Disclaimer: The Hunger Games Trilogy is property of Suzanne Collins. This is a parody fanwork by fans for fans. No money was made off of the creation of this fanwork.

Spectator

By Fanfic Allergy


Chapter Twenty Eight

I barely even have time to register that Rani is dead when a commotion on the other side of the room grabs my attention. The Peacekeepers that Snow left in Mentor Central are manhandling the mentors from District Five toward the elevators. The youngest one, Quark looks confused and alarmed at this development, while the older two, Dyna and Kinet, seem to be more resigned.

"What's going on?" I whisper to Finnick.

"Shhh!" Effie shushes me, turning in her chair to give me a warning with her eyes.

Finnick reaches over and gives my hand a squeeze but keeps his gaze on the Peacekeepers.

A few seconds later, the Peacekeepers and the mentors from Five are gone. The atmosphere in Mentor Central is tense and strained. The mentors from Two look smug while those from Eleven are clearly worried. I glance at Haymitch to see a carefully blank expression on his face.

I'm surprised to see Effie lean over and place a hand on his arm. "You're going to have to talk to him, you know."

"I know," he says tersely.

"Do you want me to go with you?" she asks.

"No, but that's not going to stop you, is it?" he asks bluntly.

She shakes her head. "Indeed, it will not."

"Then why did you ask?" he grumbles at her.

She smiles. "Because perhaps one day you will change your mind."

He grunts. "Never gonna happen."

"We should go now, before he sends someone to get us," Effie counsels.

"Yeah," Haymitch agrees with a nod. "If we go to him, we can spin it in our favor. We just gotta hope the boy doesn't do anything stupid in the meantime." He turns to look at Finnick and me. "We gotta go see Snow, try to get him to understand we had nothing to do with that girl saying the things she did or her giving Peeta those berries. You need to keep an eye on those two and if Peeta says anything stupid send them a sponsorship gift, I don't care what. So long as you don't use all the money, I don't care."

Even though the instructions are odd, I understand why he's telling us this. I'm just not used to him being so serious.

Finnick nods. "We've got it, Haymitch. You take care of Snow."

Nodding his thanks, Haymitch and Effie get up and make their way to the elevators. Beside us, I see that Seeder has left too. Leaving Chaff and Rye to man the mentor station.

I sit back and watch the screen, trying to take in everything that's just happened. The alliance breaking, Rani's death, the arrest of the mentors from Five, Haymitch and Effie having to do damage control. I don't want to think about what could happen next.

I don't seem to be alone in that sentiment, Prim and Peeta seem to be having a hard time coping. Both of them are still kneeling next to Rani's body, Prim sobbing openly while Peeta is trying to hold back the tears but every few seconds a lone tear slips down his cheek.

"Why?" Prim asks. "Why'd she do it, Peeta?"

He shakes his head. "I don't think she wanted to fight us. This was her way of telling the Capitol to shove it. That she wanted to die on her own terms."

"But where did she get the poison berries?" Prim asks.

The question surprises me and it really shouldn't. I realize that while the commotion was going on in Mentor Central that Peeta must have told Prim how Rani died. I don't have a lot of time to think about that because Peeta answers, "She probably found them during one of the gathering trips and saved them. I wouldn't be surprised if the Gamemakers hadn't planted poisonous berries all over the Arena to lure in unwary tributes," Peeta lies. I can tell he's lying, something about the explanation is too pat and if I were in his shoes I'd likely lie too. If only to spare Prim the truth.

Prim nods. The lie sounds plausible. Every year, some tribute or other dies from either unpurified water or a misidentified plant. It's just the first time that one has died from poisoning themselves deliberately. I try to think of other tributes who've committed suicide and fail. There probably are some, but in all of the Hunger Games I've seen, not one tribute has killed themselves deliberately.

Peeta scrubs at his eyes. "We should get going, Prim. Everyone's heard the cannon and someone may come to investigate." He leaves unsaid that the most likely people to investigate are Rue and Thresh and they'll likely think that Peeta and Prim killed Rani.

"No, not yet," Prim says, her lower lip jutting out stubbornly. "Not until we do something to remember Rani."

