Deleted Scenes: Sound the Bugle

(Angst brought to you by Dreamer. It's been written for MONTHS but now that we know who is dead, we can final reveal it!)

Sound the Bugle
Calliope Fortier, keyboardist/organist for Midnight’s Muse
Night of the Party

Calliope stumbled along through the dark streets of the city, clinging to the arm of her closest friend and pressing into her side.  On Kat’s other arm was Jillianne Jansing, the younger sister of Wolf.  Calliope didn’t know the young woman, but Jillianne had spent the night at the side of Elliot Russo, the boy from Six, and the fear she had for him was evident in her eyes.

Calliope couldn’t be more grateful for Kat tonight.  The party had started out to be the night of her dreams.  Performing on stage was always exhilarating, giving Calliope rushes of adrenaline she never felt anywhere else.  She got to carry out what she and her friends had called “The plan with Thack, the band manager”.  She did feel bad about it, especially since Thack had been so terrified he had wet his pants.  He was such a good sport about it though, and took it all in stride.  Then, he took the stage again, this time singing “Accidentally in Love”, dedicating it to her.  Announcing to the entire party that he wanted to be with her.  As he sang, Calliope had twirled around with Kat, laughing joyfully as her heart soared.  Thack was so modest and shy, so to declare his feelings around so many people and sing her such an adorable song was such a brave thing to do.  After that, Calliope had given him the peonies she had bought him, and they had shared a kiss that was straight out of a fairytale. 

Unlike a fairytale, though, the party didn’t have a happy ending.  How could the best night of her life turn into one of the worst so quickly? It came as a shock to everyone when Numitor had yelled those traitorous words, words Capitol-born Calliope wasn’t sure she disagreed with. Everything happened so fast from that point forward. 

This is what happens when you play with fire.  The words echoed in Calliope’s mind, filling her with grief.  Yes, Numitor had played with fire, but Phil?  Phil was innocent.  Yet peacekeepers covered his head with a bag and shot him.  Right in front of everyone.  Right in front of her.  Right in front of his friends.  If Calliope wasn’t standing right next to Kat, she would have fallen to the floor.  Instead, she collapsed into Kat’s arms. Phil was her friend.  More than that, she had loved him like a brother, despite having no shortage of brothers of her own.  Suddenly, he was gone, roughly kicked off the stage like a bag of trash. 


What happened next was a blur to Calliope, as she was sobbing too hard to even stand properly, let alone think clearly.  She did remember Kat wanting to stay with Wolf to help, but Wolf refused, begging her to take Calliope and Jillianne and get out of there.  Calliope suspected Kat’s dedication to keeping her and Jillianne safe was the only reason Kat hadn’t been stubborn and refused to leave. 

Kat had literally carried her out of there.  It couldn’t have been easy, as Calliope had a few good inches on the five foot tall Kat.  Now, the initial shock had worn off, and Calliope was not totally dependent on Kat to move forward.  Calliope froze, stopping the other two women beside her. 

“Pri,” she whispered, feeling guilty she hadn’t even thought about her older brother until now.  Surely, the government had announced the death of the beloved lead singer of Upward Voyager, the love of her brother’s life.  Pri may have been only dating Phil for about six months now, but he was absolutely smitten with him, and Calliope had been sure Phil would be her brother-in-law one day.  She wanted that more than anything.  Though not loud, Pri’s love for Phil was obvious to anyone who saw him look at him.  Pri would be... devastated… broken beyond repair.  Tears sprang into Calliope’s eyes.  “I need to go to him.” 

Calliope let go of Kat’s arm and rushed forward, frantically digging in her purse for her phone.  Upon finding it, she immediately tapped Pri’s name in her contacts and put the phone to her ear. 

“Calliope, wait!” Kat called after her.  Calliope spun around to face her. 

“I have to go, Kat!  Pri’s all alone!  He… he’s going to need me.” 

“If you think I’m letting you go anywhere without me, you’re sure as hell mistaken,” Kat snapped, reacting out of stress rather than anger. She sped up, catching up to Calliope and taking her arm again.  “Let’s go.” 

The phone rang and rang.  Pri’s voice spoke in Calliope’s ear, but it was far too cheerful to be anything but a recording.  “Please, Pri,” Calliope said softly after hearing the beep of her brother’s voicemail.  “Answer the phone.  I know you’re home.  I’m coming to you.” 

Of course Pri wouldn’t answer the phone.  Why would he, after the news that just hit?  It didn’t make Calliope worry any less.  The party was about a mile from where Pri lived, but it might as well have been ten miles away with how anxious Calliope was to get there.  Finally, the trio arrived.  When Pri had moved here, he had given Calliope a spare key to use whenever she wanted, whether she needed to get away from their emotionally abusive mother or if she just wanted to hang out.  She quickly found the right key on her keychain and unlocked the door.

