Paradise: The 72nd Hunger Games

Chapter Twenty-Four

The Story of Lucy Snow

Prologue

As told by Katelynn O'Neill

Warning: This gets a bit dark, no darker than the original books, and in fact, Snow here is nicer than what he did to people like Johanna in the books, but still, this is a bit darker than my usual fare, because... well, you'll see. Snow is evil, remember that.

Katelynn O'Neill –37- -D8V- POV

It all started when I came back to the Capitol a year after winning my Games as a Tribute. I was nineteen then, I had been Reaped at eighteen. I won't go into the details of my Games, they're not relevant. But anyway, I was back in the Capitol for the first time, and Snow called me into his office. I was surprised, to say the least, and also a bit worried. I had heard worries about what he had done to other attractive Victors, and, while I wouldn't presume to be some Siren, I know that I'm not bad-looking, especially not then. I also heard of what he did to people who refused his… offers. Killed their families, made them live in misery. Right before I left for the Games actually, I had gotten married to my husband, so I was really worried about that. I wasn't sure what I would do, but I hoped that it was truly just a social call, not… something else.

"Hello, my dear Katelynn," was how Snow welcomed me to his office.

"Hello, Mr. President," I said.

"Please, sit," Snow said, gesturing to an armchair. He was sitting in an armchair across from that, both on the left side of the room, and not at his desk at the back of the room. That already gave me a bad feeling, and when he poured himself a glass of whiskey and offered me one – which I respectfully took, although I didn't drink any – I got even more worried. We made some small talk about the current Games and the weather in the Capitol, all the usual things, at least for people in the Capitol. Finally, he broached the subject he had brought me there for.

"Miss –,"

"Missus," I corrected him. "Missus O'Neill, Mr. President. I'm married.

"Ah, right. Congratulations, Mrs. O'Neill. Now, as I was saying, did you know that I wish to have a child?" He asked me.

"Uh… no," I admitted. "I didn't realize, Sir. You do not already have one?"

"No," he said wistfully. "I am afraid that for the past many years, I have been too tied up in the matters of running this great country and have not allowed any time for affairs of the heart."

"I see," I said, being careful to not say anything wrong. "May I ask why you're telling me this, Sir?"

He smiled. That smile still gives me chills. "Because, Mrs. O'Neill, I was hoping that you could help me."

"Help you?" I asked, shocked. "You mean, like have your child?" I clearly didn't hide my shock or disgust well, considering what he said next.

"Yes," he said. Then his face hardened. "No doubt you know it would be impolite to refuse my offer. And you know how bad I can make your life if you are impolite, Miss O'Neill."

"Sir, with all due respect," I said, trying to find a way out, "I am married. I doubt my husband would approve of me carrying another man's child, even if he was the President."

"I do not think what your husband wants matters in this case," he said. "What do you want, Miss O'Neill?"

Well, obviously, there was no way I was saying yes to that monster – even at that time he was so old that the thought was disgusting, and well, I have principles. I threw my drink down on the table, spilling some of it on him, and stormed out of there. I half expected to be stopped and well – you know. But amazingly, he let me go. But then… well, my husband, Julian, told me this part, because, thank God, I wasn't awake, so this is all secondhand, but he and Lucy confirmed it later, and well… I'll just tell you.

Later that night, I was asleep in my bed with my husband. I had told him everything that happened and he agreed that what Snow asked was horrible and I was right to refuse him. He also agreed that we'd probably get punished for what we did but he said that he would fight tooth and nail to make sure that I wasn't hurt, even if it cost him his life. This was back when they allowed Victors to take along one person like a spouse or such with them to the Capitol. We talked about buying guns and decided to buy some in the morning. Unfortunately, by then it would already be too late. That night, Peacekeepers broke into our house. They sedated me and restrained my husband, despite his best efforts. Then they took me to a medical center and made him watch as they operated on me… they took out two of my eggs. Apparently Snow decided that he only needed that from me… luckily. After that, they took me back to bed and my husband told me what happened when he managed to wake me up. A few days later, they told me that one egg had successfully been fertilized and implanted in a surrogate. That egg eventually grew into Lucy Snow. When she was born, the President had the surrogate and all the doctors killed. He also decreed right after he abducted me that I was to live in the Capitol full time. So he could always get to me, I guess. For the longest time, I was the only person allowed to know he had a daughter who wasn't from the Capitol. Obviously there was no hiding her from the Capitol citizens, he paraded her for them, in fact. But back in the Districts, nobody was allowed to know. And no one was to know or ask about her mother, hence why the doctors were killed.

