"Hello everyone and meet your victor, aided by the help of her mentor, Annie Cresta!" Caesar Templesmith pumps up the crowd. They all go crazy, cheering and clapping.
"Wave." I whisper to Annie. She waves her hand to the crowd and they clap even harder. We sit down on the velvet couch that they color to match Caesar's hair and skin color. This year, it is a purple couch. I sit the farthest away from Caesar, making sure that the crowd focuses on Annie. I am just a detail in the plan.
"Annie, great to see you! You want to say anything to the crowd before we begin?" Caesar has also been trained on how to deal with Annie. It won't be too hard for him because he is all about bringing out the best in people.
"Thank you. I hope that you will like what I am about to say after what I did." The audience seems confused at this statement. Personally, I am too.
"Yes, thank you for sponsoring her and she hopes you will continue to support her." I fill in. The audience seems fulfilled so Caesar motions to the cameraman to start the tape. We don't watch all of the Games, mainly just Annie's moves to her victory.
We start with the Bloodbath. The cameras are always going crazy trying to catch all of the footage. Annie doesn't freak out during this section, except when some blood is sprayed on the camera. She cringes at that, along with the audience and me.
Then, we get into her first kill. She puts her hands to her eyes after she makes the first impact. The audience sees her do this but they just brush it off. People have had worse responses to the way they treated people in the arena, especially the torturous ones.
Her other kills have the same response. Then, everything goes downhill at the feast. At Kayne's death, she totally freaks out. She starts staring blankly into the audience, at no one in particular. That causes me to freak out. The doctors told me that she might react like that but no one told me how freaky it is to witness in person.
At first, I thought she was dead. The only thing that reassured me was the sound of her breathing. I calm myself down because two freaked out people here would do us a lot more harm than one. The rest of the feast goes by without her making a movement. The little box at the bottom of the screen, that used to show her reaction, now shows the audience's.
Then, the glow of her first fire must wake her up into reality. At the same time, she gets the empty glare out of her eyes. She recognizes the fire and the squirrel sitting next to it. On screen the package floats down and she grabs it. As she watches herself trace the letters, she looks down at my ankle. The pants have shrunken up when I sat down and you can see the bracelet with the same wording.
The audience must realize it too, because a bunch of "ahhh"s come from the crowd. The next thing that she reacts to is the waves creating the winner. I can see her feet kicking underneath the couch, just like when you swim. She watches herself pull herself up to the Cornucopia and Elizabeta's body float to the top of the water.
The video stops playing and all focus shifts back up to Annie. The anthem plays as Annie rises as President Snow walks across the stage followed by a little boy carrying a cushion that holds Annie's crown. He fake-smiles as he places the crown on Annie's head. I have never seen him really, truly smile. I don't know if I would want her.
She gags at his scent after he leaves. I understand completely, his smell is nasty. I am just happy that the cameras weren't on us. The crowd cheers even more. Annie waves to the crowd and Caesar says good night to the cameras.
We are ushered out the door to the sound of chanting from the audience. Immediately, I am swept aside by some doctors and the stylist.
"How did it go?" They all ask me. Sometimes, I think Capitol people are brainless. They just sat behind the scenes and watched it all!
"It was fine. Annie only faded out one time and she even seemed to connect with the audience!" I try and talk her up as much as possible.
"Why did you change your clothes? All that time spent making you that outfit!" He complains. He rubs his hand against his forehead and sighs.
"Well, before the interview she thought I was Kayne." Then, they all start freaking out about how they were going to fix this, what their next step should be, and all kinds of other stuff that I can't make out above all the commotion. In the panic, I slip away from their discussion and head over to Annie, still wearing her crown.
I hug her first because it seems like she doesn't want to talk. We just walk around the room, stopping briefly because of people congratulating Annie. Soon, the party disassembles and the people all break off to go back home.
We get back on the train that will take us home. I leave Annie in her room but I can't stand being alone so I head back. I open the door to her room and find no one. I look across the hallway and into the windows of the room next door, Kayne's old room. I peek in and see Annie sitting in the desk chair, crying.
I don't go in. I just watch her for a while. Mags comes up behind me and pats me on the back.
"It happens to the best of us." She hands me a cup of hot chocolate. I end up falling asleep, my head against the windowsill and the empty cup tipped over on the carpet.