Chapter 17: Panic Room

Danny finds me quickly after my two tributes and I are taken into custody in the Justice Building. Giving me a sympathetic smile, my husband wraps me in his arms and we kiss chastely.

"First Merchant tribute Reaped since you were. How does it feel?"

"Put it this way: let's just hope that the fact that it's the boy doesn't give me too much PTSD."

"Speaking of 'it's a boy'…." Danny's grin broadens with pride as he slips a finger down to tickle the pronounced swell of my belly. "How is little Mellark?"

I beam sweetly at him. He really is the dearest man. "Baby is fine…" I feel a kick within my womb. "He likes hearing his Daddy's voice."

Danny giggles in delight. "Good." His eyes rove over my body with lust, but also with concern. At 7 months pregnant, it won't be long before I need to be ordered on bedrest. In discussing starting a family, I admit that Danny and I could have planned it a little better. The baby won't be due until September, but how am I supposed to mentor if there comes a point when I can't even get out of my Capitol orthopedic bed? "You sure you'll be all right?"

"I'll be fine," I smile up at him sweetly. "The minute I told Mags over the phone, she declared herself my nursemaid the whole time we're in the Capitol. Seeder will help me too." I sigh. "I don't know what Brutus is going to think when he sees my stomach out to my feet. 20 and pregnant isn't exactly my style."

"Perhaps not, but in any case, it suits you." Danny undresses me with his eyes again, and I feel my breath hitch. If we had more time, I'd take him right here against the wall. "You're so beautiful…."

I blush furiously. "Thank you." A Peacekeeper patrols past us, in the direction of the staircase, probably to check one of the tributes' holding rooms on the second floor. I turn back to my husband and the father of our baby. "If you can get in line, can you pay a visit to Morrel, the boy? I know the Steelmarks would appreciate it."

"You got it," Danny grins. Beaming, I cup his face in my hands and kiss him chastely. He dives in further to deepen the kiss, and I purr in contentment, surprised and pleased by his passion. "Have a good time, dear." He pecks me on the lips lightly one last time and I shoo him towards the stairs. But not before he can double back and tickle my stomach. "Goodbye, Sourdough."

I know he is joking, but I still feel the need to express, "Family tradition or not, so help me Panem, we are not naming any son of ours Sourdough!"

He just laughs and mounts the spiral staircase, calling to me. "I love you, crazy lady!"

I smile softly at him. "I love you too, silly man."

Pregnant or not, the 54th Annual Hunger Games is going to be a wild ride….


"I know. You don't have to say it: I'm fat," I announce to both Mags Flanagan and Seeder Crue once they see me after the parade.

"Bull-effing-shit," Mags quips, wrapping me in a hug. "If I had ever looked half as good as you do knocked up, every Senator and sponsor and Snow-knows-who-else would have been lining up for a crack at me from here to Victors' Island!"

That's one of the cool things about the Victors' Village in Four: they get theirs placed on an island. Ours in Twelve is on a hill. I'd sooner trade landmarks if it meant Danny and I could have even more privacy. Ever since we announced we were expecting, my parents, his parents, my sister and Merle and everyone else in Town hasn't been able to shut up. It's rare for a Victor to have a family of her own, just as it's rare for her (or him) to even get married at all – Brutus found out I had gotten hitched nearly three months after the fact, when an advertisement appeared in a Capitol newspaper with the headline DONNER, MELLARK WED. I had spent the better part of a day with my mentor screaming in my ear about how could I not tell him, and days later an express package arrived from him containing a vanity and a congrats card, part of which read, Hell if I know what to get women after these things.

"Thank Panem I won't need to go through that this year," I sigh, never feeling more grateful to be pregnant in my life as I rub my swollen belly.

"Who says you won't?" Seeder cocks an eyebrow.

"Says the President. No one is allowed to buy a Victor for a night if she is expecting – Capitol rules."

"Nice out!" Seeder whistles. "All the men lusting after you and they can't have you. Brutus is gonna pitch a fit when he sees you!"

