Though now she lived in the districts, she was capitol born. She knew all of his hardships and never looked at him any differently. She handled him with such gentleness, and kindness. She was a rare bird, His Nightingale. Just like he had been for h...
A\N: MY BIRTHDAY IS TOMORROW!!! And to come back and see over 700 Hundreds Reads! And see so many of you Voting and Adding my story means the world. Best early birthday gift. ❤️
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Clemensia screamed an ear piercing scream, while violently shaking her hand, trying to get rid of the vipers. Bright pink, yellow, and blue pus dripped down her fingers.
Lab assistants quickly appeared pinning Clemensia to the ground while a third injected her with a scary looking needle filled with a black fluid. Her lips turned purple and then bloodless before she went limp. The assistants put her onto a stretcher and whisked her away.
Coriolanus began to follow them, but Dr. Gaul stopped him with her voice.
"No. Not you, Mr. Snow. You stay right here."
"But I..I, She-" he stammered. "Is she gonna die?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," said Dr. Gaul. She had dipped a hand back into the tank and was lightly trailing her gnarled fingers over her pets. "Clearly, her scent was not on the paper. So, you wrote the proposal alone?"
"Yes. I did."
There was no point in lying now. Lying had probably just killed Clemensia. Obviously, he was dealing with a psychopath who should be handled with extreme caution.
"Good. The truth, finally. I have no use for liars. What are lies but attempts to conceal some sort of weakness? If I see that side of you again, I'll cut you off. If Dean Highbottom punishes you for it, I won't stand in his way. Are we clear?" She wrapped one of the pink snakes around her wrist like a bracelet and seemed to be admiring it.
"Crystal," said Coriolanus.
"I liked your proposal," she said. "Well thought out and simple to execute. I'm going to recommend my team review it and implement a version of the first stage."
"All right," said Coriolanus, afraid to make more than the blandest of responses, surrounded as he was by deadly creatures.
Dr. Gaul laughed. "Oh, go home. Or go see your little girlfriend if she's still there to see, that is. It's time for my crackers and milk."
Coriolanus hurried off, accidentally bumping into a tank along the way and sending the creature's inside into a frenzy. He made a wrong turn, then another, and found himself in a nightmarish section of the lab where the glass cases housed humans with animal parts grafted to their bodies. His appearance startled them, and when a few opened their mouths to plead with him, he realized they were Avoxes.
Their cries echoed off the walls and he caught a glimpse of small black birds perched above them. The name jabberjay popped into his mind. A brief chapter in his genetics class. A failed experiment, A bird that could repeat human speech, that had been a tool for espionage until the rebels had found out its abilities and sent it back carrying false information.
