Hey everyone! Thanks for all the reviews! I adore you guys, you keep me motivated to write more. As requested I will involve more Haymitch in the chapters. I was already planning to anyway so that worked out pretty well :) A friend of mine came up with the idea of Haymitch as a gamemaker. This is the longest chapter I ever wrote :o Please read and review. Enjoy!
KIND OF IMPORTANT: A little more info about the characters I made up: All characters belong to Suzanne Collins except for Felix (Elizabeth Banks (Effie's portrayer) has a son named Felix, she also has a son named Magnus), Magnus, Lucius (I made the name up, but I wanted to have a face so I could see the story happening in front of me. So I chose Chris Pine. He also plays Elizabeth's 'brother' in the movie People Like Us. I thought James Marsden looked more like Elizabeth, especially when he's smiling, so I chose him as Effie's brother.) and Eden.
"Goodmorning, Haymitch." Peeta walked into the viewing room, fully dressed and ready to go out the door. Haymitch, who had only slept for about four hours, sat on the sofa, still in his pajamas. "Goodmorning." he grumbled. Peeta grabbed his jacket from the coat rack and sat down next to Haymitch. "Are you alright?" he asked. Haymitch hadn't talked much nor had he eaten anything and that concerned both Katniss and Peeta. "You don't look so good." Haymitch waved it off. "I'm fine kid." Peeta wasn't convinced. He left his coat on the sofa and went for the kitchen to prepare Haymitch's breakfast.
He came back with two sandwiches and a glass of milk and gave it to him. Haymitch looked tired. He had dark circles under his eyes and his skin had a yellowish tint. He glanced at the food, hesitated for a bit and then took it. "That's better." Peeta said and then looked at the screen. The tributes were still asleep, except for Effie. She was always an early riser. She sat on a low branch in a tree and was taking in her surroundings. The sunrise looked beautiful, far off in the distance. Suddenly the phone started ringing. Haymitch groaned and answered it. He thought it was way too early for a proper conversation. "Yes?" he spoke in the horn. "Haymitch? It's Plutarch. We need you down here in the control room." "Why? Can't it wait?"
Peeta stood up, grabbed his coat and headed out the door. "I'm off finding sponsors. See you later, Haymitch." Haymitch covered the horn with his hand. "Good luck, kid. Find as many as possible." Peeta nodded obediently before closing the door behind him. Then Haymitch turned to Plutarch again. "Why do you need me?" "We need extra gamemakers." Haymitch's lips formed a hard line. This could be a good thing. He could help Effie. But he also knew the other gamemakers would be watching him like hawks. See every little detail. They wanted her dead. He looked over at the screen. Effie was curiously toying with one of her knives. "I'll do it." he told Plutarch. "Excellent. We expect you in the control room at noon." Then he ended the call.
Effie attached the knife to her belt. She had thought about these Games a lot. Thinking that maybe, just maybe, she deserved this. She had played the angel of death for far too long. This was only fair, in her opinion. She decided to wake up the rest before overthinking too much. She jumped from the branch and woke Eden first. He sat up, obviously startled; his eyes darted around before landing on Effie. He calmed down a little. "You scared me, little one." "Sorry." Effie mumbled and helped him to his feet before hearing a low growl. "You don't have to be so cranky." she said to him. Her lips formed a thin line. "You know I don't have to wake you up. But I thought-" "Before you start nagging I want you to know that wasn't me." Effie wanted to protest but Eden stopped her. His eyes grew wide and he pointed over her shoulder. "Turn around very slowly." Effie did as told and stopped herself from screaming by placing a hand over her mouth.
