Chapter two as promised. I will be updating weekly every Saturday. Hope you like it!
75th Hunger Games - Kaylyn's story
Chapter 2 - The Train Ride...Again
Finnick and I enter the all too familiar lounge car and sit down next to each other, while Mags sits opposite. She's clearly very old and frail and I don't think she talks much but she helped Finnick win so I don't doubt that she'll help again. She must know the plan. The rebellion plan, surely Finnick has told her. Yeah he must have...why wouldn't he? 'Well he didn't tell you' I argue, I then push that thought out of my mind, now is not the time to be judging Finnick on that fact that he hasn't told me. If he hasn't told me, he will have a reason not to do so, and I will accept that. It's the train that suddenly comes to a halt that causes me to stop thinking, I look around, confused. Finnick looks at me and smiles as if he was expecting this.
"Let's go for a walk, the train will be here for an hour we have plenty of time" he says pulling me up and leading me off the train.
Once we are well out of way for anyone to possibly hear us Finnick turns to me.
"Look Kaylyn" he begins in a fast pace "I couldn't say too much in the justice building because it may have been bugged, but Peter has assured me if it was he'd clear it all off for me in case I said too much...which I think I did. But anyway, this plan I have is quite complicated and I don't want you to worry about it. In the arena just follow my lead and try to stay with me, we'll form allies before the games, hopefully with Katniss" he pauses and sighs then continues in a slower pace "you have enough to do with trying not to be recognised, I want you to focus on that. Nothing else, don't let anything that happens from now on distract you from that...ok?" he says as if I'm going to argue "no matter what happens try to stay focussed on not being recognised" he repeats with more urgency.
'What does he know?' I think slightly scared.
"Promise me you won't let yourself get distracted" he asks now holding on to my arms tightly and looking sternly into my eyes.
"Ok ok I promise" I say in a scared tone.
He lets go of me and runs his hand through his hair "good" is all he says.
He starts to walk back to the train but at the last minute turns around and says "I'm still getting you out alive" and winks at me.
'What suddenly changed his mood? What does he know? Or what does he think will happen?' I think feverishly as I walk alone back to the train.
I just sit in my room after that, deep in thought about what the next few weeks will bring. Clearly Finnick thinks something will happen to distract me, he looked so worried about me getting distracted as if he expected me to be majorly effected by it, what could it possibly be to make him that worried? I rack my brain for some sort of answer, any sort of answer, but nothing. I can't think of anything that could happen that would distract me from trying to stay hidden. I've been in and seen so much pain caused by the Capitol now, I am sure there was nothing that they could do that would surprise me enough to forget to hide my identity. 'But Finnick's worried' I thought, if he was worried then I should stay on my guard, he is a mentor after all, he knows what to watch out for, and if he knows something may happen that could distract me from trying to stay alive and is trying to warn me about it, I should listen. I resolve to keep an eye out, be on my guard for any surprises and try to make sure to stick to the profile I will hopefully be given by the Capitol.
At 7 we are all gathered around the TV in the lounge car. I see Marcus and Ellen arrive.
I get up to hug Marcus and he whispers "I'll help you as much as possible" I nod in answer and take my seat again.
The Capitol seal appears and a brief introduction by Caesar is given before the reapings are shown. As districts 1 and 2 are shown I begin to worry, they look strong. They could kill me easily. District 3 look weaker and Finnick smiles as someone called Beetee gets picked 'must be part of his plan' I muse. Then you see me being called, dragged to the stage and finally a very serious look strikes my face.
Caesar picks up on where I was "must have been late to the reaping, poor girl, she looks terrified. For those of you who don't remember Kaylyn she won the 71st Hunger games, with a spear as a weapon. Only 14, although she seems shy and timid, she's deadly." he comments with a chuckle.
'Oh no' I think 'now all the tributes will be after me first, good play by Snow but does Caesar realise what he's just done? Does he know he's just made me the most wanted tribute? And he must know I didn't win those games, surely, he'd remember some of the victors. 'Well at least shy and timid isn't hard to pull off' I think grimly. We then see Finnick called up with his very blank face and Caesar briefly explains how he won. We watch the rest of the reapings in silent it isn't until Ellen turns the TV off that Finnick talks.
