When the door opens, we're greeted by a curiously dressed woman. But Cressida doesn't wait to state our reason for being here before bursting inside, the rest of us following. She orders the woman to shut the door. As soon as it's closed, Katniss draws her bow back and aims at the shop owner.
"No, Katniss, it's okay. It's okay." Cressida assures her, grabbing her arm. "It's okay."
The Mockingjay slowly lowers her bow as Gale looks to confirm the building's clear of hostiles.
"Tigris, do you remember me?" Cressida asks the woman. "I'm with Plutarch's underground."
Tigris? The stylist? I blink, taking in the woman's tattoos. Relief sinks in as I recognize her to indeed be the former tribute stylist for the Games.
"We need your help." The film director tells her.
"Clear!" Gale calls from back in the shop somewhere.
Tigris regards us for a moment, her eyes pausing on each of us Victors. Then, hand clutching the collar of her orange and black cloak, she dips her head and pushes past us. We follow her farther back into the shop, where she removes a rug on the floor to reveal a hidden door. She opens it up, revealing darkness below.
"I know you." Katniss finally says. "You were a stylist in the Games."
The former stylist removes her hood, speaking up for the first time since our intrusion. "Until Snow decided I wasn't pretty enough anymore."
Katniss hesitates briefly. "I'm here to kill him."
Tigris's tattooed lips curl upwards.
The Mockingjay leads the way down into the dimly lit storage basement. It's filled with all kinds of goods, from silk cloaks to glass vases. We settle ourselves near the entrance, either on a few discarded chairs or on the floor. When I sit down, I grit my teeth as my sore body aches in a stronger agony briefly.
I sigh when I spot Pollux's hanging head and hear him try to stifle sobs, knowing he's mourning Castor. Katniss glances back up the staircase to where Tigris remains on the ground level of her shop as the hatch closes.
"Gale's gonna need stitches." Cressida tells us.
I lift up the torn sleeve of my own outfit and look at the bite on my arm. Not stitch worthy, but definitely in need of being wrapped up. I wipe at the scratch on my face and pull up my black vest and shirt a little to glance at a wound on my stomach, grimacing at the amount of blood that had streaked down from it. Now, that might need to get stitched up. Not that I'm bothered about getting medical attention.
When I reluctantly glance up at the others to see how they're faring, I notice that Katniss's face is wracked with guilt.
"I made it up." She confesses, voice cracking with emotion. "All of it. There is no special mission from Coin. There's only my plan. Everyone that's dead is dead because of me. I lied."
"It's not your fault, Katniss." Peeta murmurs, his own voice dragged down with sorrow of the losses.
"We knew. We all knew." Cressida assured the Mockingjay.
"The soldiers from Thirteen?" Katniss asks.
"They did too. Did you really believe that Jackson thought you had orders from Coin?" The film director tells her. "She trusted Boggs and he clearly wanted you to go on."
"I never meant for this to happen. I failed. I...I killed them. I killed Finnick. I'm sorry, Pollux. I'm so sorry."
I'll be damned. I'm actually doing the guiding part after all. Nice going, Coin. I stop her before she can go on. "Look, sweetheart, that's not your fault. Finnick was going to die either way, even if you didn't blow him up. What you showed him was mercy. Finnick, Castor, Homes...They all came on this mission because they believed in you."
"Glimmer, Marvel, Mags, Clove, Wiress, Rue." Peeta slowly speaks up. "What do all those deaths mean? They mean that our lives were never ours. There was no real life, because we didn't have any choice. Our lives belong to Snow, and our deaths do too. But if you kill him, Katniss...if you end all of this, all those deaths, they mean something. Cinna, Boggs, Castor, Jackson, Finnick- they chose this. They chose you. Haymitch's right."
"I'm still your mentor." I remind them as Katniss finally sinks down beside the boy. "I don't care where we are or what's happening, but I still have a pair of tributes to look out for. I'll see you two out through the end of this."
"Thanks, Haymitch." Katniss says quietly.
I nod, because I mean it. My mind might've been a little jostled along the journey, but my job as mentor is far from complete. There's still a long way to go before everything's said and done.
It's quiet from here on out. Pollux's sobs subside after some time and Cressida pulls some fur coats off their hangers and lays them out for us to sleep on. Our small group slowly migrates from sitting in grieving silence to trying to get some needed rest.
I'm one of the last ones up, wrapping some bandages from my pack around some of my wounds. It's difficult with chewed up fingers, but I manage. I drink a little water from my rations before I lay back to sleep.
