I'd like to dedicate this chapter to a reviewer from AO3 AmuroToru who's review had made me reinvest heavily into writing.
I was very invested when I started this story and the ideas were just flowing through me in the beginning. The problem was that the ideas were all over the place and I had no idea how to use them all... and I was going to use them all. When I said I had no intention of abandoning this story I was not lying but with two jobs, a double full time school schedule, and modeling on the side.. It is slow coming. I still have no idea what kind of ending i'm going for however I do have a substantial portion of what is to come laid out. Still gonna have irregular updates i'm sure.
I will be fixing, just spelling errors, some of the previous chapters and re-uploading over the next few days as well.
The helicopter ride is unsettlingly long. Generally it never takes more than three hours to deposit the tributes at the yearly game arena however six hours later Katniss still finds herself sitting in her own private helicopter alongside Cinna.
Heavensbee must have taken it upon himself to design a completely new arena, effectively scratching off any sort of advantage she would have been given with the bare bones laid out from her first design. She had not expected these games to be so fair. She expected some sort of advantage to counteract the disadvantages she had already given herself in the new rule book but it looked like in the end she might have just stabbed herself in the foot with her own knife. She regrets not bringing Heavensbee's maybe status as a traitor to her grandfather before handing the man her life on a checkered board filled to the brim with pawns.
Cinna informs her of Dollys continued slumber.
The helicopters blades threaten to blow her overly sensitive eardrums through their protective beerier.
Gods she misses Slyth.
The party she'd attended last night had been unusual. Generally tributes are only allowed to associate with their own tributes but a preliminary party being held the day before the games were to start made that difficult. It was blatantly obvious to the eye that all of the tributes were out of their elements, more so than previously, and with the victors going about in typical victor fashion many of the tributes found themself fraternizing with citizens and non mentoring victors. The wallflowers doubling in numbers.
Finnick abandoned the gathering to take Annie up to the balcony for a dance, leaving his own tribute in a sea of old money capital woman. The victor in question appearing so similarly to Finnick in appearance that Johanna had half dragged him to the drinks table before noticing. After a hand thrown so violently away one would think it had burned her, the two proceeded to work through their altercation before continuing their quest for mind numbing drinks flavored with fruit.
Katniss watches. Watches Cato have a surprisingly eager conversation with the district three boy. Watches Mags pull a sweet off of every tray that passes her. Watches her grandfather watch Mags until she turns around and the two lock eyes. Katniss watches her grandfather turn away as a sea of emotion covers Mags face, followed by an avox passing the old woman's line of site with a platter of sweet breads.
For once Katniss is not the last to the party. No. Katniss surpasses them all by arriving before even the decorators. She had been sitting motionless for going on nine hours, hidden behind a large curtain tied up by the balcony. She hears Finnick and Annie not far off to her left whisper quietly between themselves.
Cashmere arrives later than the rest. Slyth is at her side. Secretly Katniss enjoys the reaction he invokes in the district one tributes. Yes they had been exposed to him and no they had not bonded. This is the first time the rest of the tributes seem to have been near her beast as they all quickly divide. "This is Slyth, the princesses own mutt." Cato, the bravest of them all, takes a step closer as if to rest his hand and the mutts glossy scales but recoils with the rumble that follows his actions.
Ruve dances with the beautiful district four victor, Fancy.
Brutus takes a drink from Haymitch's glass. She's never seen him drink. Lyme observes the room unimpressed.
Someones touching her.
She nearly jumps out of his skin and instincts have her reaching for weapons she doesn't have.
Annie.
Annie, crouched down on the hard floor, wiping at her face. She didn't realize she has started crying. She presses a finger to her lips then to the girls lips. "Annie, what are you doing on the floor? What if someone stepped on you? Come here."
"I dropped an earring Finnick." His hand helps her to her feet as he informs her she doesn't have pierced ears. The two leave to find their unattended tributes.
Cinna's hand on hers brings her back to the moment. He motions that they are less than a half hour out. His hand stays covering her though she can't bring herself to start any communication.
