Hey everyone. This chapter is the second prologue chapter, which continues to follow Domitian and Miracle in the weeks after the 87th Games end.
Domitian Ellsworth / Secretary of the Districts
After a long, restless night, Domitian returns to his office the next day, utterly exhausted. Yesterday evening, he had tried to call his wife's phone, only for the same masked voice to pick up and tell him not to call again. He was completely at the mercy of these kidnappers, forced to trust them for the sake of his family.
As is customary, a small pile of letters and documents sit on his desk, items received by mail that require his attention. Most of the time, he'd be able to pass a majority of them to his secretary, but today is different. Browsing through the stack, Domitian notices a plain white envelope with no return address. He opens it and reads:
Secretary Ellsworth,
At no later than 11:00 am today, you are to change your PCAD password to 'Coriolanus123!' as written. After 11:30 am, you may change your password once again, automatically logging us out of the system. If you follow these directions, you will receive a phone call at noon with the location of your wife and daughter.
Long live the Sparrow.
He looks at the clock on his desk – 10:44 am. On the surface, this is not a difficult demand, considering he wouldn't even have to leave his office. But he wonders what this group – if it was even a group – would do with the 30-or-so-minutes of access. The PCAD is a central database for Panem's top officials, containing a library of classified dossiers, maps, schematics, passwords, and other information one wouldn't want to give out.
Domitian decides he would wait a few minutes before changing the password. He is almost positive that there would be a record of doing so, but he has no choice – family must come first. Surely President Greenleaf will understand.
After the deed is done, he sits there at the desk, watching the minutes go by until it's 11:30. Millions of thoughts are racing through his head. Will these people keep their word? What consequences will he face for granting unauthorized access to PCAD? Things like these are virtually unheard of in the Capitol, where the most serious crimes tend to be theft and insurance fraud.
Domitian changes his user password again at around 11:31, knowing that it would indeed shut them out. What follows is an agonizing 30 minutes waiting for the call. Do they have any reason to follow through? They already got what they wanted, he presumes. Is that it? It frustrates Domitian how little he knows about all of this.
Seconds after the clock strikes noon, his phone rings again, which he answers right away.
"Secretary Ellsworth, your family is waiting for you in Quirinalis at 1134 Highland Avenue, unit C14. They will be alone."
The caller hangs up before Domitian can get a word in. He looks at the address he had scribbled down in front of him. A quick search on his computer shows the location to be near the northwestern edge of the city.
He picks up the phone again, dialing his secretary's extension.
"I need a car right away. And get two of the guys to go with me."
Mere minutes later, he's in an armored vehicle racing across the city, accompanied by two peacekeepers.
The ride is about 20 minutes at the speed they're going. It's far faster than taking a train, as only government officials and the most elite Capitolites have access to a car.
"There's the place," Domitian points out as they near a group of long, flat structures with shuttered doors lining their façades. At the top-left corner of the first building is a neon sign displaying the words "Meliora Self Storage."
He notices that the buildings are alphabetized from front to back. "Head into the third row," he tells his driver. "We're looking for number 14."
He jumps out the vehicle as soon as they stop, the peacekeepers frantically trying to keep up as they warn him to be careful.
"Should be this one," Domitian says, looking at the label on top of the door.
While one of the peacekeepers watches their surroundings, the other takes a pair of bolt cutters to the padlock. Domitian's heart races as the peacekeeper lifts the metal door.
Inside the storage unit is his wife and daughter, both blindfolded, sitting in metal chairs back-to-back with their hands tied.
He lets out a tremendous sigh of relief as the peacekeepers move to free them. He has experienced such a feeling only a small handful of times in his entire life, most recently when President Greenleaf had agreed to give him another shot at the Games following the 86th.
His family may be safe now, but there are numerous questions left unanswered. Why him? Who is the Sparrow? Will these people be back?
However, Domitian is certain of one thing: the quiet days are over.
Miracle Emerson / Victor of the 87th Hunger Games
Leaning back in a lawn chair, Miracle looks out at the picturesque lake that sits behind her new home – a massive, elaborately furnished, seven-bedroom estate in the Victor's Village. She has no need for such extravagance, with just the three of them living there, but restraint is a concept foreign to District One. Just next door, Serenity lives in a similarly impressive home, as does Tiberius Englewood two doors down.
After recovering in the Capitol for about a month, Miracle returned home to a thunderous reception. On the first night back, the academy hosted a lavish feast to celebrate her victory. This was followed by days of media interviews, photoshoots, and people asking for her autographs in the streets, before things finally began quieting down. Miracle will be honest – she enjoys basking in the glamor that a new victor from One unquestionably displays. It is truly everything she imagined it would be before volunteering.
Her mother is getting better gradually, as a Capitol physician visits her weekly to treat her alcoholism. Maxon is doing well too, full of energy like Miracle herself had been. It is now her responsibility to keep him from going down the same path his older siblings did. And as for Isabel – the friendship between them has never felt stronger.
Indeed, Miracle has survived the Hunger Games and now lives next to her childhood idols with more money than she knows what to do with. So, why does she feel this discomfort, this unshakable malaise as she tries to relax? Is it because she can't stop thinking about the 23 others who had to die for her to be here, including her brother? Is it because she'll have to face their families in just a few months? Or is it because she knows for a fact that the Capitol will not nearly done with her once the victory tour concludes?
It's all of these, Miracle realizes, beginning to understand why some victors turn out the way they do. But she can't stand having this unease be the only thing she feels.
It's why later that evening, after a dinner of steak and rosé wine with her only true friend, she asks Isabel to stay, to which she agrees without hesitation. As they go upstairs to her room, Miracle knows that she needs this for herself, although she doesn't let that bother her. She has been through the crucible and witnessed the fragility of human life, which is why she feels that now is the time to commit herself to the one source of stability in her world. And as their bare bodies touch, there was, for a fleeting moment, no Hunger Games, no victory tour, no Capitol, but just the two of them in their own universe under the sheets.
AN: Thanks to everyone who's submitted so far. I've been reading your tribute forms and I'm very impressed! If you're interested, there are still many spots without submissions, and you can submit however many tributes you want.
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