The Blame Game: Chapter 3
Chaff darts in protest. "Oh, wait, wait, wait a minute, now," he calls, detaching from the group to stand next to his young tribute, all fake-humor aside and forgotten. He places his good arm on the child's shoulders, frowning, "Sure, it looks bad… Rue in the lobby with a knife, but… it's obvious that what may seem as…-"
"Obvious?" Rue's astonished gaze wander up to look at him in confusion, "Chaff, this thing only smells of lave-"
The mentor slaps her mouth shot, and hisses- "Will you shush? I'm trying to help you out here…!" then he drops his hand, and Rue just blinks in further confusion but is clever enough to keep quiet.
"Now, it's ridiculous to even consider the possibility of Rue killing this girl. Heck, Glimmer must have been twice her size, and at the time this slaying took place," Chaff determines, "My tribute's whereabouts were completely, unequivocally, and without a doubt unknown." His last word is emphasized with a pointy finger at the group.
Seeder sighs. This night just can't get any worse, and Chaff seems to be burying their grave even deeper, instead of actually helping.
Blinking, realizing how what he just said may sound, he leaves no room for interpretation- "Which is nothing like saying she was anywhere near the common lobby at the time of the murder."
"Oh, ok," Rue lets in, "I admit I found her odd, the way she acted and behaved in the training center… she freaked me out, just a little," the girl shrugs, "But I don't touch other tributes' stuff, no matter how they smell."
Seeder nods once, "See, Haymitch?" she argues, "You can't seriously suspect Rue."
"Until we found out who did this, I'd say it is fair enough to suspect anyone…" Haymitch narrows his eyes and looks around.
"This is getting absurd," Blight points out, then with a nod to Johanna and the other mentors, he leaves to the bathroom.
Haymitch growls, "Finnick," he calls, "It was my district's responsibility, but I'm gonna need your help," the Bronze colored hair boy nods at him acceptingly, "Johanna, yours, too," the two turn to accompany Haymitch, "And Chaff…?" the district 11 mentor turns to look at him expectantly, "Don't need your help."
Chaff nearly pouts at that.
"The rest of you.. stay on this floor. Don't try to be smart or brave about it. Snow will not find it amusing." He then turns to leave.
"This is crazy…" Finnick thinks aloud as they step back into the common lobby, "Those kids aren't the wisest gang, I give you that, but… they must have known how foolish it is to stab a tribute before the actual games start…" he scratches his head, "I find it hard to grasp they'd do this…"
"Well," Johanna moves to stand in front of the young girls body, taking it in momentarily, "tributes can be very unexpected," the then looks up to him, and a mischievous grin appears on her face suddenly, "not that I'd know anything about that," she says half-jokingly.
He smiles back, just when Haymitch calls, "Hey, look at that."
On the other side of the room, basically in the corner, Haymitch notices what seems to be some sort of a metal pipe. "Now that is weird!"
"Not so much," Johanna shrugs, "I recognize this, it's a testing-pipe. They use it with the ovens' check up."
"Yes, but," Haymitch ponders, "Do you see a heating system in this lobby? No. A fireplace? No. A stove? No! Do you know what that means?"
Johanna and Finnick exchange looks, then turn to stare at Haymitch again. "No…" they say, frowning.
"Hmm," Haymitch hesitates, "me neither."
Johanna shakes her head at him, while Finnick shrugs and Haymitch turns to test the surroundings again. It's when he notices the furniture's' covers are placed oddly, and the floor is quite dusty, though he can recall the Avoxes taking care of the cleaning earlier this morning.
Haymitch bends down next to the body. The knife is positioned brutally, he notices, and right beneath the girl's right ear, he notices a red mark he sure wasn't there before. What is it? A rash? A bruise? Was she hit there before being stabbed?
"The door leading to the main hall was locked," Johanna says usefully, cutting his line of thought, "and from the inside… now the question remains, who locked it behind them? Glimmer, or our culprit?"
