Victors : A Catching Fire story

03

    I was sat at the dining table eating breakfast with everyone. "Today is very important as you two know but the interviews are a very, very important part of this process." Venia said. I couldn't care less though, the only thing I've been able to think of these past few days is Katniss. I want to live, and the only way is by killing her, but I hate that he's making me do it. 
"Marina!" Venia shouted and I looked up at her. "Are you listening?" 
"Honestly no." She shook her head and Finnick smiled at me. 
"We're talking about the interviews." Laviana says.
"Right, what about them?" I ask.
"This girl." Venia shook her head again.
"Venia was just reminding us how important they are." Finnick said.
"I know they're important, I've been thinking about them." 
"Is that what you're doing? Is that why you're up all night pacing?" Venia asks aggressively.
"I don't pace." 
"Yeah, you do." Finnick whispered.
"You need to start focusing, and you know what happens if you don't." Venia says before she stormed out of the room. 
"We should head down to the training center." Finnick said and I nodded in agreement.
"We'll see you later." Laviana yells out as we walk into the elevator. 
"What happened?" Finnick asks. 
"Nothing happened, I've just been stressed about the interviews." I reply.
"Yeah right, I know you've been thinking about Katniss." I look at him in panic, how did he know? "About what I said right?" Oh, thank goodness.
"Yeah, that's exactly what I've been thinking about." I say.
"Well, Haymitch has made me their ally and your automatically my ally so now you're theirs." Maybe teaming up with Katniss wouldn't be too bad, Snow will probably just think that it's part of my plan to kill her.
"Okay." The elevator opened to the training center, and we walked out. Of course, Gloss and Cashmere were hogging the knives, they act like they're better than me at throwing, but we all know that's not true. I walk over to where Peeta is, he's at the paint station painting his arm. "I heard we're allies." I say and he looks up at me.
"That's a very different attitude from the one at the Tribute Parade." He joked and I smiled.
"It wasn't my choice." 
"I know, Haymitch told me." Peeta said.
"Did he tell Katniss?" I ask.
"Nope, just me. Why aren't you throwing?" He asks.
"It seems District one wants to hog all my fun." I roll my eyes and lean against the paint cart.
"Just go throw anyway, ignore them." I think about it for a minute before listening and walking over to the throwing station. Gloss and Cashmere were laughing but when I walked past them, they stopped and watching as I grabbed a few knifes and started throwing. I had better stamina then the both of them, I could move faster, I could do more tricks, I never missed, and I was smaller than the both of them so I could easily kill someone without them seeing me. After I throw my last knife, I look up and see Katniss staring at me. I flash a smile before walking over to try something else. 

    After a few hours of training, I was backstage with Laviana getting ready. She put me in a light blue dress with gold armor on my chest and on one of my shoulders, with gold bracelets and gold armor detailing down the dress. She curled my hair and did simple makeup. "Time for the final touch." She tried to put on a sea foam colored sea glass necklace, but I flinched and touched my neck. "Marina you'll have to get over it eventually."
"Not today." I say. 
"Okay." Laviana said while setting the necklace down on a table. 
"Thank you."
"You look beautiful Marina." She said while turning me around to face her, "Be yourself, not like you last games, don't fake it."
"I won't." I smiled at her, and we walked out of my room and out to the main part of backstage. Laviana fixed up my dress as we waited for Caeser to call my name.
"We all know her, we're all scared of her, but we all love her. Marina Beckett!" Caeser announced and the crowd started cheering. I walked out and smiled at the crowd, I made my way to Caeser and the cheers died down. "Wow, Marina you look amazing."
"Thank you, Caeser." I smiled.
"Are you ready for the Quarter Quell?" He asked.
"Of course, I'm ready. When am I not?" Caeser and the rest of the crowd chuckled. 
"Your games were pretty recent, and I must ask there has to be a special someone, who wouldn't want to date you especially after you won." 
"No there's no one." I respond.
"Oh, come on there has to be." Caeser wines.
"Nope, I've been focusing on taking care of my mother who is incredibly sick. I don't what's going to happen to her when I die." I faked the tears swelling up in my eyes and all of the people in the crowd got sad and I can practically hear my mother shouting at me for calling her sick. 
"On the topic of your family." Caeser grabbed my hand, "Hudson, how do you think he would react to you being in the Quarter Quell?" I looked at the ground as my fake tears turned into real ones. I looked towards the crowd and gave a fake smile and blinked my tears away.
"He'd be incredibly sad, he did everything to keep me alive and now I could die again, and he'd hate that he couldn't stop it. If I die his death would be for nothing." Caeser rubbed my hand and the crowd made sad noises. 
"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, Marina Beckett!" The crowd cheered as I walked up the stairs to join all the other Victors. 

