Oh my gosh, I am soooo sorry it's taken me so long to update. I hate keeping people waiting. I've been really busy lately, but that's no excuse. I promise that this will be a really long one.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Hunger Games or any of the characters from the canon
(I actually used to say 'gosh'?)
7. Training
Peeta and I sit side by side waiting for Effie to return with the tapes. I turn on the T.V and I see the opening ceremonies. Our stylists made us look amazing. The crowd cheered for us, but we didn't care.
Effie runs into the room with a box of tapes. "Here they are." She tells us with a big smile. "Every single tape you'll need. Every tribute that you'll go up against is in here. As well as a few others that you should take a look at." I nod and Effie sets the box and the ground and leaves the room.
"Which one should we watch first?" Asks Peeta as he digs through the box. I shrug.
"Let's start with the District 1 tributes." I suggest.
"Sure." Peeta inserts one of the tapes into the VCR.
It's Shimmer's fast forward through the Opening Ceremonies, Training Scores, and Interviews. As does every Game, this one starts at the Cornucorpia. My eyes seek out Shimmer.
As soon as the gong sounds, Shimmer runs straight to the Cornucopia. She's fast. She digs through the items that are actually in the Cornucopia and pulls out a wicked looking knife. She grins. The boy from 7 tries to sneak up from behind her, but she somehow hears him and turns around then stabs him in the chest, right over his heart. Peeta and I watch the blood bath. Eleven tributes died. Thirteen left. All of the careers have survived.
I watch as they all become allies. Shimmer and Coreig; Dorena and Laef; Elsebeth and Lawrent. It cuts to one of the other tributes. Peeta clicks the fast forward button until the screen focuses on Shimmer.
A group of tributes have decided to take on the Careers. The boy from 6 sends a spear through Coreig's stomach. Shimmer shrieks and stabs the knife through 6's throat. There are still five other tributes that are fighting the Careers. Laef kills one of them. The girl from my district stabs Elsebeth with her sword. Lawrent avenges her death by spearing the girl from 12. The boy from 12 beheads Lawrent. I shudder. Laef kills the boy with his knife. The last tribute still fighting is the girl from 11. She reminds me of Rue. I don't want to watch this. I don't want to watch what they do to her. I'm about to turn my head away when an arrow shoots through her head. The arrow came from Dorena. I knew now that I would cheer internally when her death came. Six left.
Now I'm watching the girl from 8 and the girl from 9 fight. 9 kills 8. The boy from 10 throws a knife at 9 and the knife hits her. Four left.
The scene changes to the Careers sleeping. Except for Dorena. She silently grabs a knife and slits Laef's throat. She's about to turn to do the same to Shimmer when Shimmer's knife stabs into her back. Dorena falls to the ground. Dead.
"Come on 10!" Shimmer yells. "Come fight!" I doubt 10 is anywhere near her. Why would he want to be near the Careers? But I'm wrong. 10 comes running from the trees ready to throw his knife, but Shimmer has better aim than he does. 10 throws his knife and it misses. He turns to run the other way. Shimmer's knife sails through the air and lands in 10's back. The final cannon sounds. Shimmer has won.
"Want to watch another one?" Peeta asks. I nod. He inserts another rest of our night is spent in this manner. With every tape watched, we know everything about all of the tributes' Games. It's around 3AM by the time we've finished.
"We should get some sleep." I suggest
"Yes, we should." Peeta agrees. "Good night."
"Yeah, right." I mutter sarcastically. "Night." I say to him. I walk in to my room. I burrow down into the covers. Tomorrow we will start training. Again. Soon enough, sleep claims me.
I hear a child's scream. A young girl's scream. It could only be Rue's.
"Katniss!" She screams.
"Rue!" I yell back. She'll know I'm coming. They'll know I'm coming. "Rue!" I yell again, "Rue I'm coming!"
Then I see her, tangled in a net. She has just enough time to say my name before the spear enters her body. I launch an arrow through the boy from District 1's neck.
"Are there more? Are there more?" I ask her. She answers no. I take out my knife to free her from the net. Her body curls around the spear. I can't heal this wound. I doubt that even my mother could heal this wound. I can't even try to tell her she'll be alright. Rue's smart enough to know that I'd be lying.
"You blew up the food?" she whispers.
"Every last bit." I assure her.
"You have to win"
"I'm going to. Going to win for both of us now." I promise her. I hear District 1's cannon.
"Don't go." Rue begs as she tightens her grip on my hand.
"I wouldn't leave you." I tell her gently. I move closer to her. I pull her head on to my lap.
"Sing." She says softly.
Sing? Sing? What could I sing? If this was Rue's last request then I would sing. I sing an old lullaby. Made up long ago.
