❝𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐎𝐒❞ | k. everdeen

chapter 20: the final test.

—I have news —Gale announced later that afternoon. With a single glance he encouraged her to get down from the bunk and follow him, and, as usual, Nola put up no resistance. It was useless to resist one of her sessions, no matter how much she didn't want to go through it.

Nevertheless, she was getting better. It had been more than a week since they had started the therapies, as they liked to call them down there, and although they were frantic and very shocking to her weakened mind, Nola occasionally received encouraging and supportive comments, often accompanied with satisfied and impressed smiles every now and then. She would respond with a weak smile: if she was really improving, she would soon be able to join the military team they had deployed.

Nola was patient. Or, at least, she had to learn to be by force. She endured the electric currents in her body, in her limbs and in her head, clenching her jaw as tight as possible, and, when she couldn't take it anymore, letting out screams that chilled the blood of those closest to her. She had ended up sobbing a few times, begging for the pain to pass, though she would soon wake up, realizing what was real and what wasn't, and when she looked at Finnick, who nodded, and then looked down at her hands, she understood that that chair was not the metal chair of her nightmares. Other times she had jumped from the apparatus in anger, with an unusual strength, which had previously characterized Nola but to see it now in her was strange. She was trying to rid herself of the bad memories, of the nightmares, of those moments that she had lived one way but now settled in her mind in another. It was Gale, who had refused to move to District 2, who held her tightly against his arms, because no one else dared to touch her in that state.

That was precisely what attracted Nola to Gale. As with Prim, Gale had no expectations of her. He didn't know her personally before the incident, which meant that this version of Nola was the only one they could discover, so the tension and pressure Nola felt with the others evaporated when Gale greeted her in the cafeteria, walked her to her sessions, or just said goodnight from a couple of bunks over.

—What kind of news? —Nola wanted to know once they had left the common rooms. She didn't ask too many questions about her destination anymore, because it always used to be the same, so she just let herself go.

—Well, actually I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want to know first?

—I don't know. The bad, I guess.

Gale turned to look at her briefly over his shoulder—. The bad news is that today's session is a little different.

Nola, who was trying to keep up with the boy, waited for him to say something else, but the explanation didn't come, so she pressed—. Aren't you going to say anything else?

—It's not for me to explain. They think it's bad news because they're going to test more than just your memories, and you might not pass the test they expect. However, the good news is that, if you pass it, your chances of getting out of here and going to District 2 are infinitely greater.

—District 2? —Nola asked, puzzled.

Going to District 2 was a big responsibility. That's where Katniss Everdeen, the Mockingjay, was, after all. Finnick had briefed her on everything they were doing there; shooting commercials, visiting the sick in the hospital, anything to imply that Katniss was still there, still alive and still eager to give hope to the rebels and ignite the revolution once and for all. However, she was not Katniss. She was a mentally unstable girl who could go crazy at any moment, lose her temper and prove to be more dangerous there than useful. So when Gale mentioned a test, Nola shuddered: she didn't trust herself enough to want to face it. And even if she passed it, what guarantee was there that she was prepared enough to be sent there with the rest of the team?