A/N: This is my first attempt at fanfiction for the Hunger Games. You might have seen this same story posted on bearhugsfromemmett's profile. She uploaded it because I did not yet have a fanfic account but now I do so please read and review!
Haymitch's Point of View
(Pages: 194 - 203)
This new wine they have in the Capitol is good. Almost as good as the one they have back in District 12.
And this is what I am thinking as I make my way to my room. But then a sudden thought comes to me, a very important thought. I just realized that I have to tell Katniss something important.
I think it must be the wine again. Then I shake my head as if to clear it, but just end up dizzy. Peeta is right I have to keep my head clear for this Hunger Games.
So I start off to find them with new advice for her. I ask a Capitol person in the building to show me where they are. Why do they have to make these buildings so huge?
"They're in the television room," says a man walking down the hallway. Bet he knows where the heck he is in this rotten building, I think to myself. Then I think no it really is a pretty building with just rotten people in it.
"Thanks," I say flatly without a second glance at him. The people in the Capitol don't deserve much respect from people in the districts.
I was planning on storming in the room and giving her the best advice I had so far but stopped as soon as I saw what she was doing. Peeta and Katniss are curled up on the sofa together, watching the tapes from one of The Hunger Games, the one that I was a tribute in, the one that I was crowned victor in. It is the 50th Quarter Quell.
I guess they had to see it sometime because it was the only Quarter Quell there is on tape. So I guess I shouldn't be mad at them for watching it. They should know the extra traps and killing machines the Gamemakers have in store for them during a Quarter Quell.
As I focus my attention on the T.V. screen I see, just in time too, as my name and Maysilee Donner's name is called from the card. Kerry is reading the names from the cards. She must be Effie's grandmother or something. Either way I don't remember. For a second I am lost in my own thoughts of that day. I had just woken up and as I headed to the square with my father, I recall thinking, "I wonder who the lucky duo are gonna be for this Quarter Quell." Little did I know that that "duo" was going to be me and Maysilee. But I never let the shock of that show as I got up to the front. I was ready for whatever the Capitol threw at me.
I hear Katniss say something about her mother and Madge but don't really hear the words. I am too lost in my own thoughts. Then she says, "Oh. Peeta, you don't think he killed Maysilee, do you?" this brings me to the present. I almost laugh out loud but hold my tongue. She has to know that there was double the number of players that year.
Peeta says, "With forty-eight players? I'd say the odds are against it." He is so smart.
The chariot rides on the television pass by in a blur. When the time for interviews come mine is the only one that is there, obviously since I was the victor. I smile at how I smart-talked to Caesar Flickerman.
"So Haymitch, what do you think of the Games having one hundred percent more competitors then usual?" asks Caesar.
"I don't see that it makes much difference. They'll still be one hundred percent as stupid as usual, so I figure the odds will be roughly the same." I bite my lip to keep from laughing at myself on the T.V. screen. I will admit I was very arrogant and snarky back then and realize that I still am to this day.
"He didn't have to reach far for that, did he?" Katniss says after my little comment about the tributes. This is too funny. I never thought that I would look back after 25 years and laugh at myself.
I turn serious when I see the Hunger Games arena unfold on the television screen. I don't really see what's going on in the screen even though I am staring right at it. I see what's going on in my head.
The day the 50th Quarter Quell began eighteen tributes were killed in the bloodbath that took place at the Cornucopia. But I was smarter then them. I knew that the pretty flowers and delicious looking fruits were all part of the Gamemakers' ploy. They were all poisonous. I knew one thing before I entered the arena, "don't trust everything you see. Especially not in the Hunger Games."
I made my escape to the woods after getting a small backpack from the Cornucopia. I remember narrowly escaping a flying spear to my head. I remember the screams of the tributes I killed as the days pass by. I remember the day I made an alliance with Maysilee Donner. She saved my life from a big Career tribute that was about to finish me off. I was thankful for that. So I remember vowing to myself that if the time came for me to ever kill Maysilee I wouldn't do it. Not just because she saved my life but because I had sort of a small crush on her since we were little but was too afraid to admit that to anyone.
But I had to admit, looking back, that we made a pretty good team, each of us protecting the other's backs, taking turns keeping watch for other tributes or traps in the night while the other got some rest. Our hunger didn't last long because when we killed as a team we got what food we could from the other tribute's packs.
But there was this little thing she disagreed on: My plan to escape the arena. Or if not escape it then at least find the end of it.
"Why?" Maysilee keeps asking as we continue to walk farther. But I ignore her most of the time. It's no use explaining. She would just have to wait and see when I have reached my goal. Then she would be happy she followed along.
After a while I realize she isn't behind me anymore. I remember turning back and seeing her standing under a canopy of trees with her arms folded and a scowl on her face. So I decide just to answer her.
"Because it has to end somewhere, right?" I watch my younger self asking on the T.V. screen. "The arena can't go on forever," is said.
"What do you expect to find?" Maysilee asks.
"I don't know. But maybe there's something we can use," I hear myself say.
The television screen shows my younger self and Maysilee on flat, dry earth that leads to a cliff. Far below there are jagged rocks.
"That's all there is, Haymitch. Lets go back," says Maysilee.
"No, I'm staying here," I see myself saying to her in the screen.
"All right. There are only five of us left. May as well say good-bye now, anyway," she says. "I don't want it to come down to you and me."
I agree. "Okay," I say. The audience probably doesn't think I care about her as she walks away. But I do and that's why I don't look at her or even offer to shake her hand. Because if I did so much as glance her way I might not have been able to let her go. She was, after all, my childhood crush.
I recall thinking that Maysilee was right: there is nothing out here that would help me. So I watch as my younger self in the screen throws a fist-sized rock over the cliff and waits. When I it flies right back out and into my palms, I start laughing.
But right then, through the speakers, I hear Maysilee scream. I could have ignored her but instead I run for her. Listening to where her screams are coming from I find her just in time to see a flock of candy pink birds, equipped with long, thin beaks, skewer her through the neck. I hold her hand as she dies. I remember thinking that if she had stayed with me and not broken the alliance that she would still be alive. But then I thought: no, she would have died one way or another. I guess it was better that no human killed her. Then I would have to avenge her death. Instead my hatred for the Capitol grew more and more.
At last a girl from District 1 and I am the last two tributes left. The inevitable fight between us is bloody and awful. I find myself touching the skin where the girl had cut me right across the stomach. But I did poke her eye out by stabbing my knife in her left eye. I remember that I made it to the cliff and collapsed at the edge of it. She threw her ax at me but it went over my head and over the cliff. She doesn't know that it will come back up. And when it does it buries itself in her head. The last cannon sounds and trumpets announce my victory.
The screen goes black after that. I realize a second later that Peeta has turned it off.
Peeta says, "That force field at the bottom of the cliff, it was like the one on the roof of the Training Center. 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."
I wait for what Katniss has to say for this. "Not just against the other tributes, but the Capitol too," she says. "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. I bet they had a good time trying to spin that one. Bet that's why I don't remember seeing it on television. It's almost as bad as us and the berries!"
She starts to laugh and Peeta just shakes his head smiling.
That's when I make my presence known. " Almost, but not quite," I say. They whip around, their faces showing their horror that I might be angry over them watching my tape, but I just smirk and take a swig of my wine. I bet Peeta is annoyed that I'm drinking again, but too bad.
I see Katniss's eyes take on a different kind of shine. It shows me she has a new kind of confidence lighting up inside of her.
I think of my advice to her but decide that I will tell her later when the time is right.