CHAPTER 3

REVELATIONS

I wake up early the next morning. It's the last day of the festival and I have to be there at the exhibition games. If I was looking forward to anything, it would be for the fireworks display at midnight.

I shower quickly, put on my choice of clothes which consists of a hanging white top, a black mini skirt and floral wedges. I brush my hair and hum to myself. I think of Finnick Odair. And how I look forward to seeing him again.

I go downstairs to have breakfast with my family. My stepdad, the mayor, is on the phone, talking quietly with someone. He looks a little tense.

I walk over to my mom and kiss her cheek. "Morning, mom."

"Good morning dear. Sit down, eat," she gestures to the food and then drinks her coffee.

"Who's Eli talking to?" I ask as I chew on a piece of bacon.

"It's the president," she said in hushed tones.

Oh.. I guess that's alright. He seems to talk to the president a lot anyway. Probably be something about the fishing industry.

About five minutes later, Mayor Eli puts the receiver back in its place and finally sits down. He sighs but we don't ask him anything. Whatever it is, it's top secret and we shouldn't pry.

"Allison," Mayor Eli addresses me.

I look at him. "Yeah?"

He seems very hesitant and sighs again. "Nevermind. Better hurry up. We can't be late."

After eating, we rode the car to the beach where the exhibitions are always held. It's very crowded and peacekeepers flock around us to protect us from possible threats.

We walk to an improvised stage and there sat District 4's living victors, Finnick Odair, Mags and Annie Cresta. Mags had an arm around the girl, Annie, who has her hands covering her ears.

Finnick looks worried. He turns to our direction and his eyes land on me. My heart stopped. He's beautiful. He smiles at me and I smile back.

He pats the seat beside him and I immediately head there but my stepdad holds me back. "Don't," he frowns at me.

I raise my eyebrow at him and shrug his hand off. "I'll do what I want."

"He is not good for you," Mayor Eli says.

"Seriously?" I glare at him. "Not good for me or for you? What the hell is your problem?"

He looks like he was finally gonna tell me his reason but my mother cut it off.

"Please.. Don't cause a scene," my mom says.

The mayor sighs and nods. Then to me, "Please listen to what I say," his tone more pleading than annoyed.

"You are not my father, Eli. I owe you nothing," and with that I walk to Finnick's direction and sit down with a huff.

"What happened?" he asks, concern evident in his voice.

"He wants me to avoid you," I answer him.

Finnick seems to think about that for a minute. "Do you want me to talk to him?"

I sigh. "Please don't."

"Alright," he says then looks sideways to Mags and Annie. "We're having a bit of a problem."

"What's wrong?" I ask and eye the two women. Annie is muttering about something while Mags tries to calm her down.

The emcee chose that moment to begin the event but the four of us didn't pay much attention. Annie's starting to mumble louder.

"Blood.. Blood everywhere," I hear her say. "I hear them screaming. I can hear them scream my name. They're crying for help." She closes her eyes and tries to cover her ears more. Mags's arms tighten around her and she looks to Finnick, asking for help. Finnick looks back at her, helpless and at a total loss.

"I can't take it anymore!" she stands up and screams, a terrible, skin-crawling scream.. The emcee stops talking, looking horrified as the audience.

Finnick and I both grab her and try to sit her back down but she's very strong. "Annie.." Finnick says in a pleading tone.

Mayor Eli and my mother approach us and try to pacify the disturbed woman but she just screams louder. A commotion has started in the audience and I can hear a few men complaining about inviting the victors.

"Just make the crazy bitch leave!" I hear one of them say.

"Why are they even invited?!"

"You Capitol people don't belong here!"

I look at the faces of those men, anger blazing in my eyes. I walk center-stage and yell, "SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU ASSHOLES!"

Everyone quiets down. Even Annie stopped. All eyes are on me. But I don't care.

"If you guys lack RESPECT for the District 4's victors then you have brought shame to all of us!" I continue. "You have no right to complain. They have gone through enough. You people don't know anything about the pain they have been through. Who cares if this event is delayed even for a bit? I don't give a shit even if this event is cancelled! It's nothing but a load of bullshit!"

Mayor Eli puts a hand on my shoulder to try to calm me down. I realize I'm shaking. In fury.

