Disclaimer - The characters and the universe in which they live belong entirely to the brilliant Suzanne Collins; not me.
Rewind
It's late, considerably so, and Haymitch is still wide awake.
Since being forced into sobriety, he hasn't been able to get the usual dreamless sleep he has become accustomed to.
Haymitch decides that a celebration is in order for staying off alcohol for so long... by drinking. Besides, he figured he deserved it given all that he's been through over the past month alone.
So he orders a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and drinks it straight from the bottle in his room.
Getting through two thirds of the wine, Haymitch decides the room is too stuffy. He gets up, clutching the Sauvignon Blanc for dear life, and decides to wander the Capitol train.
He roams freely, knowing full well that no Capitol attendant would ever dare stop a victor from doing whatever the hell they wanted, least of all him.
"Because it has to end somewhere, right?" he hears a very familiar voice ask from the television room. "The arena can't go on forever."
If Haymitch were in his right frame of mind, he would have recognised that voice immediately. As it was, he wasn't in his right frame of mind. So he steps closer to the door, curious, as another voice begins talking. "What do you expect to find?"
This voice is definitely one he recognises and one he hasn't heard in twenty-five long years. Now his brain finally catches up and he knows what to expect when he peeks in the room.
He sees himself on screen, twenty-five years younger, convincing his ally to continue following him again.
Maysilee had stubbornly remained where she was until he provided her with some answers.
"I don't know. But maybe there's something we can use," his younger self is saying.
Haymitch looks down at the couch to see who would possibly be watching his Games.
He sees the back of Katniss' and Peeta's heads, their faces transfixed on the screen. He clears his throat, wanting to alert his two tributes of his presence. But Katniss and Peeta are too absorbed in watching the Fiftieth Hunger Games to hear him.
So Haymitch remains silent, watching the second Quarter Quell and taking deep swigs from his bottle.
He watches as he and Maysilee climb a tree to get a decent view of the death recap that night. Then it's the following day and they are working together to salvage more rainwater. Haymitch is surprised to see that the Gamemakers have kept the scene of him simply taking a nap, his head resting on a somewhat disgruntled-looking Maysilee. He smiles at the expression on her face. Then the screen is showing their impressive battle with the squirrels. The next scene is of him pointing out constellations in the night sky to Maysilee as the two of them lie on their backs in the grass. Haymitch can remember how completely at ease he had felt then. He takes another deep drink as the younger him and Maysilee stare up at the sky, where two parachutes are drifting down to them. He doesn't need to see to remember that inside each are letters from home. Then the scene changes to him and Maysilee facing a maze of tightly woven hedges. Vaguely Haymitch is aware of the fact that none of the scenes of him and Maysilee hunting Capitol mutts for food ever made the cut. Thinking back to it now, Haymitch can see how them figuring out that the mutts were edible is something the Gamemakers wouldn't want to show, considering it made them look stupid that they were able to figured it out. He focuses back on the screen where they have finally made it across the hedge and Maysilee is breaking off the alliance.
"I don't want it to come down to you and me," she's saying.
"Ok," younger him replies, not even turning back to look at her.
As she leaves, Haymitch is screaming in his head at his younger self to follow her.
If he had, he would never have discovered what he'd soon discover and she might not have died the way she did.
But the past is the past and there's nothing he can do but watch himself on screen as he dislodges a pebble.
It falls into the abyss over the side of the cliff he had been standing on the edge of. Sixty seconds pass and it flies back up again, right next to where he's sitting to take a rest. He stares at it before a thought causes an intense expression to take over his facial features. The him on screen then picks up a rock about the size of his fist and throws it over the cliff. It returns to land right back in his hand one minute later. He starts laughing.
Just then Maysilee can be heard screaming somewhere out of view from the screen.
Haymitch watches himself on screen look up, a look of great concern on his face. Without hesitating he then runs to where Maysilee's voice came from. Haymitch makes it in time only to see the last of the candy-pink birds spear her through the neck with its long thin beak. He watches his younger self run to a dying Maysilee and hold her hand as she dies.
The scene changes to show the boy from District 3 die fighting the last remaining tribute from District 1. Then it shows District 7 get eaten alive by a pack of golden carnivores squirrels. The next day is Haymitch's battle with District 1. Both compete to get out of the arena, having made it to the final two. They show Haymitch's final battle with District 1 in its entirely. He watches her lose an eye to his knife. He then takes the full blunt of her axe to the stomach. Soon she disarms him and Haymitch turns to stumble back through the woods. She creeps slowly after him. He leads her to his cliff, his mind already having devised a plan long before this bloody battle even began. District 1 follows Haymitch to the end of the cliff, blocking his only path of escape. She then throws her axe at him.
Again, Haymitch begins screaming in his head at himself. This time he's telling himself to just let the axe hit him, knowing that bearing the pain that comes as a consequence of what is about to happen is almost too much for him to handle.
Instead of yelling out loud, Haymitch watches in silence as his younger self collapses on the ground, dodging the axe, and begins to convulse. District 1 watches him with a hand trying to stop the flow of blood pouring out of her empty eye socket. He only need hold on for a minute before the axe comes flying back out from the abyss. It buries itself in her skull. She falls to the ground, dead. Her cannon sounds and a hovercraft collects her body as trumpets blow, announcing his victory.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victor of the Fiftieth Hunger Games – and the second Quarter Quell – Haymitch Abernathy of District Twelve!" says Claudius Templesmith.
Peeta turns the television and tape off as silence fills the room.
After a while, "That force field at the bottom of the cliff," Peeta finally speaks up, "it was like the one on the roof of the Training Centre. The one that throws you back if you try to jump off and commit suicide. Haymitch found a way to turn it into a weapon."
"Not just against the other tributes, but the Capitol, too," Katniss adds. "You know they didn't expect that to happen. It wasn't meant to be part of the arena. They never planned on anyone using it as a weapon. It made them look stupid that he figured it out."
You're not wrong there, Sweetheart.
"I bet they had a good time trying to spin that one," Katniss continues. "Bet that's why I don't remember seeing it on television. It's almost as bad as us and the berries!"
He watches as Katniss begins laughing and Peeta shakes his head.
"Almost," Haymitch says, finally announcing his presence, "but not quite."
They immediately turn around to face him. Peeta looking extremely guilty and Katniss a little afraid.
To quell their emotions, Haymitch smirks and takes a swig from the bottle of Sauvignon Blanc he's holding.
He decides to play it cool. For their sakes and his own.
"It's late," he tells them. "You two should get some rest."
Nodding they get up and leave, Katniss placing her almost full mug of milk back on the tray set on the table. Haymitch figured that she was so absorbed in watching his Games she didn't even remember to drink it.
Once alone, he walks over to the television and takes out his tape from in the wall.
He looks at it, a black tape labelled Fifty – Haymitch Abernathy, and wonders what to do with it next.
As he passes by the door on his way out of the television room, he dumps the tape in the trash where it belongs.