Come Back to Me

XXXI

They talked a little bit more, Caesar asking more questions, the crowd letting out more choruses of applause. Cordelia, how did it feel to do this? What were you thinking at this moment? What got you through this point of the games? Who were you thinking of when you did this? It felt like it would never end. Did they really put her through all of that torture just to dress her up and ask her a million stupid fucking questions?

Apparently so.

Cordelia felt herself growing number by the second. Less like a person, and more like a prop, taking the time to answer each question in a way that would recieve the biggest response instead of the way that felt the truest in her heart. Not that it mattered what she did. It didn't matter in the slightest. How she sat, the words she used in her responses. The Capitol crowds were eating up every bit no matter what it was. They loved her for her or, at least who they assumed she was. Because no matter how long she'd sit in that chair, no matter how many times they'd pull her back into the spotlight, no one in that crowd would ever truly know her. But they didn't have to, because they could make her out to be exactly what they wanted. That's why they loved it so much, and that's the part that hurt her the most.

Her heart tightened as the screen lit up once more, this time with a montage of the interviews that had been gathered back in her district once she had made it into the top eight. Her brother and sister looked so happy at the thought of seeing her again.

Her mother and father keeping their composure and, she could tell her mother didn't want to be there. How could she blame her though? Who'd want to get all dolled up for an interview about their child who had made it far into the games but, could still die at any second. Congratulations, your kid has made it so far! Just to see them die the next day? It seemed like nothing but a sense of false hope to her.

She felt a smile form on her face as her best friend Hudson's face lit up the room through the cameras. Not that he was smiling. He always had to let everyone know how much he hated the games, especially now that he had a chance to really reach someone and, especially since it was his best friend's life on the line. He kept an expression of stone, and he made his distain painfully obvious in anyway he could. His short, monotone, almost bored answers made Cordelia laugh genuinely for the second time that whole night.

Next, everything moved into the Capitol. Olympia and Kennedy were interviewed first, their clips pretty unmemorable other than the highpitched squeaking of their overly excited voices. Their very own tribute had made it to to the top eight. Not the top two. Not even the top three but, there were only seven tributes left that could end her life at any moment! One more look to Finnick, though this time it was less to reassure her and more to not roll her eyes.

Then it was Reno's turn, and at least he considered the fact that she could still die. Actually, his composure shocked her slightly, his smile small and humble. The opposite of the women who went before him. Still nothing too memorable. Just a few 'I had no doubts' and 'I'm wishing her the best's.

Now it was on to Caspian. He too was completely calm but, also completely sure. He expressed his faith in the tribute without trying to put too much weight into her position. Cordelia was spoken of as if she were a friend, and not a ticket to fame or some horse he were betting on. She smiled genuinely over to the man, who gave her a curt nod, the audience cooing as his words grew more heartfelt.

But, as Finnick's interview played through, her heart sank.

"No, Cordelia's nothing more than my tribute," He smiled so convincingly through the screen, "and of course I wish her the best but, I also have another tribute to route for as well. We each get two chances you know, and it'd be wrong for me to count anyone out, right?"