"Interesting observation," Haymitch responds. "However, for some reason… I believe the answer lies in the knife itself…"
"I have to admit," Peeta says quietly, as they sit on the floor in the western dorm, next to the common room, "This is the strangest experience I've ever been through or had." He turns to look at Katniss, who paces the room aimlessly, "I bet that wasn't what you volunteered for, huh?"
Katniss chuckles humorlessly, "You can say that again," she shakes her head. "Even for 'Hunger Games' standards, this was never heard of."
"Wonder what they're gonna do to us if we won't find whoever is behind this," Peeta blinks, voice low.
"Does it even matter?" Katniss all but spits out, "We're going to die in the arena anyway… Haymitch can play the guessing game all he wants, at the end of the day we're not going to live this through. I don't know where he got this optimistic-feeling all of a sudden. None of this matter, we're all dead, anyway."
She promised Prim to whatever it takes to come home. But she's just being realistic, here.
"Maybe it's not about living this through, maybe it's about the actual game…" Peeta thinks.
"What do you mean?"
"Whoever stabbed her is going to be punished, we know that, right?" Katniss nods at him, "And I bet this guy knew the consequences of his actions, weather he's smart, fool, or just pure insane. And we know Snow's not going to kill him. He won't kill tributes randomly, because he'll have to explain how all of his happened."
"He will have to explain it anyway," Katniss passes a hand through her hair, "A career girl died, a very popular career girl. The sponsors will notice her absence immediately. It's not something you can hide."
"Of course not," Peeta doesn't doubt it. "But as long as it stays in the shadows, Snow can pretend all of this was a sad accident. Him getting rid of another tribute will raise a lot of eyebrows. And whoever did this, I bet they thought of that. That in itself is a clue. Finding out whoever has the guts of pulling something like this off, under the Capitol's nose… That will tell us a lot about this tribute. Including the option of taking them down."
Katniss can see where he's going with this. "Yes," she says, "And we have exactly…" she looks at the far wall, "Two hours and fifty-three minutes to figure this out, and-"
A weird sound it heard suddenly. Katniss tilts her head at Peeta, who frowns.
"You hungry?" she raises an eyebrow.
"Eh…" Peeta's eyes travel across the room, "No, not really…"
"Your stomach just growled."
Peeta's frown only deepens, "No, it didn't."
"Pretty sure it did."
"Katniss," Peeta sighs, "I'm not hung-"
"Wait," Katniss raises a hand to shush him, "there it is again."
Peeta stops all movement to listen, and sure enough, a small, rumbling side is heard somewhere to their left, right beneath the old royal furniture.
It's not a growling stomach, it's…. "It sounds like a buzz or something," Peeta says. He gets up from the current position, and both he and Katniss approach the couch.
Then Katniss inhales. She recognizes this noise. But no. It can't be. This must be a nightmare. A bad dream. Sure enough, she's going to wake up, and see Prim smiling at her from their shared place in the bed, in their house at district twelve. It's all just a bad dream. Because there's just no way that she's stuck here, with 23 kids aiming to kill her, a shallow Capitolite plastic-doll, a useless drunk and…. Him.
She lift's the couch's pillows at once, and gasps. Oh heavens, this is real, she thinks as she takes the first look at the source of the riddle. Surely, the noise wasn't Peeta's stomach rumbling. Wasn't a rumble at all, but a purr.
Katniss' upper lip arches in a snarl, as she stares at one of her worst enemies. Peeta, on the other hand, smiles fondly at this wicked nemesis.
"Well. Hello." He says, arms reaching forward. "How did you get here?"
It's Katniss turn to growl, as she stares at the vicious creature.
"I really should have cooked you." She says, voice threatening.
Buttercup licks his paw in response.
"You brought your cat here?" District 4 girl snaps in irritation, "What on earth is this? The friggin' Panem-circus?"
Katniss crossed her arms on her chest, "This is not my cat…" she answers, annoyed, "He belongs to my sister, Prim. I have absolutely no idea how he got on the train in the first place. For all I know he came to piss me off, throwing me off my game, so to speak."
