Dictated/Action

[the_effect_she_has]

[Katniss has been silent for a good six days from the time of nightmares. Curled up in a corner of her room, her journal closed and her eyes shut tight, she had been trying to drag herself back from the edge of insanity, from the edge of bad dreams. She slept, poorly, and ate what little she had in her room, but nothing more. All she could see was a series of deaths - hers and others - going forward in a bloody string...

And every time it started again, she would start the mantra.

I am Katniss Everdeen. I am seventeen years old. I have only fought in two Hunger Games. Peeta is not dead. Gale is not dead. Rue is not dead. Cinna is not dead... through all her friends and those she met only once, again and again, before she would whisper, I am not dead. I am not dead.

Her voice was hoarse, by the sixth day, because sometimes she had screamed it.]

[On the sixth day though, she turned on her radio and leaned her head against the cool stone of the wall, listening to music. She stretched out her legs, her arms, and sighed softly as she sang.]

[And as she did, the journal flipped open.]

Some nights I stay in cashing in my bad luck,
Some nights I call it a draw,
Some nights, I wish that my lips could build a castle
Some nights, I wish they'd just fall off

But I still wake up, I still see your ghost
Oh Lord, I'm still not sure what I stand for oh
What do I stand for? What do I stand for?
Most nights, I don't know anymore...
oh woah, oh woah, oh woah oh oh...

[She trailed off, and rubbed a hand over her face, before she breathed in deeply and pushed herself to her feet unsteadily.]

Time to be real again, Everdeen.

Comments

dictated;

[likebreathing]

No offense, but that stuff's crap.

[Don't mind him, he's still angry at the castle and venting it on others.]

Re: dictated;

[the_effect_she_has]

Uh.

[She raised both eyebrows at the journal, now bathed and clean, as she braided her hair. It was getting long again -- not the point. Guy was giving her grief.]

Okay. Sorry you think so?

[likebreathing]

[Said guy does like to do that.]

That what you usually write? Or listen to?

[He hasn't gotten the hang of this weird journal stuff yet so he's squinting at his own journal trying to figure out what the text is supposed to be..]

[the_effect_she_has]

I usually don't listen to anything, because we don't have a lot of music players on the Seam. Or in District 13. [Only when she was in the Capital, had there been such luxuries.]

But it's on, I'm listening to it. I like Mark's music. [Defensive for her friend? Just a little.]

[likebreathing]

District 13? That some kinda neighborhood in some small city somewhere?

[He's never heard of it before. Or the 'Seam,' whatever that is.]

[the_effect_she_has]

No, that's an entire District ... it's like, uh, a country. Like England.

[likebreathing]

District 13... [There's a break in the dictation as he tries to mull it over to himself.]

That supposed to be in Africa?

[He's never been the best at geography.]

[the_effect_she_has]

...Is Africa a country? It's not in Africa. It's in what's left of the United States.

[likebreathing]

[Aw, crap, future things. He hates future things.]

What's left? What the hell happened to America?

[the_effect_she_has]

I'm not sure. War, a lot of it. It basically wiped out great hunks of it.

[likebreathing]

[That's sobering. He frowns at his journal.]

War against who?

[the_effect_she_has]

[She shrugged thin shoulders.]

Not sure. I think it might have been ourselves, though.

[likebreathing]

.....Figures. [They're already fighting as is, where he comes from.] The mutant still alive by your point, or have we all been killed off by then?

[the_effect_she_has]

I don't think there are any of those, unless they are made. People do do a lot of genetic manipulation.

[likebreathing]

[He's going to assume that she means that they were all killed off.]

Why? 'Cause they want more powers?

[the_effect_she_has]

I guess. Or be prettier. I know people who genetically manipulated people so they look like cats.

[likebreathing]

[................]

How's that make you any prettier?