Johanna seems unconvinced but our private moment is now behind us because of a lone figure standing tauntingly in the doorway. Enobaria saunters over to us slowly, flashing both of us a cruel smile.
"This is just adorable," she hisses in her sassy way, "crying... because you lost your tributes?"
The deadly girl from District Seven gets restless and I feel her arms tense up. They've never liked each other. I wrap my arms around her, in a way I do for Annie whenever she tries to move in some rash manner, "Enobaria, this isn't a good time. None of it is about the Games."
She raises her eyebrows, "I mean I figured... everyone out there just thought the two of you came in here to, what is it the two of you do for a living again?"
Johanna pushes me off and stands a mere breath away from Enobaria, "It would be a dream come true if I ever get the opportunity to kill you."
"Hey, let's all relax," I push between the two growling women and their faces only change to target me instead of each other. But it's Johanna to walk away, and probably for the better. Without a response to either of us she exits.
It all seems so weird, how anxious Snow is becoming. When I first said "no" he took his time picking off my loved ones. Now with just one word from Johanna her whole way of life is gone. Maybe she's more of a threat than I am, louder. But I think it might be something different, it might be that he's heard the murmuring in the Districts.
The day passes slower now and I am left to my own devices once more. I hang out with a few people and we pass drinks and gossip around about other victors. As the day wears on, though, my conversation with Johanna looms over my head and I can't help but dial up the phone to talk to Annie, to just for a moment listen to her voice and assure myself she's safe – even if someone is listening intently to every word.
"H-hello?" Her voice is the innocent one I've been looking for.
I wrap the phone cord around my finger, "Hi, darling, it's Finnick."
Her voice picks up, more sure of itself, "Oh Finnick! You sound so strange over the phone, I didn't even know how to answer this thing," she giggles to herself and it's the old Annie, "I hope everything is okay... why did you call?"
"I just really needed to hear your voice," I take a breath, "I want you to know I love you."
I hear her take a step from the phone she only whispers, "I love you too," before we both hang up. It would be odd if we called and talked longer than that. The phones are here to call home to family, like people's children and let them know everything's fine. Her words hang in the air and I can't help but snatch them up and keep them tightly around me.
Feeling better I walk back to the room, where Mags has ripped apart a pillow and is now sewing something new out of the fabric. The huge explosion at the Cornucopia takes us both by surprise. As it's done the Careers return and Katniss narrowly makes it out undetected, but the supplies she wanted to destroy are now gone. Caesar cuts in to flash to another clip where Cashmere's boy has caught Rue in a trap.
This is what they want, for the show to put us on the edge of our seats. We know everything while they know close to nothing. Rue sits there, at spear point, waiting for Katniss to return and fall into the trap. It's hard to watch as she nears and finds the small girl tangled in a net. I need to step back, away from the reality of those nets... the same nets I used to trap little children just like Rue and kill them.
It takes a few blinks to bring me back to the present. As if we all already know what will happen, the District One male pops out from some bushes in time to toss his spear at the Girl on Fire. She must have hunter's ears, or something, because she ducks and immediately responds by shooting the boy in the neck.
As if on cue a chair comes flying out of Cashmere's room and clanging onto the floor. But the damage is done, Rue is caught by the spear Katniss had dodged and no amount of sponsor money would patch up that wound. I tilt my head and watch in awe at the next turn these Games take. Katniss holds the girl and cries, promising to sing songs to her until she's sleeping. Obviously people have been traumatized by losing their allies, but this is something different.
She is making a statement. Rue was not a true ally to her, not like the Careers teaming up. No, Rue was taken under Katniss' wing purely because she was small and defenseless. She was too young for these Games. The footage cuts away and I find even Mags jumping at the cut, I move towards the TV to see if we can change back but that footage is dead. Without the singing in the air everything seems dead.
We instead rewatch Cato snapping the neck of the District Three boy. Caesar casually addresses this and makes comments about the brutality and where the neck was severed at with a diagram to follow. But the footage comes back, it has to, they have to show the dead tributes being lifted away. And there it is, little Rue, the girl too young and defenseless for these Games covered, no decorated in flowers. Like a corpse ready for a funeral.