"Shy and timid is easy for you to portray, a spear is very much like a sword so that's not bad, the good thing is you now look similar to the actual girl who won those games, she was in 4 as well...well I suppose they couldn't change too much that'd be too obvious to the Capitol public." he says more to himself.
He's clearly missed one key detail that I know he doesn't want to say "Caesar has put me as a target, so I'll be watched closely. It's the Capitols way of making sure I pull off this act. As well as they want eyes on Katniss, Snow wants the Capitol to keep a close eye on me too. I'm doomed Fin" I say, at this point he gets up and walks over to me he picks me up and sits me on his lap, he holds me tightly, protectively.
"I'm never going to see Will again, or Michael. I'm as good as dead!" I say shakily..
"You are going to see them again. We can pull this off, and I plan for you to get out alive love." he says soothingly "You have to trust me" he says in a softer tone.
"I'm just scared" I say letting a tear escape my eye.
"It's understandable. It's an expected reaction Kay" he says in a lighter tone.
Finnick looks me and sees my troubled expression, a smirk rises to his face and he begins to tickle me.
"You're not going to give up are you? You're getting out alive" he says as I have fits of laughter.
"Who's going to get out alive?" he teases whilst still tickling me.
I'm now on the floor and he is towering over me "ok..o..k, I'll...t-try" I say whilst still laughing hard.
He stops tickling me and I calm down, by now everyone else has left and it's just me and Finnick in the lounge car, it's late evening outside so an orange glow engulfs the room . Finnick pulls me up and hugs me tightly.
"Trust me love" he whispers in my ear.
We pull apart after a while, and Finnick escorts me to my room.
"Good night darling, no talk of tactics on the train anymore" he says before kissing me on my head.
"Sounds like a good idea, night Fin" I say before entering my room for the night.
I am plagued with nightmares of my first games, the girl who Ethan killed, Lily's death, Ethan's death, my mum and dad. Every death I witnessed. Every death I caused. I dream of them all in horrible realistic visions. I must have been screaming because I'm woken up by a very distressed Finnick.
"Kaylyn...Kaylyn!...KAYLYN WAKE UP!" he shouts.
I sit bolt upright and look around feverishly panting hard. I then see a very worried Finnick.
"You were screaming and thrashing around, I couldn't stand to hear you like that so I had to wake you up, I'm sorry" he says sitting on the end of my bed.
I see dark rings around his eyes, I clearly woke him up, either that or he had a nightmare too. I jump up and hug him tightly causing us both to fall back onto the bed, he hugs tightly back.
"I'm sorry I woke you" I say shyly.
He looks down to me.
"Don't be sorry, you weren't the only one having nightmares, I woke up from mine and heard you, I wanted to stop yours before it got too deep but I was too late" he says tentatively.
He starts to get up to leave and I begin to panic.
"No don't go, I'll have nightmare's again...stay...please" I ask timidly.
He turns around and immediately agrees.
"Of course, ok Tay, I'll stay" he says whilst getting into bed.
I rest my head on his shoulder and he puts and arm around me, I let go of the fact he called me Tay, probably just a slip of the tongue or him trying to reassure me. We both drift off to sleep again. Neither of us have nightmares for the rest of the night.
I wake up next to Finnick, he wakes as I do.
"I'm going to get changed, see you at breakfast in 10?" he asks whilst walking towards the door.
"Yeah" is all I say.
I get changed and head to the dining car, the smell of delicious food surrounds my nose, I pile food high on my plate and grab a hot chocolate and sit across from Finnick.
"So what's happening today?" I ask whilst sipping my hot chocolate.
"Nothing, we are going to relax all day, and tomorrow" he says whilst showing a very charming smile.
"We could play the lava game" he says.
I look at him puzzled and ask "what's that? I'm not keen on getting burned" I say with a chuckle.
He laughs slightly "No, no, not real lava, we'll play it in the lounge car, it's where the floor is lava and you can only step on furniture to get around, we can move the furniture further away to make it harder" he explains whilst grinning.
