Slave to Snow (Coriolanus Snow x Fem OC Lena)

Chapter Fifty-Four

Two weeks passed since Coriolanus had gone. I stayed by the television as much as I could, and if I wasn't there, I made Damian or Selsa take watch. Every morning I woke up without news from Coriolanus it was agonizing. Even reading was unable to soothe me.

I applied minty salves to Selsa's back, helped bathe my mom and then administer her medications, cooked, hunted, chopped wood, and cleaned. My mom gave me the odd smile, but I knew she was hardly there. My dad shuffled around the cabin doing what he could. If he wasn't shaking and felt well, he tried to bring levity by whittling little toy carvings for us out of some stray branches I'd brought in. He made a cat for Selsa, a squirrel for Damian, and a deer for me. The last he handed me was for Coriolanus. It was a bird of some sort, a raven or perhaps a mockingjay.

It made me think of the eerie songs I'd heard in the forest. I considered this often, how uncomfortable Coriolanus had become when he'd heard me singing. I wished I knew more about his life before. About Lucy Gray and Sejanus. They were important pieces of his past, and I wished I could uncover them because ultimately it would let me know him more. But maybe he didn't want me to know that part of him. Maybe he was afraid to tell me for some reason.

When I bathed there were times I couldn't stop my hands from roaming. From imagining him and his generous hands and cock. I wanted to soak up his pretty features and wash myself in his fucking cum.

Maybe there was something wrong with me.

Still, I went about my business. I tried to stay present. I attempted every single day to grit my teeth and bear the unknown.

One day the sun was shining and me, Damian, and Selsa went outside to distract ourselves from the pangs of hunger in our bellies. Dad was manning the television, whittling away in the rocking chair.

"Days like these I'm thankful I'm alive—all thanks to you sis," Damian chuckled and then tossed a snowball my way. I ducked too slowly and it splattered across my shoulder. I hurried to throw one back at him, and Selsa joined me, laughing in a spirited way. We aimed them back and forth for a while, running, hiding, dodging, and rolling in the snow. Finally Selsa jumped on him.

"Help me, Lena!" She giggled.

I laughed and pinned him. In all of the commotion Selsa began to cough violently, and I soon realized that she wasn't bouncing back. She doubled over and my chest flooded with panic.

"What's wrong?" I asked, but it was an irrelevant question. I went to her, laying a hand on her back and she gasped for breath. Then I saw the red droplets hit the snow. Three little teardrops of blood had sunk into the white, signifying that her lungs were getting much worse.

"Let's go inside," I said, glancing at Damian. His expression was one of intense fear and worry. I grabbed one side and he grabbed her other.

"I'll be alright...I'm just a little...tired is all," she murmured.

Once inside I told Damian to heat her up some water for tea. I searched through our storage of herbs and found them all becoming low, especially the ones that benefitted the lungs and circulatory system—something I'd read about. When I went to the cabinet to look through our supply of medicine, I became even more uneasy. It had been dwindling for a while, and I was nervous.

I hadn't been able to make Coriolanus a list before he left, and I didn't know when he'd be back. Part of me wondered...did I risk heading down the path to district twelve? Did they have stores I could slip in and out of with ease? The threat of peacekeepers and being discovered seemed to lose weight the more time that passed and the worse Selsa's condition got. Not to mention my mother's health was on a consistent decline, and my father was also showing signs of aging that were concerning. I worried about him whittling with such shaky hands, though sometimes they didn't shake as much, if he were having a good day. Yet the good days seemed to dwindle. The only one who didn't worry me as much was Damian. He was full of fire I knew wouldn't be extinguished easily.