5.

Shock turned into confusion and then to indignation as Gale worked out the implications of Effie Trinket being able to fight like that.

"You set me up earlier!" he accused with a snarl. "You're not sick at all anymore, are you?"

The woman watched him with a small curious frown. "I do not think we ever met. Are you injured?"

"We shouldn't stay here." Madge was still holding his arm tight and she was also looking around nervously.

"She's right, boss." Thresh agreed.

For a second, he saw a flicker of annoyance flash on the witch's face but then it was gone and she nodded. "You are both right. We shouldn't linger." She studied Gale, clearly hesitant. "Where do you come from? Do you have a safe place to go?"

Did he have a safe place to go?

He rubbed his face, wondering if he was drunker than he felt, if the whole night was a bad alcohol-induced nightmare. "Where's Katniss?"

"Was there someone else with you?" Madge asked, worryingly, glancing around again.

Trinket sighed. "Where were you? I will try to see if I can find them… You should know better than wandering the Seam at night, boy."

The tone was cold and judgmental. It made him bristle. He tore his arm away from Madge's tight grip with irritation and confronted the witch with a pointed finger. "I wasn't with her. Last time I saw her she was back home with you. It was right after you cheated and kicked my ass." He gave her a glance over, a bit annoyed and ashamed to have admired her figure before. "And when did you get your hair done anyway? Don't you go to a special salon for privileged trust fund people for that?"

Try as he might, he couldn't imagine Effie Trinket dying her hair over a kitchen sink with a cheap grocery brand like his mother sometimes did when they could justify the expense.

Everyone was staring at him, now. Even Thresh had half come out of the van, although his posture said he was more hostile than anything – ready, Gale mused, to jump on him if he ever turned violent. It brought his attention to the boy though. "And what are you doing here? Since when are you part of the team? Where's Mellark?"

There was a long, long silence but then Madge reached for his arm again, a bit more tentatively than before. He didn't shrug her off again. It wasn't fair and he wasn't angry with Madge after all.

"You know Peeta?" she asked softly.

"Of course I know Peeta!" he snapped. "What's your problem?"

Why were they all staring at him like he had grown a second head?

He took a few hasty steps back when Trinket suddenly advanced on him but he didn't go far before he hit the side of the van and he was cornered. She didn't do anything, though, just circled her hand in front of his face, her fingers glowing a weird tinge of darkish purple that sent chills down his spine.

"You got your magic back?" he asked, his voice rising embarrassingly high. He hated magic and he always perceived it as a threat but this magic? It was even worse than usual. At least, her usual goldish hues didn't scream evil…

"I never lost my magic." she replied in an even, almost polite tone. "However, magic clings to you."

"Is he a demon?" Madge asked, very seriously, as if it was even a possibility, her hand falling on her belt.

"Not that I can tell. He is as human as you." she hummed.

He waited for Trinket to add 'and me' but she didn't tag that at the end of her sentence and it didn't help Gale relax.

Something was really, really wrong here.

It wasn't just Katniss and Abernathy's absence or the unexplained presence of a boy none of them hanged out with…. It wasn't just Trinket's new hair color – a dark, dark ebony black that made her features look harsh – it was…

She moved like Katniss did.

When she had been fighting earlier, he had thought it was Katniss. And now that he could look at her up close… She wasn't as bony anymore, well-honed muscles rippled under the leather, there were scars that he had never noticed before… A big ugly one was poking out from under her top and wrapping over her shoulder, another smaller faded one split the corner of her bottom lip… There was a wild spark in her eyes too. It could have been the light but they didn't look so blue. They looked sort of… dark.

"Are you the Slayer?" he asked even if the question seemed stupid. Of course she wasn't the Slayer. How could it be? For another Slayer to be called… "Is Katniss okay?"

His tone had turned pleading and the woman's face softened just a touch.

"I am the next best thing." she answered evenly. "And I do not know your Katniss…"

She wasn't lying.

