Darker And Colder

4.09: Twisted

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Hazel's Birthday: 23rd April

Date: 9th Feb

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Chapter 58
Hazel's POV

The pile of furs is musty and grey from all the dust that has fallen on it. It's cold and stale to the touch, a little course. My fingers itch at the touch of it, but somehow it's still soft.

My heart aches for Johanna, a plea that she is still okay. A wish that she was still here. Not that she'd be any safer here, with the mutts and the peacekeepers and the pods. None of us are safe here, really; after all, it's the Capitol. The construct that sends 24 children into a death arena every year. That's why I went to 13; to save them. All the children the Capitol was forcing to become murderers.

I remember when I was 18, watching the 71st Games. I saw a then 17 year old Johanna, playing up to the cameras, acting quiet. I believed her, somehow, until I saw her swing an axe onscreen. At that point, I was almost scared. Scared that people could seem so innocent but be so brutal. Yet there was something about Johanna that I felt was more genuine, and something came back up to my mind, something I remember Caesar Flickerman saying once- I think it was a quote from something. "D'you know the big problem with a disguise, Mr. Holmes? However hard you try, it's always a self-portrait."

And there was something about her that made me think that she was okay. Made me realise how painful it could actually be to go through that. And after my Parents were killed, I knew I had to get away.

It was Johanna that inspired me to run away to 13.

For four years, I was unsure about my decision. It was the time of the pox outbreak, so I was very ill at some times, as well as it feeling so oppressive, and I felt like I had almost no freedom.

Then Johanna was reaped again, and I remembered why I went to 13. And when she was here, in the hospital, there was a time that I was taking care of her while she recovered, and she was going into sedation for a surgery when she said something about my eyes. She didn't remember it when she woke up, but she blushed a lot.

And I constantly was instructed to go check on her in her compartment, because I was the nurse assigned to helping her; that's how I got to know her. Even if it's been little more than a few months, it feels weird without her in my life now.

And I miss her.

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Haymitch's POV

"It's for you," Plutarch says, passing me the phone, finally.

I shrug, "Who is it?" I mouth to him. He shrugs in return, causing me to roll my eyes and just pick up the phone. "Hello?"

The voice on the other end starts talking frantically, so quickly I don't hear what they're saying.

"Wha- Peeta? Peeta slow down," I say down the phone.

"There's a problem," he says. "I- I did something."

"What happened?"

"Gale started talking to me and disrespecting Katniss and Willow, and I- I was just-"

"Okay, you need to be calm," I say, failing to reassure him.

"He hit me, and then the venom... the hijacking venom... well, it all went orange and-"

"Yes?"

"I pushed him over a balcony."

"Oh god," I mutter, "Is he still alive? Are you okay?"