Although it sounds childish I want to play, I'm probably not going have fun for a while and I do need to relax and just be myself for a while. Sometimes we need to be childish to remember who we are and what we're fighting for. We both finish our breakfast quickly and race to the lounge.
"I win!" I shout triumphantly jumping up and down in the air in the centre of the room.
I turn around to see Finnick standing on a chair. "Yeah but now you're being burned? Thought you didn't like that?" he says teasingly as he winks at me.
I scream and jump on the opposite chair to him.
"First one to the window without touching the floor gets more chocolate!" he shouts rapidly as he begins to jump.
I quickly catch up but Finnick wins by a millisecond, after a celebratory dance I tackle him to the ground and we both 'scream' with laughter as we get burned by the lava. We play childish games for the whole day, doing races, hide and seek, lava game, we ask for some mashed up ice to through at each other throughout the train and the avoxes quickly supply some, we shoot targets with the ice and by dinner time me and Finnick are both very tired but very happy and relaxed.
"Great day, let's do it again tomorrow" I say pleadingly whilst me and Finnick are heading to our rooms for the night.
We stop at my door.
"Sure thing love" he says kissing my head "good night" he says whilst walking away.
"Night!" I shout after him as I enter my room.
I have no nightmares tonight, only dreams of ice fights and lava games, which was nice for a change. It is a common side effect of winning the games to have nightmares, the nights are rare when you don't have them. I cherish this night as it's probably the last peaceful sleep I will have before I am once again submerged into the trap made by the Capitol.
I awake to a cold feel on my face, as I open my eyes I wipe my face and move the ice off of it, I see Finnick standing there triumphantly with a whole bucket of ice.
"Wait until I catch you!" I say running after him with a handful of ice which I found in my own, conveniently placed, ice bucket by my bed.
We run all the way to the dining car where he stops at a dead end of the train, I hit him in the side of the head with ice and attempt to run away afterwards only to be lifted in the air from behind, I soon end up on the floor in fits of laughter as Finnick tickles me.
"We need to eat breakfast first, silly girl, you can't go anywhere yet" he teases.
He stops tickling and pulls me up, we both sit down and eat, each watching each other suspiciously awaiting an ice attack. I get up slowly and announce:
"I'm going to get changed"
I walk calmly out the door but as soon as I'm out of sight and make a dash for my room, I do get changed but I also get a huge handful of ice and keep one hand behind my back as I re-enter the dining car. I slowly open the door to find it empty
"What?" I say out loud in a confused tone.
I then realise why as I feel cold ice on my neck, I turn around on my heel to see Finnick with the same amount of ice I have. We look at each other, eyes narrowed, holding our ice out with one hand.
"On 3" he says.
"1" I say.
"2" he says.
"3!" we both shout as we launch our ice and attempt to block the others attack.
I dive back into the dining car hoping to find more ammunition, but soon realise that I'm trapped and have no more ice left, I swivel around on one heel to see Finnick looking mischievously at me, he fires but I dive behind a chair, I peer over the top to see where he is, only to not find him, I turn around slowly slightly scared to see him towering over me with more ice 'where is he getting this all from?' I muse. He aims at me but I dive for his legs and tackle him down, I then make a break for the door, the ice just flying past my head as I reach my room. I grab a handful of ice and start towards to the door.
I peer out and whisper:
"It's war" as I sneak down the hallway to find my opponent.
The day goes on like that, with me and Finnick having a constant ice fight only to stop for meals, at the end of the day we call it a draw and bid each other good night, again, much to my pleasure, no nightmares plague my dreams. Only throwing ice and hiding does. I am considered lucky to have had two nights in a row of peaceful sleep, and I am grateful for it. With the amount of worry, hiding and running for my life I'm about to be thrown into I'm glad I've had a few good nights of sleeping.
I awake this time to Peter, he looks over at me as I wake.
"Oh good your awake, I just came to tell you that we've arrived" he says in an emotionless voice.
He exits my room and I sit on the edge of my bed. Panic consumes me as I sit there. I push it away and put on a mask of strength. 'Well, here goes. For Michael. For Will.' I think determinedly as the Capitol city pulls into view outside.
Just a nice chapter between Kaylyn and Finnick, not a lot happened, I know, but next chapter, expect some surprises!