Chapter 2
I woke up in my room. Was I dreaming? I prop myself up on my elbows. Ow, no, it wasn't. I'm still in my old clothes, even though they have burn holes in them. My arms, foot, and head are bandaged up. I sit up again, ignoring the pain. I limp over to the window to see what's happening outside. There are no Peacekeepers outside, there are no citizens outside, there are rebels. They won. I wonder what happened to Mari, if the found grandmother, or if they killed him yet.
Someone walks in. He looks like a doctor.
"Feeling better?" he smiles.
"I guess," I shrug.
"You are Esmerelda Snow?" he asks. I cringe at my last name.
"Yeah."
"I like your hair," he says, trying to change the subject after my obvious disliking in my heritage.
I smile and nod. I sit, cross-legged, on my bed.
"So what happened after the explosions?" I ask.
"The Capitol fell that day," he answers. "President Coin rules now. There's a small amount of resistance, but it's being taken care of. And your grandfather is waiting for his execution."
He looked at me like I was gonna burst into tears or something.
"Have you heard anything about Marigold Addison? Hair that looks like fire, gloves with flaming mockingjays, looks sort of like a skinny monkey?" I ask.
He looks at me blankly. I take a shaky breath, "She was in the children shield."
He purses his lips and looks and me pityingly, "We lost most of the children there. None of the survivors were named Marigold, I'm sorry."
Now I feel like crying. Mari, my best friend, who was there for me when my parents were killed, listened when I ranted about granddad, and went along with my fire/mockingjay phase, she's just… gone.
"Should I, uh… go?" the doctor asks.
"Wait, can I go anywhere in the mantion?" I ask. I wanted to go to a place where I always go when I feel like this.
"Um, just don't get into any trouble," he must've been new. I'm not going to try anything, it just seemed like he was unsure.
I walked out of my room and through the halls, into the library. I love reading. But the books from this time period are outrageous. I prefer readings from the 21st and 22nd century. How did I get them? The Snow's are very touchy about their books. Before everything flooded, they packed as my books as they could carry (along with food and clothes and all that important stuff). There aren't many, but I must have read them all about a hundred times. There's one about what happens in the future (wrong, but close). There are a ton of "2012" books. They were obsessed with the end of the world. There are a few about child geniuses, super-humans, criminals. There's even some about talking squirrels (Those are probably my favorite because they're so quirky). I get on the ladder and push it to the side where the old books are. I grab a random book, hop off and start reading. Reading takes me away from my sad world and into another, awesome world. I'm engrossed by the pages I've read before, until I hear a noise.
I look up, hoping no one will yell at me. There's a girl, in the cabinet. She has brown hair, burnt skin and, from what I can see, gray eyes. Oh. My. Gosh. It's Katniss Everdeen. I flail, and almost faint from fan-girl-dom. I quickly put the book down and get out before I embarrass myself. I get to my room and want to call Mari. I can't. So, I shed a tear, change my clothes and lay on the bed, doing nothing. I lay there for a day. Someone walks in, it's that doctor again.
"I have two things to tell you," he announces. "One: today's the last day you can see your grandfather. And two:" he hesitates, "There's going to be a memorial Hunger Games using children related to the people who held the most power."
"Meaning?" I ask, afraid of the answer.
"Meaning, your name's in the Reaping, I'm sorry." There's a pause.
"I want to see granddad," I announce, totally contradicting what I wanted.
He nods and a few guards come in. They lead me to where he's being held. I barge in, swatting roses aside, yelling, "Why did you do this to me?" He looks at me in surprise. "First, Mari dies, and now, I'm going to have a chance in participating in a memorial Hunger Games! Why did you do this to me?"
"I didn't drop those bombs. And I'm not making you participate," he replies.
"No, but It's your actions that lead to all of this. If you weren't a power-hungry, murderous, freak this situation would be totally different! Why did you do this to me?"
With that, I break down. I never cry in front of him. "Why couldn't you have put me in that damned human shield?"
"You're my heir. I couldn't risk losing you."
"I would have given my power to someone who knew how to rule a country well," I say. "All you care about is power; if you tried meeting the needs of people maybe, just maybe, people wouldn't have rebelled."
"Is this all you came for?" he asks.
"I wanted to see you again. Don't ask me why because I don't know."
"Why not?" he says, smiling his evil smile.
I glare at him, "Because you disgust me." I leave.
Later, I'm called to attend his execution. I put on one of my dresses and do my hair myself. Granddad used to offer to have some stylists do it for me, but I usually refused, like I did for almost everything Granddad offered me. I pinned my bangs back so there was a small bump of hair on my head. My dress matched my hair. I was a strapless black dress that was slit by my legs with white and yellow fabric underneath so my legs weren't showing. Of course, since this was the Capitol, the stylist that made this dress couldn't deal with the simplistic design of it, so sequence edged the black fabric. I put a gold armband around my upper-right arm, a black bracelet on my left, and a mockingjay ring (a gift from Mari) on my right middle finger. I waited for guards to come and bring me to the edge of the city circle, perfect view of where granddad would be. People start to take their places on the balcony. President Coin walks on, everyone cheers. I don't, not because I don't like her, but because I don't have enough joy left. Katniss Everdeen walks onto the stage, the crowd roars, I clap. Then they bring out Granddad. The crowd goes crazy. I glare at him as his evil eyes meet mine. They tie his hands behind a post. Katniss aims at his rose. My face has been unchanged throughout the ceremony. He starts coughing. That's normal; he has coughing fits all the time. But this time blood dribbles out of his mouth, not normal. I wait for Katniss to fire the arrow, but she aims at someplace else releases the string, and President Coin plunges to the ground. I gasp. Then I hear him laughing. I almost clasp my ears and fall to the ground. I've heard that laughter too many times during the night. The guards take Katniss from her place. They lift her up and over the crowd, who are now thrashing out at her. My guards lead me out of the scene. I catch one more glimpse of my grandfather, dead, blood still dripping from his mouth. No reaction. He disgusts me.