He wasn't sure how he could tell but he knew she wasn't lying. He looked at Madge but no flicker of recognition passed on her face either. He slumped against the van a little harder, the events of the nights and the cocktails taking their tolls. His legs didn't feel that steady anymore.

"If this is a joke…" he started.

"I do not have time for jokes." Trinket retorted.

"Or a test…" he insisted. That would be just like one of Abernathy's ridiculous ideas. Put a wig on her, make her pretend she was a Slayer – or the next best thing, whatever that meant – and…

"We cannot stay here." Trinket declared, finally stepping back. It was only then that he realized she had been in his space. "Get in the back of the van."

"We're taking him back?" Thresh made a face. "Are you sure, boss? He doesn't seem… stable. What if he's a vampire pet?"

"A what?" Gale frowned, pretty sure he had just been insulted.

"You know…" Madge supplied, nudging him toward the back of the van. "One of the humans who actually wants to live with vampires… They get off on them sucking their blood. They don't care they're basically slaves."

He shook his head again. It was the first he heard of that and he was certain Katniss would have mentioned it. "What happened here? Look, if we could just find Katniss…"

He got into the back of the van because he didn't see any alternatives. The van had clearly been gutted and repurposed at some point. There were two crude benches lining the sides, facing each other, and it was open to the bench seat up front - and there were a lot of handy weapons strapped to the walls. Madge took the spot next to Thresh but Trinket climbed into the back with him and sat down on the bench opposite his. She did it as elegantly as she always did everything else but her posture wasn't as straight as usual, as if she was carrying an oppressive weight on her shoulders and she was struggling to keep it up.

"Drive around the perimeter, please. I want to make sure there are no more surprises tonight." Trinket ordered Thresh before giving him back her whole attention. "Who is this Katniss you keep talking about?"

He scoffed and waited for one of them to crack up, to betray themselves… But none of them did. Thresh kept his gaze on the road, Madge had half-turned back to study him, Trinket was staring in a very unnerving way…

"The Slayer." he reluctantly said.

"Unlikely unless she was called in the last two weeks." Trinket countered. "Last I heard, the current Slayer's name was Daiyu and she was in Beijing doing quite well for herself."

Gale shook his head. "Katniss has been the Slayer for months, you're her Watcher. Well, second Watcher or whatever…"

Trinket frowned. "I am not a Watcher. I have never been a Watcher. I am a Council Operative, was a Council Operative."

He only vaguely knew what that meant. He figured Council Operatives were like soldiers and Trinket really didn't fit that bill. "Look, I don't know what kind of test this is but you need to tell Abernathy to call it off because…"

"Abernathy?" she cut him off before he could mention the Seam being completely dead and, most importantly, Sejanus. "As in Iris Abernathy? How many Slayers do you think are running around, boy?"

She was plain mocking him now and it made him see red. He turned to Madge. "Listen to me, there was a demon and…"

But Madge's face had grown pensive, she had propped her chin on her bent arm. It was Trinket she talked to though, not him. "I think I knew a Katniss… When I was little and schools were still working… I think… I think she was in my class…"

"What do you mean you think? You've been in the same class since you were five." Gale scoffed. "We've all known each other forever."

Madge's delicate doll-like features scrunched into a puzzled frown. "I don't remember you but school was a long time ago."

That made no sense. "School was literally a few hours ago."

Trinket and Madge watched him with blank expressions, even Thresh glanced at him in the rearview mirror.

"You hit your head, man?" the other boy mocked.

It dawned on him, again, that they weren't joking.

And it made him feel sick.

"Look… Look, something happened earlier…" he insisted, turning to Trinket because as reluctant as he was to trust her – never mind this weird goth version of her – she remained the best source of information he had right then. "My friend Sejanus…" He glanced at Madge but there was no flash of recognition. He hadn't been expecting to see any anymore. "Turns out he's a demon and…" He stopped, backtracked. "I was upset about you kicking my ass." It was hard to admit but… It was harder not to panic given they were all looking at him like he was a stranger. "I went out to The Cornucopia with Sejanus and… He bought drinks. There were a few drinks…"

"No kidding." Thresh muttered.

