Chapter Twenty-Five- Red's Wake

Everyone stares at our embrace.

"Do they know?" I ask Finnick.

"Some of them," he replies quietly and then pulls back and holds me at arms length. "I'll see you later babe," he says louder, with a flirtatious wink. Gaia is calling me back anyway.

"Don't be thinking that you can rush off and dally with boys now just because you're a Victor, you're still a young lady," she huffs and puffs, straightening out the creases mine and Finnick's embrace created. She's clearly jealous that I have Finnick's attention now.

Yeah a young lady with a boob job, I roll my eyes.

A big burly dark skinned man with a stump for an arm slaps Finnick on the back in a hearty way. Probably congratulating him on breaking in a new conquest so quickly.

A stagehand gives us a two minute warning and Gaia puts one more pin in my hemline to make sure the dress doesn't get caught up in my stilettos before rushing off to put on her own sky-high shoes.

With the two minutes I have to myself I set my jaw and try to find a happy place in my head to go to. This is going to be awful, and I'm going to have to act like I'm enjoying myself.

I hear the roar of a crowd as my Prep Team are thrust on stage first followed by The Escort. They must be loving it, a dream come true that they never ever thought would happen.

Gaia is announced above me and I hear the heavy clip-clop of her chunky platform shoes that raise her to the six-foot that we all recognise her to be.

There's a whir of machinery that starts up around me, and people with earpieces start running around.

Blight and Egor walk out onto the stage, waving and smiling, hopefully walking in a straight line.

Then.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, she surprised us all, we thought we'd never see her again, but here she is for all to see. Johanna Mason, Victor of the 71st Annual Hunger Games!"

The floor lifts up and I'm worried about my ability to stay upright in my heels as the ground is wobbling beneath me.

My head comes up through the hole in the stage and the lights immediately blind me after the darkness underneath.

The audience has gone crazy, I can hear shouting, screaming, booing. Cameras are flashing in my face. I manage a pained smile and wave before Caesar Flickerman collects me from the hotspot. He stands in front of me and mimes bowing before me. I let out a slow, relieved breath and chuckle at him as he takes my arm and guides me to the ornate chair that will serve as my 'throne'. This year I see it has been made of a dark wood just for me with a red cushion on it. The highlights will last three hours so I'm likely to get uncomfortable.

"Johanna, hello, hello, hello!" Caesar calls out, a sign to the audience to settle down.

I give a big smile.

"Hello Caesar, it's good to see you again."

"And the same to you Miss Mason! Might I say you look a little different….did you get your haircut?"

The audience roars with laughter and I run my fingers through my funny, spiky hair. Of everything to be nipped and tweezed, I had not let them fix my hair, style it yes, but do not mess with my handiwork. I want it to remind people of my metamorphosis.

"I'm thinking of opening a salon, will you be my first customer Caesar?"

The crowd is loving the banter between us, I can almost feel them lapping it all up but all too soon conversation turns to why we are all there.

"I'm sure it's the moment you've all been waiting for, the tapes are all loaded up, let's sit back, get comfortable Johanna, it's the highlights of the 71st Annual Hunger Games!"

It's awful. Right from the reaping all the way to the shot of me being lifted, stunned into the hovercraft. At the reaping, Red was right, there's a ferocity in my eyes that betrays me but my fall from the chariot, which originally brought gasps from the crowd, now gets laughs. It looks painful, which it was, but it also looks completely pathetic. I feel an achy pang in my chest when I see Red standing smartly in his sparkling Fish costume on the District 4 chariot.

I sit stony-faced so if the cameras come to get my reaction they cannot see how I really feel. They do not see how pleased I am to see my tree house again. I hope they don't see me gulp down the bile rising in my throat as on screen I kill Rye. My lips purse when the screen is filled with a willow tree in the rain. My face does not change when Red dies…again but inside my stomach is tight and my mouth dry. I pull it back though during my wandering time and I am shuffling uncomfortably in my seat and yawning arrogantly by the time the muttations attack me.

I dismember Granite and Chantal again and kill Absalom Hawes one more time before Caesar Flickerman wraps it up and I am free to go.

Blight does not come back to the Training Tower, he says he is going to 'wallow' with some friends on the ending of another years Game.

Egor goes straight to bed, it is five hours past his seven o'clock bedtime after all, and Gaia and The Escort are ecstatic to have been invited to a prestigious Capitol party.

I am, therefore, alone at the dining table, holding a half empty champagne flute when there's a knock on the door. I'd poured the drink with a sense of 'Well it is supposed to be a celebration." The first sip had been sweet and fizzy and I rather liked it.

I take my glass with me to the door and peek through the peephole. I see a bronze head looking down at the floor.

I open the door cautiously and say "If you're looking for the party, it's not here." It comes out with a slight slur and my cheeks go pink.

He is leaning with one arm against the doorframe. He looks every bit the teenage rebel from the movie posters I've seen dotted around, even down to his leather jacket.

"I was looking for a more exclusive party actually," he says in a low seductive voice.

