"Mags! Wake up!" Aramis's voice pierces through my subconscious but I ignore it. A few more minutes of sleep couldn't hurt. "Mags!" He says, louder this time and starts shaking my shoulder.
I finally pry my eyes open and groan loudly as I see his face hovering over me. "Wuttt?" I say, my voice slurred from sleep.
"It's Remembrance Day today, Mags. You have to get ready, it wouldn't be any good for us to be late."
"Oh..." I had forgotten about how that was today; I tend to overlook the big things. Remembrance Day is a sort of 'holiday', you could call it, that made us look back on past evils such as the Games and remember the fallen. We go over all of the major events in Panem's history and think about how we can avoid the mistakes, repeat the good times, things like that. They show the same footage every year. Everyone is required to go, and as the daughter of the Mockingjay, I'm expected to 'set an example.'
"Yea, hurry up. You've got 10 minutes until we leave." He says, smiling wickedly.
That sure wakes me up. I spring out of bed and quickly clean my teeth, shower, and dress. I'm down the stairs with a few minutes to spare.
"Proscrastination strikes again," my father says, tossing me a small buttered loaf of bread quickly followed my coat. I catch both and hold the still warm bread in between my teeth as I pull on my coat. Mom herds us out the door and I quickly eat my bread along the way, hair still wet.
I jog towards the recently constructed town square with the rest of my rushed family, peeking into each alleyway and constantly checking over my shoulder the whole time. I try to act normal whenever one of my family members glances at me with a worried look on their face, but I'm still scared out of my wits that Cato's nephew is going to jump out sometime and slit my throat. I unconsciously rub my neck and do a quick scan of the area once again; quite a few other people are surrounding us, and I somehow feel safer. He attacked at night while I was alone; he wouldn't dare do such a thing in broad daylight in front of everyone.
To be honest, I wouldn't have ever believed it to ever be possible to be so afraid of someone that you don't even know.
"Mr. and Mrs. Mellark! You're late!" The mayor hisses as we reach the back of the raised platform that they use as a stage. "You're supposed to be setting an example here!"
"Sorry, we got held up a bit." My father says, smiling as he nods his head towards me. I feel my face turn red in embarassment.
"It doesn't matter; you're here now! Come along, come along!" He ushers us towards a blood red velvet sofa. He gestures for us to sit and I sink into the plush cushions. I barely stop myself from jumping up, thinking of myself sinking so far that I would drown in the blood. It eventually stops going down so I relax my tensed muscles and my father wraps his arm around me, giving my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Right. I'm safe next to him; he won't let anyone hurt me.
"What's wrong sweety?" He asks quietly as the mayor bounches over to the podium.
My eyes never leave District 12's 'beloved' mayor as I answer him. "Remembrance Day."
He gives a nod of understanding and leaves it at that as the mayor begins his long, boring speech. I'm always jumpy on Remembrance Day; I hate seeing the images of the Games and the Rebellion. Most of the images are of either wounded people or my parents. The Girl on Fire and the Boy with the Bread had more than a few 'toasty' scenes in their Hunger Games. Pun intended.
I have more than a few reasons to be more on guard than usual this year. Knowing that people are out for my blood simply because of my parents shakes a person up.
When the mayor finally finishes his speech, a screen rises from the stage. It begins showing the same images it does every year, and I feel my father tense as it shows his Hunger Games. My mother is running from fire balls being shot at her, barely managing to escape being burned to death.
They near the end of the Hunger Games when my father is being held prisoner by Cato. I tense when I see his face and almost break down on stage. I hear sharp intakes of breath from the rest of District 12 as Cato falls off of the Cornucopia to the mutts awaiting him and remember that I am being watched by all. I take my father's hand and his grip keeps tightening as they show the footage. He remembers these images daily; he never wanted a day dedicated to showing his worst fears.
After a few hours of watching, they take a short intermission for everyone to take a break and think about the things they just saw. I take it as a moment of freedom, of not having to see death everywhere.
"Dad? You can let go now." I prompt quietly.
"Hm? Oh, of course. Sorry Mags," he answers with a nervous laugh. He releases my hand and I shake it a bit, trying to get the blood to flow once more.
"Peeta? Peeta?" My mother says, confused. Oh no; she can't have one of her break downs here. Not in front of the whole District. Panic spreads like wildfire around here, and if they see the Mockingjay freaking out, then they will all freak out.
"It's okay, Katniss. I'm right here." My father says in a calm voice, trying to calm her down before she started screaming or thrashing around. He gathers her in his arms and cradles her there, speaking soothing words.
A look of relief floods over her face as he says something, but I'm not sure what he might have said to get her like that so fast.
"Mags? Where's Haymitch?" Aramis asks, knowing that I'm worrying about our mother and trying to get my mind away from it.
"Aramis, he's right-" I fumble as I look around and notice that he's nowhere to be seen. "What? I thought he was right over there..."
"I didn't see him at all during the whole showing so far, and I didn't see him when we got here either."
"Crazy drunk..." I mutter and I start scanning the crowd, looking for his grubby face.
"He's not here, Mags. Where could he be?"
"Probably passed out and wasted in an alleyway." I grumble as I give up trying to find him. With everyone moving around like this, it would be impossible to single out just one person.
"We have to find him, Mags."
"We don't have any time. There's only a few minutes left of intermission and we have to stay here, not go looking for the town drunk."