"Bullshit eh?" a huge, muscular man says. "So you call this bullshit. And yet it was your father who competed in these exhibition games all his grown life and spent 10 years as the winner."

Another one stepped forward. "You are the disgrace. You are nothing like your father."

I had a long list of profanities at the edge of my tongue and was about to let them all out when Finnick stepped in front of me in defense.

"I apologize in behalf of all my friends. We didn't mean to cause any ruckus today," he turns to Mags. "I'll escort you two back to the Victor's village."

"I'll come with you," I say but he puts a hand up.

"I'll be back. Just wait for me here," he says and the three victors leave the vicinity.

I sigh in frustration and get back to my seat. Mayor Eli along with the peacekeepers struggle to control the mob and when things start to get tolerable, the event finally progressed. I didn't pay any attention. But I did notice that my mother avoided my eyes all throughout.

About three to four hours later, the competition ended. The muscular man from earlier won and I sneered at him in disdain. The asshole sneered back.

Finnick never came back so I went to the direction of the Victor's Village which is a little near my house anyway.

Only one looks occupied. I guess they all live in the same house. I knock at the door and wait. No answer. Weird.

I knock again.

Hmm.. I try the doorknob. It's open. I peer inside but no one's around. I start to walk inside silently and close the door. There's an open door at the end of the hall. I approach it in caution and as I get closer, I hear soft whispering.

I take a peek and what I saw inside the room made me feel like my heart fell at the pit of my stomach.

It was a bedroom. I don't know whose bedroom it is but there on the king-sized bed was a naked Finnick Odair and an equally naked Annie Cresta wrapped together in a blanket. Finnick is whispering things while kissing and stroking her hair and Annie is calmer but still has that wild, scared look in her eyes.

I didn't expect this. I didn't expect this at all. I'm shaking. And I feel a wetness falling down my cheeks. I'm crying. I'm.. jealous.

I swallow a sob but end up making a choking sound. Finnick probably heard that coz he suddenly looked at the direction of the door. "Allison?" He looks horrified.

So am I. So I run outside and never look back. I just run and run, not really looking where I'm going. It's quite dark and I can't see much but I just have to get away from all the confusion. All this for a stupid teenage crush. I wanted to laugh at myself. I realize how immature this is. I regret ever going inside that house without permission and I regret witnessing that scene. Most of all, I regret running away like this. And yet, I can't stop.

I bump into someone, "Ow!" and fall flat on my ass. That might leave a goddamn mark. I look up and when my eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, I saw my cousin, Jared, looking at me in amusement.

"Nice to see you too, dear cousin," he said with a grin, his blue eyes shining with mischief. He extends a hand to help me up and I take it but pull him down with me instead of standing. He yelps in surprise. "Hey! That wasn't very nice," he's still teasing, that asshole.

"Shut it, Jared. What the hell are you doing here?" I take a good look at him and I notice the bag he was carrying. "You ran away again?"

He shrugs. "You know how daddy dearest beats the shit out of me every time he gets himself drunk," he tries to joke about it but I know deep down, he feels depressed. His mother died of some rare disease a few years ago. After that his father turned to drinking and he'd lash out on his son every damn time. When he's sober he'd boss Jared around or insult him or whatever. My mom was Jared's mother's cousin and when his mother died, he'd always run off to us and stay a few days.

"Why don't you just live with us instead? We have plenty of room for you," I say to him. "Seriously, I often wonder if you're some sort of masochist or something."

He scoffs. "No way. Father won't last a week without me."

I sigh. "It beats the hell out of me as to why you even care about that son of a bitch."

He grins at me. "That son of a bitch is my dad, darling."

"He's your father. There's a difference," I tell him with conviction.

Jared laughs. "You can be such a smart ass."

"And you love me for it," I stick my tongue out at him and he just shakes his head, chuckling.

"Soooo," he drawls. "What are you doing and thinking, running around so late at night?"

I lie back on the grass and stare at the dark, star-studded skies. "I'm not entirely sure," I say, the thoughts of earlier coming back. "I've been acting like a silly teenager."

"Well, news flash darling," Jared says, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "We are teenagers, the both of us. And you are not silly," he looks at me seriously. "You are one crazy bitch."

I playfully strangle him and we both start laughing. He's really such an annoying ass. And I love him. He puts his arm around me and pulls me close. I rest my head on his shoulder, feeling a little better now.