"Then come on in, it'll be the most exclusive party in the whole Capitol because I'm going to bed so you'll be the only one there." I turn on my heels but leave the door open.

He grabs me from behind before I can go much further and whispers in my ear,

"How about I join you in there."

I whisper back, "Honey, I didn't think you were particularly handsome before, now I know you're not even the handsomest in your family."

"I'm sure I could change your mind if you just let me come to your room with you." There's a little more purpose in his voice now so I shrug, go to the dining table to refill my glass and nod towards the door to my bedroom.

He gives a tight smile and slips off his jacket before heading to my room, pausing at the door to take off his shirt.

Unsure of myself and what might happen in there, I down the refreshed glass of champagne and pour another, bringing it with me.

He is sitting on my bed and I can't help appreciating the tone of the muscles in his shoulders and abdomen.

"Shut the door and come here," he says, patting the bed.

I do as he says, stopping to put down my glass on the bedside table next to my pinecone. I stare at him, my eyes wide and nervous.

He tuts and rolls his eyes.

"Come here, you silly thing," and he pulls me into his arms against his bare chest. "Sorry about my brashness out there. I wasn't sure who was watching. We're safe in here though."

He even smells the same as Red, if I close my eyes I can pretend it's him. It's a mistake doing that because I don't want to open my eyes now. I keep them squeezed shut for what must be a really embarrassing amount of time for Finnick.

"I'm sorry," I whisper and to my own dismay, tears start gathering in the inner corners of my eyes. Stop it, stop it, I chastise myself. It doesn't work and the tears spill out down my face. "I'm really sorry." I sit back and go to the bathroom to grab some tissues.

"Don't worry about it," he calls through. "You'd be surprised how many times I've been in bedrooms with crying girls."

"Are you that awful?" I ask as I come back into the bedroom.

"Expectations get so high, there's no way I can always live up to it."

I like him, I knew I would. How many times did Red say his uncle and I would get on well. We spend the next couple of hours chatting about nothing in particular, never Red and never the Games. He tells me about his white panelled house in the District 4 Victors Village which has a roof-top terrace that he can see the ocean from. I tell him about the awful things I used to do to Little Joey when he was young and I was jealous.

Just past two in the morning the door to the suite bangs shut and we hear girlish giggles from the living area. There's a bang of a chair going over and then more giggles.

"Your Mentors?" Finnick asks me.

"Does that sound like Blight?" I cock my head sarcastically. "It'll be Gaia and my Escort."

"Doesn't she have a name?"

"I refuse to learn it. They've been at a party, probably assume I'm out or asleep."

"Then lets fix that." He jumps to his feet and strides to the door. He throws it open and in a clear voice calls out, "Hey ladies!" I can only imagine how wide their ogling eyes must be. "Now we're not exactly sleeping in here but could you keep it down and we'll try to do the same."

I decide to have a little fun with them as well and slip off my sequinned dress, leaving me in my Capitol-style, lacy underwear. I go to the door and duck under Finnick's arm. Putting a hand on his chest, I look down and say,

"Oh look, there's your shirt." As I bend down to pick it up he gooses me and I squeal.

I was right about their faces. Gaia and The Escort look like thirsty fish, mouths opening and closing in surprise.

"Come on, weren't we…?" I tug on his arm and let the question hang.

Without warning he pulls me to him and plants a kiss on my lips, shutting the door with his foot.

When we break apart he looks into my eyes.

"How was that for a kiss?"

"Not as good as…" I nearly say his name.

"I didn't think it would be." Finnick shakes his head. "I guess we should talk for serious. We can't avoid speaking about him forever."

"It's up to you, I only knew him for a week, it must be so much harder for you," I say sitting down on the bed again. "He was family."

"You're a good little actress Johanna but not good enough for me. I know how you felt for him."

"He was…" I swallow a lump. "He was good to me when no one else was."

"He was good, and there's not many truly good people in this nation." Finnick picks up my glass of champagne. "Shall we have a mini Wake for him?"

I take the glass, hold it aloft and say "To Red, I'm only here because you're not, and that's not how it should be." I drink half the contents and pass it back to Finnick.

"Red, you were a better brother to me than your mother was. She never comes fishing with me. I'll miss you more than words can describe Squirt." He downs the rest of the glass, kisses his fist and places it between his eyes, just like the District 4 death ritual.

I spend another hour listening to stories about Red such as the time he followed a girl home from school to make sure she got home safely, and then got beaten by her father for following her home. Another story is about a day on the boat that turned into a day and a night on the boat because Red spilt coffee, a Victor's luxury item, on a map.

Finally my eyes start to droop and Finnick pulls back the blankets off my bed and makes me get in.

"You've got to look your best for the interview tomorrow, your Prep Team will be in early," he tells me and I sleepily agree.

"Finnick, will you stay?"

"If you want me to."

"I do."

He climbs in next to me and I snuggle into the warmth and familiarity of his body.

"Finnick?" I murmur once more before sleep overcomes me.

"Mmm?"

"Do you snore?"

"No one's ever dared tell me."

"Oh don't worry, I will."