Chapter 2: Shout
The ground floor of the Remake Center was more chaotic than Lee Anders remembered.
Then again, I don't remember my last time here too well. I think I threw up.
However, he was certain that the tributes of the Eighty-Fourth Hunger Games hadn't been mingling like this. Several of the present Victors-turned-tributes-once-again were nowhere near their own chariots.
Not everyone's here yet. But those who are have chosen to socialize.
Figuring he might as well do the same while he waited for the parade to start, he headed for the nearest person he considered a friend. His smile was real as he said, "Evening, Orla. Amazing costume!"
"Hey, Lee!" She grinned. "It's wild, isn't it?" Every inch of her skin that he could see was coated in an even layer of deep blue, silver-flecked paint. The rest of her costume consisted of strategically-placed, seaweed-green strips of shiny cloth and pearl beads. Her brown curls had been spray-painted a lighter shade of blue than her body and were woven through with more pearls and what looked like artificial seaweed. She even carried a pearl-encrusted silver trident.
"Sea goddess?" he asked.
"Something like that. Leviathan looks even better than I do." She pointed over to one of the chariots closest to the giant double doors, where her fellow Victor from Four was chatting with the Twos in their red, leather, and silver gladiator-style costumes. Rather, he was chatting with Conan; Eve looked disinterested.
Lee turned back to Orla as she said, "Yours is interesting, too!"
"It's not bad." Six's stylists had put Lee and Axela in costumes like those of train conductors from some of the very old films one could sometimes find a recording of. "Must be an improvement over my previous one. I don't remember it, but I remember Linus complaining about it." He paused. "So...how are Finnick and Annie?"
Her smile faded. "Finnick's dealing. Annie...I don't know. She'd been doing so well the last few years, but after the Reaping…" Thanks to Orla's great-grandmother Mags, she, Finnick, and Annie had already been like family before she'd been Reaped, and the latter two had co-mentored her through the Eighty-Fifth Hunger Games.
"I'm sorry. About how that went."
"Yeah, well...better me and Levi than Annie and Finnick, right? Better chance of making it." She winked at him without much amusement behind the gesture, and he gave a slight nod in return.
Not the time, not the place.
A moment later, her gaze landed on something behind him, and her eyes widened. Lee barely had time to turn before someone yanked him into a crushing hug.
He would have known who it was without even looking, yet he was surprised. Hugging? In public? This is weird. So even as he returned the embrace, he said, "There are people around."
"Don't care," Helvius Glitz mumbled into Lee's shoulder, hanging onto him even more tightly. "Let them talk or whatever. I don't care anymore."
We thought this might happen. They'd even talked about it over the phone the very night of the announcement, months ago. The Fourth Quarter Quell twist may or may not have been designed to get rid of troublemakers, and Helvius was, at least by One's standards, a troublemaker.
There was no other option except me in Six. But One's Reaping had to be rigged.
His and Helvius's embrace had gone on for about thirty seconds before he pulled away from it. "We've got to get ready for the parade."
"Fuck the parade." Under the golden crown that went with his purple, bejeweled, ancient-royalty-inspired costume, Helvius's brilliant green eyes were red-rimmed. "Fuck all of it." His voice shook as it increased in volume.
Some of the others, plus nearby guards, were watching, although Orla had politely stepped away to speak with Sola from Five. Lee ignored them all. "Hal, it's okay," he said softly, using the nickname only he was allowed to.
Helvius wouldn't look at him. "No, it's not. None of this is okay." His voice stayed quiet this time, but the rage came through all the same. "They...Gloss, his pet Elegance, all the rest...planned it out so I'd have to go into the Arena with you, so even if I survive...which I probably won't...I'll lose you and…" He trailed off, jaw clenching.
He's in bad shape if he's talking like this, out in the open. "Have you been drinking?"
"No." He finally looked Lee in the eye. He sounded petulant as he said, "You told me not to."
"I did not. I told you to not to get blackout drunk or stupid high when you need to be alert, like now. You still could drink or take whatever you wanted in moderation before this and I would not hold it against you."
"You know my self-control isn't well developed."
Lee couldn't hide a faint smirk. "That much is true."
"Damn it." Helvius snorted, and for a few moments, he seemed to relax. "I missed you, Lee."
"Missed you, too. You look good."
"Ugh. You look better." Helvius looked past Lee and his eyebrows went up. "No offense, but the Twelves look even better."
Lee turned to see the last few Victors arriving, including Katniss and Haymitch. "You're not wrong."
The Twelves both wore black jumpsuits and black metal crowns. Katniss in particular looked incredible, fierce with her makeup dark and dramatic.
