This Isn't Me ↠ Sequel to INWYTIA ↠ Team Crafted and Hunger Games Fanfiction

Chapter 4: Turn the Tides

Jason

I looked to my left and saw Jerome gaping at the screen as well. His hand was pressed up against it. Thalia and Mitch stood behind him, staring in disbelief too.

"No, she's dead. She can't...w-we saw her die!" Jerome's voice filled my ears. He trembled slightly and I realized that I was shaking too.

Loud footsteps entered the room. I looked up to see Snow's mother and father run in, both crying. Her mother's cheeks had tears streaming down them while her father simply had wet, glassy eyes.

"Y-you." She pointed a finger at me. Then she stared at all of us.

All of us who had seen Snow get shot.

"Y-you said she was dead. They showed her dying! She-"

Her mother choked out another sob and her father wrapped her in his arms. He gestured toward the screen as a signal to tell us to keep watching.

"How are you Miss Pristeen?"

"Fine. Great actually." Snow laughed. She was smiling happily. "But please Caesar, call me Snow. I assumed we were on first name terms."

"But of course Snow." Caesar laughed as well. "Now, I bet all of Panem is wondering why and more importantly, how, you are sitting here with me today. After all..." he trailed off.

"Yes, that is a bit mysterious, isn't it?" Snow laughed again.

"What did they do to her?" Thalia muttered.

I wondered the same thing. The Snow I knew had never been this happy and she certainly wouldn't have been while talking about her own death.

"All I can say is, there was a mistake. A big one." Snow's eyes darkened. "I made quite a few of my own. Those mistakes, of course, caused the...incident."

Caesar nodded understandingly.

"I've learned from those mistakes. I will never speak to them again-"

She faltered briefly. There was a short silence. Snow's eyes looked confused and she stared at Caesar, then around the room. Her hands gripped the chair tightly.

But just as quick as it came, it disappeared. She appeared happy and perfectly fine again.

"Pardon me," she laughed again. "A bit lightheaded that's all. As I said, I will never speak to those mistakes again."

We were the mistakes in her mind.

"The Games are all a big blur. Of course, they always seem to be to the victors once they get out. You of all people understand that Caesar."

"But of course." Caesar nodded.

"I deeply regret what I said toward the end of the Games."

What?

"I-I was in a moment of weakness." She turned to address the screen. "Two people whom I deeply loved betrayed me. I was never experienced in love in any way because my parents were killed, by District 13 I must add, by the time I was a month old."

Her eyes filled with tears and she turned briefly toward Caesar.

"You must understand, I had been deeply hurt, deeply betrayed by not one but two people I had loved. People I had loved more than anything or anyone else in my life."

She turned toward the screen again. "Surely all of you have felt something similar. Please tell me that at least one of you watching, sometime in your life, has felt the pain of betrayal or loss? All in a fight to the death, they tried to k-kill me." Her voice cracked slightly and she stumbled over her words. A single tear trickled down her cheek.

"I was driven mad by love. No, more accurately I was driven mad by betrayal and heartbreak. The words I spoke, that was not me. That was not what I truly believed. It was only the poor, hurt, broken girl inside of me who yearned to blame her pain on someone, anyone but those she for reasons she could not explain, still loved."

Another tear.

"I'm so sorry." Her voice cracked again. "For all the families and friends I have split apart with my sincere stupidity. Stop this war."

There was another cry of disbelief that echoed throughout the training room.

"Stop before it's too late. I am disgusted with myself for starting this, and I beg you to give me mercy for the pain I have caused. Only recently have I realized that in the Games-"

She hesitated again and a vacant look filled her eyes.

"...In the Games," she continued immediately. "It was not the Capitol who was evil but rather the one's who decided to commit the act of betrayal. They made that choice. The Capitol is merciful, stop now and they will put down their arms too. Everyone will be spared. Please." Her voice cracked once more.

"I lost everyone I loved because of violence and war. It was pain beyond the unimaginable, please do not let the same happen to you or those you love."

"I am not the Capitol's Soldier nor am a soldier of District 13. I am Snow Pristeen. I fight for everyone. I am the spark. But I also hope to quell the flame before it becomes a fire we cannot stop."

She finally turned back toward Caesar and wiped her tears away.

"Powerful words."

She smiled sadly. "Yes, well I mean them very much."

He nodded sympathetically. "Do you...have anything to say to those who betrayed you in the arena?"

A look of anger passed through her eyes. Fierce anger, beyond anything I had ever seen. Rage that even surpassed the hatred she held when she gave the speech that started the war.

"Yes actually." Her voice was carefully controlled, but her deep disgust and hatred was prominent. "For those of you who attempted to murder me in cold blood after I helped you, several times for some of you in fact,"

I shifted uncomfortably.

"I will hunt you down. Yes, I have changed but I will always remember..."

Another slightly catch in her voice.

"...what you did to me. You tried to kill me after I helped you and loved you!" She glared at the screen with such ferocity that some of the tributes turned away from the screen.

"Mark my words, I will find you. Hide in District 13 all you want, but no one can protect you. Yes, I want a cease fire on this war, yes, I want this madness to end. But you started this, you brought this upon you. And this time, I will not cower. I am not a coward or a weakling anymore. If you won't end it, I will."

She sighed deeply and turned toward Caesar. "Pardon my outburst, I'm afraid that the shock of the Games and lack of sleep simply makes my hatred grow even more toward those certain people."

"Understandable, I'm sure the rest of Panem of agrees. After all, you all saw how poor Snow was treated."

"Yes." One last tear traveled down her face. "You all saw the pain I went through. That in no way excuses what I have done to all of you, but you all saw. I hope you can understand, even relate possibly to how I felt when they-" she choked. "I'm sorry." she murmured.

In that moment, Snow looked sad, broken, hurt. I wanted to do anything to make her feel better. I would do anything, hurt anyone who had what caused her this pain.

It was clear that all of Panem felt the same way.

Her voice, her words, were unbelievably powerful.

Something was wrong with Snow.

I didn't know what, I didn't know how, or why.

But I did know that District 13 was definitely going to suffer from Snow's sudden change of sides.

And that I was in serious danger of being murdered by the girl I loved.