Moves and Countermoves: Hannah

Chapter 3: The Train Journey

Monday 29th June - the train.

Sudden light burns Hannah's eyes and she wakes up with a start. She blinks her eyes rapidly to focus, but her eyes are heavy and don't want to stay open, her whole body feels heavy. Heavy in comfort, warmth, her father's scent, but it is also juxtaposed by the chill and heart-racing tension of unfamilarness. Her stomach still feels funny, and that the contents whirling around may soon make her throw up.

"Hannah", her father's voice rumbles from underneath her, and she realises that she is kneeling on him. "Fuck, Effie", he lets out what almost sounds like a sob to Hannah. "It's too early".

"No its not", comes a stern high pitched voice, and Hannah's head snaps up to register Euphemia Coin. Her figure silhouetting the sunlight, so that Hannah can atlast take in her surroundings better. "The sun is up. Today is a big, big day", she declares, her cold eyes studying the two of them.

The woman is a mess of coulours that makes Hannah's eyes hurt all over again, her attire makes Hannah draw similarities between her and the parrot or the toucan birds that she read about in one of her father's books. She looks even more ridiculous than she had the previous day, her face even more painted.

"... There ... there is a lot to be", she continues, slowly, almost breathlessly, "... done before our train arrives Wednesday morning".

Hannah can't detect the emotion Euphemia Coin is portraying, but it is odd.

Her father clears his throat, sitting up, making her fall off his chest on to the soft bouncy bedding. "You look ridiculous, Coin", finishing the brown liquid in his glass. "Really, you outdid yourself", he says, getting up. Hannah shadows him. "Tell me, will your wife be there to welcome us?"

"She very well may be. But she is quite frankly the least of my concerns", her eyes continue to track both of them from where she is stood. But that is OK, because Hannah is also tracking her from behind her father's form.

"Really?" her father asks, he walks over to where Euphemia Coin is standing and is now almost nose to nose with her. "We still need to have our little chat", he whispers.

Hannah, being so close to Euphemia Coin, can't help but stare at the blank whiteness of the woman's leg; no sign of the smallest cut or scar. She is perched on leopard print, very high pointy shoes, and Hannah briefly wonders if this woman killed the animal herself for the fur. But after another glance at her, she decides probably not.

"I do not want to talk about it", Euphemia Coin whispers back. Her concentration is no longer on Hannah but on her father. "What is done is done. I would do it a hundred times over again, in a heart beat, for her. This is where we are now, and our main concern is getting Hannah through the games".

"I-"

"Please, yesterday was very ugly", Euphemia Coin interrupts her father, making Hannah's eyes bulge at her braveness, "let us not have a repeat", and her eyes fall back on Hannah.

"Fine", her father says, stepping back a few inches. "But we are having that chat, and I will decide if what is done, is done".

"Fine. Now, she needs to have a shower, she is filthy".

~xXX~

"Why did you breed her?" Hannah asks. They were in the shower. Euphemia Coin was waiting the other side of the door. Steam was everywhere, the water was like hot rain and Hannah was loving playing in it. Her's and her father's skin smelt of oranges from the liquid that had dispersed from the wall into her father's hand, which he had then put into hers and said, 'wash everywhere twice'. He had washed her hair until that had also smelt like oranges too.

"What?" her father asks.

"Why did you breed with Euphemia Coin?" Hannah repeats. She had wondered it on and off since her father had told her that she was her mother. Euphemia Coin was from the Capitol, they were from District 12. There were plenty of women in District 12 to breed. Euphemia Coin, from what she had witnessed, appeared only to know how to squawk and flap her hands like a pink ostrich. Her only defense was her extremely long nail like claws, and some strange power she had over her father to do the things she demanded. So why mate with a female who lived in another land and was not there to look after her young?

Euphemia Coin suddenly shouts something, but Hannah misses it.

"Fuck", her father mutters, and turns away from her. The shower suddenly stops but her father continues muttering while he searches for something. "Give me your hand", he instructs, and she does obediently.

He has a small brush in his hand and starts to brush away at her fingers, she watches somewhat mesmirised as it brushes away the remaining dirt under nails.

"It was a mistake".

"OK", she answers.

She was a mistake.

"What is this called?" she asks, wiggling her fingers.

"A nail brush"

"Nail brush", she repeats.

"It brushes the dirt away from your nails and toenails. I am brushing away the dirt from your nails with a nail brush".

"Understood".

~xXX~

"Clean enough for you?" her father asks when he opens the door.

"She is a completely different skin tone"

"Congratulations", her father scoffs.