Peeta doesn't even try to argue. "What did you have in mind?"

My sister thinks about it for a moment. "A funeral, maybe. Not a full blown one, of course, but a simple one with flowers and singing."

He thinks about it for a few moments then nods. "That sounds okay. Nothing too elaborate or too long. But some flowers and singing, so long as you're the one singing. We both know I can't carry a tune."

Prim smiles at Peeta's attempt to lighten the mood. "I'm not as good as Katniss," she warns.

A small flash of something I can't identify flits across his face at Prim's comment. "You're better than me. Come on, let's get to it."

They each pick an armful of flowers, being careful not to stray too far from Rani's corpse to keep the hovercraft from collecting it before they've had their funeral. Then they cover the girl with the flowers while Prim sings the old lullaby that my father sung to me and I, in turn, sang to her.

Feeling the tears prick behind my eyelids, I turn away to look at Finnick. He's frowning and I don't know why. I think what they're doing for Rani is good and the decent thing to do. They're making her sacrifice matter and remembering that she's not just a tribute, but a girl who was loved and cared for. Then it hits me, that's the problem. They're making Rani human and the Capitol, or more specifically Snow, might not want that.

"Should we send them a gift?" I whisper to Finnick.

He shakes his head. "It depends. We might need to soon and I'm trying to figure out what to send. Got any ideas?"

I look at the prices and blanch. Out of curiosity, I check the price of the spool of string I sent to my sister and goggle when I read the number, two thousand and forty one coin. I read it again and the numbers don't change. Then I remember that Snow gave my sister and Peeta each thirty thousand coin. "Send string," I say quietly.

"What?" he asks, clearly confused by my suggestion.

I meet Finnick's eyes. "Send string. The same kind I sent Prim in the beginning. I'm sure they're running out and compared to some of the other prices of things in here it's not too expensive. Prim won't think anything of it, but Peeta should get the message."

I watch him weighing my words in his mind and a slow smile starts to spread across his lips. "I think that might work. Snow shouldn't think anything of it and if asked we can just say that since they've been using the string so much we sent them more to make nets..." he trails off, a thoughtful expression on his face. "You know that Mags won her Games using nets and a spear. I used them too. Maybe we should look into sending Peeta and Prim a spear of some kind. They're not that hard to use and they'd work really well with those nets your sister makes."

"I'm not sure the string I sent is strong enough to entangle a human," I warn.

Finnick shrugs. "So we send another spool later of stronger stuff. It's still not as expensive as a premade net. I'll talk to Haymitch about it."

I nod, the string is one thing, a weapon is a lot more expensive.

He checks to see if Peeta and Prim have started moving and notes that they haven't. He punches a few buttons on the console in front of him and starts talking. "I want to place an order for Item number," he reads off a series of numbers and letters that correspond to the string I sent Prim earlier in the Games. He pauses to wait for the person on the other end of the line to reply. "Yes, I know the hovercraft is already out for a pick up. But you know sponsorship gifts take precedence over corpse retrieval." The Gamemaker he's talking to seems to concede that point because a few moments later Finnick hangs up with a triumphant smirk on his face. "Got it. That should buy them a few minutes."

"A few minutes to do what?" I want to know.

"For your sister and Peeta to s ay goodbye and figure out where they're going to go from here."

It's a good question. Where should Peeta and Prim go? They can't really go to any of the places they went with Rue, otherwise the pool by the cliffs would be perfect. Not to mention the Careers are still out there.

I motion for one of the waiting Avoxes to come over and ask him to bring some cheese buns, vegetable stew, and venison sausage. I also ask for a few sandwiches and fruit for later. While breakfast was only a few hours ago, I can tell that today is going to be a hollow day where nothing I eat is going to keep me full. I stifle a snort, it's probably the first time I'll eat enough to please everyone who's watching over me.

As I finish my order, I can see the cameras zoom in on the parachute Finnick ordered. The tinkling sound distracts Peeta and Prim from their mourning and they look up in surprise.

"A sponsorship gift?" Prim asks.

The parachute lands next to her.

"You'd better pick that up," Peeta advises.

