4

Sejanus placed the new glass on the table and Gale stared at it, unable to remember if it was the third or the fourth and if he had already asked his new best friend how he managed to weasel them out of the bartender. The Cornucopia wasn't exactly high class but the people behind the bar were always diligent about checking IDs and there was no way Sejanus passed for someone over twenty-one.

And yet the boy had been steadily fetching Mojitos all night.

Still, Gale stopped pondering the question and slid the tall glass closer to himself. He liked the cocktail. It was his first experience with hard alcohol and he had decided rum was the best even though he might change his mind if his mother caught him on his way home.

"Do you feel better?" Sejanus asked with a small worried frown.

Did he feel better? He wasn't sure. Alcohol certainly helped but the headache-inducing loud bass of the music didn't and neither did the sensation of claustrophobia that came with being locked in a place with hundreds of people. He and Sejanus had grabbed a hard-fought-for table upstairs, in a corner, and they were out of the way enough that they could talk without screaming but still… Given a choice, he would have preferred the open woods and…

He took a sip of his cocktail but placed it down when his stomach churned unpleasantly. That was the last thing he needed: being sick in public. Word would be around school the next day that he couldn't handle his liquor like a man and… Well, he didn't need that humiliation on top of…

"She cheated." he grumbled, flushing crimson at the too vivid memory of Trinket's foot pressing on his throat.

Sejanus nodded. "It certainly doesn't sound like it was a fair fight."

Gale frowned. Had he told him about Trinket kicking his ass? Had he told him about anything he shouldn't have been talking about? His memories around the third glass were blurred. Or was this the third glass and then… He shook his head. What did it matter anyway? Even if he had told him… He could always blame it on drunken ramblings.

"She's a witch." he insisted. Sejanus brought his glass to his lips and nodded encouragingly but Gale felt a little bad. Ever since they had met at the club, all Gale had done was complain and… "I'm sorry, man… I don't want to dump my problems on you…"

"It's alright." the other boy dismissed with a friendly smile. "It seems like your friend hurt you. You can tell me about her."

His friend…

Katniss…

Had she hurt him? Well… Yeah.

"It's not that she rejected me." He made a face, his words slurring together. "I mean… Yeah, that stings and she's… She's fucking beautiful, man… Fucking beautiful… And I love her. Of course, I love her…" He nodded to himself as if to better further his point. When Sejanus didn't protest he kept going. "But there are other fish in the sea, you know? Madge…" His train of thoughts abruptly shut down because he wasn't sure what Madge had to do with anything or that subject in particular. Madge was his friend. Wasn't she? He shook his head. All the head-shaking wasn't helping with his distant nausea. "It's not that she rejected me, it's just… She's my best friend. I taught her how to use that bow, you know? I taught her how to survive, how to find food, I helped her when she needed me and now… Now it's like she doesn't need me anymore so I'm just… I'm expendable."

Expendable was a hard word to utter when you had three – or possibly four – Mojitos into you.

"She betrayed you." Sejanus hummed, thoughtfully drumming his fingers on the side of his own glass. "I get that. I had a best friend once. Well… I thought he was my best friend. He left me to hang. Quite literally."

He reached for the boy's forearm and squeezed. "I'm sorry. That sucks."

"Yes, it does." Sejanus confirmed with a grim smile. "So believe me when I say I get what you're going through. There's nothing worse than a friend betraying your trust. It is normal to want some sort of… justice."

Gale blinked at that word. "Justice?"

"She hurt you…" his friend pointed out. "Don't you want her to get a taste of her own medicine?"

Did he want Katniss to hurt? Not at all. Not even for one second.

Not even if she was probably cuddling with Mellark right about now and the mental picture he was drawing was making him burn with hot jealousy.

The very thought was enough to sober him up a little.

"What time is it?" he asked, suddenly aware that his mother would kill him if he was late again. After what had happened at the Capitol, she wasn't exactly thrilled that Gale was staying out so late every night.

"Here." Sejanus offered, untying the beautiful leather watch from his wrist to slip it around Gale's.

"No!" he immediately protested. "I can't, it's…"

It was a family heirloom, wasn't it? That was what Sejanus had said and…

"It's okay." the boy insisted. "I'll get it back after."

