Grain & Blood | A Hunger Games collection

System Overload: Chapter Fifteen

I'm sitting on a train leaving the Capitol after a night of celebration for the second time. Iris seems a little distant, but she's probably just tired. Oh well. If she wants to fall asleep by the window instead of watching the world fly by on the way to District 8, that's her choice.

She reaches into her bag and takes out a notebook and pen, sits up straight and starts writing. I lean over to see what she's doing, and she slams the book shut.

"Stop it!" Iris snaps.

"What? Are you writing about me?"

"No. Well, yes, I am, but not like that."

"How are you writing about me then?"

"I'm writing about the arena."

"Oh." It's hard for me to even think about the arena, so Iris must be finding it hard to write about it every day. Maybe it's a way for her to release stress. Or maybe it's a hobby.

She keeps writing for a few minutes, tears occasionally forming in her eyes but she blinks them away every time.

"You okay?" I ask eventually.

"I'm writing about how my brother died. What do you think?"

"Sorry. I wasn't there when that happened, can I- uh-"

"Read it? No. Mind your own f*cking business."

She slams her book shut and shoves it back in her bag.

"We need to work on the old Kamalyn."

She's about that quite a lot these days.

"Why though?"

"I preferred the Kamalyn that wasn't scared of the randomest sh*t, the one that hated me, the one that had all the skills I had."

"Thanks?"

"No problem."

"I don't have time to do this now. I'm going to sleep." I snap, mainly because I'm not in the mood.

"Alright then. I'll wake you up when we get to District 8."

I lean my head against the window and start to shut my eyes.

"Oh, and by the way, I wrote the speech for later." Iris calls from across the train carriage.

"I thought we were using the generic one?"

"If your child or best friend or sibling or partner- sorry- died, would you feel happier if someone who got to live came and just read lines of a piece of paper? Because I know I wouldn't."

"You have a point."

"Neither of us knew the District 8 tributes, but I feel like their families and friends would want us to put a little more emotion into a speech."

"Yeah. I'm going to sleep now."

"Wait, before you do," Iris throws me a sheet of paper, "can you write anything you had to do with the tributes on here?"

"Uh- sure."

I pick up the paper and start reading.

District 1: Killed Rift, Killed Crystal. Have to apologise.

District 2: Killed Marshal, Killed Beatrix. Apologise though I didn't know them.

District 3: Didn't know.

District 4: Killed Benedict. Sorry.

District 5: Ditched Nikki as an ally. Twice. Apologise.

District 6: Titus saved my life, must be thankful.

District 7: Allied with Rubella, Killed Thenet after he killed my brother.

A guilt sheet of my crimes.

District 1: Helped kill Rift, was allies with both.

District 2: Allied with both, didn't stop Marshal from eating berries even though I knew they were poisonous.

District 3: Killed Boy in bloodbath.

District 4: Allied with Benedict.

District 5:Killed Nikki second time, stood by murder first time.

District 6: Assisted kill on Titus.

District 7: Didn't know.

That's about it. 

IIIIIIII'MMMMMMMMMM HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!!!!!!!!! and i got blueberries earlier so am snacking.
You don't have to have Rose again!

-Katherine