Prim obeys. When she opens the package, she's even more confused. "String? Why'd someone send us string? And the same kind that Katniss sent me at the beginning. I still have some left."

"But not that much," Peeta says absently. "I'm sure they're wanting to replenish you so you can make more nets and snares."

"It would be useful," Prim says with a nod. "It's almost like Katniss herself is making sure we get these gifts."

Peeta's eyes widen in horror and he gets to his feet. He's realized the meaning of the gift Finnick sent. He carefully schools his features and looks down at my sister. "We should get going Prim. You know they don't like us hanging around the dead tributes for very long."

She frowns but stands up. "But why?"

Peeta makes a face. "I'm guessing you don't remember much of the Sixty-Ninth Games?"

She shakes her head. "Mom and Dad wouldn't let me watch most of it. Said I was too young."

He nods in understanding. "That's probably for the best. One of the tributes in those Games did some bad things to the dead tributes and the Capitol doesn't want a repeat of that."

"But we're not doing anything wrong!" Prim protests.

"The Capitol doesn't know that. Besides, we should find a place to go before it gets dark."

Prim makes a face. "What should we do about Rani's things?" she wants to know.

Peeta looks at the backpack full of supplies that the girl from Five had bargained for just a few hours ago. "I think we should take them with us. She probably would want that."

Prim nods and goes over to pick up the pack. She slips it over her shoulders and looks at Peeta expectantly. For his part, he shrugs the larger back frame onto his back and holds out one hand.

Prim takes it and the two set off into the woods and away from the camp that they've lived in for most of the Games.

oOo

I beg off staying in Mentor Central for the rest of the afternoon. As much as I want to find out what happened with Haymitch and Effie, a bigger part of me counsels that I should just stay out of it. The less I know, the safer I'll be. I don't know if that's wisdom or delusion, but either way it makes me feel better.

I go back to the training center and the twelfth floor. There, I try to fill my hollow stomach. My mother smiles when she sees the fifth sandwich I've eaten.

"I was like that with you," she reminisces, sitting down next to me on the couch. "Couldn't stand eating some days, then I'd eat everything in the house the next. It drove your father nuts. He'd never know from one day to the next what I'd be like."

"How could you stand it?" I ask.

"How could I stand what?" she counters.

I shift on the couch, trying and failing to find a position that doesn't feel odd. "Being pregnant. Knowing that your kids were going to possibly be reaped. Being Seam-poor. Everything."

My mother stands up and comes over to sit on the arm of the couch next to me. She softly starts to stroke my hair like she did when I was a child and I lean my head against her thigh. "I never hated being Seam-poor because I was happy. I had your father, I had you girls. Money and things were never worth the three of you. I admit that being pregnant wasn't fun, but I don't regret it or hate it. Not for a minute. I got you and Prim out of it, the best two girls a mother could ask for. As for the rest, I tried not to think about it. I think all of us parents try not to dwell on it too much. We'd go mad if we did."

I nod my head. "What am I going to do?" I ask in a small voice.

My mother is silent for a long time, just running her fingers through my hair. Finally she says, "What you have to do to survive."

It's as good an answer as any.

oOo

I consciously decide that I'm only going to watch Mandatory Viewing tonight. At the moment, the cameras are flicking from Rue and Thresh, to Cato and Clove, to Peeta and Prim and then back again without settling on any of them. It's as good of a time as any to do something else. I need a rest from the Games and I'm not sure that right now I'm able to deal with any more shocks. I feel like I'm being disloyal to Prim and by extension Peeta, but I need a break.

Madge was right the day she came and dragged Gale and me out to the woods, just sitting around and watching the Games isn't good for me. It'd be easier, in a way, if I were in them myself at least then, I'd know what to do with myself.

My body seems to approve of the plan to take a break, because almost as soon as I make it, I feel a wave of exhaustion sweep over me and I barely make it into my bedroom and under the covers before passing out.

My mother wakes me up several hours later for dinner and I realize just how much stress I've been under. I've been running on almost pure adrenaline since the Reaping and it's been even worse since we've arrived in the Capitol. The situation's finally caught up to me. I've got to deal with this better. If not for me, then for the baby I'm carrying. Now, if I could only convince the rest of the world that I need less stress, I'd be set.

