A/N: Excitement! This is my first "Hunger Games" fanfiction! So this idea came up to me while watching XWP and it's basically based on one of the episodes. Wouldn't be hard to miss, in case you watched the show. In case you haven't, then buckle up and enjoy the ride.
I don't own XWP or The Hunger Games trilogy.
Spoilers: the first book, the night before the 74th arena.
Rating: T
The Blame Game:
Chapter 1
'Whoever decided on refilling the booze supply, should be given a prize,' Haymitch thinks as he gulps another mouthful of the bitter liquor. He's surely going to need it for tomorrow's show.
The 74th roll of the Hunger Games starts tomorrow, and not even clinging on the slightest of hopes of bringing one of them alive, is going to detach him from his favorite occupational hazard- AKA drinking till he faints.
He takes his time enjoying those rare moments of silence, the absence of Johanna's scowls and Chaff's croaks of intoxicated laughter. 'Take a moment to cherish all that, Haymitch,' he thinks silently, into the night, 'just a moment to…'
"HAYMITCH!"
Oh, hell.
Just what he needs.
"You rang?" he lifts his eyes tiredly, when Effie bursts into the room, all high hills and a radio-active yellow-green outfit, looking like a traffic-sign.
"Whell!" she is all dramatic, as usual, "I should have guessed!" she scolds, noticing him holding the bottle, "The children?" she asks after a moment.
"Hell if I knew…" he shrugs, "Probably trying to sleep, they still have 4 hours till showtime, and…what are you doing here, again?" her fake eyelashes are a physically painful sight, flashing and giving him the whiplash.
"If you must know…" she stamps her foot, then walks towards the leather couch, taking her seat, "I'm here to accompany my tributes on the last night of staying here."
He arches and eyebrow, "Since when do you do that?" he asks suspiciously.
"Since I got the feeling we have a chance of winning, this year," she folds her arms on her chest, emphasizing.
"Whatever."
"And, well…."
He waits, and she twists uncomfortably on the couch, "You remember the new common department they decided to open up this year…" she says.
He twitches his lips, fighting a grin; He can already guess what comes next. It was this year when they decided to open a "common lobby" for the tributes. It's a big, wide room, with two long passages which lead to the elevators, when they can just sit and interact with one another. Game-makers decided that letting the tributes have this "club" might help careers to form alliances better, they probably wanted to "spice things up" in the games.
Well, someone has to babysit.
"So, you're the last night's nanny, Effie?" he does laugh this time, "that's right up your alley, ha ha!"
Effie is not amused, pursing her lips like a fish, making the orange lipstick look even more ridiculous on her pale mouth, "I hardly find this amusing, Haymitch!" she growls, "Me, watching the careers? The girl from 2 is very unpleasant to be around! Did you know that?" Haymitch's laughter increases at that, no kidding! "And the girl from 4 is completely foolish! At least they could give me a more suitable way of passing my time, hmm!"
Haymitch's shoulder shakes a bit with amusement, and he asks, "Who signed you up for this, anyway?"
"That will be Plutarch Heavensbee." her eyes narrow in annoyance.
He'll have to invite Plutarch for a free round of scotch on him, that's what he'll do. "Loosen your corset, sweetheart," he says, "chill. Have a drink," and at her expanse he adds, "It's gonna be a big, big, big day tomorrow."
As Glimmer sits aside next to the corner table, stuffing another honey-muffin into her half-filled stomach, she sneaks side-glares at the big screen, her nose twists in disgust.
Cato and her district partner, Marvel, are comfortably half lying on the couch, completely comfortable, and unworried about tomorrow. Of course, they are career district, and don't have any real reason to worry. For years, they've been known for controlling the arena, everyone fear them.
But even knowing that, the career males' choice of passing the last hours before the games, is hardly considered "fun" in her book.
They watch a film that some in the capitol like to watch. She believes it's called "Horror Movie". Why on earth do Capitol citizens even enjoy those movies is beyond her. Maybe they see the Hunger Games in them, somehow.
Glimmer thinks they're revolting.
Clove, on her part, sits on one of the sided chairs, laughing with the boys at the gruesome parts of the movie, and Glimmer doesn't participate. Seriously, it's just gross.
"What is that even…. What is that?" she calls from the other side of the room, abruptly.
Cato turns around and grins, "It's some greasy remake of a movie filmed before the dark days," he turns back at the part in which a small, terrifying blonde girl stabs someone in the face, her features demonic and eyes shining yellow, "Ts'called 'The Exorcist', ever heard of it?"
She shakes her head 'No'.
"Well, neither have I, but it's funny as shit!" another roll of laughter. Marvel and Clove follow suit.
"Well, if you don't mind, I'm gonna try and sleep," she rises up from her chair, about to cross the hallway, "Knock yourselves out with this trash."
She turns to the elevator, on her way to the first floor, when she hears an echo of amusement, some "Hahaha", and "Ewww," and before reaching the elevator, she hears Marvel calling after her, "Hey, Glimmer, I bet you can't barf pistachio cream like this girl!"
She rolls her eyes.
It's an hour later, when Effie thanks the universe when the careers finally part the Lobby, all three of them sending her murderous stares as they do. She thinks she notes some meaningful glare-exchange between the bulky, blonde one from district 2, and his partner, the scary girl with the knives.
'They'll probably share the room for the night', Effie thinks, disapprovingly. She needs to tell Haymitch and ask him to put some sense into Enobaria and Cheron, this is an unacceptable behavior.
As Peeta and Katniss look outside the window to the city-lights, silently consider how lucky those empty shell of people, the Capitol puppets are, they hear a noise coming from one of the rooms.
"Did you hear that?" Katniss asks her district partner silently, and he nods.
They both leave their current position, and exit the top floor.