Madge elbowed him.

"Everything was normal. There were people and everything and then… Then his face changed and…" He shrugged helplessly, searching Trinket's face but it was annoyingly schooled into a blank expression. "Then I was alone and the place was empty and the streets outside…" He shuddered. "Everything looks dead."

"The Cornucopia was full of people?" Madge sounded incredulous. "That old place?"

"Incoming." Thresh warned suddenly.

Gale looked at the windshield, at the two beams of light piercing the pitch black night… And spotted the vampires two seconds after Trinket had jumped out of the van again like a deadly will-o-wisp.

He wasn't sure how many vampires there were. All he saw was the woman whirling in and out of the beams of lights, a few flashes of fire that probably involved magic and then she was back inside, slamming the door shut behind her and sitting down as if nothing was out of the ordinary, as if she did this every night. As if it was routine.

She leaned forward a little, linking her fingers together and studying him. She wasn't even out of breath. "You said I kicked your… Mind your language, will you? You said we had an encounter earlier, why would I hurt you?"

He dismissed that with a wave of his hand. "Training. Never mind that…" Abernathy and his mind games were really not the priority right then… What he was seeing through the windshield, it scared him. The town looked dead. Or like it belonged to the dead. "Did something happen? Did I lose time or something? Did Snow finally make his move?"

"Snow…" Trinket repeated. "What do you know about Snow?"

"What do I…" He frowned harder. "Can we stop playing games and…"

"I am not playing games. I am trying to figure out what is going on, here." she interrupted him. "You said this Katniss is a Slayer, that I am a Watcher… You mentioned me losing my magic?" She waited until his nod to go on. "Then the Cornucopia being full of people when it hasn't been used in give or take fifteen years… For that alone my first idea would be time travel but somehow, I do not think this is what it is, so… Tell me what you know about Snow."

She was all business, serious, listening… It was the only reason he complied. The sooner they figured out what was wrong, the sooner they could fix it. "He's a bad vampire. Madge's aunt exiled him to a hell dimension twenty years ago before she died…" Both Madge and Trinket sucked in a painful breath at the mention of the former Slayer. "Then a few weeks ago, there was… Well, those vampires? The Careers or something… They hired your mom and they opened the Hellmouth…" He bundled his hands into fists to stop them from shaking. The memory was painful. It haunted him. All those dead kids… They haunted him. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw them. "You fell inside with Mellark. Katniss went to hell to get you back. Then you were all… weak." Not quite the most flattering way he could have said that and he still needed her help so... He winced. "Sorry." She dismissed the awkward apology, her frown deepening. "Now Snow is holing up at the Capitol and we've been waiting for him to make a move. Seems like he wants Katniss' blood or something."

He waited, expectant.

Trinket took a few seconds before she answered.

"Maysilee…" She said the name as if the very sound of it pained her. "Maysilee never beat Snow. He killed her. Snow only thrived after that. None of what you are saying could have possibly happened."

"Sejanus did something." he countered immediately. "He must have. And…"

"That might be." she cut him off. "But…"

"Look, I just need to find Katniss, okay?" he interrupted right back. "We can take over from there. We can figure it out together. Because none of what you're saying makes sense."

"No Slayer was called in the Seam since Maysilee." Trinket objected. "Your Katniss…"

"If it's the same girl who was in my class when I was little…" Madge said suddenly. "I'm pretty sure she died when the vampire took over the town for good. We were seven, I don't remember perfectly but I'm pretty sure."

"Katniss ain't dead." he snapped, but the panic bubbled inside his chest all the same.

"She had a sister, right?" Madge winced. "I remember the sister. She was still a baby…"

"Katniss ain't dead." he repeated. "She was fine two hours ago. She was fine and…"

He looked at Trinket but Trinket only appeared deeply tired, like someone who had been forced to face that kind of situation far too many times.

"I am sorry for your loss." she said simply.

As if it meant anything.

dum dum duuuuum... How are we liking this wish now Gale? XD What did you think? Effie dooooesn't seem like her best happy self in this one... Let me know your thoughts!