The first thing that I do is pointedly ignore Mrs. Mellark. Just having her around sniping at everything my mother or I say or do isn't helping. It'd be too much for me to ask to have her stay someplace else, like on another floor. So I'm going to try to avoid her. Thankfully, she makes it easy by segregating herself from the rest of the group outside of mealtimes.

I'm still hungry after everyone else has eaten their fill, but I just grab the basket of rolls from the side bar and go to the viewing room with them. I want to see what's happened while I slept.

The recaps are pretty short and to the point. Rue and Thresh start heading away from the camp and the Cornucopia clearing into a part of the Arena I haven't seen before except for on the holographic map in Mentor Central. It's heavily wooded and leads to the area above the swamp that's on the upper end of the wheat field canyon. I don't know what dangers are in that area but I don't know if it matters. So long as Peeta and Prim don't go there, Thresh and Rue can have that area all they want. The two make good time, only pausing when Rani's cannon sounds.

Rue starts to take off back to the stream, but Thresh stops her. "The alliance is broken, little girl."

"But Prim or Peeta or Rani could be dead! And the others in trouble!" she protests.

Thresh shakes his head. "So long as it ain't us. The fewer tributes we got to fight the better for us. Besides..." he trails off.

Rue doesn't let it go. "Besides what?" she demands.

"It's possible one of them killed the other," he reveals with a twinge of sadness in his voice.

"Peeta wouldn't do that! Prim wouldn't do that!"

He shakes his head. "You can't know that, little girl. The Games, they change people and not for the better."

"Have you changed?" she wants to know.

Thresh nods once and looks away. "More than you ever want to know," he says quietly.

"I've changed too," the young girl from Eleven admits.

"I know. And you don't know how sorry that makes me," he tells her.

They don't say any more but continue walking, eventually setting up camp for the night under a fallen tree. I'm surprised they don't climb one of the large trees, but I guess that Thresh isn't that good of a climber because of his size. I'm also surprised that the Gamemakers didn't censor the conversation about the Games changing people. Maybe it's because they want to send home broken victors and they want the districts to know that their victors are damaged goods. But I'm still surprised.

The recap shifts to Cato and Clove next. The two are camped out in Thresh's old cave and Cato seems to be doing a lot better than he was the last time I saw them. He's moving around some but not as spryly as he was before he was hurt. I see the remnants of a sponsorship gift by the fire. Food from the looks of it.

"We should probably try to hunt down the remaining tributes soon," Clove says carefully, her eyes on Cato's face to gauge his reaction.

Cato grunts. "There's nothing wrong with my arms. So if you can lead them back to me, I can kill them."

"So you're suggesting I just act as the bait?" her tone is dangerous.

The boy deflates when he hears it. "Not one of my best ideas, was it?"

"No, it wasn't," she says flatly.

He pounds his fist against the side of the cave. "I'm just sick of being useless! This isn't what I trained for! I trained to hunt down the meat for the glory of the Capitol, not sit around in a cave waiting for the meat to come to me. It's embarrassing."

Clove comes over and sits down and motions for him to sit down with her. When he does, she guides his head into her lap before leaning down to kiss him. "I know it is. This isn't the Games either of us wanted. But we don't always get what we want, so we have to make do with what we have and so long as I have you I'll be happy. So we wait another day, big deal. The Capitol will let us know when it is time for us to make our move."

He nods. "When do you think that will be?"

She considers it. "Soon. Probably tomorrow or the next day. You heard the cannon earlier, one of the meat is dead, probably from starvation or something weak like that. That means that there are only four more obstacles in our way and we can go home."

Smiling up at her, he says, "Home, I'd like that. Do you think they'll let us get our pick of houses in the Village? Us being the first dual victors and all?"

Clove shrugs her shoulders. "Probably. We probably can't kick out the popular victors like Lyme, Enobaria, or Alexandros. But the failures like Brutus, Germanus or Gray are likely fair game."