    Everyone went and now it was Katniss' turn. She walked out in a wedding dress, and I must admit she did look beautiful. She made a few jokes but then she twirled, I was just expecting fire but no, it was a whole other dress. It was a Mockingjay. I looked over at Finnick and he was smirking. She walked up to where the rest of us were standing and now it was Peeta's turn. I'm going to lie I wasn't really listening until everything got quiet.
"If it wasn't for the baby." I gasped, Katniss was pregnant. No, she wasn't, it was definitely an act. But still on the off chance she actually is, I couldn't bring myself to hurt her. Peeta ran up to the rest of us and everyone started holding hands, Finnick grabbed one of my hands and Beetee the other. Everyone held up their hands and the lights flickered off. 

    A few hours later I was sitting in my room in my pajamas and a few peacekeepers barged in and dragged me toward the elevator. I looked back at Finnick and Venia and they were both watching with shocked faces. I was brought to the Presidential Palace and dragged outside to the greenhouse. President Snow was looking around at his flowers while the peacekeepers walked out. "I had no idea about the whole thing during the interviews." I said. 
"So, you do know why I brought you here." He said. 
"I guessed. I had nothing to do with it, I swear." I pleaded.
"Then why'd you join them? You do realize what Katniss Everdeen is doing?" 
"I don't know, please you have to believe I didn't know what I was doing."
"I do believe you, but I worry about your alliances. Fragile minds like yours are easy to manipulate, just at the thought of your brother your mind breaks, which makes you easy to be manipulated." President Snow walks closer to me and hands me a rose. "Good luck in the arena tomorrow and remember to do your job or say goodbye to your 'sick' mother and your dear neighbors." He walked away and I just stared at the rose. 

    I couldn't sleep tonight, I just laid in my bed staring at the ceiling. I don't really want to kill anyone, I just want to survive. At first yeah Katniss annoyed me but now I don't want to be forced to kill her. I don't want to think about it anymore, I'll just close my eyes and sleep. 

    The next morning, I was eating breakfast with everyone, and no one was talking. "Can someone say something this may be the last time we see each other." I said and Venia nodded sadly.
"I have enjoyed this time with you two, and I've enjoyed being with you during Marina's games, you both deserve better." Venia starts crying and I reach out and hold her hand.
"We both love you Venia, and we appreciate everything you've done for us." Finnick says and Venia smiles. 
"It's time to get going, come on Marina." Laviana says and I hug Venia before following my stylist to the elevator. We walked to the hovercraft waiting by where the tribute parade usually is and I sat on one of the seats next to Laviana. A lady walked up to me and stuck my tracker in my arm. Once we got into the room under the arena Laviana put me in a weird wetsuit type thing.
"Water?" I ask.
"I don't know." Laviana shrugged. The countdown started and I started getting nervous and Laviana put her hand on my shoulders. "Calm down, you've done this before, you'll be okay." 
"I don't want to die." Laviana moved her hand to my cheeks and kissed my forehead. 
"Try to win, your little and you can throw. Just hide and no one will see you, okay?" I nodded and it was time for me to get in the tube. I slowly walked into the tube and Laviana smiled at me when I faced her. "Stay with Finnick." I nodded again and the tube started to rise.