There is something so odd about it. Yes, tributes die, yes they get taken away... but when they're cold, bloody or hunger-stricken they don't make you think about what will happen, only what has. But now we all have to watch, and they don't leave it on very long. The ebony girl is wearing a crown twisted with roses and holds a batch of white leaves in her hands, like someone might in their casket. Katniss has done something extraordinary. She has reminded people that these are children dying.
I want to talk to someone about what we've all witnessed. It could be the start of something new, something different. The sobs from the sponsor room are loud and unmistakable. Haymitch marches out of his room on a mission and I know I need to push out and ask what everyone wants to know... Katniss has created a martyr, will they let her live her Games?
"Haymitch!" I call out trying to catch up to him.
He waves me off, but I refuse to give in and I follow him where I wait outside the Gamemakers' room. It takes a while, and a bit of shouting as far as I can make out. No one on the screens mention Rue or the flowers, though Katniss does receive bread from a District not of her own, I assume it's Eleven's. The TV cuts to Caesar who eagerly prepares the audience for a special announcement.
And it is special. They announce to the remaining tributes that if they're from the same District at the end of the Games they can both go home. This is because of Peeta's comment about being in love with Katniss. It will give the audience something to root for... and Katniss some much needed hope.
As soon as the information has registered with the remaining tributes, the girl from Twelve finally screams for Peeta, looking giddy enough that she needs to clasp her mouth shut. Once again, the viewers know all, the rule change would be more beneficial for the District Two tributes, since we all know Peeta is wounded down by the lake... even if Katniss could get to him it would be pointless unless she could pull a Johanna Mason and wipe everyone out in seconds.
Haymitch comes out, victorious, and this time I don't let him stop me, "Why are you giving them false hope? They're never going to really allow this."
"I know, hopefully someone else kills him," he smiles, "I don't care what happens at this point, she can win and she will. We need her to fight, she's the one..."
He catches me off guard when he says she's the one. I assume he's alluding to her being the symbol of a change in our way of life, but this whole crazy plan can crumble if he doesn't watch it, "What happens if it does boil down to both of them winning?"
"I promise it won't even get that far, Finnick. Right now I just need to sell the star-crossed lovers and try to..." he looks around before keeping his next words vague, "you know."
"Hope you're right," I shrug my shoulders in response and continue to watch the TV as Caesar interviews the families from the Top Eight. They always do, though they didn't have anyone to really interview for me. They made up friends, from girls who claimed they knew me by the time I started getting popular. Nana Koa said some nice things, but that's all I can remember, I make an effort not to relive those Games.
I order a drink and watch as they introduce Cato's family, three younger brothers and a lonesome looking mother. It's the mother who explains that he insisted on going into the Hunger Games, to win fame and glory for their family – a lot like Somerly's reasoning. Of course, he was also a full-fledged Career, but it gives him a reason at least.
Clove has no such reason, a single child of a father who overlooks everything to do with Peacekeeper installations. Her mother goes on to explain how she has tried to give her daughter everything she could ever need to succeed and they continue to root for her and Cato from the safety of their depressing District.
The drink I've ordered is strong, but not too toxic, it's enough to lull my attention away from the TV until they show Thresh. I'm not sure why these interviews engross me so, it must be because it makes everyone human and adds another layer to their character, something at least. She's an old, dark woman, Thresh's grandmother, and they let her emotion talk as long as she wants though she holds herself together more than his mother does who quickly starts to cry.
Then we end up in District Twelve where they introduce Peeta's brothers and parents. I don't think they're lying but one of the brother's talks about how much Peeta really loves Katniss, it just seems odd though since I've always assumed the "love" wasn't mutual.
After a while they cut over to Katniss' mother, a dazed woman who quietly talks about her daughter and the strength she's inherited from her father. Her sister, little Prim who everyone knows, talks positively about how Katniss will win. At the end of all the interviews they sign off with Gale, Katniss' cousin who reluctantly tells the cameras that she has good odds and everyone is rooting for her.
The interviews are over and they've now switch back to the Games where we find Katniss awkwardly kissing Peeta. They could use a lesson from me on how to fake it.
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