This chapter has nothing to do with training and everything to do with plot. It's considered later that day after training. You'll see Dior and Castor for a bit, but I promise it's only because Katherine is a Mentor.
Also, my sweet baby angel faces, not to be the neediest of the needy, but please keep in mind the bloodbath is right around the corner. There's a few tributes in this that are in danger merely because I'm not knowing if you're reading. Like I said I don't need a review EVERY chapter. I do want to know that people are responding though, and maybe if you feel compelled drop a review.
-douche rant over.-
For those of you who are going to be really confused on this backstory, Katherine has had a tragic event happen in her childhood. At Wits End explains it in chapters 4 and 20.
But you see, it's not me
It's not my family
In your head, in your head
They are fighting
With their tanks, and their bombs
And their bombs, and their guns
In your head, in your head
They are crying
Katherine Farrow, 18
Victor of the 17th Games
These two are seriously going to be the death of me. Here I am in one of the most difficult and stressful situations I've come to face as of yet, and they're arguing. Again.
"I cannot believe I didn't run that show today. Who does this pumpkin think she is?!"
"Dior. I have no time to listen to you talk right now. I have paint to watch dry or some shit."
"CASTOR LISTEN TO ME I'M TALKING."
That's it. I'm sick of this. I storm out of my bathroom and out into the hallway of the District 1 suit in the training academy. It's weird being in this place again after last year, but the Victors rooms are much nicer than the tributes's rooms.
Dior sits with her legs crossed in a pair of black yoga pants, and oversized red sweater. Her face is stuck in a pout, and Castor is walking outside to the balcony probably to get his next high. He's wearing an open blue flannel and a pair of sweatpants as he goes and sits down on one of the balcony chairs.
"Can you two just shut up?" I say angrily.
Dior looks shocked as I don't think she's accustomed to being talked to in that way. Castor merely scoffs as he pulls out a lighter and begins to light his next blunt. Dior dead eyes me as she stands up and gets in my face.
"You're not in charge of me. If I wanted my mom here in the Capitol with me I'd have brought her."
"Little girl." I say as I get closer to her face, because if she wants to take it here we can. "If you want to try and play the big bitch game I can gladly show you who invented it. Know your place. Shut the hell up, and get to your room."
She stares at me eyes wide open in fury. It's about 5 seconds of silence before Castor bust out laughing and is on the floor grabbing his stomach.
"It hurts! I'm weak. Damn Dior need milk! She need some milk!"
Dior looks like she's about to say something back to him before I clear my throat and she turns back to me. Her face sinks back into composure, and she walks by me and towards the hallway. She stops and turns though before she makes her "grand exit".
"The only reason I'm even doing this right now is because you are in charge of sponsors. And though I'm not nervous that I won't get any, you control when I get them."
"Girl quit trying to act like you hard and shit." Calls Castor from the balcony. "Go drink bleach or something. Sorry Katherine I'll keep it down."
"Thank you." I say as I turn and walk down the hallway back towards my room. I guess I owe them a thank you. That was 5 minutes right? It had to be 5 minutes.
Walking back into my room is one of the scariest things I've done. Mind you I sat through a Hunger Games, and have been shot in the stomach. Oh my gosh. I've been shot in the stomach. What if that causes a complication...if I'm...Katherine calm down. You're fine.
Something stops me though from walking into that bathroom. Because one way or another my life is about to change. One way or another I'm going to experience a new sensation. I'm going to experience a sudden relief, or I'm going to experience the greatest fear that I have ever experienced in my life.
Both has consequences. Relief will come with a more careful approach to how I handle things with Clyde, and in turn could damage our relationship a lot. Fear because what if this isn't what he signed up for and I'm left alone...
I pull out my phone and begin to dial the familiar number on the keypad, only to close the screen again and stare down. Calling Clyde could change everything. This is a defining moment, and I don't know if I can handle this potential change right now.
He deserves to know though...doesn't he? Clyde has been through so much for me. Given up so much..I can't keep this from him. This is something that I can't lie about.
Dialing the number again I stare at them as they flash back in my face, and then in one quick motion I press the green call button and press the phone to my ear.
"'Hello you." Says Clyde as he answers the phone on the fourth ring.
"Hey." I say hoping my voice doesn't sound as shaky as I feel.
"Kat..is everything okay...you sound off."
"Clyde I need you to come over."
"I'll be there in 5 minutes...but Katherine..what's going on."
"Clyde I think I'm pregnant."
Don't you wish that you could be a Fly on the Wall
A creepy little sneaky little Fly on the Wall
All my precious secrets, yeah
You'd know them all
Don't you wish that you could be a Fly on the Wall
Daniel Fleshman, 22
Patriot Engineer/Rebel
Well do you hear that? Katherine Farrow is scandalously pregnant and unwedded. Well, supposedly pregnant. The bug doesn't have visual, just ears in the room.