"But Mags-"
"But nothing, Aramis. We can't and we won't. End of story." It pains me to say such harsh words about Haymitch, but I can't let Aramis go and look for him when he needs to be here. Haymitch had taken a liking to Aramis since birth and even suggested the name for him. The two wouldn't be any closer now than they would be if they were related by blood.
"You just don't want me to find him cuz he likes me more than you! You hate him!" His words sting like a tracker jacker's venom, but I hold my ground. I love Haymitch like an uncle, don't get me wrong there. The thing is we have had quite a few, well, disagreements on quite a few things. Like, for instance, how much is an appropriate amount to drink at 3 in the morning.
"Aramis, you can't just leave now just for Haymitch. If he isn't here there are hundreds of possible explanations for why not." I say calmly. If I lose my temper with him then he'll just get worse.
"I'm going to go find him, you can't stop me."
"You're right, but I can sure as hell try." I grumble as I follow him off the stage and out of view of the rest of the District. A few security guards watch us lazily, but they know us. Everyone does.
Aramis is taller than me, despite the 2 year lead I have on him. Which makes pouncing on him all the more difficult for me.
He is thrown off balance and tumbles to the ground, surprised by my sudden attack. I grab his arms and hold them behind his back. I press his cheek into the ground roughly, barely keeping him in place with my light frame. "What the hell, Mags! Get off me! I have to find Haymitch!" He shouts like a madman.
"This is for your own good, Aramis. Haymitch can take care of himself, he's a victor. You don't need to go find him and take care of him everytime he gets wasted."
"Hey, Ms. Mellark! What do you think you're doing?!" One of the guards shouts, rushing towards us. Every other guard is quick to follow.
"No, he needs me! Now get. Off!" Aramis shouts, completely ignoring them all.
"We have to stay here and set an example for the District! We have responsibilities, Aramis! Duties to the public! We can't just abandon them every time somebody sulks in an alleyway with a bottle of spririts!" I shout back, also ignoring the guards.
Aramis makes a sound of frustration and starts bucking around on the ground, trying to throw me off. Unfortunately, he succeeds. I fly off of him, his strength giving me momentum the farther I go. I crash into the calves of a guard, sending him sprawling on top of me. I quickly push him off and scramble back to my feet. I eye Aramis and we begin to circle each other, our eyes never leaving each other. The guards watch us with great interest, hungry to know what we will do next.
"Aramis. Finnick. Mellark. I want you to march back up onto that stage right now, and pretend this never happened. You're not going to go find Haymitch; he knows how to handle himself. Now let's go."
"No." He answers simply, not even flinching as I use his full name.
"No? No?" I ask, laughing like a maniac. Maybe Cato wasn't that insane after all. "That wasn't a question, Aramis. Now get onto that stage, now."
"I'm not going to get back onto that stage until I find Haymitch, Mags. Deal with it."
"Oh-oh, oh yes you are. I will drag you kicking, screaming, thrashing, the whole big deal if I have to. But I'm getting you back up there whether you like it or not." I growl, voice low. I hear a few catcalls from the guards surrounding us, but I ignore them. Let them watch. I have nothing to hide.
"Aramis, Magnolia. Get up here. Now." I turn around to see my father onstage, looking down on us. His voice is stern and his expression rock hard. He fixes his cold, disapproving gaze upon me and I slide my eyes away in shame.
"Dad, I can explain-" Aramis begins, but our father cuts him off.
"I don't care about any explanations, Aramis. Now get up here before the Mayor starts wondering where you are."
I shuffle my feet towards the stairs, head hung in shame. I can't believe what has just come over me; that was the most vicious thing I had ever done to anybody. Let alone my own brother.
When Aramis and I reach the top of the stairs our father shoots a look at the guards that hadn't even bothered to intervene and we head back to our seats. I brush myself off and avoid looking into my father's eyes for fear of seeing his disappointed look.
Soon they begin to show more images and I have the courage to look at my father. His eyes are glued to the screen and he grinds his teeth together and I can tell he's working hard not to scream.
"It's okay, daddy." I say quietly, lips barely moving.
He looks at me with sad, yet shining eyes as I use the name I had called him as a little girl. He gives me a weak smile, then turns back towards the screen.
I stare off at an empty space in the distance, waiting for the footage to end. I sometimes tear my gaze away to check on the rest of my family, and I see that they are watching the screen intently. My father's jaw is set, the look on his face stern. Everyone else's expression is almost identical.
I begin to watch the screen again and my eyes immediately begin to water; they show a child being shot as Peacekeepers invade a house. I look away and don't take my eyes off of a fruit banner until it ends. The mayor gives one final speech and we are allowed to leave. Once I'm off the stage I rocket towards home, shutting my eyes at times, trying to escape the images in my head. I reach home and slam the door behind me, leaning my back against it and breathing heavily. I sink to the ground and hold my head in my hands. How could they show such an image? They show the same footage every year, and not once have I ever seen that.
NO. WAY. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but it really is to her. Magnolia doesn't react well to change. She needs a stable environment around her in order to function properly. She tends to overreact when things change because she always likes them to stay the same as they always were in the first place. Just thought I'd explain my thoughts to you guys.(; Well, she doesn't really need the stable ENVIRONMENT, more of a constant. Like in science. I'm using science a lot in this... It's supposed to be my worst subject... D:
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Bye! MCPIXEL MAKES SOOOOO MUCH SENSE...