Here's the next chapter! Enjoy! I do not own Mockingjay, any direct quotes will be in italics.

Ch. 48

Effie plays with her hands and her eyes catch the tall stack of letters I have, before straying back to me multiple times. I've never seen her so jumpy and lost. It is quite scary, but then again I had thought she was dead.

She no longer wore that mask of, "Everything is perfect, just perfect!" I could finally see the pain and suffering under her skin. The years of escorting kids to their death. The years of having to be completely fake. The years of not being sure of what was right and what was wrong. She was before me and she was just Effie Trinket, lost, lonely, broken, just like all of us.

Haymitch had brought her in. Earlier they had me take a shower, put clothes on, sit at a table and eat, be civilized. Today was the execution of President Snow. Katniss would kill him. He would be dead. And what then? I'm still not free. All the pain he had caused me will still be left, but he won't be there to see me fall.

And I guess there is a victory inside of me that had been trying to get out the second I woke up out of the arena. A victory our country had been searching for the second they lost the first revolution. I do feel some sort of happiness, but in the end suffering will always taint it.

"It's a shame." Effie says, her voice still high and thick with that Capitol accent. "All the lives lost. You know I do believe they've told Annie and to think she thought he would come home."

"You knew." I say, looking up from my hands that were tightened together and under the table. "You knew they were together."

"Of course I did. I wasn't a complete fool." She stops and silence fills the room. We had served ourselves today, no avoxes being forced to serve us with quiet mouths. I wonder where all of them are, how they feel.

"What did they do to you?" I ask. I feel insensitive as it falls quickly out of my mouth, but I could tell they had harmed her in some way. Her lip quivered and her hands were always moving and her voice, though still high, was not cheery.

"Peeta, I don't want to trouble you with my woes. You just need to know that you have had it harder than me and if I could I would do what they did to me one hundred times over for it not to happen to you." There it was, the wise words I had always hoped to hear from her, but never really did. I had not noticed before how young Effie really was, and beautiful. Her makeup wasn't as extreme and her clothes not so bright and her natural features shone through. She wasn't my escort anymore. She was so much more. A fellow rebel, a friend, someone I could trust. I never thought I would ever have such a connection with her.

"Well, I have to go help Katniss. Haymitch will take you to the meeting and then it's all over." She stays sitting for a while, "I never thought I would be rooting for the death of Cornelius. He was my father's friend you know? It wasn't until I saw you and Katniss on that victory tour, so small and vulnerable, did I really start to dislike him. I don't know if I've ever told you Peeta, but I'm very glad you're in my life." She turns and leaves before I have a chance to say anything to that. Haymitch comes soon after.

Haymitch leads me down the hallways of the mansion silently at first. We wear the same gray clothes that the people in Thirteen had worn. I feel as if the Capitol had been destroyed and Thirteen had stepped in. A shiver runs down my back. I had remembered Coins voice and the way she commanded people around. I decide on my walk to the room that I did not like her much, now that I was wearing one of her uniforms.

"She talked." Haymitch said to me.

"Finally?"

"Yeah."

That's when we reach the room that we were walking to. Inside was Annie, Johanna, and Beetee, all sitting silently and hopelessly around the table. Being a victor never really felt that victorious to any of us.

"When did they…?" I lean over to Johanna and speak into her ear. She turns to me. I notice how wide her eyes are. How lost and vulnerable she looks, it's as if we were back to our weekly meetings down in the dungeons.

"When they brought her here. I was the one." That's all she says before she turns back and looks at Annie. I take a deep sigh and try to smile at her, but the effort is arbitrary. How does one smile at a person that had just lost the love of their life?

She gives me a small sorrowful nod before looking away.

Enobaria comes in shortly after that. She doesn't have the same look as us; hers is much different. She had been victorious in some part of her life, when the Capitol was defeated so was she. I had heard she had even sided with them. I wonder how she could've done that after being forced by them to kill other people.

Katniss comes in minutes later. She's a light in a dull room. Even though she wears close to all black, she still has that certain look about her. Her eyes so radiant in the room filled of dull gray uniforms. She still looks defeated, but something in her makes my heart skip a beat. I am hopeful that I will overcome my monster.

"What's this?" she says, her voice so pure.

Wow that took a while to update, sorry guys! School is almost out! But I'll hopefully be finished with this before then, eh, probs not though. Ugh, I'm sorry!

Don't forget to REVIEW on the way out! Thanks! ~boywithbreadlover