A MockingJay Story Part 2 Chapter 4
Liam buckled into the district 13 hovercraft with a grin across his face. Cressida strapped in next to him, followed by Castor and Pollux. On the other side of the seating area, facing them was Messalla, Gale, Boggs and Finnick.
Liam tilted his head at him. "You're coming too?"
"The honeymoon will have to wait." Finnick said. He sat in a seat across from Liam.
"So why are you all smiles?" Messalla asked Liam.
Liam tried not to look guilty, but his cheeks blushed. "What do you mean?"
Finnick smirked at him. "You and Shay."
"Shay?" Messalla asked. "She's out of your league." He teased.
"Shut up." Liam said, playfully. He was still smiling a little.
"I thought she liked girls," Cressida mumbled.
Liam gave her a confused look as he buckled in.
The hovercraft lifted above ground, and lifted out of the district.
On their first stop, they reunited with Katniss who snuck on board. They met up with other allies and went over the game plan. There was a huge holographic map of the capitol. The place would be rigged with deadly traps.
"It could be anything." Boggs said. "Sudden fire, or flood. Mutts. They created the games after all."
Liam looked down, taking it all in. He took a few slow breaths, unnoticed by the rest.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," Finnick said, "welcome to the 76th hunger games."
The first attack the district 13 troop came across was fire. They were walking together in a line. They stopped, crouching down towards a wall leading to a stone hallway. Boggs tossed a rock, to check for a trap. Sure enough, flames came out of tubes in the corners of the hallway.
After about thirty seconds, a large truck dropped down in the midst of the fire.
Liam jumped back when the truck hit the ground.
Boggs caught him. "Are you sure you can handle this?"
Liam nodded, though his body was still a bit shaky.
After making it past their first obstacle, the troop made their way to an empty clothing store. The whole area had been abandoned.
A vehicle drove up to the store. The troop drew their weapons, prepared for a possible attack. Boggs went out first with Katniss behind. Liam trailed behind with Cressida and Messalla. Fortunately, it was more allies, dropping off someone. But that someone made the mission more unpredictable.
"Peeta?" Katniss asked, extremely skeptical.
"Why is he here?" Liam asked.
Boggs came back, explaining that Coin thought he could be of help. Katniss seemed unsure of this. She and Boggs had a talk outside, away from Peeta.
After Boggs went back inside, Liam, went to check on Katniss. Messalla and Cressida followed him outside.
"Is Coin trying to sabotage this mission?" Liam asked, sitting in a rock by Katniss.
Katniss turned to face him. "All his rage could be good for something." She said, unconvinced.
Liam scoffed, turning his head forward.
"Peeta seems calm." Messalla said.
"For now." Liam said.
"He doesn't say much." Cressida added.
"Someone will have to stay up to keep an eye on him, and keep watch." Katniss said.
"This doesn't make sense." Liam said.
Katniss looked over to him. "It makes perfect sense." She alone in a soft voice. "She told your niece about the games to manipulate her."
Liam bit the inside of his lip.
"I'm worth more to Coin dead than alive." Katniss said.
The others stared at her quietly, unsure of how to respond. They could t deny it after Coin's most recent actions.
"Coin can't be worse than Snow..." Liam said quietly.
"She wants to end these games too." Cressida said.
"But she also wants power. She wants to be in change when this is all over." Messalla added.
Each member of the district 13 troop found a place to sleep in the store. Some claimed a couch while others used clothes to make a bed.
Liam struggled to fall asleep, so he stayed up for a while with Katniss. Peeta was also awake and quiet.
"Do you ever think about what ifs?" Liam asked. He was sitting up, leaning against the wall.
Katniss looked at him through the dimly lit room. "You like if I hadn't won the game?"
"Yeah," Liam said, "but not that." He rubbed his face. "The games have created all kinds of what ifs for me." He crossed his legs and placed his hands on his knees. "What if I was reaped instead of Adam? What if I could have protected Emily in the games? What if she died anyway? What if I was helpless to save her?" He took a short pause before saying, "And that's just from one game. My family has been in 4."
Katniss took a moment before responding. "What is Emily had lived?"
Liam quickly shifted his eyes over to her.
"What if my dad didn't die? What if Prim wasn't reaped? But then Peeta still would have. And we wouldn't-" she looked over Peeta and saw him watching them.
"We wouldn't be in this mess." Peeta said.
Liam turned his head back, looking at the ground. He put his hand on the back of his neck. "You had dinner with us last year."
Katniss and Peeta looked over to him.
"We invited you. Violet invited you." He said. "You both came over. Clara gave you a tour. I got angry at the dinner table because you both lived and Emily didn't."
Peeta stared at Liam. "Jerome made the food." He said. "Clara said that she isn't allowed to watch the games... You loved Emily and she died."
A tear went down Liam's face. "Yeah." He said quietly.
"In-in the game," Peeta said, "that first game, I saw her. The others wanted to kill her. I got them away from her."