After? After what? But the thought and the touch of worry was gone before he could linger on the sudden feeling of unease. He chased it away with a gulp of cocktail and admired the borrowed watch that was well beyond his means. And, even if he had had the means, that money would have been better employed going to his siblings. But that was a goal to work toward: someday he would be rich enough that he could afford that kind of luxury, a good watch with a leather bracelet.

They remained silent for a while, nursing their drinks – playing at being men but very much still boys, Gale couldn't help but muse – lost in their own thoughts.

"It's not her fault." he eventually explained. "I'm not… I'm not really angry with her." He sighed. "I'm frustrated that she can't see it but it's that guy… He's got her completely under his thumb. He's not a good guy."

"The History teacher?" Sejanus asked and, unlike Madge or Mellark, he didn't rush to contradict him, to remind him that Abernathy was a hero or whatever. He simply listened. And Gale found that he was more than grateful for that.

"Yeah. His past is dark, man. He's got more blood on his hands than…" He shook his head. "Some of it I get isn't his fault." His mother, his brother… Maybe even the girlfriend who had apparently been a Slayer and got gutted for her troubles while he laid there with his stomach torn open… "But Katniss thinks he's some kind of…" He let his sentence trail off, not even sure what Katniss thought. "She looks up to him. She goes straight to him with every problem. She trusts him over anyone else…"

He didn't add anything more and, after a few seconds of silence, Sejanus nudged him encouragingly. "And you used to be that person for her."

"I guess." He shrugged. "It's not just that though. It's the way he controls her. I think she sees him as this… Dad figure or whatever but he's just… He's an asshole. An asshole who's gonna get her killed. I know he will. I know it right here." He pressed a hand on his guts and, instead of mocking him for behaving like a grandmother insisting she had a gift for premonition, Sejanus nodded his understanding so he continued. "I wish… I just wish…"

"Yes?" the other boy pressed when Gale didn't finish the sentence.

He sighed. What he really wished was that Katniss wouldn't follow Abernathy that blindly, that she realized she'd join all the dead girls he always left in his wake, that from the little he had gotten from his researches on Slayers there was a way to do things, a way sanctioned by a higher authority called the Council, and that Abernathy's every action always went in defiance of that way. He wished Abernathy had never been assigned to her, that another Watcher had been instead.

But another had been, a little voice reminded him, Trinket was a Watcher too on top of being an untrustworthy witch.

And yet she was only there to assist.

Surely if another Watcher had been assigned to Katniss, nobody would have needed a witch there.

But no other Watcher would have been sent to the Seam when Abernathy was available, that much had been made clear, because the man was linked to this place, to Snow, in ways that Gale couldn't – and didn't want to – understand.

No, the only real way Katniss wouldn't have gotten saddled with him…

"I wish Abernathy had never become a Watcher." he spat, knowing Sejanus wouldn't get it but feeling the pressing need to unburden himself anyway.

"That's a mistake." The boy placed his hand on his arm, right on top of his watch, and Gale looked up, startled both by the contact and the sadness in Sejanus' voice. He recoiled when he saw the other teenager's face. His skin was distorted, lined with little ridges, scaly and… A demon face. He tried to get away but the boy's grip was iron. "But so be it. Wish granted. Justice is done."

And with those mysterious words, the demon's grip loosened and…

Gale thought he was dead.

For a solid second, Gale thought he was dead because the world went deafeningly silent.

The music stopped, the noises a hundred of people crowded in a club made stopped, everything stopped.

He blinked and, when he looked around, The Cornucopia was empty.

"What the hell?" he cursed, when he spotted the layer of dust on the nearest table. It didn't look like the club he had just been sitting in, it looked dated – like twenty years dated – and entirely out of use and…

Funny how a rush of adrenaline could sober you up. Maybe he had been too hasty to judge Abernathy on that front. Heart racing, he pulled out the hunting knife he had concealed in his boot when he had entered the club, a little afraid Sejanus would come back and finish him.

He hurtled down the stairs two at a time and headed straight for the club's main entrance but it was boarded shut.

"What the fuck? What the fuck?" he muttered under his breath. Magic. It had to be magic. He fucking hated magic. His skin was crawling as he made his way around to the emergency exit door. That one had been boarded shut too but had also been broken down a long time ago and he managed to slip out into the night.