“Do you two mind waiting in the kitchen?  I don’t think Pri is going to want so many people around while he’s… grieving.”  Pri was a private person, and Calliope knew he wouldn’t be comfortable with a girl who lowkey scared him and a stranger, the sister of a man who scared him even more, seeing him so vulnerable.  She couldn’t let Kat, and Jillianne for that matter, wait outside in the dark.  Kat may have been older than Calliope and was determined to be her protector as such, but Calliope was also determined. From the day Kat told her the story of what the peacekeepers did to her, Calliope vowed to make sure Kat was never violated and hurt like that again. 

Jillianne shook her head at Calliope’s question, but Kat hesitated.  “Alright,” she said finally, “but if you need me, you know where I’ll be.” 

“Thank you,” Calliope replied softly, hugging her friend.  Then she took a deep breath, preparing herself to face the hardest thing she’s ever done.  “Pri?  Where are you?”

Her brother didn’t reply with words, but a loud sob over the sound of the tv screen in his living room at the back of the house told her exactly where he was.  Calliope dropped her purse on the floor and ran to her brother. 

Pri was on the floor, slumped against the couch, his body heaving with sobs as he gasped to breathe.  His face was twisted in agony, and his cheeks were streaked with black tears from his normally perfect eyeliner running away from his eyes. 

Calliope dropped to her knees next to him, pulling her big brother into her lap as tears poured from their eyes.  “C-Callie…” Pri gasped, using a nickname that hadn’t been all that often since she was little, other than the most sensitive of moments....  “Ph-Phil… he…” Another sob broke out of Pri’s quivering body.  How long had he been like this? 

“I know, Pri,” Calliope said softly, trying but failing to regain her composure for him.  “Sh, don’t talk.  Just breathe.”

Calliope glanced at the hologram, squeezing her eyes shut as the words “breaking news” scrolled at the bottom of the screen, with a newscaster speaking to the nation tearfully, probably for dramatic effect.  Sickened, she reached up for the remote that lay abandoned on the couch and turned off the screen.  Calliope cradled Pri in her lap, just as he’d held her many times before, leaning her head against his and stroking his soft, dark brown hair as she listened to his anguished sobs.

“Why?” Pri whimpered, passed the point of processing his loss where he wasn’t able to speak, but not able to say much between sobs.  “Why Phil?  Wh-why my music?”

Calliope could only shake her head.  She didn’t have words for him.  She wished she had an answer for why the peacekeepers took their anger at Numitor out on Phil, of all people, but she didn’t.  There was one thing she did know; somehow, someway, those men would pay for stealing the life of her friend and smashing her brother’s happiness. 

The siblings sat on the floor, though Calliope wasn’t sure for how long.  Pri couldn’t stay here, though, not on the floor of his living room.  Calliope needed to care for him, but she couldn’t do it on her own.  Slowly, Calliope shifted Pri’s head so he was supported by the couch instead of her body.  “Pri, Kat and Jill-... Kat and a friend are here.  We are going to help you get upstairs.  I’ll be right back.” 

Pri had stopped sobbing, too exhausted to continue.  He was still shaking, though, violently, and his head hung as he gave his sister a slight nod.  Calliope carefully got to her feet and returned to the kitchen, where she found Kat pacing across the room while Jillianne sat staring off into space in a chair. 

“Kat,” Calliope said quiet, voice even.  “I need your help getting Pri to his room.  Do… do you mind?”

“Of course I don’t.”  Kat turned to Jillianne.  “Are you alright waiting here?”

Jillianne nodded.  “I’ll be fine,” she said quietly. 

Calliope lead Kat back to the living room.  Pri hadn’t moved from where she had left him, his eyes still on the floor.  He didn’t even look up at Calliope and Kat entered the room.  Kat avoided looking at him, and Calliope couldn’t really blame her.  She didn’t know Pri well, since Pri was too intimidated to interact with her much, especially when Calliope wasn’t with them.  Calliope didn’t know what she would say to a broken man she barely knew, either. 

“Pri? Can we help you up?”  Calliope asked gently.  When her brother nodded, Calliope went to one side of him and Kat went to the other, and together the two of them helped Pri to his feet.  With Calliope and Kat supporting Pri, the trio slowly made their way to the staircase and then to Pri’s room.  Still shaking and crying, Pri practically fell onto his bed, immediately curling up into a fetal position and shattering Calliope’s heart again. 

“Thank you, Kat.” Calliope said softly. 

Kat nodded.  “I’ll give you two privacy.  Come get me if you need anything,” she said and retreated back downstairs. 

“I’ll be right back,” Calliope told Pri.  She went down the hall to his bathroom, searching the cabinets until she found some makeup remover and clean towels.  She then returned to Pri’s room, gently washing away the smeared eyeliner before cleaning his face with the towel.

“Th...thank you,” Pri whispered, looking Calliope in the eye.  His tears were silent now, but still falling steadily.  His entire body still quaked and he periodically took a gasp for air. 