Clove chuckles wickedly, "You keep getting yourselves in trouble, 12," she seems to enjoy this, almost, "first the escort, now obviously breaking the rules with this thing," she gestures at the cat, currently in Peeta's arms, as Katniss refused to touch it (not that he would allow her, anyway). "It's going to be so much fun, watching you guys being tortured in the arena…" Katniss narrows her eyes at that, "too bad you're probably both gonna die before we get you, but, well… a girl can dream…"
"Can't you kick this thing out of here?" District 10 numbly-looking girl covers her mouth and nose, staring at where Peeta is, with Buttercup in arms, "I'm allergic to cats. Plus, he has mean-looking face."
Katniss agrees with her whole-heartedly.
"Who, this guy?" Peeta inquires, scratching buttercup behind said half-eaten ear, "He's nothing but a friendly furr-ball. Aren't you?" he looks down at him, "You're a good kitty-kitty. You are! Yes you are, you!"
Buttercup purrs at Peeta. Figures. Katniss rolls her eyes.
She never tried cat-soup before.
Now she wonders.
"Oh, ok." Peeta surrenders, "I'll find a place for him where he can do no damage." And with that, he waltzes off the room with the beast.
"I still say it was Clove in the lobby with the knife!" Chaff insists, hands curl into tight fists, eyes sparkling in determination.
Clove's teeth snap at that, her gaze menacing, but Brutus responds in her place, "Will you cut that out?!" he thunders at Chaff, "Didn't we already mention that Snow has ears everywhere? This isn't a game, you know!"
"Oh, yeah?!" chaff stands his ground, "Well, none of this would have happened if-"
"Alright!" Haymitch reappears in the room, Johanna and Finnick in tow, "Who was the last one to hold this?" he waves the sharp object in-front of the group. The knife he pulled out of Glimmer's chest.
It's the round knife. While the short-blade knives were many in numbers, and the long-handled ones, too, the round knife was unique in the training center. One of a couple.
Who was the tribute to bring a rare knife from the training center up to the living-floors?
Each and every one of the tributes look at each other suspiciously. The silence is intense, and then, "T'was me." Clove says with a shrug. "I brought this knife from downstairs. Wanted to check out the blade. What of it?"
"See? See?!" Chaff jumps enthusiastically. "I told you! It was Clove in the lobby with the knife the whole time! I-"
"It was not!" Clove turns to him in anger, "I didn't touch her!"
Just then, they notice a fairy-like escort invading their line of sight, "Well," Effie says, entering the room, looking around, "From the heated conversation, I guess you didn't find whoever is responsible for this rude action, yet?" she asks needlessly.
"Nice of you to finally make an appearance!"Cato all but snorts in anger, "and no, we didn't," he says, few feet from him, Haymitch looks at Effie with obvious disappointment written all over his face, "And this should really worry you, escort. Snow is not going to cut you any slack. You should be the first one to cooperate here. Besides-"
"-Alright, alright," Haymitch cuts in his lecture, "we're wasting time here," he then turns to the murderous, unstable fifteen-year-old, "Need I to mention, Clove, how problematic is the fact that the last knife you've touched, the last one to touch is, was sticking out of her chest?"
"In her heart, you mean," Cecilia corrects him innocently.
"No, in her chest," answers Haymitch, "About 3 centimeters bellow her heart, but was enough to kill her… if she hadn't already been dead."
The tributes glare at him in obvious shock. Even the careers seem surprised. Effie looks at Haymitch with suspicion. "You say the knife didn't kill her?"
"That's right."
Effie blinks nervously. Gloss bursts with sudden sarcastic, humorless laughter. "Well, that's just perfect, 12!" he accuses, "so instead of wrapping everything up, you just bring more questions to make things worse!"
"No, he isn't." Effie speaks again, her gaze on a far point in the room, eyes unfocused.
"Huh?" the group asks all together, Haymitch looking at her awkwardly.
"He isn't," Effie repeats, gulping, "Because I killed Glimmer."
TBC.