The smile becomes more feral. "Good, then I want Gray's house. It's got the best garden."

"What is it with you and gardens?" she asks, her tone exasperated.

"I don't know," he says with a shrug. "I just like them. They seem so peaceful and I think I would like tending it. It would give me something to do since I won't be training anymore."

She rolls her eyes. "And what about me?"

"You'll be too busy for a garden," he says certainly.

Her eyes narrow. "And why's that?"

"Because you'll be too busy with our kids. I figure there's no need to wait. We can get started right away."

"Don't I get any say in this?" her tone is a little put out.

He looks up at her earnestly. "You do. But think about it, a boy with your accuracy and my strength. Why he'd be unstoppable. Then a girl with both of our looks. She'd put the tributes from One to shame. Think about it. We could breed up the next generation of victors. We'd be more famous than the Cuthberts."

I have no idea who they're talking about but I'm guessing that the Cuthberts are a big deal in Two. Probably for something Games related. The announcers fill in some of the gaps, Duke Cuthbert was the first winner from Two and his son won the Twenty-Fifth Hunger Games. The Games that all of the winners were voted in by their districts. They don't replay those Games very often, it wasn't very exciting and the winner, Prince Cuthbert, wasn't very interesting. He was the typical Career: large, brutish, and deadly.

The rest of Cato and Clove's recap features the two of them making out and planning for the future more. I almost feel sorry for them, they're so convinced that the Capitol is going to let them both walk out of the Games alive. After Rani's speech before she killed herself, I don't believe the Capitol is going to let more than one tribute become a victor. I think both Peeta and Thresh have figured that out, but not Rue and Prim and also not the two kids from Two.

The recap finishes up with Peeta and Prim. I'm unsurprised to see that they've edited Peeta and Rani's conversation to make it look like Rani's just a girl with a crush. All of her inflammatory words have been edited out, leaving her sounding even more like a lovesick girl with no hope. Her suicide is almost anti-climatic and the way they've edited it reminds me of one of those stupid Capitol soap operas that they show when the Games aren't on. I also realize that the words I'm hearing aren't quite matching up to her lips. That they've cobbled together the audio as well as editing the video.

They don't show Peeta and Prim covering her body with flowers or them singing to her. They do show Prim getting the sponsorship gift with the string, but they've cut it in such a way that Rani's body is always just out of the shot. It makes me wonder just how much I've missed that the Capitol's censored. If I hadn't been in Mentor Central when everything happened, would I have even seen Rani's death back home in District Twelve? Or would the Capitol have censored that too?

I don't know.

I don't have a lot of time to dwell on that because now I get to see where Prim and Peeta have ended up. They walk back to the spring by the cliffs but don't stay there long. Only long enough to gather a few things to eat and move on.

They seem to have a clear destination in mind, unlike Rue and Thresh, who are wandering aimlessly toward the edge of the Arena. Peeta leads Prim toward the clearing where they started the Games and the Cornucopia.

As they walk, Peeta explains why they're going there. "Assuming the two from Two aren't still there, it's the safest place we can be. No one will think to look for us there. The Cornucopia's large enough to fit the two of us and we won't even need to light a fire because the wind will be off of us and we can sleep together for warmth."

"But what about animals. Don't we need a fire to scare them away?"

Peeta shakes his head. "We shouldn't and you'll just make a net large enough to cover the mouth of the Corncopia, that way anything trying to get in will get tangled and we can take it out easily."

His comment makes me think of Finnick's plan to have Haymitch send the two a spear. I wonder if the handsome victor from Four had the chance to talk to Haymitch about that yet. If someone did try to sneak up on the two of them in the dark, chances are they wouldn't notice the net, especially if they used mud to darken the white string to brown. It's not a bad plan. And Peeta's right, Rue and Thresh won't go back there because of the chance they'll run into the Careers and Cato and Clove won't go there because Cato's leg isn't good enough to climb the cliff and they won't swim around again because of the alligator pike muttation in the water.

Prim gives in and follows Peeta along, picking edible plants as she walks.