It took him a while to figure out why he still felt so keyed up, why his guts were telling him he was in big troubles: it was still silent.

The night was deadly silent.

No cars, none of the noises that enveloped a city at night…

He jogged away from the Cornucopia, feeling the pressing urge to get away from that place as fast as possible, his hair rising on the back of his neck, goosebumps racing all over his skin… Streetlights weren't working.

The Seam was dark.

And it was dark as far as his eye could see.

Houses looked abandoned, empty or just as boarded up as the club had been, no flicker of light slipping through…

It all looked like a post-apocalyptic zombie movie and…

"What have we here?" a somewhat familiar voice sing-sang behind him.

He whirled around, his knife raised up and ready to be used, when he spotted the girl. She looked tiny and frail in the dark and he lowered his guard a little by reflex.

"Hey, do you know…" he started to ask but, as he took a few steps closer to her, he finally caught sight of her face and… "You're dead."

Clove. It was Clove. And Clove… Clove had died months earlier. Clove…

The girl's face rippled into a vampire's mask. "Oh… I sure am."

"He's a handsome one." a male voice shot behind him and Gale turned so he could keep both vampires in sight. Cato. It was Cato. Also dead. Or should be. Katniss had said… "Do you want to keep him as our new plaything?"

"He looks strong…" Clove replied, studying him as if he was a piece of meat on a rack or a toy in a store. "He could fetch a good price at the arena…"

Arena? What arena? The Seam didn't have an arena…

"Get any closer and I will kill you." he warned. "I know you're vampires and I know how to get rid of you."

Clove and Cato looked at each other and burst out laughing as if that was the greatest joke ever.

"I think I'm in the mood for a bit of hunting." Clove stated once she had recovered. "You better start running, handsome."

Gale wanted to stand his ground but he didn't have a stake. All he had was a knife and that wouldn't be any good against vampires, never mind vampires who were supposed to be dead-dead in the first place.

His best bet, at this point, was to find Katniss so he did the stupid thing that all preys did when confronted with a predator they had no chance to overpower and he ran. His footsteps echoed down the empty streets, only enhancing how silent his pursuers were.

He had no clue how close they were.

From time to time, he would hear a laugh, far too near his ears.

He understood they were toying with him, tiring him, possibly luring him in the direction they wanted him to take…

He was aiming for the Village. The wards should…

Cato was suddenly in front of him and he tried to whirl left but Clove was there, blocking his path. She hit him so fast he barely had time to see it coming.

He fell flat on his back for the second time that night and he only got a glimpse of the bright stars before his view of the sky was obscured by the girl's face.

"Don't worry…" she cooed. "I won't kill you. If you're a good fighter and survive the arena, you might even get the reward of immortal life… But first… I'm a bit hungry."

Fangs were coming dangerously close to his throat when he heard the rumble in the distance. An engine. It distracted the vampire long enough that he managed to land a punch to her ribs and roll out from under her… But Cato was right there and…

The screeching sounds of brakes being hit hard was followed by car doors being slammed open.

Gale glimpsed a black van and the vague blurry image of a girl with long dark hair jumping past him and barreling right into the closest vampire.

Katniss, his heart rejoiced.

Someone grabbed his arm and pulled him up and away from the fight. He looked down at his savior and…

"Madge…" he breathed out with relief.

The girl glanced at him with confusion but soon her eyes darted back to the fight, she was brandishing a wooden cross with her free hand to give them a safe perimeter.

"Madge, get him back to the van!" a boy ordered. The driver's door was open but the boy hadn't stepped out, obviously ready for a quick getaway.

Gale expected Mellark but… He didn't know that boy. Or, he amended after a few seconds, he did. He was from school but they had never talked. He was a junior. Thresh, he thought his name was.

Madge clearly took that order to heart and herded him back toward the back of the van where both doors stood open. She pushed him inside but he resisted, twisting around to check on Katniss…

As expected, Cato and Clove were now dust on the wind…

He had one moment to admire Katniss' backside as she slowly stood back up from a crouch. He was wondering when she had switched to leather outfits when she turned around and…

It wasn't Katniss at all.

It was Trinket.

hehehe... That's a plot twist... So... What did you think of this chapter? Should Gale stay off mojitos in the future or what?