Her mind wanders back to last night. The speech her grandfather gave at the end of the night. His cold posture and tone conveying indifference to her participation. As she reminisces she doesn't believe that to be completely true. Why house a party before the games? Why break tradition. Sure, all traditions seem to be up in the air this year but those are backed with reason. This though? This is a question of formality. He had planned this gathering for her. For her to arrive at the last moment looking unbothered and dressed to the stars. To depart as quickly as she had arrived, leaving nothing but smoke behind her. They had never made time to be together, never broken away for a dinner to themselves that she could remember. All moments between them were planned and with cause of more than companionship. The only sightings the two continuously had of one another were at parties.
The party had been his way of saying goodbye. Of asking her to come back. Perhaps he too had not known just how dangerous this game would become once relinquishing control to Heavensbee. All of that and all of this time and neither had spoken a word to the other last night. Can she call the feelings she holds for her grandfather love?
She sees Gloss dangling a chunk of lamb in the face of her mutt. Remembers wondering about her second mutt Rave and how he was fairing in the care of her newly appointed avox's. Lamb was her favorite meat, was Slyth's favorite meat, yet still the hunk of animal seemed to be doing little for the beast.
"Come-on boy, you gotta eat up so that your mommy knows that i've been taking care of you when she comes home." He seems to catch a whiff of something else when he moves in for the meat because he's quickly slinking past the golden haired victor and up the balcony stairs. His nose prodding her from under the thick curtain fabric before Gloss has caught up.
Her grandfather notices her.
Gloss doesn't. He lifts Slyth half into the hair before squatting down a bit and hoisting all 350lbs of him over his shoulder. He man handles him past the president with a nod of his head and back to the bottom floor with an ocean of amazed gazes following, both hers and her grandfathers among them.
She doesn't have enough time to think about the man who had been waiting for her in her room last night. What had transpired between them.
Cinna lifts her from the helicopter. Together they enter an underground door and follow a narrow tunnel to a small round opening. There, laid out on a table next to a circular transport tube that will take her to her games, is her uniform.
"The shirt is long but thin. The pants: lightweight and movable. The clothes suggest a warm airy environment, perhaps rainy since the fabric is so lightweight, but this is a heavy jacket. Lined on the inside and leather on the outside as well as waterproof. It's gonna get cold in there."
She changes quickly. Steps into the tube.
Cinna pulls the front of her shirt out examining the fabric. When he releases her a cool sensation touches her chest. "Can't let you forget your district momento." The Mockingjay pin.
"I already have one. I have to have my eye mask."
She doesn't try to stop him when he pulls the lace away. He doesn't react when he sees her eyes, but she wonders. Had he seen them before? They had been together enough, she trusted him enough, why couldn't she remember?
"No. You need a piece of home with you not a shackle. You can rip a chunk of the sleeve off for a mask. It's light and stretchy, see through too."
Footsteps approaching. Heavy and quick. Running.
Brutus is there all of a sudden, breathing heavy and wild eyed. His thumb prompting Cinna out.
She's in the tube now, just a few minutes before she'll be lifted up. He's in front of her. Nearly eye to eye, with the steps she had to climb in order to reach the transporter. He's never seen her eyes.
"Shit." The silence drags on for an uncomfortable amount of time, only the ten second timer seems to snap him back. "Do not go to the cornucopia, do not form an alliance with the careers. Run away, stay on your own. Survive."
That was the plan all along, from moment one that was her ticket to survival and now he's telling her to abandon it all? "You told me.."
"Do NOT join the careers! Do you hear me? They will kill you immediately!"
The timer is finished. She vaguely hears Brutus screaming at her from below. They must have been many levels underground as all she can see for many moments is gravel, dirt, and rocks during her ascent. She's greeted with light a second before closing her eyes.
A new timer has started. One minute. Cinna was right, this jacket is heavy duty. She's tugging and pulling it off. Wrapping it around her waist snugly. She worries about detonating the bombs below her before pushing the image away in equal parts because of its uncomfortable image and because the capitol would never let her die before she'd started.
It's hard ripping a chunk of sleeve off. She ends up splitting the seam up to her elbow on her left arm before trying again on her right. The countdown is at 17 seconds when she manages to get a ribbon of fabric off. Stretch. Seams snapping. Stretch. 10 seconds. She feels like she's going to fall with all this disoriented movement.
7 seconds.
She's pulling the strip over her eyes.
5 seconds.
Eyes open.
3.
Oh no.
2.
She's in the center of the cornucopia.
1.