They get to the clearing in the mid-afternoon and take in the destruction of the Career's camp. They walk among the destroyed crates and boxes picking up random pieces of detritus. Most of it is ruined, like the Careers found, but there's still some things that aren't totally obliterated: a pot, a few fishhooks, a knife blade. Prim also gathers up several charred pieces of cloth.

Peeta gives her a look. "Why are you picking those up?" he asks.

She bends down and picks up another piece. "Because they burn really quickly. They're the best kind of tinder there is. It only takes a spark to light it. My daddy taught me when I was really little. I used to get so cold in the winter and it'd take a long time to get a coal fire started. So he showed me how to make charcloth with old rags." She looks away sadly. "It's one of my best memories of him."

I feel the tears well up behind my eyes. I was always my father's favorite, just like Prim is my mother's. But because he died when she was so little, I sort of forgot that she could possibly miss him as much as I do. When Prim gets home, if she gets home, I resolve to tell her more about our father so that she'll have more than a memory of him lighting a fire for her.

The two also pick up any stick of wood from crates that they can find. It's good dry wood and even if they don't have a fire at night, they still need something to cook with. They gather all of their supplies into the Cornucopia and then Prim sits down so she can lean against the metal side to weave a large net to cover the opening. Peeta takes their water bottles down to the lake to fill them and sets a few fishing lines as well.

I'm a little surprised that they're lingering on the camp set up scene for the recap. It doesn't seem to be the kind of thing they'd focus on. I feel a little worm of dread start to wind its way up my spine.

Out in the lake, one of the lines Peeta set starts to twitch. The boy goes over to it excitedly and starts to roll the line in using a branch to wind the string around so that he doesn't cut his hands. The fish on the other end is battling fiercely and almost without thinking about it, Peeta takes a step into the water.

And then another.

The water only comes up to mid shin, but apparently that's enough. The fish on the other end of the line stops fighting against the hook in its mouth and instead charges Peeta and for the first time I get a good look at what kind of fish is on the other end of the line.

Muttation.

The same kind of muttation that attacked Cato and Clove a couple of days ago. This one is smaller and a slightly different color than the mutt that attacked the two Careers. But it's still a mutt.

When the line goes slack because of the mutt's charge, Peeta loses his balance and falls backward into the shallow water. The branch he's holding falls out of his hand. He gropes around for it with both hands just in time for the muttation to clamp its needle like teeth onto his left hand.

Peeta roars in pain, yanking his hand and the mutt still attached out of the water. When he sees what's attached to his hand he gives it a violent shake, trying to dislodge it.

It doesn't work.

Struggling to his feet, he stumbles up onto the bank, mutt still attached to his left hand. He yells for Prim to come help him. He doesn't wait to see if she responds before placing a foot on the thrashing mutt and trying to pry the clamped jaws up with his right hand.

He's able to get them loosened a little bit, enough to pull his hand out a little, but the mutt flops and bites down again. This time in a different place.

I can hear the crunch of bone that accompanies the spurt of blood as the mutt reattaches itself.

Prim gets there and pulls out a knife. She stabs the mutt behind its head, trying to sever the backbone. She misses on the first stab, the knife skittering off of the armored head. She adjusts her aim and tries again. This time she's more successful.

The muttation gives a few more half-hearted flops before it falls silent. My sister stabs it again for good measure before going to help Peeta pry the dead mutt's mouth open.

Peeta extracts his hand and I struggle to keep my dinner in my stomach. The hand is mangled and in several places I see the tell-tale ivory color of bone. It's bad and I don't know if there's anything that my sister can do to help.

Prim surveys the damage and then frowns up at Peeta. "Do you go out of your way to get hurt?" she asks, the words are peevish but the tone isn't. She's trying to lighten the mood so she can work. I've seen my mother do that with several of her patients. Particularly the ones who are more likely to panic or start crying.

Just like with my mother's patients, Prim's teasing makes Peeta smile. "I didn't mean to. It just attacked me out of nowhere."

"Out of nowhere huh? I guess we'd better fix you up, although I am getting mighty sick of getting you better, then having something else happen to you. You've just got to promise not to get hurt again."

"I'll try," Peeta promises.

