I HAD THE SAME BLACK-MATTE SUITCASE IN HAND, rolling behind me as I walked down the street, just past a small food market that had been set up by what appeared to be a local family. With Lucy Gray standing behind it, grinning at each person who walked by. Which, now, included me.

Lucy Gray's face being the last familiar one I'd see before leaving District 12 felt like some sick joke. I watched as the familiarity set in her features and once they did, I looked away. I didn't bother hiding my distaste either, not until she called out my name and stepped in front of me.

"Well, hello, stranger." She's beaming at me from ear-to-ear and I can hear it in her voice. On a good day, I might smile back at her but honestly, nothing in my body will allow me to. Her eyes fall on the luggage in my hand and her face drops. "Well, where are you going?"

"Home." I reply, short and simple and not wanting her to have any more insight on my life than she ready has via Coriolanus.

She places a hand on the side of my arm and she spares me a look of sympathy. "I'm so sorry about everything, Marian—I didn't mean to ruin anything between you and Coriolanus, I swear. I—I'll never see him again. Okay? Just... don't leave because of me."

I scoff, not bothering to hold back an ounce of my annoyance. Coriolanus has murdered innocents and that is why I'm leaving. "Okay, Lucy Gray."

I hope she feels a sting in my words. I hope she feels guilty and that she's actually done wrong because she has.

I look back up, away from at my feet and when I peer ahead, around Lucy Gray's head, I see a crowd of people that have formed and a line of peacekeepers.

I haven't been out of the house much, and obviously, I haven't been able to explore the city much in these last few weeks, but, whatever this is—it causes my stomach to twist into knots.

"What's over there?" I ask, nodding my head toward the crowd.

She turns her head just enough to see what I'm regarding. "Oh, that's the hanging tree."

"The hanging tree?"

Two peacekeepers stomp by us, a man in grasp and it feels like a punch to my gut.

"Where people get hanged for punishment."

I thought I'd gotten away from the killing—at the Capitol. But here, they're hanging people in front of their families.

I nod, understanding but every hair on my body spikes up as I dare to walk toward the crowd.

As I join the fourth row of people, right against the aisle and giving me nearly perfect access to the platform and what's going on exactly.

I spot Coriolanus. He's standing there, gun slung over his torso as he holds his head high. However, his face is contorted in guilt and he's looking around to see if anyone suspects it.

I do.

His eyes fall on me and the tightening of his jaw intensifies and I watch as his eyes go wide.

He knows something but he doesn't want me to know it. He's done something but I'm not supposed to know until it's already happened.

His eyes quickly move from mine and to something behind me and I can see his breath hitch as he swallows, his Adam's apple bobbing.

I turn around to follow what he's looking at and my heart sinks. I feel as thought I've been punched directly in the gut and all the air has been knocked out of my body.

Sejanus.

His face is hardly recognizable with the black and blue bruises covering his face—he's taken numerous beatings clearly and I have no idea why but I'm petrified because the first thing he does is call out for Coryo with a shaky voice.

Coriolanus's voice remains still and hard, though. He's clearly the only one who can dig my brother out of this whole but he's not moving and I feel utterly helpless and confused beyond my mind as I try to fumble the pieces of this puzzle together.

Sejanus can hardly even walk straight as he's forced up those steps and onto that platform and I feel like there's just been a thousand and one needles shoved into my heart.

"Coryo," he says to Coriolanus, his voice so shaky I can hardly even make out what he's saying. "Coryo!"

Coriolanus isn't fucking moving and when I look back up at Sejanus he's staring right at me with tear-filled eyes and I don't think I'll ever forget it.

"Capitol has received word via jabberjay that this man conspired to break into our basis jail." A man in a similar to uniform to the peacekeepers says, and I'm only left to infer that he's the upper hand—the commander—in all of this.

And it all clicked.

Coriolanus has turned Sejanus in.

"No!" A cry aches—the first thing I'm able to say—throughout my throat as I try desperately to push past this crowd and make it to the stage. "No, please! Please!"

They continue to place Sejanus' swollen face in the rope's hole and all I can hear is my own heartbeat nearly thumping out of my chest.

"Coriolanus, please!" I beg, almost to the front row now. His face remains still; barely moving a muscle as he continues his refusal to look at me.

They play a recording of Sejanus's voice—a confession, proof—and Sejanus' cries only get louder. He cries out for Coryo one more time, but then, his eyes fall on me and his eyes well with tears as he cries for me. "No, no, no! Mari! Mari!"

I don't think I've ever felt so helpless nor so heartbroken in my entire life. I'm pleading for my brother's life—Hell, his life lies in the hands of my love but Coriolanus is an entirely different person now, someone I don't recognize. A monster.

I've made it to the front, after much pushing, and for a split second I think I might make it.

The platform from beneath Sejanus—and the other two hung men beside him—releases, and that's it.

My brother is dead and I was the last person to look at him as he took his last breath. He was panicking and crying and begging for someone to save him but I couldn't fucking move.

A scream escapes my throat and I'm not sure I've ever heard a sound so loud--so raw. Before I can even process it, I feel that I've fallen to my knees and my cheeks are now wet with tears. My shoulders are shuddering with every cry that aches my throat and I no longer have control over my own body.

I'm a puddle of tears and havoc and Coriolanus is to blame.

The world falls silent for a moment, regardless of my sobs, and I can feel the energy shifting around me.

My mind wastes no time, before I can comprehend it, I'm walking toward Coriolanus. A stranger to me now.

I watch as his own blue eyes prick with tears and the muscles in his jaw work back and forth. I slap him, and he accepts it--he accepts it because he knows it's the least he deserves.

I went to push him—to jab my fists into his chest but before I had a chance to, the officiate general has come off of the stage to grab me and pull me away from Coriolanus.

He grabs my arms behind my back and throws me on the ground. My concussion from the games just healed and I was surely about to get another.

I fell over of myself, my knees hitting hard against the pavement, giving me barely any time to recover before the man takes his baton and waves it in the air, soon clashing it into my back.

A sharp, unworldly pain spirals up my spine and tingles all of my nerves and when I collapse face first on the ground. A seething gasp of pain sounds and I'm honestly not sure if it's come from me or not.

The world is a blur and all I can feel is pain.

Pain everywhere. All over my body.

There's a yell—a deep grunt that surely hasn't come from me.

Slowly, I peer my head out from the shield I've made with my arms and what I see is the same vicious man beating on someone else—with Lucy Gray's small frame trying to pull him away.

It's failing terribly, as you can imagine, but I notice that Coriolanus is no longer standing in front of the stage and I realize that he's taking a beating for me—he's trying to turn 2 wrongs into a right but most importantly, he's giving me an open shot to leave.

BLAKELY SPEAKS !

i know i asked y'all for help to decide but im just gonna make the ending of this book a sad one and then write a sequel with a surprise ending 😜