Guys, all your love in my email was so amazing! I want to thank you guys for reading this story and taking an interest in it once more! My lovely reviewers this time around are the amazing: Gentlefurable, MissEffieTrinket, Savysnape7, Tonksremus2332, McMuffin, Tom without a Turkey, Scyfy girl and District11tribute. Onto the story! Enjoy!
Haymitch, Gale and I are all stood in the elevator; the silence between us speaks louder than any words could. We are all waiting, all worried and most importantly, all scared. I look across at Haymitch first; he is leaning against the wall, the skin around his eyes is light red. His hair is sticking up at all angles. This time, I turn away before he can catch me looking at him. My eyes land on Gale now and he looks across at me. He shrugs to me ever so slightly and is staring me in the eye. I hold my own and stare back, just as the elevator doors slide open.
For someone who had been so subdued moments ago, Haymitch is the first out of the elevator, taking off like a rocket down the corridor. I follow him without looking behind me to check if Gale is following. I know he is. But I can't focus on him when Haymitch is thrusting every door open in the search for something, or someone. He's like a man possessed.
"Where is she?" He growls after opening the seventh door, allowing it to slam shut behind him, turning to try another. I don't know who 'she' is (Despite the fact it was my idea to go on this search), but apparently Gale does and he taps Haymitch's shoulder and points up the corridor. Haymitch nods to him and walks in the given direction, I understand nothing about the exchange but follow nonetheless.
"President" Gale says with a curt nod. Haymitch and I just stare at her though. No nods, no nothing. She acknowledges Gale with a nod of her own, before looking at us. Haymitch manages to hold her glare, but I falter and look to her side. My eyes land on a familiar man behind her. Gale's hand is on my shoulder, gripping to it slightly, its only when the man grins at me I realise who it is. The person behind Coin is the person who I caught torturing Effie.
Anger flares up inside of me again but I know I can't do anything, especially in front of Coin. I'm on thin ice already; instead I step closer to Gale. I think I hear him let out a sigh of relief. I can't be too sure though, the air is now full of Haymitch's voice. I can tell he is trying to control his anger, mostly because his hands are clenched into fists and he is shaking. Coin on the other hand remains cool and nonchalant as always.
"Solider Abernathy, I think you should calm down," Coin says, not shouting, but still loud. It doesn't work. Instead Haymitch becomes angrier.
"I'll calm down when you tell me why my friend was chained up and tortured in one of your little cells!" Haymitch yells. Even Coin looks a little taken aback at this. I think it's mostly because Haymitch is pointing straight at her, his hand having sprung up from nowhere. It is silent for a second and then Coin leads us into another room so we can 'discuss this matter in private'.
The door swings shut behind us and Haymitch stares straight at Coin, waiting for an answer. But Coin isn't looking at him; she's looking directly at me. Her cold, grey eyes are focused on me, making me feel uneasy. I can't help but allow my hands to rub together so I have something better to do than feel like a piece of prey under her nose, "Solider Everdeen" She says once Haymitch has kicked a chair, "According to my friend, you were the one who came to Miss Trinket's help, maybe you can inform Haymitch on what you saw," She says, and it makes me hate her even more. Making me be the one to tell Haymitch about the state Effie was in upon first been discovered. Haymitch stops pacing around when this is said, and looks straight at me instead. Actually all eyes are on me. With a sigh I lean against a table and begin to search for the correct words. There's no getting out of this.
"I'd just found my prep team, they'd been tied up too," I say, looking at Coin, not Haymitch, when I say this. She is sat down now, her fingers interlocked. I think I can sense a smirk on her lips, so I turn to Haymitch instead. Regretting it immediately because when I say "I heard her screaming first, but I couldn't find her," he lets out a chocking gasp and has to sit down to seek support. This unexpected action makes me take a deep breath; I never expected Haymitch to react like this. Gale is next to me now, trying to help me go on. I know I have to, for Haymitch.
"It was Plutarch who got to her first, I don't know how, but he stepped into the room before any of us could ask," I say, Gale is nodding to confirm this, but I don't look at him. I keep my eyes trained on Haymitch. His own are staring at the floor. Hunched over, wringing his hands, I don't remember the last time he was like this. "Then I managed to push myself into the room, I didn't recognise her at first," I add, deciding not to mention just how bad the blood was. But he probably has guessed correctly how much had covered her due to the sheets in the hospital, "I asked her who she was, she looked like a merchant's kid, maybe a rebel who had escaped from another district or something… I don't know… then Gale untied her and we saw it was Effie," I say. Rushing through the last seconds of my explanation to get it over and done with, relief greeting me once I have done.
"Why…" Is all Haymitch says, "Why was she tied up?" Looking at me and finally taking his eyes off the floor.
"Ask him," I say, pointing at the man behind Coin. I don't think he, or the president, was expecting this. I don't think they expected Haymitch to sober up completely either. He is no longer shaking and begging for answers. He is angry, furious even, and he is now glaring up to the man my finger is trained on.
"What do you mean ask him?" Haymitch asks, not taking his eyes away from the man, who has finally wiped the smirk from his face. It's a good feeling, watching him squirm under Haymitch's icy glare.
"He was the one who did it, you know, Coin's friend…" I say, looking at Coin when I say this. I'll probably pay for this later. But right now, it's worth it just for taking the arrogant look of dominance off her face.
"He did this?"
