Hello, good people!

Here is the new chapter.

The update was really quick because it was already written. Actually this is one of the first chapters I wrote. I just don't post them in the order I write them but in chronological order regarding the book.

This chapter will be slightly divergent from canon because that's how I pictured Prim could act while reading the book. You'll notice that the divergence is really minor in itself but for me this is a huge part in the personal development of the character of Prim, one that maybe Katniss didn't notice because she was so focused on what was happening to her (not that I can blame her).

As the story develops, the coming chapters will get more complex, longer and darker because, well, the canon becomes more complex and darker.

Thanks to all of you readers and followers and reviewers, etc.! And especially to SibunaMockigjay, who reviewed all the chapters and whom I couldn't answer to and thank by PM!

Enjoy the ride!

xx


They Watched

Prim

Primrose Everdeen was so relieved, so happy to have her sister back. She had been terrified when her name got called on Reaping Day and even more so when her sister volunteered. She didn't know how many times she had cried in the following weeks, sitting on her bed in her room when her mother was downstairs. It was all her fault. Her sister was risking her life because of her. These dark thoughts and the terror finally disappeared when Katniss came back.

The following months were a blur. Katniss had been traumatized by her experience in the arena.

Prim grew up. She grew up fast. She came to understand a lot about life in these few months. She came to understand that her sister would never be the same again. But that was okay. It was okay because she screamed less and less and smiled more and more every day. She would never be back to her pre-arena self but Prim didn't mind. Her sister was getting better and slowly healing. That was all that mattered. Prim knew of course that Katniss was far from healed. She knew she still went to Haymitch's and came back smelling of alcohol. But Prim didn't mind. She knew her sister. She knew that she would get there, eventually.

Prim knew that they both had aged beyond their years through this whole fiasco.

Prim grew worried when she remembered that the next Games would soon be coming up. She was worried about herself (her name would still be in the pool) but she mostly worried about Katniss. She would have to be a mentor, now. Prim didn't think that Katniss really realized that yet. But she did. She was worried because she knew her sister would break when she would lose child after child to the arena. She knew that because she knew her sister and she had observed Haymitch.

Even knowing that, nothing could have prepared her for the horror that was to come.

Prim would remember that day until she died. She was giddy with the prospect of knowing which of Katniss' wedding dresses had been chosen. She knew that Katniss wasn't happy about this but Prim was still a little girl at heart and those dresses made her sister look like a princess from the stories of old Gale would sometimes tell her and Posy. They all sat on the couch in the sitting room, their mother looking reserved, Katniss glaring and herself repressing the smile that threatened to break out.

Prim would always remember that day.

One moment Katniss was groaning about the chosen dress, Prim giggling, and the next the front door slammed as Katniss fled followed by their mother's screams.

Prim's mind had gone blank for a few seconds. Then everything came crashing down on her: Katniss was going back into the arena.

Fear, sadness, injustice, it all suffocated her. Or maybe it was the fact that she had stopped breathing. Prim had suddenly felt ice cold. She did not cry herself to sleep that night. She was past the point of crying.

When her sister came back home from Haymitch's her eyes were empty. She staggered to her room and passed out, one tear falling down from each closed eye, sliding slowly down her cheeks.

That night Prim could hear Haymitch's screams from the other side of the street. She could hear the sound of things trashing and crashing against the walls.

She couldn't hear anything coming from Peeta's house. Could not even see the smoke of a fire from the chimney. She knew he was home. She could see him through her window. He spent the whole night sitting on a chair, not moving a single muscle, eyes fixed on something far away, out of anybody else's reach.

That night Prim swore to herself she would never cry again. She would have to be strong for her sister because this time Katniss wouldn't be strong enough on her own.

Something changed in the following weeks. Peeta forced Haymitch and Katniss to act like Careers. At first Prim didn't really understand why. She agreed that it might be a good idea but she didn't understand why they were so focused on it. When she asked her mother she didn't get an answer.

Surprisingly the answer came from Greasy Sae.

Prim never went to the Hob but Greasy Sae one day came to the Victor's Village with her granddaughter. She had tripped and badly scrapped her leg. Prim had been watching the trio of Victors going through a hard session of exercises to strengthen their bodies. Greasy Sae had come next to her and watched them too. She had hummed in approval. Prim had asked her why she approved. Greasy Sae had looked at her for a few seconds before giving her answer.

"-Your sister is going to need it," she had said, "she's not going to fight children who don't know what they're doing this time. She's gonna have to fight other Victors. People who have won their games, who have killed, who have mentored other tributes. These people will know what they're doing, little one. They will all be Careers. Your sister will be the child this time. Mark my words, these Games will be like nothing we've ever seen before. The Victors, they know how the arena works. And they've probably built a life out there since their victory, they will have something to go back to. There will be no hesitation to kill. Never forget that, little one."

Greasy Sae had paused for a moment, searching for something in Prim's eyes and apparently finding it.

"I think you know what I'm talking about: a Victor remains a Victor. They might have left the arena, but if young Haymitch is anything to go by, they never stop fighting. Your sister and her friends are smart to train. They will need it. They will need any help they can get." Greasy Sae had turned around then and gone back into the kitchen.

Prim stayed outside, watching Katniss, Haymitch and Peeta in a new light. She didn't know Greasy Sae knew so much. But now she understood. She realized that indeed, her sister was not the strong hunter anymore this time. Now she was just a girl who had been thrown into a world of violence. She will have to fight people whom Prim had never thought of in that way before. Victors.

These Games would be terrifying.

Prim renewed her vow to be strong for Katniss.

So for the following weeks, Prim helped them. She helped them by devising a special diet with her mother for them. She convinced Hazelle to start dropping things in Haymitch's house again, each time eliciting a faster and more controlled reaction (even more so when Haymitch understood what she was doing and fully embraced this new form of training). She convinced Gale to teach them how to make better snares. She taught them how to clean a wound, how to stitch (Katniss had been more than queasy about it), how to apply a bandage. Prim watched as they trained to run faster, to fight with their hands and to climb walls and the rare dying trees in the village.

It was heartbreaking to watch her sister train to become a better killer and to escape experience ones.

She watched as a hard glint entered her sister's eyes and never left.

She watched as that glint entered Peeta's and Haymitch's eyes as well.

They had all slipped into a mindset Prim hoped never to understand. A mindset Prim saw that Gale didn't understand but broke his heart.

Prim's heart broke too when she realized that at least one of them would never come back.

Reaping Day came (oh so quickly) and the silence was deafening. Parents were relieved that their children were safe for this year but didn't cheer. Never. Never would they cheer any aspect of those Games.

Prim watched as people kissed their fingers and put them in the sky, saying goodbye to Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark one more time.

One last time.

Two weeks later Prim watched the television screen.

When the gong resonated, marking the beginning of the 75th Hunger Games, she saw that Greasy Sae had been right. There was no panic-fueled dash to the Cornucopia (or away from it), no waste of movement.

Instead there were 24 people applying a strategy of survival.

What shocked Prim the most was the lack of screams. Usually the bloodbath happened in the screams of those who try to escape the Careers, in the screams of those who broke down. Not this time. This time there was no panic. And no hesitation. Despite the speed of it all, it all appeared to Prim as a calm and methodic choreography. It was eerily and terrifying. It was deadly.

Greasy Sae had been right: these Games wouldn't be like anything Prim had ever seen.


BTW, if you'd like to see a particular person's POV, just say so. I'm not guaranteeing anything but one never knows, I might just get creative ;)