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Pearl didn’t know where she was. All she knew was that she was cold.
It was like floating through an abyss, like lying in the powder snow until she couldn’t tell what was real and what was her hallucinations. Until her whole body was numb, until her world was nothing but silence and buzzing.
She couldn’t open her eyes, couldn’t move her limbs, hell she couldn’t feel them. It was just floating in the quiet coldness, letting her mind wander through the fog.
It was relaxing. She didn’t want to leave it.
But of course, the silence slowly turned to static buzzing, with the faint mumbling of voices beginning to break through. Despite the intense numbness that encompassed her body and mind, she could feel the ghost touches of hands on her, moving her.
The powdered snow always leads to hallucinations in the end. It was usually a marker of when to start getting out, before she went too far. She wasn’t trying to kill Scott anyways.
But she was so tired. She didn’t want to get out, to give up on the peaceful numbness and let the pains set in. To leave the soft pillows of silence to the loud and hard world.
Just a little longer.
“-she’s so cold-”
She couldn’t quite make out the voice or connect who it might be from, her hallucinations had been getting more variety to them. It used to just be her brother, Cleo, and Scott.
“-earl, can you hear me-”
Was that… Gem? Had her hallucinations progressed that far? She didn’t like it, trying to bury herself deeper into the silence of the snow.
“-it normally takes a while to come back-”
Grian’s voice, distant but so worried . It didn’t make sense, the words felt garbled to Pearl but she could tell Grian was upset. She didn’t like that either.
“God I’m so sorry Pearl.”
Scott. Pearl’s whole body burned at his words with emotions she had no idea how to decipher. She didn’t want him here and yet she did.
“Her injuries look pretty bad though…”
Gem again. God Pearl missed her, she missed her warm hugs and big smiles. Maybe if she stayed in the snow she could go back to her.
“She’ll recover. We just need her to wake up.”
God dammit why wouldn’t they just let her die-
“Please wake up Pearl.”
It was like hitting the ground after a long fall. Pain flared through her entire body, so sudden and sharp that she couldn’t retreat back into the numbness to escape it. Her eyes begrudgingly fluttered open with a groan, tears burning to her eyes at the pain.
She knows she’s not in her tower immediately. The ceiling is a pale teal and she can see beams of warm light spilling in through an ivy coated window. The smell of some sort of herbal tea is wafting through the house and she can’t hear the soft breathing of Tilly.
Someone grabs her hand, the sensation strange as though muffled, and a head of fiery orange hair pops into her vision. She has to blink a few times before she can finally recognize it as Gem.
“Pearl,” Gem’s voice is so soft and sad, wilting and twisting with tears as she smiles down at Pearl and lets out a mix of a laugh and a sob. She pulls Pearl’s hand up to her face and presses her cheek against the back of it, tears warm against Pearl’s bandaged hand.
She missed her so much. Pearl feels tears fill her eyes and she lets out a shaky little sob. The last few months had felt like a painful eternity without Gem and now she was back.
Another head of brown hair pops into her view, pushing past Gem and barreling into Pearl. She braces for pain but the blur of a person is surprisingly gentle and cautious, wrapping her in a firm hug and spreading their wings around her. A smell of freshly baked bread fills her nose and she instantly recognizes it as Grian.
He’s crying. She can tell by the shake of her brother’s shoulders and the warm tears grazing her skin where he’s buried his face into the crook of her neck. She doesn’t know why at all.
Last time they’d spoken, he’d hated her. Left her behind just like everyone else did.
And now he’s hugging her and babbling into her shoulder about how sorry he is and how everything will be okay and Pearl is just so confused because what in the world is even going on?
Then she turns her head and sees Scott standing a few feet behind Grian and everything rushes back in a flood. The blood on her hands. Tilly’s death. Scott’s sacrifice. She won.
She won.
Oh gods.
A horrible sob rips from her throat, a mix of “oh god” and “Scott” as he rushes forward to wrap her in a tight hug. Her hands find his jacket and she buries her face into his shoulder, sobs wracking her body. Everything hurt, she could barely breathe and all the memories of what happened were clawing at her skull.
“It’ll be alright Pearl. You’re not alone.” Grian’s voice is soft and he places a hand on her leg. Scott squeezes her tighter, a silent promise between the three victors.
Gem scoots herself up beside Pearl in the bed, running her fingers through Pearl’s hair to untangle the knots, her touch gentle and comforting. She’s never been in the life games, yet she somehow is just what Pearl needs.
Surrounded by the three of them, Pearl feels the cold finally lessen.