It's the chilly breeze that wakes Haymitch from his place on the couch, the liquor finally taking affect, and he stirs awake, noticing Effie slightly snoring, lying on the couch next to him. She drools a bit, her body twists in a weird position.
It's the window, slightly open, and when searching around, wildly, Haymitch notices a shadow, a figure, disappearing in the hallway.
And a weird sound.
"Effie," he mumbles, pushing on her shoulders, "Effie, wake up…" he shakes her, "Effie! Rise and shine!" he calls, loudly.
She jumps alert, wiping her dripping cheek, "Uh, eh, wut? Happy Hunger Games!" she cries stupidly, eyes wide, forcing herself awake.
Haymitch chuckles, "You fell asleep, beauty queen," he grins, and Effie is about to say something when another noise comes from one of the floors, "What is that?" asks the escort, blinking in confusion.
"I dunno, you're the night's watcher, sweetheart," Effie's eyes narrow at that, "But I heard that, too, let's check this out."
They both stand, and leave the room.
When doing so, they hear whispers and soft noises, Haymitch recognize them belonging to the tributes, but can't identify his own kids among them, "I think it's coming from the common lobby," he tells Effie in the dark, "C'mon".
They step down the stairs, the muffled words of the children increase, and he suddenly hears a scream, and "Oh, MY GOD!"
'That can't be a good sign!' he thinks to himself, and among shocked voices he hears Peeta and Katniss, equally surprised at what they apparently all see in the lobby, once the lights flick on.
Effie stares. He stares. They all stare.
Right there, on the floor of the lobby, lies a girl, her hair blonde, eyes closed.
She's dressed in pink pajamas, with fluffy slippers.
Doesn't take a genius to figure out. It's one of the career girls. Glimmer, Haymitch guesses she's called. The sexy doll from district one.
And she has a knife sticking out of her chest.
Dead.
"Well, this isn't very festive!" Effie calls in protest.
"We're totally screwed," Johanna states the obvious.
Haymitch sighs, burying his head in his palm, shaking his head, disbelieving.
Never, in the history of the hunger games, something like this ever happened. Usually tributes wait for the games themselves to die… they don't usually end up like…well, this.
"Oh no, we're not screwed. That puffy stupid Barbie who looks like a cotton candy is the screwed one!" Cashmere fumes, pointing a finger at Haymitch, "and you're the one who's gonna have to answer to Snow!" she blames him.
"Me?! What the hell did I do?" Haymitch backs off, defensively.
"You and your stupid escort were supposed to watch over the kids!" Gloss supports his sister, "And now one of my own is dead! Glimmer had a good chance of winning this thing, too! I hope 12's gonna pay for this mess-up!" he reproaches.
"Guys, relax," Seeder tries to reason with them, "No one could expect this to happen," Chaff nods dumbly at his partner-victor, and Cecilia exhales tiredly and says, "We're all going to have a huge problem soon. A tribute was killed tonight, and the games start tomorrow. Of course they'll need to tell all what happened, and find someone to take her place, but the bigger issue here is…who stabbed this Glimmer girl?"
District 9's male victor hurries in defense of his own, "Well, let's not start playing the blame game, here, shall we?" he glares at the unmoving form of the dead girl, "she could have had a heart condition."
Johanna rolls her eyes, and sarcastically interjects, "Right, Brainless. I bet you it grew that knife, too." She slaps him across the head, "moron."
"Hey, I didn't…" another victor tries and interfere, when Johanna adds something else, and then.
"Quiet."
They turn around, and are met with the white, ice-cold face of President Snow, all official, as usual. Behind him stands Seneca Crane, his funny beard twitching in nervousness.
President Snow glares down at the girl, and sighs, "Well, this is unexpectedly unfortunate," he says in an even tone, and his eyes wonder to Cashmere and Gloss, "one of yours?" he asks, indifferently.
"Sir…Yes, Sir," Gloss said, sending Haymitch a hateful glare.
"Ah," President Snow is surprisingly calm, "Well, in that case, I guess another tribute from district 1 is on order….Seneca?" he turns his head aside, and Seneca fearfully nods.
"I don't guess any of you have the….slightest idea how this girl was killed?" he raises a hairy, white eyebrow.
23 victors shake their heads 'No'.
"I see…" he comments, "Who was tonight's responsibility, Seneca?"
"That'd be Effie Trinket, Sir."
President Snow hums, scratching his head thoughtfully; "Pitty." He finally says.
Haymitch gulps.
"And the current tributes?"
"All locked in the 5th floor, Sir."
"Very well," Snow concludes, and then, to the victors, "You see, now. We have a problem here. This girl was killed, apparently intentionally, and we cannot afford such thing to happen under our watch. As it's sensible to presume one of the people in this building did it, I have no choice but punishing that person, now do I?"
The victors change meaningful looks. That can't be good.
"I need to know who that person is. And I trust that whoever this individual may be… he will be handed off, willingly, by all of you," Snow's snake eyes wonder to all present. "And they will be punished accordingly. Since we have about," he glances at a small, round, watch, "3 and a half hours till dawn, and you're the finest of the people, not to mention, those who were here while it happened, I trust you to being me the culprit of this rude act…" his eyes twitch, evilly. "Or else, I can promise you a painful punishment to all districts in the approaching Quarter Quell. Am I clear enough?"
Another look-exchange. Lots of nods.
"And trust my word. In case the killer won't be brought over till the games open, each and every one of the ones in this building will be personally punished. Arena or districts."
He then turns around, silently leaving the room.
"Well…" Finnick shrugs, turning to Haymitch, "I don't suppose you have some of that liquor left, man? It's gonna be a very long night."
A/N- Did I get your attention?:)
Reviews are love!