"That's horrible," Valencia says.

"Shh," I say. "I'm not done."

"Oh, okay," she says.

Anyway, that's how she was born. As for who Lucy Snow is… she's worse than her father. She's every bit as smart, every bit as cunning, and every bit as evil, but… with none of the arrogance that has blinded her father. Snow truly believes that the Capitol will always triumph, will always be in power. I've heard the news, the real news, about what's going on in the Districts. Snow doesn't think any of it will be a problem. But Lucy is a realist. She knows that she is mortal and that the Capitol's grip on the Districts is tenuous at best. I'm afraid that she's even more of a threat to the Districts than her father. And when Snow dies, she will take over. She already has significant pull within the government.

"Why are you telling me this?" Valencia asks.

"Because," I say, "I have a feeling that sooner rather than later, something is going to change, and I need as many people as possible to know about Lucy before… before something bad happens to me. And I think I can trust you. But, Valencia, understand that you can't repeat this to anyone else. Okay? Unless you would trust them with your life, you can't tell them this."

"I understand," Valencia says. "What happened to the other egg?"

"Oh, it was tossed. It was a spare that they didn't need," I say. "Now we should be getting back before we're missed."

"Of course," Valencia says.

In District Eight, Emma O'Neill, with the same blonde hair and blue eyes of her mother, and with all the cunning and intelligence of her father, without the evil, was, unbeknownst to both of them and her sister, for her mother did not know that she existed, while her father and sister had no more than a vague idea of where she was, planning with the group of friends that she had recently become the leader of, how to conceal the shipment of weapons from the Peacekeeper patrols that had recently become more frequent – on the order of Lucy Snow, who was much more concerned about the missing shipment than her father was. They decided to simply hide the weapons they had in their houses and hope for the best with those small handguns.

"And what about the ones in the warehouse?" Emma asked. "Do we have any ideas for those?"

"How about we put in some crates of actual goods," a girl, Kaitlyn, said. "And then bury the weapons so far in there that the Peacekeepers will never find them? We could clear the boxes away if we needed, maybe plant some charges to blow them away if we needed to get them quickly."

"Good idea," Emma said. "Anyone else?" No one spoke for several seconds. "Good. Kaitlyn, get on that."

"Will do," Kaitlyn said.

"Everyone else, you're released," Emma said. "Same time in four days." The rest of Emma's small group of friends, now the first members of the Rebellion, gathered up their things and left the house that they were using as a meeting that day – a boy, Eli's, house. Emma pondered what she was doing on her way home. Can we hope to win? She thought. And is there anyone else out there who would help us?

In District Six, Layna Paris had just realized, upon review of the stolen plans of a Scorpion Man-Portable Air Defense, or MANPAD, Missile and the standard Pegasus hovercraft used by the Capitol, that there were several flaws in both that could be corrected and several improvements that could be made. But, what was the most astonishing to her was how easy the manual seemed to suggest it was to hack into a Scorpion in flight, a critical weakness that the Capitol had not seemed to notice. First, she thought, I fix their designs, make them better, make them mine. Second, I need to get a look at that code and see if I'm right. Because if so… She smiled at the thought of what could, of what would happen if she was right.

The Stories of Lucy Snow and Emma O'Neill, as well as the story of Layna Paris, Cornelius Snow, and many others are far, far, from over…

But now, the story of the 72nd Hunger Games will resume…