I nod, I feel Gale tensing next to me. The room goes quiet for a moment. Then the man is on the floor, rolling around groaning and clutching his jaw. Haymitch goes to punch the man again, but Gale grabs him around his middle and hauls him back. Haymitch still manages to get a good kick on target despite been pulled back. Making the man roll into an even smaller, pathetic ball.
"Get off me boy!" Haymitch grunts, attempting to escape from Gale's tight hold, "You let me go!" He yells, thrashing around.
"No, you'll just get into trouble Haymitch!" Gale yells over Haymitch's protests.
"I don't care, he hurt her! He tortured her! He needs a taste of his own medicine!" Haymitch shouts, lunging for him again. The man winces, awaiting attack. But I rush over to help Gale restrain Haymitch.
"Cut it out Haymitch! You aren't helping Effie by doing this!" I yell. He freezes at this. Panting heavily, teeth clenched, still shaking. But no longer going for the man. Finally, Coin stands up.
"Solider Everdeen is correct, you aren't doing your little… friend, any favours by throwing your weight around," Coin says, and I hate the way she lingers on the word friend. It's obvious she is indifferent to the way Effie has been treated; she doesn't care about her at all. She should have kept her safe. But she didn't. I think Haymitch is thinking this too. But he is more vocal in areas like this.
"You haven't been doing her any favours either, locking her up; whipping her… god knows what else…" Haymitch says. Quieter, but with just as much anger laced in his tone as there was when he was yelling.
"Solider Hawthorne, take Solider Goldercrest to the hospital wing," Coin says after a few moments, allowing Haymitch's words to sink in. "Solider Abernathy, Soldier Everdeen and I need to have a couple of words," she adds. Gale shoots me a look, a warning not to get myself into too much trouble. Then he is pulling the man up of the floor and is pushing him out of the room. Ignoring the protests that come from his mouth and shutting the door with a snap behind him.
"Well…?" Haymitch asks, looking at Coin for answers to his previous question.
"We had to take Miss Trinket under extreme circumstances Solider Abernathy," Coin says, "We had to get to her before the Capitol did-"
"That doesn't mean you had to tie her up and beat her!" Haymitch yells, cutting Coin off.
"We thought she was on their side, we did what anyone else would do!" Coin yells even louder, "Soldier Abernathy, I don't think you appreciate the circumstances we operated under to get Miss Trinket out of the Capitol. They were closing in on her; we ran the risk of getting caught. We could have put this whole operation in jeopardy! And for what, some Capitol girl we see running around so you were on schedule? We had no time to interrogate her. Yes we tied her up, but she wouldn't give us answers, we had to lay down the law!" Coin tells us. Her reasoning behind Effie's treatment is sickening, but I daren't question it. I've never seen Coin or Haymitch like this before.
"She's more than some Capitol girl running around keeping a schedule!" Haymitch says roughly, "She didn't give you answers because she was traumatized! You took her from everything she knew, and then tried to beat answers out of her; she was probably scared of you hurting her again because she said something wrong!" Haymitch says, "I saw her just before the arena went, she was petrified. She told me she was on our side; you never asked me though did you?" He asks "You should have asked me! No, I should have brought her here myself, then maybe we wouldn't be having this conversation now!" He says "And maybe Effie wouldn't be lying on a bed unconscious!"
"Haymitch, it's not your fault," I whisper. I'd forgotten that Haymitch would have seen Effie before they took me from the arena. That he would have probably warned her. But I didn't know she knew about the rebels. Apparently neither did Coin.
"You promised you wouldn't tell anyone about the plans, about the rebels, you could have put this entire operation at risk," Coin tells us, but Haymitch shakes his head furiously.
"I never told her about the plans, she guessed. Just because she's from the Capitol it doesn't mean she's brainless!" Haymitch says, "I told you, she's more than some schedule keeping Capitol girl. She guessed, she covered for me, she helped me keep this mission going in some ways, even when she didn't know about the rebel plans!" Haymitch says, "I want you to remember that the next time you think it's okay to raise a whip to her!" Haymitch says, he's yelling again now. And with that, he's stormed out of the room, leaving me with Coin.
"Make sure your mentor keeps his temper in line Soldier Everdeen, we wouldn't want beloved Miss Trinket suffering down to it bubbling over now, would we?" Coin says, I nod and leave just as quickly as Haymitch did.
She threatened Effie, if Haymitch steps out of line Effie pays.
I catch up with him just before the doors of the elevator shut, he's pressed the button that leads to the floor of the Hospital wing, "You need to be careful Haymitch," I say, feeling annoyed at the fact I sound like Coin when I say this, "If you do anything wrong, Effie could pay," I tell him. No. Effie will pay.
"It's my fault Katniss, it's my fault she's here," Haymitch says as we begin to move, "If I told her she was been silly about the plans, then she wouldn't be here…" he is telling me, "I couldn't lie to her though, she covered for me when I was meeting up with people to set the plans into action, and now she has been chained up because of itm" Haymitch says. We are silent for the rest of the trip. But when we step out of the lift, heading for the hospital, Haymitch tells me one last thing.
"She wasn't brought here just for information. She was the weapon they could use against me. You remember the way that woman works, won't you sweetheart" Haymitch says, and he is heading towards Effie once more. His words don't leave as fast as him. I understand immediately what he is saying. Coin knows what she is doing; she knows how to get to us… how to make us do what she wants. If Effie was the person she would use against Haymitch, the man who lost everyone he loved after the Quell, how low would she sink to get to me?
My final answer isn't pretty.