feeling that had occupied her chest for the last couple of moments made room for the horror again.

"When I asked Casca what classmates the boy was close to, your names were the only ones he could think of," Dr. Gaul told them over the phone.

Aurora and Coryo stood closely together, their faces almost touching as they listened to the words of the Head Gamemaker. Aurora still couldn't detect a single emotion in the woman's voice.

"I want you two and his mother here at the arena in twenty minutes. You'll lure him out. No, just dim the lights naturally!" She yelled the last sentence to someone else and hung up without waiting for their answer.

Aurora glanced at Coryo with wide eyes. Sejanus was in big trouble, she just knew it.

Exactly twenty minutes later, the three left the Plinths' car. Peacekeepers were standing in front of a van, talking to whomever was inside. Aurora's heart was beating faster with every second.

Twenty minutes had already passed, what if something had already happened to him?

Dr. Gaul and Dean Highbottom marched over to them, not being happy in the slightest. Aurora's eyes darted from the woman's face to the arena, scared of what her plan might be.

Although it was a chilly night, she broke out into a sweat. She rubbed her hands clean on her skirt, only now noticing that she was still wearing her school uniform.

Coriolanus was to go into the arena and bring back Sejanus quickly, that was the plan. Aurora protested, she wanted to join him, said that they had a bigger chance being the two of them.

But Dr. Gaul ignored her wishes. And as the boy was escorted to the entrance by Peacekeepers and Mrs. Plinth kept rambling something, Dr. Gaul was watching Aurora closely.

She didn't know why and she couldn't care less, she had much bigger worries right now. She wasn't even wondering why she had been ordered to be here when all she was allowed to do was wait impatiently.

The dean and the Head Gamemaker went back to their van and at least a little relief washed over the girl. She was already tense, she didn't need Dr. Gaul's emotionless presence to make her even more nervous.

"It was night the first time I saw the Capitol," Mrs. Plinth told her.

Ugh, even Aurora's casted pinky finger was sweating. She couldn't even concentrate on the woman's words.

"Sejanus kept telling me that everything was going to be okay. He's a good boy, he just takes things directly to his heart," she mumbled.

"He is a good boy," Aurora agreed, but couldn't help herself from cursing at him in this moment. She was so scared right now. The last time she had felt a similar level of fear had been during the war.

What would she do if anything would happen to him?

His empathy, his compassion, the aspects she liked so much about him, were the very things getting him in trouble now.

Why doesn't he think? She asked herself.

The worry about him was bigger than the anger she felt right now. Stupid decisions like that got people killed. He knew that, so why?

Aurora didn't realize that Mrs. Plinth had pulled her into a side hug, trying to calm the girl's shaking down and find consolation in her own fear.

Waiting for a sign of life was agony and hours and days and weeks could've passed and Aurora would still stand here in front of the arena.

The moving of the Peacekeepers in the distance caught her attention and the spot of Academy red was all she needed to let go off Mrs. Plinth and ran towards the arena's entrance.

She saw Coryo's golden locks but where was Sejanus? Where was her Sejanus?

Out of breath and the tears already streaming down her face, she saw him laying on the ground, panting.

The relief that flooded through her almost knocked her off her feet. She was light as a feather as she ran the remaining yards towards him, only having eyes for him.

He was everything in this moment and Aurora would have cursed at herself for not realizing sooner, if she could've thought straight in this moment.

She let herself fall on the ground next to him, not noticing the annoyed glances of the Peacekeepers or the blood on Coryo's shirt. The tears welled up in her eyes as she mumbled his name inaudibly.

She wanted to scream, to let her relief out, to let the world know how happy she was that he was still alive. But instead, Aurora sobbed.

"It's fine, Rory," he told her, still breathless and barely managing to lift himself up from the dirty ground.

A chuckle got mixed up in her sobs and she slid even closer to him. Oh, how she loved the way he said her name!

Aurora grabbed his face carefully, stared into his eyes that for once reflected the night sky and not the sun, and pressed her lips onto his.

She didn't see the rolling of the Peacekeepers' eyes nor did she hear the sigh that Coryo let out.

Sejanus had been surprised at first, but caught himself quickly. And as he kissed her back, it was only the two of them in this world.

The dark world exploded in thousands of lights and the girl could've stayed exactly where she was for the remaining years of her life, but Sejanus finally pulled away.

"My calf," he mumbled and only now did she see the small pool of blood surrounding his leg.

Aurora had been oblivious to a lot of things that night, especially the critical way Dr. Gaul was watching her.

But now sitting in the Plinths' car again, still feeling Sejanus's lips on hers, all the exhaustion of the day fell off her. Mrs. Plinth smiled at her from the side and Coryo and Sejanus were on the way to the Citadel for their medical care.

She didn't notice the dark clouds on the horizon that would take her new found happiness away from her pretty quickly.

mickey here

Finally???