Caeser

"Sir, are you certain this is a good idea?" I question him, for one of the first times in my career genuinely nervous. I certainly don't think this is a good idea and I'm not sure even with my talent for talk show host I could pull this interview off smoothly.

"Mr. Flickerman, I would not have requested you to do this interview had I not believed that you could do it." Snow informs me, as if I should know that. And I do know that, but it's less about confidence and more that this seems risky, even to me.

I allow my gaze to go behind the cameras where they are setting up a young man I recognize from the arena into a chair, cuffing his wrists and ankles and binding his torso to the back of the chair. Two peacekeepers flank him and one has a gun visibly to his head. Katniss Everdeen is on the side of the stage, a prep team doing the final touches on her but she doesn't even bother paying attention to them, her anguished gaze only on the young man.

"I just don't know how this will go. She's the symbol of the rebellion, surely she cares more for that than the truth, right?" I muse out loud watching her again. The young man, Gale Hawthorne, meets her gaze and they seem to be talking from across the room without actually speaking. But he doesn't seem frightened though I would be in his situation. He looks like he's trying to convince her of something, shaking his head. Almost like he doesn't want her to speak the truth.

"The boy, he cares more for the rebellion than his own life." Snow answers nonchalantly, obviously seeing what I am. "But I like to think that Miss Everdeen cares more about his life than the rebellion."

Interesting indeed. I had been told that it was the truth that she did in fact love this boy instead of Peeta Mellark, but even so I wasn't entirely sure. This is President Snow who is trying to prevent a rebellion, surely he could force her to say those things whether they were lies or not.

"Mr. Flickerman, simply do your job and let the cards fall where they may. I have a good feeling that boy is not dying today." Snow exclaims before walking to the curtains that hide him from the stage, leaving me with nothing to do but go to my seat and pretend I'm thrilled to be doing this interview. Like there isn't a boy twenty feet in front of us with a gun to his head.

And though I shouldn't be surprised, Snow is absolutely right. Katniss Everdeen has tears rolling down her cheeks and her nervous glance keeps shifting to the boy behind the camera, but the truth is shown in her eyes. Every word is true.

She tells me (and all of Panem) how they were best friends but she knew somewhere in her that it was something more, even during the 74th Hunger Games, that it was more. She pulled out the nightlock berries not for love, but because she knew her life would be unlivable back in the district if she came home without him. Peeta did love her but she never could love him back. She never actually admits she loves Gale Hawthorne, but it's so blatantly obvious that she doesn't need to. It's in her ever word about him.

I'm not certain if this will make as much of a difference in the war as President Snow seems to believe, but it certainly accomplished one thing; the truth has come out, and I cannot see many people in Panem being thrilled that they were lied to about this. Maybe it can put the Capitol to some advantage, because this girl's story and image, and certainly most of the country's trust if not all of it has been irrevocably ruined by this interview. I can sense it.