"I bet there's a twist to those outfits," Helvius said. "My prep team was gossiping earlier. Cinna and Portia got kicked to Three and Soraya...Three's stylist, the one who likes sparks… and whoever is helping her got moved to Twelve. But they're all 'collaborating.' So, undermining the whole thing."
Snow's taking the opportunity to send everyone a message while he's offing Victors. "I suppose we'll see how that went soon."
Lee had to leave Helvius and hurry back to his chariot a minute later as the call for the tributes to mount up went out. He found Axela waiting for him, humming and patting the shoulder of one of the horses. "Ready to go?" he asked.
She just smiled absently and let him help her up.
The parade slipped by Lee in a blur.
Other than there being former Victors in the chariots, is there really anything special about it?
It felt like seconds later when he heard Johanna Mason gleefully yell something about not being a tree and snapped back into reality. Climbing out of the chariot on the ground level of the Training Center, he noticed that Axela seemed extra dazed after all the crowd noise and guided her into the nearest elevator. Before the doors closed, Shimmer sauntered in with Helvius trailing after her. He perked up and moved over to stand beside Lee right away; she merely gave a polite smile and remained silent as the elevator whisked them up to the next floor.
The doors opened and Shimmer was halfway out of them when she noticed Helvius wasn't following her. "This is our floor, Glitz."
Helvius gave her a blank look. "And?"
She blinked, opened her mouth, then snapped it shut. Without another word, she turned and walked off. The elevator continued on.
Over Axela's hums, Lee said, "Hal? What are you doing?"
"Not staying on the floor where everyone hates my guts. The guards can throw me out if they have a problem with it."
The Training Center's guards did not, in fact, throw Helvius out of the sixth floor. Six's longtime tribute escort, Balbus, started to make some noise, then seemed to think better of it and turned his attention to the wine. He'd been unusually subdued since the Reaping.
He does know us. Might even miss us when its all over.
Six's stylists, also old and oddly glum earlier that day even as their prep teams kept squealing with excitement over the Quell, didn't show up to dinner or to the recap of the parade later. Cashmere did, joining them in the sitting area with an entire bottle of wine, a change of clothes for Helvius as none of of the ones provided for Lee would fit, and zero explanation for anything.
Not that one was needed. I suppose she's mentoring Helvius again.
Minutes later, while watching the parade back, Lee realized that there was something else special about it other than the presence of Victors.
Everyone looks...good.
Every year tended to have at least one chariot costume fail, with the outer districts being the most common victims. This year, One's royal robes, Two's armor, and Four's sea god and goddess costumes were up to their usual standard if not beyond. But Three had bodysuits made of material that shone green and gold from within, Five had tasteful lightning themed outfits that threw off sparks, and Six had its old-fashioned conductor costumes. Seven's tributes, for once, were not trees, but instead done up like somewhat scary forest spirits.
No wonder Johanna was yelling the way she was. She probably loved it.
The Eights wore capes and costumes made up of colorful fabric patches stitched together in interesting geometric designs. The Nines were wrapped in and draped with threads of yellowish-gold that closeups revealed were made of hundreds if not thousands of individual model grains. Ava and Colt from Ten looked fantastic in stylized "cowboy" outfits. Mika and Chaff from Eleven wore robes embroidered beautifully with colorful images of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
The Twelves, however, were the showstopper.
Helvius was right about there being a trick.
The jumpsuits started glowing as the parade began, like burning embers. As the parade went on and it got darker, the outfits had just kept looking more and more striking.
The Girl on Fire returns. I guess that's the idea.
Any clips Lee had ever seen from the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games parade had shown Katniss waving and smiling. Neither she nor Haymitch had smiled this time. They'd stared straight ahead, faces set like stone.
So did I, but none of those people cheering cared much about me.
There were advantages to being an underwhelming Victor. He'd survived because of one reason and that one reason only.
Said reason got into a shouting match with Cashmere over nothing in particular after the recap ended. The older Victor stormed out without acknowledging anyone else and everyone remaining decided it was time to go to bed.
Helvius followed Lee to his room and flopped down on the bed immediately. "Fucking hate her."
"No, you don't. Want a shower?"
"Can I share with you?"
"If you want."
Afterward, Helvius got into bed and proceeded to drape himself over Lee like he always did. "Kick me if it gets too warm," he said. "I probably won't sleep."
He was snoring a couple minutes later. Lee didn't push him away as he drifted off as well.
He dreamed of Six, of home. The cramped apartments, the cracked streets, the sprawling rail yards. But the images weren't any comfort.
Because everything was burning.