As she's been talking, my sister's been washing the wound and assessing the damage. There isn't a lot she can do, but she tries with what medicinal plants she can find and using the remnants of her sewing kit and blanket she fashions a decent bandage.

When she's done, she sits back on her heels. "I don't know if it's going to be good enough to save your hand. There's a lot of damage," she tells him frankly.

"I know. I can't feel my ring finger which I can't decide if that's a good or bad thing. It's good because all of my other fingers feel bruised or sliced or both. It's a bad thing because I have a hunch that I'm not supposed to be feeling nothing."

Prim frowns. "That's not good," she says slowly. "Do you feel anything? Pins and needles? Anything?"

He shakes his head. "What does that mean?"

My sister looks down at her hands and fidgets nervously. "It means the nerves have been damaged and that you might lose the finger." From the way she's sitting, I know that's not the whole story.

My mother fills in the rest. "Depending on where the damage is, he could lose the whole hand," she murmurs softly.

"No one asked you!" Mrs. Mellark snaps. "And if he loses his hand it's that damn daughter of yours' fault!"

"Leave Prim out of this!" I snarl back. "She's doing her best to keep Peeta alive!"

She turns her pale blue eyes to me and sneers, "It wasn't the little girl I was talking about."

Her hatred goes through me like a knife and I struggle to think of something to say to defend myself.

I don't need to because Bing Mellark comes to my rescue. "You can't blame Katniss, Mother. Peeta's made his own decisions, she's got nothing to do with this."

"She's got everything to do with this!" she argues.

"Now, now, Muffy. That's enough," Mr. Mellark steps in. "You're tired. We're all tired. Why don't we go to bed? I'm sure things will look better in the morning."

Mrs. Mellark opens her mouth to speak, but Mr. Mellark reaches down and squeezes her arm warningly. She closes her mouth and gets up from the couch, sending me a glare in the process. Mr. Mellark escorts her to their shared room and a collective sigh of relief goes through the rest of us.

"I don't know why she's acting that way," Bing tells me. "She's normally not like this."

But she is, she's always like this with me and it's only been recently that I've known why. I shrug my shoulders and turn back to the Games. Mandatory Viewing is finishing up with their tribute montage to Rani. Again I notice the judicious use of editing to tell the story that the Capitol wants to tell and not the truth. The images and scenes they're choosing are portraying Rani as a lovesick girl who was betrayed in the end by the boy she loved. They've even reversed the footage of Rani handing Peeta the berries so that it looks like Peeta's offering them to her. I wonder how many people they think will fall for that. Most people will remember that Rani is the one who got the nightlock as a sponsorship gift, the announcers even brought in experts on the subject. Now they're trying to paint a different picture because self-sacrifice isn't something they want to show as happening in the Games and betrayal is a much better story for the Capitol.

It makes me sick.

Mandatory Viewing finishes and they slip back into the action of the Games and what's going on in Peeta and Prim's camp. The two are talking and Prim is boiling something in the dented pot they found.

"You'd better finish up, Prim," Peeta says from his place against the side of the Cornucopia. "It's going to be dark soon and we need to get that fire out."

"I'm almost done," she says with a nod. "I just wish we could eat that mutt fish you caught. I'm hungry."

"We can't take the chance," he explained in a resigned tone of voice. "It could be poisonous and your sister'd kill me if I let anything happen to you."

"I know. It'd just be nice to have something more solid than greens for dinner."

Peeta nods. "So what are you making?"

"Willow bark tea. I want to have enough to get through the night. It will help keep the swelling down and make the pain a little easier to bear."

Glancing at his bandaged hand, Peeta nods ruefully. "I'll take all the pain relief I can get. It's going to be hard to sleep tonight."

Prim nods, but doesn't say anything. She pulls the pot off of the fire and sets it to one side to cool. Then she carefully starts to cover the small fire with dirt. She doesn't use water because the steam would give away their position. When she's sure she's got it smothered, she goes over to sit down next to Peeta.

"Tomorrow, I'll rig up a few snares to try to catch a rabbit or a groosling. I think we shouldn't bother with fishing in the lake. Not with mutts like that in the water, they'd eat all of the other fish."