"While he's pitching a tent," Mags snorts. "If anyone needs to settle down, that player who was your mentor does!" The aging woman turns to me, looping an arm through mine as we stroll to the Training Center elevators. "Now, dearie: here's what you need to do if you want this little young'in to come out happy and healthy…"

I let Mags give me motherly advice all the way up to the penthouse suite. Her male tribute, Halibut Shore, has to ride up and fetch the older woman when it's nearing midnight.

Halibut may be sweet and deferential towards his mentor, but in the arena, he's vicious. For my sake, I have to applaud him for also being efficient – within a week and a half, the Victor's Crown is his, and I am back home in District 12 and in Danny's arms.

Our son arrives screaming into the world several weeks later, still over a month early. We name him Jonadab.


It is a chilly Saturday evening a handful of months later. We always keep our longest hours at the candy shop on Saturdays, where I am currently manning the counter and trying to entertain my four-month-old son simultaneously. Mama is watching me with an enraptured expression on her face. She and Daddy have already taken to doting on their first grandchild.

"I can take him upstairs and put him down for the night, Maysie, dear…"

"He'll nod off on his own, Mama. Besides, it's still…. hard for me to be away from him." I smile at my son adoringly. I don't know what I'm going to do when I have to leave him for the Games next summer; it will likely be the longest we have ever been apart in his still-young life.

Daddy's heavy tread can be heard as he comes up from the basement, a tired but pleased smile on his face. "Well, the candy canes are nearly done, and just in time for the Winter Festival next week, too!"

Suddenly, the door to the shop bangs open and a winter breeze practically blows in Barnabus Foley, the father of my best friend.

Daddy smiles. "Evening, Barnabus." Getting a good look at his friend's face, my father's own expression falls. "What's wrong? You look as though you've seen…."

"…. Lucy Gray Baird's ghost," I intone the familiar phrase.

Daddy winks at me. "You've heard it before," he chuckles.

Barnabus, however, appears to be in no mood for jokes. "It's happened, Thomas!"

"Happened? What has?"

"That Seam street rat has stolen my daughter away! Lucius Rosen – you know the district clerk? – stops me in the street not half an hour ago as I'm leaving the office and grants me many happy returns on my daughter's marriage! I think he must be mad, until he proceeds to tell me that that filthy miner managed to get my daughter – my daughter! – to elope with him! They've probably had a Toasting by now!"

My entire face goes ashen. Oh, my Panem…. they did it. They actually, really did it.

Belle Foley and Glen Everdeen have been steady going on just about four years; they got together officially while I was away on my Victory Tour. Most everyone in Town knows of the courtship and has watched it with wary eyes. Though he doesn't approve and has tried every attempt at discouragement, Barnabus has not been able to stop his headstrong girl from seeing the man she loves.

Outside the store, I can hear shouts going up, and the bobbing buoys of torchlight illuminating the cobblestone streets outside. Barnabus is now pleading with my father.

"I need your help, Tom! We're going to march on the Barracks and appeal to Cray to let us into the district armory – pitchforks won't do the trick! People are out for that Everdeen's blood – they want to shoot him dead, and for that we need guns!"

I nearly sway into a dead faint and only the counter stops me. Guns?

"And have the Head Peacekeeper think we're spoiling for an uprising?" Daddy's jaw drops. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've heard anyone in Twelve use the word 'uprising' in a sentence. Chaff won't be pleased – at this rate, I'll be a grandmother myself before we ever rebel against the Capitol.

"Besides," Daddy is saying, "I doubt it will come to that; if we can talk some sense into Belle, maybe she'll agree to go before Rosen and annul this marriage on her own…."

"She won't listen to me! Never has when it comes to that…. that…." Barnabus's eyes lock onto me, waiting for me to back him up, or at least supply him with a strong enough epithet to describe Glen Everdeen. I remain stonily silent.

"Nevertheless, using firepower to settle a domestic dispute is unwise. Let's gather the search party and work our way up from there. There are few places in Twelve a couple of young'ins can go; Belley and the boy can't have made it far! I'll get my shovel!" That's about as 'armed' as a Merchant man can get in District 12.

Barnabus's eyes glint bloodthirstily. Dashing for the door of the shop, he throws it open and bellows into the street. "Let's string us up a Seam rat from the Hanging Tree, boys! We're going hunting!"