Her nose barely touched with the nose of a giant bear-mutt. The mutt was looking at her curiously, and sniffed her hair. "Don't move until I say so." Eden whispered and carefully woke Octavia and Lucius. Eden signalled them to be quiet as they saw the mutt. Octavia was trembling with fear. She did not like bears at all. They slowly packed their stuff as Effie stood in front of the bear, terrified. Eden grabbed a small rock. "Effie, I'm going to count down now. As soon as I get to 0 you run, alright?" Effie carefully nodded. "3… 2…" he threw the rock over the mutt. The bear turned around curiously. "1…" Effie slowly stepped back. "0, run!" Effie turned around and followed the others, running as fast as she could. The mutt seemed to notice it, let out a huge roar and followed them. He was faster than they had thought. Octavia, who walked in front of Effie, looked back every few seconds. "Don't look back, keep running!" Effie yelled before she understood the terrified look on Octavia's face just few moments ago. She felt the heavy paw of the mutt on her ankle, let out a cry of pain and stumbled. Octavia grabbed her arm before she could hit the ground and break her leg, and pulled her to the side. They kept running. "Eden, kill it!" she shrieked.
Upon hearing this, Eden, who was running a few feet ahead, turned around and stabbed the mutt in its eye with his spear. The mutt let out another roar and ran further before collapsing on the ground. Lucius, Octavia and Effie now stopped running and panted heavily. "What in the world..?" Effie said. She sat down on the ground and studied her left ankle. It looked a little bruised, but it didn't hurt enough to be broken. It should be fine. "Where are we?" Lucius asked. Effie looked around. She knew exactly were they were. Out of the woods; the edge of the arena. She looked around. She sat on the exact same spot where Haymitch had won, 26 years ago. Haymitch. She stood up and walked towards the edge. "What are you doing?" Octavia asked. Effie didn't answer and kicked a pebble off the edge instead. It came back up immediately and fell in her hand. "Force field." "Haymitch had used the force field to win the Games," Lucius commented, "am I right?" Effie nodded and dropped the pebble.
"We shouldn't stay out here in the open. Perhaps we should-" she stopped speaking when she saw a pair of deep green eyes staring at her from the bushes. She narrowed her eyes. "Wait here, please." She approached the figure carefully and sat down a few feet from the bushes. "Felix?" she asked. The boy stood up slowly, he was trembling with fear. "Hello Felix, dear." she tried again. "Come here, I won't hurt you." Felix bit on his lip and looked over at the other tributes. Effie looked behind her. "They won't hurt you either." Surprisingly that seemed to be enough for the young boy and he stepped out of the bushes. He was very small for his age. But then again, so was Effie. She reached out her hand and Felix grabbed it firmly. She stood up and returned to the group. "Look, we have a new addition to the team." she grinned. "This is Felix." Octavia crouched down before the boy. "Hello. I am Octavia. And these boys are Eden and Lucius. They are the big boys who protect us." Effie let out a giggle. Eden and Lucius gave the shy boy a small wave.
"We should probably head back to a safer place." Lucius told them. "As expected, Tax and Atala have teamed up and they're close." Effie tilded her head slightly. "How do you know that?" "I saw them yesterday and I-" "Yesterday?" Eden furrowed his eyebrows. "You're just now saying that they're close to us and you didn't tell us yesterday?" Lucius shrugged. "Damnit Lucius! We could have been killed!" Octavia yelled. Effie tried to cover the young boy's ears, but of course he had heard Octavia swear. Effie gave her a disapproving look. "At least we're alive now, so it doesn't matter anymore." she said. "Sure." Eden mumbled in protest. "I'm hungry." "We can share the bread, but that's all there is." Octavia said. Effie groaned. She knew the only edible food was at the Cornucopia. And that was exactly where the danger was. As a Capitolian, she wasn't used to not eating. She didn't overeat, of course, she needed to be in perfect shape at all times. The people in the districts were starving, and even they had a hard time in the arena, longing for food. "We need to find water." she said after looking in her backpack. "The bottle is almost empty." "Then I'm afraid we have to wait until it rains." Eden said. "Or we have to go to the Cornucopia this instant." Right now, that was a risk they were willing to take.
Haymitch buried his face in his hands. That stupid mutt. That stupid bear. It had been one of the rebel's ideas and he had to perform the task. He was glad the mutt hadn't killed Effie, but it had been a close one. He had made sure the mutt would drive them to the edge of the arena. The place he had won. That was were Felix was hiding, and Haymitch had wanted Effie to find the kid. The opportunities he had as a gamemaker were as helpful as they were dangerous. One wrong move and she would be dead. He knew that. But he had a promise to keep and he was not willing to break it.