Clouds of steam follow them out the shower room. Her father has wrapped her in a big fluffy white towel that she likes the feel and smell of very much. Her comfort is quickly gone however, when she feels Euphemia Coin's hand on her head. So close to her neck! It burns her like the sun she used to wake her up this morning.

Alarmed, even more so to find that her father is not by her side but across the room, Hannah instinctively hisses at the woman and scuttles away as best as she can in her tight wrapping to where her father is putting on clothes.

"Like approaching a wild baby bird who has been abandoned from her mother since birth, starved for days, and has injured her wings, Effie", her father mutters.

"I was merely checking to see you had conditioned her hair properly", the woman hisses.

"And?"

"Satisfactory, however, you did not cut her nails", Euphemia Coin mutters back.

~xXX~

Hannah is biting her lip to stop the tears from falling when there is a hard knock on door. Hannah, naturally with everything from this trip, jumps in shock over it.

"You are being much to heavy handed, Haymitch. How many times do I have to tell you? Work from the ends up".

"I've been doing this for almost half an hour now! Let me just cut it all off!".

"You will do no such thing, Haymitch!"

"It is not worth the cramp which is building in my hand"

"We change nothing until Cinna has seen her. I could do it for you if you hadn't scared her half to death of me"

"Yeah, and whose fault is that?"

"Certainly not mine!"

Hannah watches the two of them arguing in the mirror. In their own world. Seemingly not even hearing the knock on the door. It has been like that since the shower, which must have been verging on an hour ago. Constantly spitting and shouting words at each other, most which Hannah cannot understand the phraseology of. Her head is starting to hurt a lot, and her stomach still feels it wants to be sick.

The second round of knocking is even louder.

"What?!" they both shout at the same time.

A man in grey uniform walks in, a peacekeeper behind him.

Hannah tenses, her eyes zoning in on the semi-automatic rifle the peacekeeper holds ready in his hand. But her view is quickly changed to the back of her father's legs as he stands in front of her.

"What is this?" Euphemia Coin's voice screeches, panicky, standing up to join her father. "These are private living compartments".

"Effie, please, sit down", her father's voice firm, angry.

"Haymitch?"

Hannah still can't see anything but the black of her father's trousers.

"Effie", her father warns.

"But-"

"Sit down", he orders. "Stay with Hannah. We're just going to have a chat aren't we gentlemen? Hannah", she can tell by the tone that he is addressing her now, and she turns her head to look up at him. He looks calm. "Remember what I said to you. Do everything she says. If you want to go back to District 12, do everything she says. Do you understand?"

Hannah nods, "I understand".

"For real this time, Hannah. Remember what happened the last time you didn't do as your told?"

She nods, her eyes filling slightly with tears as she remembers her Sae with a sticky red hole in the back of her head. Her blood pouring out on to the floor around her. Her one silver starry eyes, cold and unmoving.

"You don't want that to happen to your Papa, right?"

"Haymitch!" Euphemia Coin.

"Hannah?" her father is firm.

She shakes her head and bows it to hide her shameful tears. "I will listen for real this time", she manages, her throat and eyes feel hot and painful.

And just like that her father leaves the room, leaving her and Euphemia Coin in silence.

"I am going to finish brushing your hair", Euphemia Coin says after a while, her breathing is ragged. Hannah shrugs feeling empty over her father's words.

"You have such beautiful hair, Hannah", Euphemia Coin's hands and movements are delicate.

Hannah shrugs. She hates her own hair. She wishes it was black like her father's. Only weak, cursed, people have her colour hair. This woman knows nothing.

"So many people in the capital are going to be envious of it".

Hannah thinks how she hates the capitol, and all the people that live in it, Euphemia Coin included. If it was not for them, she would live with her Papa and Sae, not in the forest all alone.

"Your father should not have said what he said to you. You are not responsible for him".

But her words only upset Hannah more, as she imagines her father with a similar wound at the back of his neck. His silver starry eyes, also cold and unmoving.

"I am very sorry about what happened to your, Sae, Hannah. She was a very lovely woman"

Curiosity gets the best of Hannah. "You knew my Sae?", she asks, turning to look the woman in the eye to detect her lie.

Euphemia Coin's cold eyes stare into hers. She nods. "I knew your Sae very well. She-"

"That's not possible", Hannah dismisses. "My Sae would never be friends with the Angel of Death. That's you by the way", she says, staring just as coldly back at her, before turning back to staring at nothing.

Euphemia Coin lets out a heavy sigh, but continues with Hannah's hair.

~xXX~

"Your hair is done", Euphemia Coin declares after some time and Hannah looks up to look at her reflection. She can't contain her smile as she sees that Euphemia Coin has weaved her hair into two braids, just like the other little girls in the town.