"Yeah, yeah! You heard the man! Off with his head! We can't have Seamers defiling our women!" The crowd yells up in an approving chorus.

Daddy returns with his shovel, and kisses Mama when she draws to his side, stricken.

"You'll be gentle with Belle, won't you?"

"Of course. It's that Everdeen boy who should be wishing he was dead…" Daddy mutters darkly. He blows me a kiss, waves to his gurgling grandson bopping obliviously in his high chair, and storms out of the shop. Mama and I watch as the mob and their torchlights fade off, heading due east. They'll be checking the school and the play-yard first.

My brain is spinning, and I wait what I judge to be a comfortable three minutes before shucking my apron.

"Mama, look after Jonadab!" I kiss my son goodbye and pelt out of the candy store.

"Where are you…..? – Maysilee!"

"I have to tell Danny!" I come up with a passable excuse and pelt towards the bakery, rounding to the back loading dock. Soon as I'm out of sight, however, I double back and disappear down a sidestreet. The alleys and back roads allow me to emerge in the Seam just beyond the Slag Heap to the west. From there, I make a mad dash for the Village. Danny won't want to know what's happening, and he's working late with his parents anyway. When we married, we agreed that we would live together in my mansion in the Village – something that my husband and newborn son are entitled to, being closely tied to me, a Victor.

Daddy is right, of course – there are only a few places in Twelve two young people in love can go, and it won't be long before Barnabus and his posse have exhausted through all of them. There are even fewer places where Glen and Belle might believe they're safe.

Which is why it's imperative that I get to Victors' Village before the mob does.

Sprinting over the crest of the hill, my intuition turns out to be just as I suspected: Glen and Belle – both clad in Toasting finery (in their case, that doubles as their Reaping Day best) - are huddled together on my front stoop, Glen in the process of knocking again.

"Belle!"

"Maysie!" My best girlfriend embraces me tightly. "We heard shouting coming from near the Square. Is Daddy….?"

"Half of Town is after you," I nod grimly. "Your father showed up in Mama and Daddy's shop in a right state. Said you both exchanged vows and signed a marriage license with Clerk Rosen." I turn to Glen, who is eyeing me nervously, as though he is uncertain of whether or not I approve. "Have you had your Toasting?"

"Had no bread," he says. "And we couldn't very well go to Mellarks' without tipping your husband off." He says this as though he thinks Danny would tattle out of…. I don't know what exactly. Spite? Protectiveness of Belle? Regardless of whatever has transpired between all of us, I know my husband better than that.

Glancing furtively about, I make a quick, monumental decision. Everyone deserves to have a Toasting – no one, be you Merchant or Seam, feels properly married without it. Procuring my key from my dress, I hastily unlock the door and usher them both in.

"Come on. I'll take you down to the Telephone Room. It's a good place to hide."

The Telephone Room is a standard feature of every mansion in every Victors' Village in every district of Panem. Housed in the basement, it basically consists of a desk with a big red phone atop it, allowing any Victor a direct hotline to the Capitol. Danny and I have mostly used the space for storage; I never go in here, nor do I have any reason to.

I leave the lights off upstairs, just in case someone sees them from afar and becomes suspicious. But I do flick the pullstring of the simple bulb hanging from the Telephone Room's ceiling. Glen takes in the desk and red phone with shock.

"Whoa, the hell is this?"

"Part of a Victor's burden," I wave away. "Just whatever you do, don't touch that phone!" I turn back to the couple. "Stay here. Don't make a sound."

I dash back upstairs, racing for the dormant hearth in the sitting room. Groping in drawers, I find the matchbox, pluck a match and strike it, setting the fireplace ablaze. It only takes one nudge from the poker, and then I tear through the fridge, finding a slice of rye bread Danny brought home from work last week. I turn it over the spigot until both ends are sufficiently crisp. Toast in hand, I double back one last time to the fridge, grab the water pitcher and douse the flames. I know I'm leaving some evidence, and I just hope the night is dark enough so that no one notices the smoke going up the chimney. I thunder back downstairs, where Belle is seated in the desk chair, Glen behind her and massaging her shoulders soothingly.