Calliope had never felt so helpless.  She was the younger sibling.  Normally, if one of them needed comforting, the roles were reversed.  Pri had admitted to her that he always felt comforted just being in Phil’s presence, and after a bad day or an anxiety attack, Phil would pay piano and sing for him.  Pri said his worries would instantly dissipate when Phil played the piano.  Calliope feared nothing would calm him down other than Phil, but now that was impossible.  She could try her best, though. 

Calliope wasn’t the lead singer in her band, or even a primary singer at all.  Her voice was too soft and tender for metal.  She enjoyed singing, though.  Her voice was not Phil’s, not by any stretch of the imagination, but Pri would never be able to hear his voice again. The voice of his sister was not an acceptable substitute, no one’s voice would be, but Calliope had to try to comfort Pri anyway.  One song in particular came to mind.  When Disney movies had made a reemergence into Panem, she and Pri had watched them all.  One song in particular had always stuck with her ever since their brother, Heimdall, died.  The song had helped guide her through the darkest of days.  Maybe it could guide Pri, too.  Taking a deep breath, Calliope began to sing.

“Night. And the spirit of life -”

Calliope was cut off by a mournful wail from Pri.  His head lifted ever so slightly to glare at her, his greenish hazel eyes full of agony, like her voice was torture.  “Stop.   Please.  Do not sing.”  Pri hissed the last word like it was poison before his head dropped back onto his pillow.  He began sobbing again, as uncontrollably as before. 

Calliope couldn’t help but recoil.  She knew Pri was grieving, but his words still stung.  Music was one of Pri’s passions.  Before he started experiencing migraines, his dream was to play cello in an orchestra.  His migraines were often triggered by noise, however, which made sitting in the middle of an orchestra to perform on a regular basis impossible.  His new goal was to become a playwright, as theater, especially musicals, was another major passion of his, one Calliope shared with him.  Could it be that not only had Phil died, but Pri’s love of music and everything that connected the two lovers’ souls had died with him?  Calliope hoped not.  If it had, she knew her brother would be losing a big chunk of himself.  She already wasn’t sure how much of him would be lost as it was. 


“I’ll be back in a bit,” Calliope said before slipping out of the room, she headed to the stairs, only to see Kat at the bottom.

“Hey Calliope,” Kat said as Calliope descended the stairs.  “We need to go.  Stellan told me he’d meet us after the dust settled, and he’ll be looking at my house, not here.  Will you come with us?” 

Calliope stared at her for a few seconds in confusion before realizing that Stellan was Wolf.  “Oh, right.”  She bit her lip.  “I have to stay.  Pri needs me.” 

Kat frowned.  “Right, I understand that.  But who’s going to be here for you?” 

Calliope sighed.  “Kat, I appreciate all you’ve done for me.  I do, but I’ll be fine.  I can’t leave him.” 

Kat hesitated, before finally laying a hand on her shoulder.  “Alright, but call me in the morning.  Or if you need me, call me. Promise?” 

Kat’s eyes were concerned and protective, and Calliope just wanted to melt into her friend’s arms and never let go.  If she broke down, though, who would be there for Pri? Calliope could not abandon her brother like that.  “I promise,” she told Kat. 

After a final hug, Kat and Jillianne were gone, leaving Pri’s house quiet and lonely.  Calliope went to the guest room she used whenever she slept over and pulled out a silk nightgown from the dresser full of her clothes.  She took time to use the bathroom and remove her own makeup and earrings.  Then she filled a glass with water before returning to Pri’s room. 

Pri was still awake when she entered.  His cries had lessened to silent tears again, but they were still present.  He tilted his head toward the doorway when he heard her come in.  “I...I’m s-sorry,” Pri said, his voice raspy. 

Calliope set the water on the nightstand and sat in the armchair next to his bed.  “Don’t worry about it.  Can I get you anything else?” 

Pri shook his head.  “Just… don’t leave me again?” 

“I won’t.  I promise.”

Pri drifted off to sleep out of pure exhaustion just after one in the morning.  His sleep was restless, and every hour or two, he’d wake up, screaming and crying for Phil.  Each time, Calliope lept from her chair and hugged him tightly before he’d pass out again. 

Calliope didn’t sleep a wink that night.  The longer she was awake, the more she relieved the horrors of the night, and the angrier she became.  She didn’t want to blame Numitor, because he was just a kid, only a year younger than herself. She knew he was not the one who directly pulled the trigger that cost Phil his life.  No, he was the wrong person to blame, the wrong person to direct her anger towards. 

If there was one thing about Calliope Fortier, it was that she used the deaths of her loved ones as motivation for all her future actions.  She would not stand by and let this senseless murder of her honorary brother go unpunished. 

“I don’t know how, Phil, but I’m going to make them pay,” Calliope whispered into the darkness.  “I will have revenge.  For you, and for Pri.”