"I saw you and Finnick Odair earlier at the stage. Keeping something from me, Conde?" He wiggles his eyebrows. "Having a crush on Odair now, are you?"

I sigh. "I don't wanna talk about him."

Jared whistles. "You have got it bad."

"I do not."

"So what's wrong if it's not Odair?"

"Nothing," I say indignantly.

"Liar."

"Ugh! Okay! I have a crush on Finnick! Happy?" I say, irritably.

He laughs, obviously amused. "Well what do you know? My cousin has finally got herself a guy. I feel jealous. I bet you'd be spending more time with him rather than with me."

I scoff. "Of course not. He doesn't feel anything for me."

"Bullshit. I saw the way he looked at you back there."

"You're wrong."

He raises an eyebrow at me. "And how do you know that?"

I suddenly feel guilty. And I bet I look like it too coz Jared's eyes widened. "You told him?"

"No!" I say. "I'd never!"

"Whew!" He exclaims. "So what then?"

I look at him seriously. "Swear to me you'll never speak of this to anyone."

"Okay. I promise. Sheesh."

"Well I.. Uh.. I went to his house earlier. No one's answering the door but I turned the knob and I saw it was open."

"So you went inside?"

I nod. "Yeah. And I heard a soft noise at the end of the hall. I saw it was Finnick... And Annie Cresta. In bed. Naked."

"Bullshit," he exclaimed.

"I'm telling the truth."

He glares at me. "Seriously?"

"Duh." I roll my eyes at him.

"Okay, okay.. Well what happened after that?"

"I kinda made an awful choking noise and..."

"Oh my God, he saw you?"

I nod again.

"Goddamn.." He says in exasperation. "Stupid move, doll. Stupid move."

"Well I was shocked. What do you expect?" I say angrily.

"You could've handled it with more finesse."

"I'd like to see you try walking in on a scene like that some time," I retort.

"So after that," he changes the subject. "You ran away?"

I nod, yes.

"You handled that so badly that I wanna cry," he says in disappointment.

"I know." I sigh. "I'm just.. I don't know. I wasn't thinking. I feel so confused."

"You like him. That's why," Jared says a-matter-of-factly. "You're jealous."

"I shouldn't be."

"True. But even so, that can't be helped."

I sit up. "What should I do?"

He was about to say something when I heard a familiar voice drawing near. A male voice and he wasn't alone. I turn to Jared, "Let's hide." He follows me in the shadows and wait for the owners of the voices to show up.

"I think this is far enough, Mayor Eli," the other voice says. It's...

"I don't trust you, Odair," my stepfather tells him with an air of superiority. "What is it you wanted to tell me? Just spit it out."

"I'm here to warn you about your stepdaughter, Allison," Finnick says, worry evident. I feel Jared's hand squeeze mine.

"I will never let anyone harm her. I treat her as my own and I will do everything to keep her safe," Mator Eli says with irritation.

"You can't keep her safe anymore, sir," Finnick answers. "She's in grave danger."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Mayor Eli demands.

"The President is not happy with your decision of marrying Xen Conde's wife."

"I married her to keep them safe. To take care of them," Mayor Eli says in disbelief. "This is absurd."

Finnick shakes his head. "She will be reaped for the upcoming games, Mayor Eli. She'll be paying the price for you." I squeeze Jared's hand back, my body is shaking and he holds me tight against him.

"What?!"

"He wanted you to have them killed. Right?"

"How did you know about this?"

"It doesn't matter how I know. But I will swear to you, that I will take care of her."

Mayor Eli goes silent for a few seconds. "I couldn't kill them. I couldn't. I regret everything I did wrong to their family. But I was blinded by my love for Catherine. I've loved her for years. But when I killed Conde... It was my biggest regret. I..."

I step out from the shadows. "You killed my dad?" I say, disbelief, shock and anger building up inside me. Being part of the next Hunger Games doesn't come close to this piece of news. "You killed my dad?!"

A/N: I know this is beyond delayed and I'm truly sorry about that. It's just that it's the holidays and I've been going out of town a lot more lately. I hope no one's annoyed or anything. R and R so I know what you think. PLEASE? LOL. Have a grand Christmas everyone!