Peeta frowns. "Do you think that we'll be able to catch enough?"

"I don't know. We can always go back to the pool or the stream if we need to. The walk isn't too far."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," he says slowly. "Rue and Thresh could be there and we don't know where the Careers are."

"I know. But it's better than starving," she points out.

"True."

She unties one of her pigtails to rebraid it. "Besides, we'll be harder to catch if we aren't in one place all the time."

Peeta pokes her on the shoulder. "Hey! When'd you get so smart?"

"I don't know. When did you?" she shoots back with a grin.

They watch the sun set in silence, waiting for the announcement that comes every night at first dark. Peeta pulls out two slices of dried pear and hands one to Prim. She takes it gratefully and eats the fruit slowly to make it last.

The trumpets blare overhead as the nightly announcements begin. Rani's face flashes up into the sky and a spasm of pain crosses Peeta's face that has nothing to do with his hand. Prim squeezes his good hand while struggling not to cry.

"I'm going to miss her," she whispers.

"Me too," Peeta whispers back.

The cameras flash to Cato and Clove next. They too are watching the sky but their expressions are ones of glee at the girl from Five's death. They're a little too close to Prim and Peeta for my liking, but so far they haven't noticed that the Cornucopia's clearing is occupied again.

Then they switch over to show Rue and Thresh. They're both wearing identical expressions of shock and betrayal.

"I guess that answers our question, little girl," Thresh says after Rani's face fades from the sky.

"You don't think Peeta and Prim killed her?" Rue asks in a small voice.

He looks down at the girl next to him. "I don't see how it could have happened any other way."

"What about a mutt?" Rue protests.

"The timing's wrong. All three of them should have been at the camp still."

"Maybe they ran into the Careers or a mutt attacked while they were still together." Rue's clearly grasping at straws.

But Thresh isn't about to give her false hope. "We'd have heard the commotion if it'd happened that way. There'd have been yelling and screaming and all sorts of noise. We didn't hear any of that so that only leaves one option. They killed her when she wasn't paying attention."

"Prim would never do that!"

"I'm not saying she would," Thresh says softly. "But Peeta might. Especially if she threatened the little girl. We don't know what happened, but my instincts tell me that Peeta killed her."

Rue starts crying and Thresh tries to comfort her awkwardly. "I wish the Games didn't exist," she says in between sobs.

Thresh holds her even tighter and closes his eyes. "Me too, little girl. Me too."


AN:

Written: 11/18/13
Revised: 12/1/13
Beta Read by RoseFyre

The fallout begins. It is definitely nowhere near over.

Peeta is hurt. Again. It's almost like a brick joke with him. He's always getting hurt. I don't know if it's the Worf Effect in play. But hey! Who am I to deviate from canon too much... oh wait...

I didn't do as well as I wanted with NaNoWriMo this year. I only managed to write a little over 38,000 words this month. Real life has been busy complete with nasty storms knocking over trees and killing power. But I'm so close to the end, I can taste it. My poor sounding board and beta are getting sick of me babbling about stuff to them especially considering that I've been talking with them for almost two years now.

I am going to be sticking with a biweekly update schedule for now. It seems to be working and I have time to get the chapters written. So every other Sunday for the foreseeable future, I'll put out a chapter. For those of you who are looking for more in the Spectator Universe, I'm also putting out another fic called "Forgotten" that is Gale's story starting from when Katniss goes to the Capitol. There will be some important stuff that happens there that will be relevant later. It too is going to be updated biweekly on Tuesdays.

Tributes killed in this chapter and how they died.
None.

A big thanks goes out to the reviewers of this chapter: Squealing Lit Fan, ShinnyGlaceon, ForFutureReference, HealthyHungerGamesObsession101, MaidenAlice, Everlark Lover, DandelionDreamers, jj, catnip851, Guest, RoseFyre, ShortySC22, Kamil the Awesome, Jenn, Guest Guest, Punzie the Platypus, & OSnapItsAll.

Up next: Stuff! No, really. There'll be stuff! And things! You think I'm joking. You'll see.

Until Next time!