"Clyde." Says the voice of Katherine as her voice carries into the earphones that are promptly pressed against my ears at all times. "I'm not exactly in the best mood, and I just really need you here right now. Can I answer questions when you get here?" She ask him desperately.
He obviously obliges because she mentions how she loves him too, and I want to barf.
"What are you hearing?" Ask a familiar voice. I smile as I turn around and see Sadie standing in a flannel and jeans as she stares curiously at me.
"Nothing too interesting."
"That look does not say nothing too interesting. Spill. I do personally know them after all." She says in a sarcastic tone.
I laugh as I remember that a year ago so much was different. The only thing that I really worried about was getting Sadie out of the arena. Katherine wasn't supposed to win. If Snow had it his way the boy from 2 would still be alive, and his plan would not hit every hole in the wall. Something about this girl though..she's like a cockroach. You step on one, and all of their cousins run out.
"Look, it's not something I can really tell you...yet" I say as I give her a look.
"You used to tell me everything. If I'm such a vital part to this plan why am I always in the dark? I feel trapped and I don't like it."
Sadie looks at me in the same defiant look she would get when she was on a mission with me back in three. Back when we were trying to bring America back. Back when we thought that the land of the free and the home of the brave..was actually free. Not just a place full of cowards. The videos Snow showed me though.
Videos of hate, and racism. Sexism, abuse, robbery. America didn't know what hit it. If we hadn't begun to get things cleaner, the earth itself would probably be a wasteland just from the fact that they were so wasteful. By the time we took it over we were a saving grace. And honestly, if I was in the same position...I can't say I wouldn't make the Hunger Games a thing either. I just don't think I would make it 12-18 year olds. Maybe use soldiers from the rebels as a pool.
We don't want to make America great again. We want to make the Capitol great again, and get it out of the hands of the Mercays. They have no idea how to run this country. We are the lowest part of the United Nations of Panem. Snow will change that.
"Look Sadie, I know you're upset." I say as I turn and face my computer again. "Something is going down though, and I really need to be able to report-"
"Yeah whatever Daniel." She says as she walks out.
Part of me wants to go after her, but before I get a chance to act on my impulses I hear the magic words I was looking for.
"Kat...we're going to be parents."
I pick up the phone on my desk and dial the number of the man who is going to change the way we see the world. The way we see this country. Everything is going to be brilliant again, and anyone who stands in our way will fall.
"Snow. Hey it's Daniel. I have some news I think you'd want to hear."
"Kid this better be good. I'm in a big meeting."
"Tell Imogen you'll be back." I say confidently. "You'll want to hear this."
"Very well." He says as I hear the movement from the other side of the phone and a light hurry back as he gets up from the bed. A shudder shoots down my back, because it's disturbing, and kind of twisted he's sleeping with the mother of the man he's trying to take down.
"What is it Daniel."
"Katherine Farrow is pregnant."
I could almost hear the smile creep across his face at the news that I just told him.
"Yes son, that is something I wanted to hear indeed."
When you feel my heat
Look into my eyes
It's where my demons hide
It's where my demons hide
Don't get too close
It's dark inside
It's where my demons hide
It's where my demons hide
Katherine Farrow, 19
Victor of the 17th Games
Expecting Mother
"Mom! Stop! Calm down!" screamed my sister Lisa as she was trying to separate my other two siblings and myself from my mother.
"You're hiding him from me!" she screamed as she was swinging her knife at Lisa, "Where is he?!"
Lisa was dodging knife swings left and right, and finally my mother grabbed hold of her arm and slashed her neck. The blood flew across the room, and splattered on the wall across the parlor.
I watch in horror as my 16 year old sister sinks to the ground and goes white. Vanishing right before our eyes as she takes her last breath. "Run." she manages to escape before her eyes gloss over.
Andrew was next as mommy stabbed a knife into his forehead. Why is she doing this...what is going on?
"KATHERINE RUN! HIDE AND SEEK GO!" Screams Hillary as I get up from under the table.
I run out of the kitchen away from the screaming and yelling. I don't understand why Mommy is hurting us. I don't get it. Why is Lisa and Andrew not waking up?
I settle on my favorite hiding spot, my closet. Mommy never looks for me there until the very last second, so I should be safe from whatever is going on for awhile. I hear the screaming stop downstairs and I think that means that it's time for the seeker to come and find me. I bury myself low into the clothes that I threw down in a tantrum that morning because I didn't want to wear any of them.
