The Night before the Games:
Otho Whites POV:
I had planned on having an early night before I had to get up early for the big show tomorrow; so I'd even switched off the interviews at around District Five to clamber into bed and catch some well needed sleep.
What was that old saying again, that there's no rest for the wicked.
My phone started to ring just as I'd drifted off to sleep, it wasn't even my personal phone which I'd turned off earlier; it my work one. The one that usually only rang if there was an emergency at the centre. But everyone was watching the interviews weren't they? The Arena was all set to go so there'd be no builders or anyone at the site anymore.
"Otho White" I answer
"Otho it's Syrio" He sounds out of breath and in a hurry to speak
"Why are you ringing this number?" I ask, I hope nothing had gone wrong with him.
"Because you've turned off your bloody personal phone, turn on the interviews. I don't want you to find this out in the morning."
I sigh and grab my remote from my dresser before flicking on the TV screen in my room.
"FUCK" I cry down the phone as the evenings headline lights up the screen "Fuck!"
"Though you might want to deal with this before the morning"
"Thanks for the heads up mate" I say "I'd better go. Speak tomorrow; I have some questions about some stuff I was meaning to check up with you."
"Sure, tomorrow" Syrio laughs "Night daddy Otho" he chuckles again as the phone goes silent.
Fuck I think before my brain wakes up and I too start to laugh. I wrote that damn book when I was in my late twenties soon after I did my tour of the Districts as was the style at the time. Being the grand age of Sixty Two now, there was no way that Seventeen year old idiot could be my daughter.
I ring my attorney Codex and let him know, telling him that I will send a copy of the book over to his offices first thing to prove my case before ringing Jusius whose working tonight at the centre and telling him the official line too for when the press inevitably ring. I throw on the smart suit I was planning on wearing tomorrow and saying goodbye to my bed for the next two weeks I head out of my apartment, calling for a car to take me to the centre as I do so.
The driver skirts around to the back of the building and I let myself in through the back door Jusius is waiting for me and hands me a copy of my book.
"Is she in the apartment?" I ask him
"Yes sir, all the tributes and mentors have been locked in their rooms; the peacekeepers are on high alert in case someone takes advantage of this too."
"Excellent, I'm going up there now. Fetch me Marcus and get him too my office in twenty minutes time."
"I urm think he left sir, had a party to attend he said"
"Then he can un-attend it" I bark as I march down the corridor and pushing past a couple of Avoxes swipe my pass on an elevator door and step in alone "Twenty minutes Jusius" I repeat as the elevator doors close. I tap the button for floor Eleven and as I fly up the length of the building, quickly. I'm in a bad mood now, my sleep was interrupted and I have to deal with idiots like Jusius and this girl, who has no idea what she has done.
The doors open on the lift to the District Eleven floor, inside the room I spot their escort Peron pacing up and down by the window while Willow and Thorne are looking down on Grace as she sits on the couch head in hands. The boy is nowhere to be seen.
They've noticed I've entered now and Peron rushes over and shakes my hand saying how he's so ashamed and takes responsibility for his tributes actions. The girl looks up now and I can tell she's been crying "Over here" I order as I walk over to the rooms dining table "Sit" I say and the girl sits down.
"I'm so sorry sir" she begins to ramble "I don't know what I was thinking I..." I silence her by slamming my book down on the table.
"Tell me where my book says I'm your father" I command.
She flicks silently and quickly to the end of the book to the section I had expected her to go to. She points silently at the passage where I describe my meetings with a young woman who later had my child and names her Graciela. But Eleven was a massive district, at least ten times as large as the Capitol and then there was the not so little matter of the date. I step towards the girl who winces in fear and turn the book back open to the first page.
"What does that say?" I yell to the girl who has started to shake.
"C-X-V-I-I" she spells out
"Do you know what they are?"
She shakes her head, I can see she has begun to sob again but I feel no sympathy for the girl, feelings for tributes will be your downfall that much I did learn from watching Nina Ricci's downfall.
"Numbers, they're numbers you stupid girl" she frowns and I find myself getting angrier, if that could be possible.
"I don't understand" she whimpers
"It's the date I wrote the book, One Hundred and Seventeen, over Thirty Five years ago. You girl are only Seventeen, there is no way you are my daughter. Stupid girl"
She looks at the date again, blinks a few times dumbfounded before looking up towards me "Then you're my grandfather sir" she says the wobble in her voice betraying her new found confidence "My grandmother also died giving birth to a Daughter when she was young. My mother she would be about Thirty Five now if she were still alive"
"Lots of women in Eleven die in childbirth; it's a known fact girl. You can't prove a thing"
She sighs "you know I always assumed I'd die in childbirth like them." A morbid sentiment but rather fitting as unfortunately I now knew her destiny.
"Well now you'll die in the games girl, trust me on that one." I turn away from the table and walk towards the elevator which opens with a wave of my security card, without another word from the girl or her mentors who know this is one argument they will never win.
It's kind of a shame she came out with such nonsense I think as I fly back down into the basement where my office was located. Despite the presidents aversion to another D11 victor I had thought the girl had potential and wasn't going to kill her off for no reason early on. Now however it looked like I had no choice.
As the door to the elevator slides open again I see that Jusius is stood there with a rather perturbed looking Marcus.
"You wanted to see me sir" he says
"Let's step into my office" I say "I think we need to have a little word about what we let the tributes say in the interviews and how we're going to continue working together if we want to avoid a fate like Nina and Syrio's."
A/N: I hope people don't mind all the focus on one tribute and plot thread in this chapter. I just knew I couldn't leave it at the interviews and wanted to show what happened next before we got to the games. Speaking of the games; yay! We're finally there. Bloodbath will be the next chapter, hope everyone is ready to start saying bye to some of these tributes ... I know I am.