"Katniss."
Haymitch warned me. He said that there were things in Thirteen that would shock me. His warning was not enough and not just because I was barely listening to him, my anger clouding my hearing. Nothing could have prepared me for the shock that I received when I stepped off the ramp of the hovercraft. A lot of things ran through my mind as I was strapped to that bed. A million possibilities of what I might find in the long thought destroyed district. This was not one of them.
"Katniss."
Gale tried to ease the shock. The words he tried to say after telling me about the destruction of my home were supposed to soften this blow, but I couldn't understand them. Saying that everything goes so much farther than we could have ever imagined. Deeper than the rebellion, the Games, all of it. All the way to the past. It makes sense to me now.
"Katniss."
What does this mean? It's just more lies. More deception. And not just coming from the Capitol. Everyone is lying to me. Telling me what they think I want to hear, so I will do what they want. And look what it has gotten me. Gale hurt by the fire bombs. Peeta in the arms of the Capital. Who knows what kind of harm they are doing to him? Even Joanna Mason, who a couple days ago, I hated. She was a pawn in this just as much as Peeta and I were. Now she is paying the price for it.
"Katniss, say something."
What should I say? What can I say? This is too much. It's taking everything inside me not to run and find Haymitch and try to claw his eyes out again. He knew all this time and kept it from me, just like everything else. Made fun of me even. And now standing in front of me is the impossible.
It does go so much farther than I could have imagined.
I open my mouth to say the only thing that I can force out. "Dad?"