I hear footsteps approach my door as Mommy walks in. She flicks on the room light and there is a bunch of red stuff on the ground, and when she walks into the room Hillary's head is thrown into the middle of the floor. I bite my lip in an attempt to hold back a scream, but Mommy hears it anyways as she inches her way towards the closet.
"Kat, come out and play. Mommy just wants to know where you hid her treasure."
Mommy always carried a necklace with a white powder in it, and she would always get really mad at me when I would wear it, but earlier that day..I snuck it off of her while she was sleeping and I broke it. She got really mad when she woke up.
The closet door opens and I feel the clothes being dragged off of me, and standing before me is Mommy covered in blood as she looks down at me with a sharp glare, and an even sharper knife.
"There you are little bitch. Time to pay up!"
"KATHERINE!"
I awake to sweat dripping down my entire body. I haven't had that dream in so long. When I wake up and see Clyde at the TV trying to turn it off, I know why I had the dream.
"Yeah Mommy, just kill Katherine."
It was my fear simulation from last years games.
"I swear it just turned on in the middle of the night. I've been trying to turn it off for like 5 minutes but it won't." Says Clyde.
I watch in horror as I kill my siblings one by one as they come and try to attack me in the simulation. The Gamemakers were cruel last year. Using someone's fears against them is not something that makes for a good Hunger Games. It makes you twisted and sadistic, and just because someone conquerors their fear doesn't mean it doesn't leave a scar.
Finally Clyde unplugs the TV and the power turns off. I just sit there red faced and breathing deeply as I avoid all eye contact with him. I've never shared about my family history with him for exactly this reason. He wouldn't understand. He's had a great homelife.
"Katherine...what was that?"
"Clyde...I don't want to talk about it."
"Katherine. What was that?"
Tears well up in my eyes as I start to remember the events of that night. The necklace, my mother's withdrawal fever, my siblings dying one by one. It's something that will live with me forever. It's the reason that I don't know if I can have this baby.
"Clyde..you know I have a messed up family life."
"I didn't realize that it was murderous." He says as she comes and wraps his arms around my shoulders. I flinch as he comes near, still shaken up by the dream and he backs down as I give him an apologetic look.
"My mother was a crackhead, Clyde. She would be high all the time...and she had a necklace. When I was 5 I broke it, and when she woke up she went on a rampage. She called it her son because it was so precious to her. She killed my siblings one by one, and the only reason she didn't kill me was because my Dad walked in...and then he brought her back. And that's why I volunteered."
I realized I hadn't breathed in the entirety of that monologue and take a deep breath to quench my lungs as they thirst for the oxygen. I take a few deep breaths and I can finally calm down enough to look him in the eyes and tell him what I'm thinking.
"Clyde...I can't become my mother. I don't want to bring someone into this world with my history. I'm tainted Clyde."
"No. Stop." he says as he carefully reaches for my hands. I oblige and let his strong hands grab onto the hands that are responsible for so many deaths. "You're nothing like her."
"Clyde I'm a Victor. I have the same amount of blood on my hands."
He looks at me with sternness in his eyes. It's a fierceness that I've yet to see come out of him, he looks brave. He looks strong. He looks like a Victor.
"Katherine. I love you more than I loved anything. There is so much that's gone wrong since the games, but being with you is not one of them. This child is lucky to have you. It's lucky to have us." He says as he brings my hands up to his lips. "We can do this…"
His fierceness disappears as he suddenly gets red and bashful. I stare confused as he takes a deep breath and looks me dead in the face and says, "Katherine marry me."
And to my utter shock I say, "Yes."
Ding
I lean over and look at the clock. Who would be texting me at 3 in the morning.
Awh, how cute. Are we invited to the wedding? Better be a quick one. I heard baby fat is a bitch to lose.
Xoxo,
Patriots.
Well my sweet baby angel faces there we have it. I really am excited for the plot that's coming along with these games, and I know I say that often but I honestly don't think you guys know what's going to happen.
SHOUT OUTS!
My irl friend named Jenna, you guys know her as betttyy maybe? Anyways Jenna is new to writing, but she is really good, and her writing is only going to get better. She is writing her first SYOT and I'm really excited to be apart of it. You should go check her story out, "The Power Within: The 3rd Hunger Games". Submit, she has all spots open rn.
Ansley, though he doesn't need a shout out because he's famous af, has a story called "Secrets Inside". All of you people know how talented he is, and how great of an author he is. Go read his story.
Wizard, who I don't need to type the rest out because again y'all know him. Also has a SYOT that he is writing. It's called "Battles of History: The 58th Hunger Games". Go check it out.
What do you think of Katlyde and their current situation?
Opinions on our little Sadie?
Lol did you get my Trump reference with Snow?
And as always….
Keep it classy,
Caleb