CHAPTER TWENTY

The next day, I decide to go visit Mags –who had expressed her concern to me a few days earlier when she stopped by and I was still sitting in the window not saying a word to anybody. She welcomes me in with open arms and a large smile. We spend most of the day in her garden. I help her pull out the weeds that she no longer has the strength to pull out herself. I trim the bushes around the side of her house that have long needed to be trimmed.

Tired from the work, relieved that I'm finally doing something, I lay in her front yard while she makes the two of us some lunch.

Days go on like that until the cold November winds come. Then I spend more time painting in my house. I had finished painting the walls in summer, so now I stick to painting canvases. Most of them are nightmares that I get from the Games, but there are a few –like a painting of the lilacs outside my house and the one of Mags's rose bushes- that I find joy in and decide to hang around the house.

My dad doesn't really come around anymore. He did stop by quite a few times in the summer, but then he began coming less and less without an explanation. I had offered him one of the many spare rooms, but he refused, insisting that he loved our little home just fine. He hasn't visited or called since late August, but I have a feeling that he doesn't want to talk, so I don't call him.

Late in November, only one week before my victory tour, I visit Mags. I ended up spending most of the day there. After we eat lunch, we talk for a while, but then I tell her that I should probably head home.

"Are you sure, dear? I wouldn't mind if you stayed."

"I'm sure, Mags. Thank you for everything." I give her a hug and a kiss, wrap myself in my coat and scarf, and head out the door.

I see a pair of Peacekeepers standing by my door. I see Finnick standing at his front window and then disappearing a moment later.

"Miss Covell, please follow me," the Peacekeeper on the left opens the door and leads me up the stairs to my study. He stands at attention outside the door. "Go right in, Miss."

When I see him at my desk, reading one of my books, my nose shrivels. Even though his face is covered by the book, the white hair poking out most certainly belongs to President Snow. When he lowers my book, I know that I am right when I see his snakelike eyes and white teeth smiling at me. Behind him I spot a vase of white roses that hadn't been there before. Then I remember that the same roses had been on the train back to District 4 from the Capitol. Had he put those roses there too?

I wonder what could be so important for him to see me right now. For him to travel to District 4 when he will be seeing my in only a few weeks on my Victory Tour.

The feeling in the pit of my stomach tells me that nothing good can come out of his being here.

"Miss Covell, you have caused quite the commotion in the Capitol, you know?"

Commotion? "I haven't done anything to cause a commotion."

"You're correct, Miss Covell, you haven't done anything. It's not anything that you've done that has created a commotion in the Capitol." He pauses and leans in closer to me, "It's you. You've caused the commotion because you are greatly desired by many of the Capitol's citizens. "

"No." I say firmly. I stare at him angrily. I will not let him do this to me, but if he came all the way here, I know he's not going to simply take my "no" and walk out the door satisfied.

"You see, I feared we might hit this little snag." President Snow switches on a screen that he's placed on my desk.

When it flickers on, I see three people hung up in nets with a Peacekeeper holding a trident. With further inspection, I see that this is a room in my own home and that the people in the nets are those that I hold most dear to me. Paige, my father, Henry. "No," I sink into one of the chairs opposite my desk with my hand covering my mouth.

It's how I killed Ceaser, and it's how that Peacekeeper will kill them if I don't agree. When I look at the screen again, I don't see any movement. "How do I know this is real? . . . How do I know you're not just tricking me?"

The Peacekeeper on the screen tosses the trident at Paige. I hear her scream. Her actual scream. In my house. I'm sure inhumane noises are coming from my throat, and I'm sure the tears streaming down my face are as real as Paige's scream.

"Should we watch another?" President Snow smiles down at me.

"No . . . please don't hurt them. Leave my father and Henry alone . . . please. I'll do anything you want. Please just . . . don't hurt them."

"Good." President Snow switches off the screen and tucks it in his coat pocket. "I look forward to seeing you in the Capitol, Miss Covell." He walks towards the exit, but stops with his hand on the brass knob, "I shall have Miss Mendoza sent to the hospital. I shall have her fate sent to you when she is released. I trust that this conversation will not spread to any of the three you hold dear . . . or they will face the consequences of your actions."

I sit in the chair in my study for hours. I sit there until the sun is no longer in the window and the sky is dark. My house is now empty. I go to the room where Paige had been hurt because of me. Her blood stains the wood floor. I lock the room up, placing the key in one of the drawers of my desk.

That night I have nightmare for the first time in weeks. The next morning, Finnick is waiting for me in my kitchen, sipping on a cup of coffee. He fixes me a cup and hands it to me. We sit at the table, and we sit in silence for a while until he finally speaks up. "What did he want from you?"

I couldn't find the words to say it, and for whatever reason, I began crying. I put my face in my hands as if believing the child's lie "if I can't see you, you can't see me" for a few moments.

"Oh, Capri," his arms envelop me, "you don't have to do it, you know."

I nod into his shoulder, "But I do, Finnick," I manage between sobs. "He threatened my family. . . . I have to protect them."

A/N: Once again, I hope you all are enjoying this story. Thank you to everyone who commented, favorite, and followed since the last update.

THIS STORY WILL BE COMPLETED BY THE END OF THE WEEK (SATURDAY NIGHT / SUNDAY AFTERNOON) YEEE! I'm excited that I finished the story in a year. It seems like so much longer, but I'm so proud to have it finished with a sequel on the way. There will be one reminder after the last chapter to let y'all know when the sequel is up.

If you don't like something about my story, I would love to know what it is. Please leave a review about what you do and don't like about what I'm writing so that I can get better. Thank you and have a splendid day!