Liam nodded. "I saw. You and Katniss helped her in the games."
"She reminded me of me." Peeta said.
Liam lowered his eyebrows.
"Emily was kind. And she- I don't know. I didn't want them to kill her." Peeta said.
"She was scared." Katniss said. "She was going to hide as long as she could. She didn't want to hurt anybody."
"But she still died." Peeta said.
Liam hugged his knees. "Yeah. Clove got her."
"We're friends?" Peeta asked.
"We've only met once." Liam said. "But I think we could be friends."
Meanwhile in District 13, Clara confined herself to her room after dinner. She held a single black rose in her hand, and stared at a drawing over her mother.
Clara has stopped asking about her biological father since she lost her mother. Another side effect of her mom's death was that Clara stopped sleepwalking. She had actually been sleeping more than before. She was excused from school for a week.
Clara used this time to read more of her mom's journal. It was a great way for her to learn new vocabulary. Some entries were full of big words that she couldn't figure out and some entries were too dark for Clara, talking about death or gore that her mom had seen.
Clara looked back her mom's journal. She was surprised that her mom mentioned Jerome's game too.
Entry 77,
It's so weird to think that this child is the product of two victors. Then again so is Clara. But me and Jerome... how would I even explain this to this child. Or to Clara. She's going to have so many questions. She probably doesn't even know that siblings can have different dads. This will probably only make her think the Jerome is her dad even more than she likely suspects. He practically was... I wish we had more time together. It was all my fault anyway. I never admitted to anyone, much less myself how I felt. I didn't think I ever could feel that way about anyone after what happened.
Clara assumed her mom meant the games. She thought about her words. She did think Jerome was her dad more than once. All these little moments.
The year after we lost Jane and mom was awful. In a way, we lost our dad too. It was just me and Liam. He was also distance when my belly got big. Moving back into the mansion was a change. Liam was mad because we wouldn't be living so close to Emily.
Jerome was the best thing to come out of that year, besides Clara of course. Jerome never treated me differently for what was going on. He was happy to have more people in the house. He cooked for all of us. I don't know why he liked me. Sure, I was the only person around his age he saw most of the time. We lived in the same house. We had both gone through the games and came out of it alive. He seemed to like me from the moment we moved back into the mansion. I was so closed off. Afraid of strangers. He kept his distance but skill kept a friendly face. When my water broke, he was the only one in the house with me. Liam was with Emily. Dad was probably at the pub. Patrick was down at the market getting us food. Jerome carried me threshold style down to the hospital. I think that's when I finally started to trust him. He was the first male Clara ever saw.
I thought about naming her after mom or Jane but I knew it would hurt dad too much. And Liam. And I kind of resented mom for how she behaved when Jane was reaped. She gave up. She forgot about all of us. I had to tell her they Jane died because dad refused to. He couldn't bare telling her the tragic news. So it was on my shoulders. Mom was so closed off. It was like me and Liam didn't matter anymore. It took me a while to realize that Jane was her favorite.
Jane on the other hand, I still loved and thought about in a more positive light. She was my best friend. So she got my daughter's middle name. I don't think my dad ever even knows her middle name is Jane.
As for the name Clara, I guess I've always just liked that name. And Clara Jane has a nice ring to it.
The entry switched subjects while Clara read it. There was a gap in the entry and the subject moved back to Jerome.
I have thought about having a conversation with Jerome about his game. We were both winners. I think Patrick looked at me differently knowing that I was in the games too and won. Killed to survive. It's something we have to live with everyday.
We never did have that conversation. Jerome won just two years before me but it wasn't the same. Not just because of what I went through but because his game was so short. He had the frozen tundra game. Most tributes died of frost bite. It lasted 4 days! The shortest game. I remember watching that year. On day three, many of them were dropping like flies. A couple of them fell in the water. I got chills just watching it.
He was fortunate to not have to kill anyone in his year. He hid in a hard to reach area, inside a slippery cave. One tribute went in there and slipped on the ice. He fell, hitting his head. Then a canon went off. Jerome was fortunate that the cave has running water coming down a small stream. The game makers lead other tributes his way. One girl entered the cave and a large piece of the cave fell on her. It crushed her back and she died quickly. When it was down to two people, Jerome didn't even know it. The other tribute was circling the arena trying to find him for over half a day. The game makers tried to help but it only resulted in the tribute getting spooked and falling through the ice.
I think the game makers were upset that he never actually killed anyone. They also had to reassess how they did the games. This was a huge failure for them. The shortest game and most of them died from the weather. The runner up died because of their manipulations during them games. I really hope Katniss and everyone else can end these games.
Later that night, Clara looked down at the flower in her hand, spinning it around with her fingers. She looked back at the drawing on her dresser and started to sing.
"Oh-oh-oh-oh-ooooh
You
You have have been lo-oved by someone good
Yeah you
You have been lo-oved by someone good
You have been loved."
Song: You have been loved by Sia