"I took the liberty of Toasting the bread for you," I explain in a rush.

"That'll work," Glen shrugs. Then, in the presence of me as the only witness, my best friend and her true love shyly feed each other the bread, then exchange rings and vows. Leaning in, the couple kisses lightly and I smile softly in approval.

From upstairs, voices can be heard coming closer. Based on my hearing, it sounds like they are approaching the base of the hill leading into the Village. When the sound grows faint again, I deduce that Barnabus and his men are going to check down the mines beyond before circling back and searching the Village. We don't have much time.

"Is there any place you can go hide away for a few days?" I ask, wincing.

Luckily, Glen has a ready answer. "My daddy used to keep an old hunting cabin out in the woods, beyond the fence. I'm the only person who knows where it is."

"Can you get under the fence?" I prod.

"Easy as pie."

"Great," I say. I join the couple's hands together. "Take her there and wait it out. I'll find a way to signal you when everything blows over."

Glen's eyes become glassy and he kisses me on both cheeks. "Bless you, Maysilee." I blink, registering that this is the first time he's called me that.

I smile softly, though my voice remains serious. "Just be true. And Glen…. do whatever it takes to keep her safe." I hold his eyes. "Promise me."

He nods grimly. "OK," he rumbles. We hug, and then I hug Belle.

"Best. Maid of Honor. Ever," she whispers in my ear.

I let out something between a laugh and a happy sob. "I love you."

"Love you too…. sissy."

I lead the Everdeens back up to the first floor and ease out onto the front porch. I can see torchlights bobbing and weaving their way along the mines; I don't know if any of the men would actually brave going down one of the shafts to search, but I can't assume they will.

"All clear!" I hiss. "Go, go!" I wave my friends out of the Village and hustle them over to a gap under the fence that Glen points out to me.

The brave Seam miner wriggles under first, then coaches his new bride to follow him. They dash for the trees, and I circle back into the Village to watch as they reach the woods and safety. By the light of the moon, I see Glen lock eyes with me, then raise three fingers skyward, whistling out a tune. I copy him silently, marveling at how the mockingjays themselves echo his melody.

Shouts go up and I turn to see Barnabus and my father leading their posse into the Village. Daddy frowns. "Maysilee? I thought you were at the shop with Jonadab and…. Lucille…." His voice trails off as he follows my gaze, catching sight of Glen. My quasi-brother-in-law ducks into the trees and is gone.

"After him, boys!" Mr. Cartwright, the postmaster, hollers.

"No way!" Charlie Steelmark, who lost his son to the Games this past summer, shakes his head. "Them there are devil's woods. We'll never find them in there…."

Barnabus hollers with grief and rage, stamping his feet. My daddy displays a more quiet anger, but it's no less deadly as he turns to me slowly. "Young lady…. this is all your doing, isn't it?"

I stand my ground. "If you're meaning did I help them have their Toasting… yes, sir, I sure did – they love each other. That's all that matters."

Barnabus stifles a strange moan behind his hand. "My daughter…. My daughter…." he's muttering, half-crazed before howling into the wind. "BELLE!"

I try in vain to shush him. "Mr. Foley, leave them alone…. Leave them be!"

"Like hell I will!"

Daddy is shaking his head with deep disappointment. "I should have known you would do something like this – after all, you had a taste for Seam once yourself, before you learned better."

My azure eyes nearly cloud over with thunderous rage. "Don't," I shake my head, jaw clenched tight. "Don't you dare bring Haymitch into this!" I snap the threat viciously, hissing like a feral cat. "I did it because Belle is my best friend – always has been, always will be. I don't give a damn if her husband is Seam!"

Daddy glowers at me, and I wonder just how long it will be before he forgives me for my perceived transgression. Finally, he lifts a hand.

"Nothing more to be done about it now. Let's go, boys! Let's clear out!"

And the posse slumps, defeated, out of the Village, while I stare after them. Crossing to the rocking chair on my front porch, I sink heavily into it, the motion lulling me into an uneasy sleep.

The moon is high and full in the sky by the time Danny arrives with our son, and carries us both to bed.