PROLOGUE;
fourteen years prior

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The sky glows in a dull amber hue, not a cloud to be seen, as the sun begins to sink and become swallowed by the horizon. It starts to give way to an undertone of purple-blue darkness cloaking the plains, signalling that evening has arrived. Sweltering heat is replaced by a comforting warmth, accompanied by a cool breeze.

     Not a person is in sight, except for them two. It is a fairly long walk from the Justice Building to their rural bungalow, far from the centre of District Six, and all the trains home don't head to their neighbourhood. They were steadily walking with a wagon full of Tesserae for a good half an hour, and they have about twenty minutes more before they'll get back, after they finish resting by the train tracks. In this area, they will remain undisturbed by vehicles — this old railway hasn't been operating since before The Dark Days, back when steam trains used to rattle and chug along it. Now, it is merely miles of wood and metal, with shrubs and small trees overgrowing on either side. It is of no use to Panem today when they have their high-speed Capitol trains.

     Vesper sits on the ground and fiddles with the wagon carrying their Tesserae. Her deep brown eyes are wide in curiosity as she tries to grab the wheels, rotating them and attempting to figure out the mechanism.

It's something to do for the three-year-old, since she's been bored to death for all of their long day — walking to the Justice Building, standing in line for what felt like forever to claim the Tesserae, and now the long journey back. To be fair, the commute there hadn't been as bad, since the wagon was empty and she could sit in it as her father pulled it along. But now her feet were throbbing with tiredness, she was exhausted both physically and mentally, and now she was getting sleepy.

Unsatisfied with the small area of the wagon she is able to reach, Vesper attempts to heave the wagon onto its side, but is quickly stopped by her father's hands catching it before the precious Tesserae can fall out.

"Whoa, Mija!" he exclaims. Once he's caught the wagon, he sighs in relief as he props it back upright, saving the monthly ration from spilling out onto the ground. Only a small handful of grains have slipped out of the bag, but most of it is still there. He will be nineteen next month, meaning the Tesserae program will no longer assist him. Whilst he'll be free from the Reaping, he'll have to find some way to earn enough so he can feed both him and his young daughter. What job would ever allow him to bring a toddler in, when he has no other family around to look out for her?

     Up close, you can really see how tired he is — he is far too young to be in pain every time he does something remotely strenuous, or to have hollow eyes that look like they had seen very many years.

He's never happy, Vesper senses. He just seems... sad.

     Often he would smile and laugh, but it'd never feel genuine. This is how she'd always known her father, though. Maybe it was just the way he was? She was too young to understand otherwise.

     From looking at the other families around them though, she knew other kids had something she didn't. A mother. She didn't understand why her mother was never around, but she never really missed the absence of something she never had. Her father always said she was too young to understand.

But Vesper wants to understand.

     He stands up and grabs the handle of the wagon, gazing out to the horizon. "It's getting late. Let's go home." he murmurs, glancing down at Vesper who is getting up on her feet and staggering over so she is leaning on his leg. She rubs her eyes with the back of her hand, yawning as she does. "You tired?"

     She doesn't respond, except for a light nod. After a moment of hesitation, he puts down the handle for a moment and kneels so he can pick her up. He rests Vesper on his hips, so that her head lies on his shoulder and her legs dangle down. She feels him wince as he straightens out his legs again, but he tries to hide it before she can notice.

     Vesper starts to fall asleep on the last stretch home, the gentle swaying of his gait lulling her into a doze. Her eyes flutter closed, and her breathing starts to fall in a pattern.

     She remembers something her father had told her earlier that day, about this being their last trip together to collect that grain. It was a trip they had been doing together for all her lifetime so far, and the times that they had gone it had felt like an adventure. Very rarely were there other occasions where they'd visit the bustling, industrial centre of District Six. And on this walk by the train tracks, they would actually have fun sometimes.

     Would they ever walk down this path again, now that they had no real need to anymore? Vesper hopes so. She wants these rare, special moments with her father to last. There's also this feeling she has inside of her that she can't quite place, that this will be as good as it gets for them.

     And years later, she finds that she was right.

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A/N;

we're back, baby!

this prologue is probably familiar to the 2019 readers, and it would be because it hasn't changed at all. in fact, it shouldn't be too much of a big deal that i've revamped this book's plot, since last time i didn't even get to the reaping before i unpublished it 😂

so, what do you guys think? i know this is only the prologue but it kind of sets the scene for vesper's past. her backstory is super sad though, and i'm still confused as to why i love to make my character's life so darn hard, but oh well... also it might be a while before other chapters come, but i had the prologue sitting in my drafts but was too excited to keep it there any longer.

[ published: 15th may, 2020 ]

— Imogen