Sleep welcomes me with open arms.
But it's not restful sleep.
My dreams are haunted by Finnick's tortured screams as he's swarmed by mutts, by Maysilee's piercing cry as a beak spears her throat, by the bloodcurling shriek of the Morphling as she leaps in front of Katniss to protect her. I can hear Katniss screaming as she wakes up from her own nightmares, back before the Quell. I can see the haunted look in Peeta's eyes as he speaks of going into this new arena to protect Katniss. I hear my own enraged shout when the news of the Quell is broken to the nation.
When I wake up, my first instinct is to leap to my feet and swing at anything near me, despite being weaponless. I stumble and collapse back to my knees with heaving breaths as I realize that we're safe, that we're still down in Tigris's basement. I swallow, self-conscious of the others' startled looks.
"You good?" Gale asks coolly, from where he sits beside Peeta.
"Yeah." I say, biting back a remark about his attitude.
I must have interrupted something.
I catch Peeta looking at Katniss, who's obviously faking being asleep still. She's laying too stiff to actually be asleep. I figure the two boys must have been talking about her. I am aware of some sort of rivalry between them over her. I suppose that's what they were speaking about when I woke up and interrupted them.
The sound of muffled explosions draws our attention and Katniss opens her eyes, sitting up rigidly.
"Mortar shells. It's not ours." Gale muses. "Peacekeepers must be shellin' the rebels outside the city."
"That's not outside the city." Cressida tells us.
No, it's not. At long last, we've finally arrived at the center of the action. I don't know how to feel about that.
The others set to preparing their gear, weapons and all. I catch Katniss putting together some more arrows and Gale reloading the ammunition in his gun. Cressida helps Pollux ready for the upcoming action of the day.
Peeta gives me one of his knives and doesn't let me give it back. He tells me he trusts me with his life. I reluctantly accept it. The feel of the grip brings a little peace to my mind.
I check my injuries to make sure none of them appear to be infected, then sling my pack back on. I silently pray that my aching limbs and exhausted body do as I desire when the time comes, that I don't hesitate or slow down.
We're in the endgame now.
"Sun's comin' up." Gale tells us as he returns from up inside the main shop. "There's some small-arms fire. Could be Paylor, maybe Lyme. Rebels are close."
"This is it." Cressida says quietly.
I guess I'm not the only one who understands how close we are to achieving our goal at long last, how close we are to the end of this long nightmare.
The noise of a Capitol mandate catches our attention as Katniss shoves one last arrow into her quiver. A screen lights up across the basement and we all turn towards it as we wait for the text to transition into the latest news.
Snow's face appears. "To all Capitol citizens more than a half mile outside the City Circle, I am announcing a mandatory evacuation. Come to the mansion. I am promising you shelter and sanctuary. All refugees, come to my home. There you will be provided with food, medicine, safety for your children, and you will have my solemn oath to protect you until my dying breath."
"Wish he'd hurry up with that last part." Cressida comments.
I can't help but to smirk a little at that, in full agreement.
"Our enemy is not like us. They do not share our values. They have never known our comfort and our sophistication. And they despise us for it." Snow warns. "Make no mistake. They are not coming to liberate us. They are coming to destroy our way of life. They are coming to bury us."
There's a small beep as the broadcast ends.
"Is he still in the mansion?" Katniss asks. "Haymitch?"
I nod. "Yeah, he is. I recognize the room."
She pulls out a paper map that I didn't know we had. "Where is that?"
"About five blocks away." Cressida supplies, turning to look at the map as Katniss sets it down on the floor. She points at a couple of spots. "We're right here. Off the Avenues. Mansion's here."
"What about the pods?"
"They'll probably deactivate the pods around here for the residents' safety."
"That could work." Katniss says. "I could get close enough."
Gale shakes his head. "Every Peacekeeper's gonna be waiting."
"Next to our faces on every billboard." Cressida adds.
"Snow's offering shelter to all the refugees." Katniss repeats. We can all see her idea as clearly as we see each other.
Peeta struggles to speak. "I don't like this."
"What else can we do?" Gale asks him pointedly. "If you have a better idea, say it."
The boy sighs. "Fine, but I stay with Katniss."
Cressida vanishes up the stairs to grab Tigris to ask her what we can borrow to fit in with the Capitol refugees. As I watch her go, I take a deep breath. We're in the last stage of the war; everything's going to come to an end, one way or another, today.
This is it.