Grace's farewells

Subject: Grace's farewells Tue Apr 16, 2013 6:28 am

Grace Newton
Grace's farewells Graceg10

There was something about the finality of death that made everything else seem minor in consequence as Grace was escorted straight from the stage into the Justice Building to await her final five minutes with her family. Five minutes, five minutes that her son would probably be too young to remember and she would never have a chance to forget. Grace felt condemned by fate as she paced, she had never been inside the Justice Building before.. only around the back of it where she and Heike had stood to exchange vows and plastic rings. It had been Heike's idea to swap rings, the name and date printed with a special ink dye to show if someone had been exposed to a unhealthy dose of radiation. This was a bad time to be thinking of him but she couldn't help it and so curled up in a corner shivering as she waited for the Peacekeepers to tell her that she had no visitors. The dread had come upon her that Gustav would not show up, that he'd abandoned her already and she would never get a chance to say goodbye to her son.

Time passed and for awhile Grace lost all sense and reason as she thought of all the ways in which she would die and how nobody in her District would even care.
"You have a visitor" The gruff voice of a Peacekeeper caused her to look up, her muscles where cramped with tension and the exhaustion that had overcome her but when Gustav stepped into the room with her son she forced herself to get up, clinging to both of them she couldn't help but cry as he tried to reassure her that he would take care of Heike and that she would make it back alive. His voice however did not sound convincing, they both knew the odds of what she was going into, but still she tried her best to listen to his advice remembering that Gustav had told her that his brother had been a tribute and managed to make it to the final eight in the games that year.

She had two minutes left.

Grace's farewells Graceb10

Grace spent that time for all it was worth lavishing her son with kisses and tears, holding him to her chest she wanted to never let him go.

One minute...

The Peacekeeper by the door held up a finger to remind her that her time was almost up. Panic took over as she tried to think of everything she had to say to Gustav and remind him to take Heike to the clinic with the money they had won gambling on her. He had the last word though as she finally gave up her son to him.
"I brought you a change of clothes.." Grace had not even noticed the bundle under his arm until he handed her blue checkered dress that she had been supposed to wear for the reaping.
"Thank you" she said softly all she said as a second Peacekeeper arrived, they had probably sensed trouble the moment they saw her but Grace was too tired to put up a fight.

That was another thing she could regret later as she gave Gustav a small sad smile, he left and she collapsed onto the couch still holding her reaping dress.
She couldn't bring herself to wear it, not after what The Capital had done to her would she be making herself nice for them or their cameras. Grace guessed that this was the last time she would ever have such a choice and so she carefully folded the dress and when a Peacekeeper came in to say it was time she handed the bundle to him without a word. She would go as she arrived, dirty, angry and without hope. Five minutes did not change that but it did make it that little bit easier to hold her head up. She would not let them see her cry.