Halfway through the song Rue's eyes have fluttered shut. Her chest barely moves. Tears pour from my eyes. I must finish the song for her.
I finish the song and everything is quiet. Until the mockingjays take up my song. My tears drip down onto Rue's face as her cannon fires. I lean forward and gently press my lips to her temple. I gently place her back on the ground. I stand up.
She looks so tiny. So peaceful, except for the spear in her chest. I decide to leave the spear there. I have no use for it and the faster it's gone, the better. I can't just leave Rue like this though. I try to think of something special to do for her. I catch a glimpse of some wildflowers. They have blossoms in lovely shades of violet, yellow, and white. I pick a bunch of them and bring them over to Rue. I decorate her body in flowers, covering the wound. Wreathing her face.
"Bye Rue." I whisper. I press the middle fingers of my left hand against my lips and hold them out to her. I walk away.
I wake up in tears. I curl up into a ball. I guess I must have made some sort of noise as I was sleeping because Peeta walks in to check on me.
"Are you okay?" Peeta asks me.
"I should have saved her." I whisper.
"Who? You should have saved who?" He asks, confused.
"Rue." I whisper. "I should have saved her. If I hadn't waited so long to go looking for her... If I had been faster... I should have... I could have... I... I..." I'm sobbing. Peeta wraps his arms around me "I was too late." I say, my voice barely audible.
"There was nothing you could do." Peeta tells me softly.
"There was so much I could have done. If I hadn't just waited so long to look for her. If I had killed the boy from District 1 before he could... I should have saved her." Tears continue to pour from my eyes. Peeta doesn't say anything, he just holds me. I find myself wishing it were Gale holding me. Gale always knew how to cheer me up, but it was a good thing that it wasn't Gale that was here. I don't want Gale anywhere near the Hunger Games. I don't want Peeta here either, nor myself, for that matter.
I guess I fall asleep again because the next thing I know, Effie Trinket is knocking on the door saying, "Up, up, up! It's going to be a big, big, big day!"
I yawn and get up out of bed. Peeta must have left some time after I fell asleep again because he's not here. I find some clothing sitting on top of the dresser. Cinna must have put them there. I strip. I'm slightly shocked when I see my wound. It's worse than I thought. I grab the clothes off of the dresser and put them on. Black leggings and a dark green halter top.
I walk out and find Peeta and I are matching again. I sit down and I'm served a platter of eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, toast, and hash browns.
"Have you seen Haymitch?" I ask Peeta. He shakes his head.
"You?" he asks
"Nope." I suddenly find myself hoping he's alright. If anything happens to him, it would be my fault. My anxiety fades as Haymitch walks in. I look at him worriedly. Looking to see if Snow harmed him. He gives a slight shake of his head and I relax.
"Hello Haymitch." Peeta greets him. Haymitch nods in his direction. He sits down.
"Same as last time, stick together." He tells us wearily. He's not happy that we're going back either. I can tell by the sound of his voice. Peeta and I nod in agreement. Effie joins us. We eat in silence. Once we finish, Effie rushes us off to the training floor.
"Where should we start?" Peeta asks.
"Let's start at knife throwing." I suggest.
"Okay." We walk over to that station. It turns out, I'm not too bad at throwing knives. We go to the rope tying station next. I practise the knot I tried last time. The one that leaves the victim dangling by their feet. I practise until I perfect it. We learn new knots too. When it's time for lunch, my hands are sore.
"We should talk to some of the other tributes. Get a clue as to whom we want to ally with." I say to Peeta. He nods. I look around the room, at each of the tributes. "Seeder, Beetee, possibly Finnick, maybe Willow." I say.
"Let's go talk to them." He suggests. I nod. We walk over to Seeder first.
"Hello." Seeder says.
"Hi." I say with a smile. We talk to her for awhile. Seeder seems to be really nice. She's also good with knives. I saw her training and I saw her Games. We also talk with Beetee, Finnick, and Willow. By the end of the day, Haymitch tells us that Seeder, Beetee and Finnick's mentors have told him to ask us if we want them as allies.
"Of course." Peeta says. "Did Beetee's mentor mention anything about Willow?" he asks "We were considering her as an ally."
"His mentor told me she's still thinking about it. She'll probably say something to you tomorrow." Haymitch replies. "You two should probably get some sleep." Peeta and I nod and we go our seperate ways in to our rooms.
I walk in and the red-headed Avox girl is changing my sheet.
"Thank you." I say to her. She nods and leaves the room. I burrow down in to the sheets and let the nightmares engulf me once more.
I hope you enjoyed it. I think it's probably the longest chapter I've written. Oh, and also, I'm considering writing the next chapter from a different POV. Possibly Seeder's, Willow's, Finnick's, Beetee's or maybe Peeta's. Tell me what you think. Happy New Year everyone! Please review!