"Do you like it?" Euphemia Coin asks and Hannah drops her smile and shrugs. "It is the first time I have done it on anyone else but myself".

And again, curiosity bubbles in Hannah. "You don't have children in the Capitol?"

What looks like a smile cracks on Euphemia Coin's mask. She shakes her head, no.

"Did they die?"

"No. I mean, I have only have one child, Hannah", she says, staring directly at Hannah.

"Why?" she asks. From what she has observed, most mothers in the town have at least two children, average four, once they have birthed one.

"Because I already have you", she breathes, and Hannah clocks how her left eye fills with water. "Hannah, I do not know wha-", Euphemia Coin starts, and then stops, purses her lips, and closes her eyes. The tear drop falls and Euphemia coin turns her back on Hannah, before turning back round a moment later. Traces of the tear, gone. "May I ask you a question now, Hannah?" she asks, perching herself on the bed behind her.

Hannah frowns.

"It is only fair, is it not? I have answered your questions, and you do like the braids I have put in your hair".

Hannah nods.

Euphemia Coin nods and goes to open her mouth but is cut off by the door opening and her father coming through, alone.

"Everyone here OK?" he asks.

Euphemia Coin jumps up and walks straight to her father.

"What happened? Are you OK?"

Haymitch nods, his eyes finding Hannah.

Hannah stares back at him. Unmoving.

"What did they do to you? What did they want? Euphemia Coin continues to squawk.

"The boy. He had an accident. The attendant found him", Haymitch says, moving his gaze from Hannah to Euphemia Coin. "Apparently he was too scared to leave the room or even open the door to find the bathroom. He was pretty upset, so I helped him calm down and clean himself up and got him some food".

"But why the peacekeeper?"

"I think that was just to scare us. Fine escort you are, Sweetheart. Tell me, did you look in on the boy since you disposed him into his room last night?"

"I, I, well I forgot about him. But anyway, he is not my concern, he is not our concern".

"That's cold. Especially for you".

"He is not son".

"He is also not your enemy".

"Any tribute not Hannah is our enemy".

Haymitch snorts, "I don't think we have to worry about that boy being any competition. You better fix that attitude back before we get to the Capitol, your fans are not going to like it, and it's also so very not you".

"I think that's where your wrong, Haymitch", she says, getting incredibly close to her father. "I think they will love it, after all, we Capitols are all blood thirsty beasts, hungry for the brutal spilling of young district blood. Isn't that right?"

"You", her father pokes her, so she falls back a little, "don't decide anything until we have discussed our approach with Cinna and Portia".

Hannah thought that they had forgotten she was in the room, but her father walks towards her and then picks her up into his strong arms. It makes her towel fall off her but her father's arms are always so secure and warm, that she snuggles her face in the crook of his neck like she likes to do and breathes in his scent. "You have to be perfect. I swear, Coin, if you fuck up in anyway, if she does not come out of that arena alive, I will kill you with my own two hands!", he shouts. "Hannah is with me today, you tomorrow! Today, you coach the boy!"

There is silence for a long time.

"You don't have to worry, Haymitch, I will be perfect", Euphemia Coin says. "I will lie, smile, kiss and anything else that needs doing to ensure Hannah wins. And she will win Haymitch".

Hannah heard her shoes clack out the room and the door close behind her.

"Why do I have to listen to everything she says if you hate her?" Hannah mumbles into his shoulder.

Her father sighs, sitting down with her. "I don't hate her, and you have to listen to her because she is the best at what she does"

Hannah wrinkles her nose. "At pulling peoples' names out of boxes"

"No, at making everyone love her"

Hannah wrinkles her nose at this too, unconvinced that 'making everyone love her' is a skill that will help you win the games. "The way you were speaking to her made it sound like you hate her, and you said you would kill her with your own two hands", she says, lifting her head to look deep into his eyes.

Her father smiles. "It's just the way adults talk sometimes. Can I trust you with a secret?"

Hannah nods. She loves it when her father shares his secrets with her. It's very rare, but when he does, it makes her feel so special.

"I ... like Effie. She gave me you, so I like her. ... So, I like her a lot. More than a lot. Do you understand what I'm saying?" his eyes search hers.

"Love".

Her father seems to consider this and then nods, yes. "I just love you more".

At this, Hannah hugs him, joy filling her heart. "You love me?"

"You know I love you", he says, grabbing her chin and bringing her to look him in the eyes again. "And your mother is right. You are going to win. This is what we've been preparing for, right?" he nods at her. "Right?" he asks again, his filling with water.

Hannah nods, grinning. "Hannah Abernathy. Winner of the 75th Hunger Games! Third Quell Winner!" she exclaims.

"Right, now, let's get ready to play the games".