kill for your love - the hunger games

(055) meet me in the hallway

▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄

KILL FOR YOUR LOVE.

act three.

(chapter fifty-five, meet me in the hallway)

a hotel / train platform, 74 ADD.

(tw: prostitution)

▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄

JUNIPER COULD STILL FEEL his hands crawl amongst her skin. How he tugged her hair. How he dug his nails into her flesh. The man's fingerprints were etched into her being and she couldn't wait to get out of the hotel, couldn't wait to jump into the shower and scrub her body raw. She wanted to get rid of any trace that the man left behind. 

And normally, Juniper would feel useless, hopeless whenever President Snow forced her to stay with a customer, but it didn't this time. Instead, pure anger filled her up. 

Two Victors'. 

There were two Victors'. There were two Victors' for the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games. And it made Juniper's blood boil with rage because how? How could there possibly be two? It was printed within the district's brains that only one wins, that twenty-three die and one stays standing. The Victor. But no. No, Seneca Crane wanted to add some flourish to his third year of Head Gamemaker, who was no doubt dead already. He allowed Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark to win because of their pathetic love story, which was so fake and tacky Juniper nearly puked thinking of it. 

And they were both from District Twelve. The lowest district there was, the poorest. How could they both possibly have won? How could Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark escape the arena due to a love story that wasn't even true. How could two Victors' have won whilst Justice Hale rotted dead in the cemetery of District Ten? Whilst Juniper Hale was forced to attend to customers because she didn't want her father to die. Whilst Juniper Hale slept with blades under a pillow and a knife near her chest. Whilst one Hale twin lived, but one didn't. 

How? 

(The boy began to blush and barely stammered, "Because... because... she came here with me.")

The two Victors' were set to have a post-Games interview with Caesar Flickerman and Juniper wanted to make sure she was far out of the Capitol before that happened. She didn't think she could look the two in the face, watch how they fawned over each other just for the crowd. But she was set to sit in the audience. Most of the mentors were going to except for the ones whose tributes died during the bloodbath. They always left on the first day of the Games. 

But Juniper wasn't sure she could stand it as she watched the man shrug his clothes back on, mumble an apology, and flick some money onto the pillow as the Hale girl laid underneath the sheets. There was always a guilty look on their faces as they began to leave. They would ask what they could do for her, but she always just narrowed her eyes at them and they would soon cower away. But this one took a long time trying to gather his belongings, mumbling something about his wife and kids. Juniper never listened. She just wanted the man to get out. 

Once the door slammed shut with one more guilty look, Juniper let out a terrible groan as she ran her hands down her face. She stared up at the ceiling and tried to gather her thoughts. She wasn't going to attend the post-Games interview or any of the banquets. She just wanted to go home. But then she didn't want to at the same time. Juniper knew District Ten would be in ruins.