Disclaimer: all the characters belong to the amazingly wonderful lady Suzanne Collins. All I have done is made the characters a bit more desirable and interesting to read. So enjoy my first ever Fan fiction.
Chapter 1
I was running with all my might. Everything was on fire, even my throat, my arms and my limbs. I was frantically searching for any trace of water. I looked in the other direction and then I laid my eyes upon her. She was looking as pretty as ever, a smile on her lovely face. My Annie, standing near a crystal clear lake, her hand outstretched, inviting me to join her. I ran towards her, but the distance which seemed just of few yards, never ended .Exasperated. I whipped my head in the opposite direction and found out that my feet were shackled and the key was in the hand of President Snow. I ran toward him with a renewed passion of revenge. Before I could snatch the key from his paper white hand a mutt materialized from nowhere and attacked me. I was waiting for my death when I woke up screaming….
It was a dream. Just a stupid dream. I tried to instill some sense into my brain. I got up and splashed some water on my flushed face and drank as much water as I could from the faucet. I was in Capitol, as a mentor for the male tribute of District 4, for the 74th Hunger Games. That year's Hunger Games had just finished last night with the "Huntress and her lover" crowned as the ultimate victors over mutilated corpses of twenty two tributes.
My mind wandered to the fact that their lives were altered forever due to the sinister games. Their days scarred with the ugly flashbacks from arena and their nights plagued with nightmares that caused one to scream out the lungs. Ah! The cost of leaving the arena with a beating heart!
Who knew better about the dilemma of victors than my Annie who had never truly smiled after the games. There were times when only I was able to calm her down. People thought that Annie was able to tread through the waters because of me, but the truth was that I was alive because of her. If she was no there for me my fate would be similar to Haymitch or the 'morphlings' which I had met only once or twice in my life. I was still thinking about Annie when sleep overcame and I slept on the turquoise tiles of the bathroom.
...
When I regained my consciousness, it was midafternoon. I was sprawled on my four poster bed and two male Avoxes were standing near the table, laden with delicacies. They had picked me from the bathroom and had deposited me on the bed. How kind of them? I did not want to wake up and go outside to charm the surgical weirdos so I just pretended to be asleep. It was then I had a flashback. Two nights ago, a turquoise lady with crimson hair had paid me with a secret about Avoxes for my 'services'.
According to her, President Snow belonged to a rich family, even before the first rebellion. He was an orphan and her mother was a wealthy lady. She had many slaves even before the first rebellion and five slaves were allotted a single room. President Snow was five years old then and was raised by a slave named, Avox, who he loved very much. One day, Snow's mother lost her golden necklace. She suspected that her necklace was stolen by a slave, so every room was thoroughly searched. The necklace was found in the room occupied by Avox and four other slaves. Snow's mother wanted to finish off all the slaves, but Snow could not bear losing Avox so he begged for his life. His mother agreed to that due to the continual insistence. The four slaves were assassinated while Avox's tongue was cut and his allowance was cut in half.
Decades later, When Snow became President after the first Rebellion, he made a law that all the culprits in the districts would be sentenced to death while the culprits of capitol would lose all their privileges, their tongues would be cut off and they would serve as slaves of the rich class of Capitol. The official version of his mother's punishment.
I came back into my senses when an Avox nudged my shoulder and handed me a velvet handkerchief. It was then I noticed the stream of pearl coloured tears on my cheeks. I dabbed my eyes and went in the bathroom to have a long and steaming shower. When I came outside, an exquisite suit was there, waiting for me. I put it on, combed my hair, dabbed some perfume and was just wearing my watch when my gaze transfixed on something glistening. It was a bracelet, made up of dried seaweed and pearls collected by Annie herself. She had made the bracelet as a birthday gift for me which unfortunately was on the day of reaping. So we were unable to cherish that day like always. The bracelet suddenly made me homesick and I had a strange longing for my home in district 4, Mags and My Annie. I was alive, happy and my true self only in her presence, the rest of the time I was just a puppet of President Snow. What an amazing life I had….
There was a soft tap on the door and Irina, the escort of District 4 arrived told me that I had to board the train to home in two hours. I truly wanted to meet and flirt with the chivalrous huntress, just to watch her blushing cheeks and irritated expression. I made a mental note of flirting with her on our very first meeting as the reunion with my Annie in less than six hours had filled me with zeal and zest. I went outside to congratulate Haymitch on his first victory as hi 'victors' were still in Intensive Care Unit and meting them was impossible. After greeting the stylists, their prep teams and tipping the Avoxes I boarded the train and gleefully watched the candy Capitol slip away from the train's windows, eagerly waiting to meet Annie.
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