Here's the next chapter! Enjoy! I do not own Mockingjay, any direct quotes will be in italics.


Ch. 49

"We're not sure," says Haymitch. I realize that while I had been talking to Johanna and nodding to Annie and waiting anxiously for the light of my life to walk in, Haymitch and Beetee had been talking. I hadn't even put thought into what we were doing here. I just felt anxious. After today it was all over, really over. No more wars, no more victory tours, no more fake facades. Just me, insane and alone, living life, trying to make it to that kinder tomorrow Cressida had talked about.

"It appears to be a gathering of the remaining victors." Haymitch finishes. I try not to look at Katniss for too long, but it is hard. The Mockingjay uniform that Cinna had created for her not only shows power, but vulnerability. Not only ruthlessness, but beauty. I sigh at the death of such an amazing person.

"We're all that's left?" Katniss asks. I take a look around the small table. Seven Victors. There had to be at least forty around at the beginning of the rebellion. Roughly thirty-seven gone. I remember the promise a Victor is given. It was never really told to me after surviving the arena, but it had to be in that treaty somewhere. I had heard it spoken before. At past reapings maybe. But the victors are promised a life without fear, without pain, without any more loss. It was all a lie. Every last one of us has been hurt. And every last one of us, though the war is over, still lives in fear. Even Enobaria, who sits with a scowl on her face.

"The price of a celebrity," says Beetee, "We were targeted from both sides. The Capitol killed victors they suspected of being rebels. The rebels killed those thought to be allied with the Capitol."

"So what's she doing here?" Johanna asks, almost sounding like her old self.

"She is protected under what we call the Mockingjay Deal," Coin comes up from behind Katniss. Her presence adds a bitter chill to the room. Her words are cold and slicing, not victorious, power-hungry. Easily compared the slithering sound of Snows bloody words. "Wherein Katniss Everdeen agreed to support the rebels in exchange for captured victors' immunity. Katniss has upheld her side of the bargain, and so shall we."

Enobaria flashes her pointed teeth smile at Johanna. A constant reminder that she was a murderer, but then again, so was everyone else in this room.

"Don't looks so smug. We'll kill you anyways," says Johanna.

"Sit down, please, Katniss," says Coin. She does sit, placing a bright white rose down onto the table. I could recognize it almost anywhere, the sure sign of Snow. I wonder why she had one. "I've asked you here to settle a debate. Today we will execute Snow. In the previous weeks, hundreds of his accomplices in the oppression of Panem have been tried and now await their own deaths. However, the suffering in the districts has been so extreme that these measures appear insufficient to the victims. In fact, many are calling for complete annihilation of those who held Capitol citizenship."

My stomach drops. That couple. The ones that had been my guides to the City Center. She was so educated for being from the Capitol. She made sense, she can't die. I wanted to talk to her. To get to know her more. There had to be others like her. And those that weren't smart didn't know better. They were born into it. Just like I was into the District. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Where would this leave us?

"However, in the interest of maintaining a sustainable population, we cannot afford this." I try to calm down, but my stomach stays stuck to my feet. Something in the way Coin said it, it's as if she had wanted it. As if others had to persuade her not to go right ahead and do it.

I catch Katniss' gaze, she doesn't seem to be worried about Coin's words like I am. She's mesmerized by something. I push away the false hope that it is actually me she is looking at longingly.

"So, an alternative has been placed on the table. Since my colleagues and I can come to no consensus, it have been agreed that we will let the victors decide. A majority of four will approve the plan. No one may abstain from the vote." A short pause to look every one of us in the eye. A chill runs down my spine.

"What has been proposed is that in lieu of eliminating the entire Capitol population, we have a final, symbolic Hunger Games, using the children directly related to those who held the most power." All the eyes that had begun to wander-mine focused on Katniss' hands, that shook lightly, barely unnoticeable—turned back to Coin. Unheard of.

"What?" Shock drops audibly out of Johanna's mouth.

"We hold another Hunger Games using Capitol children." Coin answers nonchalantly.

"Are you joking?" I say, hoping what I had just heard twice was all something I had made up in my mind.

No, she had answered me, this really was happening and we were really voting on this. I would never wish what happened to me upon anybody. Especially not upon those children. They had no choice whom their family was. I felt sickened.

I voted no. But Johanna had voted yes and so had Enobaria. Which actually partially came as a surprise to me. I could not see her hating the Capitol anymore than I could see Katniss loving it, but you never really do know a person.

I try to get them to change their votes. I'm outraged. Never. Never. No more pain. No more suffering. Not out in the world anyways. What would happen inside of me could not be changed, but I did not want to be at the hands of anymore death.

Annie voted no, so did Beetee. And it was just down to Haymitch and Katniss.

"I vote yes…for Prim." The words fall out of Katniss' mouth. I don't see her point. Prim would not have stood for this. Not even after she was killed.

Haymitch was our last hope, I began to yell at him, but I could see in his eyes that he had already decided. I remember what he had told me awhile back, Snow took his family. I realize how hard it is for people to get over revenge that they had been seeking.

"I'm with the Mockingjay," He says. And with that the 76th Annual Hunger Games were instated.


So school is out and I have absolutely nothing to do next week, so you'll probably get updates a lot more often, and you all know this is coming to an end. So I will finally tell you what I'm going to do.

So I'm finishing it like Suzanne did, with the Epilouge and no idea of how Katniss and Peeta actually grew back together. And then after that I'm going to do a five chapter thing that is basically how Peeta and Katniss grew back together. And that might be the end to my adventure of writing fanfiction, but who really knows.

I'll leave the thanks till the last chapter, but I started writing The Fate Games mid-july of last year. It has been a journey and a pleasure to be able to get to know Peeta so well. But I will elaborate on that when I'm all done.

Don't forget to REVIEW on the way out! Thanks! ~boywithbreadlover