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“Well, come on then,” Lenore Dove remarked, initiating the conversation. “You said you wanted to talk, so talk.”
The Weeping Willow smirked. “I’ve been waiting a long time for you.” She slowly circled around Lenore Dove, maintaining eye contact, leering at her.
Lenore Dove looked at her with furrowed brows. “What are you on about? How could you possibly know who I am?”
“Know thy enemy and know thyself, and you will win a hundred battles.”
“Battle? What battle?” Lenore Dove spat. She was quickly losing patience with the weeping Willow's silly riddles. “All the territories are at peace now. There is no battle to be won. So why don’t you just take you and your imaginary battle elsewhere and leave me and my friend out of it.”
The Weeping Willow let out a hollow laugh that echoed through the trees. Lenore Dove was feeling even more uneasy than before. She was afraid she was never going to make it home now.
“A Fae and a Vamp, friends? Oh, you sweet, imbecilic child. Do you really believe that your kind could ever truly be friends?” She paused, letting the question hang in the air. “They’ve been sworn enemies for centuries before you were even born. If you were really friends, why haven’t you taken little Haymitch to meet your family or vice versa? Why do you both meet all the way out here, in secret? Because you know deep down that your families would never approve of this alliance. Especially not with how much bloodshed occurred, nearly causing the extinction of all Fae kind to begin with.”
Lenore Dove’s surprise seemed to have fed more into the Weeping Willow’s delusions, she was revelling in it, taking in every minute of it.
“Oh, you didn’t know?” The Weeping Willow feigned sympathy. “Pity, you two look awfully close. One would think you’d known the truth to be brave enough to befriend a monster like that.”
Lenore Dove shook her head. “You’re lying. Haymitch would’ve told me. He’s my best friend. We don’t keep anything from each other.”
“Why don’t you tell her yourself, dearie?” The Weeping Willow looked out to the shadows beyond the trees just as Haymitch approached.
When Lenore Dove turned over her shoulder, Haymitch looked straight through her, again lost in a trance.
“I-I’d only heard stories of what happened – what the Fae were capable of,” Haymitch began, boring his eyes into the Weeping Willow. “I didn’t want to believe it, but… but when my father died…”
Lenore Dove shut her eyes, letting out a breath she hadn’t realised she was holding. She’d also heard those stories – how the Fae and Vamps had been at each others’ heads fighting for land on Panem. Eventually, they’d come to a compromise where the Fae would occupy the Merchant in the North; the Vamps, the Seam in the South. They were never allowed to cross the border.
Lenore Dove’s eyes brimmed with tears when Haymitch finally looked at her. When she spoke, her voice was broken, “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“How could I? When could I?” Haymitch let out an incredulous laugh, matching tears breaching his own eyes. “When I first met you, I admit I was afraid. B-but then as time went on, and we became closer, I knew there was something different about you. So… so I thought it best to not bring it up.”
Lenore Dove let out a low sob before catching herself. “Unbelievable.”
“Lenore Dove, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to–”
Haymitch was interrupted by the Weeping Willow, who groaned loudly, rolling her eyes. Lenore Dove and Haymitch looked at her, both as confused as ever.
“Ugh, I’ve had enough of this… humanity. They’ve done the world no good thus far. These feelingsemotions.”
The Weeping Willow made her way to Haymitch side, lightly placing a hand on his shoulder. She leaned over and whispered something in his ear, incomprehensible to Lenore Dove. Lenore Dove stood there, still unable to move, looking between the two.
“No!” Haymitch hissed suddenly. “You can’t make me do this! She’s my best friend. I could kill her.”
“Oh would that really be so bad?” The Weeping Willow pouted.
“You’re a monster!” Haymitch cried out, hot tears spilled down his cheeks.
“Heh! Oh no, dearie, I think you’ve got it backwards. At least I don’t have to drink blood to survive.” The Weeping Willow pulled out a vile from under her cloak. She popped off the lid and took one very long swig before perching herself against a tree. “Okay, okay, now that the boring part’s over. Haymitch, be a dear and turn it off for me, would you?”
“What?”
“Turn. It. Off.”
Lenore Dove looks between the two, bewildered and confused. “Haymitch, what is she talking about?”
“Why, his humanity, of course.” The Weeping Willow said it in such a way as though stating the obvious.
Haymitch’s humanity was the only thing that kept the monster inside him at bay. Without it, he would become an unhinged, ravenous beast – a menace to society. If the mortals were afraid of Lenore Dove, be her but a mere Fae, Haymitch was another story.
“No, no, no, no, no!” Haymitch cried out. “Please, please don’t make me do this! You can’t! I won’t!”
The Weeping Willow just smirked at Haymitch, and the next thing to come from her wretched mouth changed everything.
“Exstingue.”
And just like that, the Haymitch that Lenore Dove grew to care for was gone in an instant. In his place, stood this stranger that Lenore Dove couldn’t recognise.
Haymitch’s eyes shut tight for a moment, and when they opened again, they were bloodshot – even more so than before. He looked much more rabid, more terrifying, more monstrous.
Now, Lenore Dove really needed to get out of there. She tried fluttering her wings, but she remained on the ground – trapped between the Weeping Willow and Haymitch. With nowhere to go, she improvised her next moves.
“Haymitch, you have to listen to me. I don’t know what spell she’s put on you, but you have to snap out of it. You’re stronger than this. You’re stronger than her.” For just a fraction of a second, Lenore Dove thought she saw a hint of recognition in Haymitch’s eyes. But just as quickly, the monster returned. And so, Lenore Dove continued. “Just listen to my voice. Don’t let her beat you. You can fight her. You’ve handled worse, you’ve told me. Remember the Bloodwraith you fought off that came for you, your Ma and Sid? You ripped the head off its neck like it was nothing.”
There it was again, the shift in Haymitch’s eyes.
“Yeah, you remember them. Think of them, of how you swore you’d always protect them. They needed you then, and they need you now.”
Haymitch blinked, thinking of Ma and Sid. “Ma… Sid… M-ma… S–”
The moment was interrupted when Haymitch fell to the ground, screaming and clutching his head. “Ah, make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop!”
Lenore Dove looked at Haymitch, her confusion and concern growing. “What’s happening? What did you do?!”
The Weeping Willow stood from the tree she leaned on, a twisted smirk upon her face as she walked toward Haymitch. She knelt down in front of Haymitch, grabbing his face, looking deep in his eyes.
"Deditionem mihi. Te possideo."
The pain in Haymitch’s head immediately stopped. As they both stood from the ground, Haymitch looked just as evil as the Weeping Willow. Lenore Dove looked close to defeat looking between the two of them.
“No, no, no… what did you do to him?”
“I fixed him.”
In the next breath, the Weeping Willow disappeared once more, leaving Lenore Dove frozen in place and Haymitch ready to rip her head off. Before Lenore Dove had a chance to form a single thought, Haymitch moved quicker than lightning in front of her. He sank his sharp fangs deep into the side of Lenore Dove’s neck.
All that could be heard for miles were Lenore Dove’s screams.