NOW PLAYING........

                                                    "ultraviolence - lana del rey"

                                                      1:35 ───ㅇ───── 3:47

                                                                     ↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺

"brought me back, reminded me of when we were kids"

"he hurt me but it felt like true love"

"he used to call me poison like i was poison ivy"

"give me all of that ultraviolence"

"well, are you coming then?" astrid says, with an obvious look on her face as she turns away from me. her gaze is diverted towards the truck taking all the tributes away.

"coming where?" i asked, confusion etched on my face. her ideas were truly unpredictable, it was hard to know what she would do next, even after years of knowing her.

"to talk to lucy gray, obviously," she says, as though it's a given. she stretches her hand towards me, as a silent plea to follow her. this moment feels all too familiar for my liking. i huff, refusing her hand and walking in front.

when we get to the truck, the doors are about to close, panicking, astrid jumps in and so do i. she always manages to get me wrapped up in her problems.

"what are you both capitol rich kids doing here? haven't you tormented us enough," an unfamiliar voice spat. looking around to identify who said this, i make eye contact with a female tribute with short red hair. i recognized her from the reaping, she was from district 4. her eyes were full of loathing, her hands in a fist. she slowly stalks towards us, a menacing look on her face.

"i vote we kill them, what's there to lose, most of us are as good as dead already," tanner, another tribute argues. some of them nod their heads and i see astrid's hand on the knife in her pocket, her guard up.

"you can kill them, sure. but they'll kill your families back in the districts." lucy states simply, looks toward me and winks. i gulp, a sense of fear slowly filling me too. before the tributes could attack us, the truck started to rumble and suddenly tilted towards the bottom. the door flung open to reveal rocks surrounding the floor.

astrid was against the wall of the truck, trying desperately to hold on to the rods behind her. having no other choice, i stood in front of her, trying to support her body weight while holding on to the rods. my arms were around her shoulders, our bodies so close that there were mere inches between our faces.

everything else around us drowned out. there was a shift in the air and in her eyes. i gaze down, probably matching the same perplexed look on her face. her emerald eyes and the fire in them, the way her lips are pursing and her breath is wavering.

she leans in closer and before i could stop myself, so do i. we get close, closer than we've been in a long time and she closes her eyes. within a second, i lose my grip and fall downwards and astrid follows.

a/n-

i'm back!!

all my love, forever,

rory.