[Flowers] • The Hunger Games

Eighteen

She slept rather poorly. Memories haunted her, like the ghosts of who she'd killed wanted her to remember. They held her by the neck and drowned her in her own recollection.

But, in fleeting moments of consciousness between the nightmares, she reached for a hand on the other side of the bed. She found it empty. Each time, she grew a little more disappointed.

Eventually, she was up. As awake as her body would let her be. She didn't know how long she'd been asleep for. Apart of her didn't care. That was what was tricky about these games. Them not being scripted meant that you could accidentally miss the most important part simply by falling asleep.

She did not dress herself before she stumbled out into the living room. She was met with Haymitch, on the way to come wake her up anyway.

"Mornin', sweetheart." He told her, guiding her gently by pressing on her back. "Feast's on. Like we thought. Madge had a seizure last night and now Gale's going for the medicine. You said you'd want to be up for it." He told her.

"She what? Is she alright?" 

"Seems to be, for now at least. It's nothing Capitol medicine won't fix." Haymitch said, and she breathed a slight sigh of relief. 

"So, what I'm hearing is I was right?" She asked.

"If you say I told you so I'll kill you." He threatened half heartedly. She didn't, she just laughed a bit under her breath.

Effie, Portia and Cinna were there. Watching the games on the couch and from the chairs. She felt a little silly to be dressed in her sweatpants and a tank top in front of them. Especially since Effie was wearing what she could only describe as a humble ballgown around the house. But she was far beyond the point of really caring.

"Who's left?" She asked.

"All of them." Haymitch answered. "Cato convinced Clove to run for the bag, since she's a smaller target for Gale to hit and she's faster. Thresh is making his way there, too. Foxface's been just on the edge of the woods outside the cornucopia basically since the beginning of the games. And Gale's waiting in the bushes there."

"It'll be a bit easier, then. No one's waiting at the cornucopia to take everything this year. I guess with only two careers left, they don't feel as confidant." Asteria shrugged. "Especially not with both Gale and Thresh still alive."

"You two talk like mentors." Portia scoffed, shaking her head a bit.

"Don't they?" Effie asked, glad to finally have someone agreeing with her. "They can never just sit and watch." She complained.

Before long, there was a timer counting down. It started at a hundred, in case any of the tributes wanted to make a run for middle beforehand. Giving them plenty of time to decide.

"Oh shit, I forgot to tell you-" Haymitch sighed. Already knowing that Asteria was about to be pissed at him for not telling her.

"Forgot to tell me what?" She asked.

"While you were asleep, due to Capitol pushback and the game maker's need to make everything more interesting- they made a...special rule, for these games specifically. Because of the nature of the tributes left." Haymitch told her. Her eyebrows furrowed as she continued to look at him.

"Well, I'm not gonna guess, if that's what you're waiting on." She shook her head, nervously watching the timer tick down to ten.

"Seneca Crane has decided that there can be two victors this year, so long as they're from the same district."

"He what?"

The canon sounded on screen, the pedestals rising out of the earth. All of them were labeled accordingly. 2, 5, 11, 12. She wanted to consider what Haymitch had said, but with the feast beginning to play out on screen, her attention was caught by a figure darting across the clearing.