Seducing the Careers

Snow

"Toni, come on. You leave for your tour today" Nathan gently shakes me awake.

"Ughh. Shut up, Nathaniel" I mumble, turning away from him.

"Ha ha, okay Antoinette. There's someone here to see you" he says, sarcastically.

I groan and turn back towards him. I then rub my eyes open and adjust to the painful light that he must've turned on.

Then I notice the other person in the room.

"Beetee?" I say, once my eyes finally focus. I get out of bed and hug him.

"Oof" he reacts to my hug. "Alright kiddo. I saw you a few days ago" he chuckles.

"Still too long" I joke, releasing the hug.

We see each other every now and then, since we live in the same neighborhood. I've been over to his place many times.

And he's introduced me to his friend, and the only other living victor from 3, Wiress. She was a few screws loose, but she was still nice, fun, and super smart.

"You ready for the tour?" he asks.

"Ugh, absolutely not. I just wanna stay here forever" I say.

"Well tough break kid. You know you also have to help me mentor this year" he says.

"Don't remind me" I complain.

I look around at the messy floor under me. There were pages and pages of drawings depicting the Games.

It all started when I began forgetting exactly what Clove looked like. One day I tried thinking of her and realized I couldn't depict her perfectly in my head like I could before.

You can imagine how I spiraled into looking up footage of her. To remember, I draw her every day, to make sure the intricacies of her face are engrained in my head and will never leave.

Maybe I am a little bit crazy. But it helps.

Then I realized how much I enjoyed drawing and I started drawing other things from my Games: the forest, the sky, the people. It's almost therapeutic in a way; calming.

And it helped that Chastise said I needed a talent to show off to the Capitol, one that didn't involve "threatening" intellectual activities, like ammunitions engineering.

It's crazy how that used to be my whole life. My whole job. And now what do I do? Sit in my big, rich house all day, drawing pictures of dead people, and then lie awake at night so I don't see them again.

Beetee sighs and picks a drawing of Clove off the ground. "I hope you have some good ones not of her? The camera crew will be here later for you to show off your talent" he says.

"Toni!" I hear my mother beckon me from downstairs.

"Ughhh. Coming moomm!" I yell back. "I'll be right back" I say to Beetee and my brother.

I start walking downstairs.

"Are you excited for your tour, dear?" she asks in an overly sweet voice, once she sees me.

"What do you mean, mom, of course n—"

"—Toni sweetie, we have visitors" my mom interrupts me.

I finally notice she guy at the door. He looked to be some sort of Capitol official. I finish walking down the stairs and stand beside my mother.

I eye her, seeing her incredibly anxious state.

"Miss Hart. This way, please" he says, leading me to another room in the house.

A room that held one of the frequent characters from my nightmares: President Snow.

When he said we'd talk soon, I never thought it would be this soon. And in my own house of all places.

"President Snow. What an honor" I greet him.

"My dear, I think we can make this so much simpler if we agree not to lie to each other. What do you think?" he says.

I try not to think about how much I hate this man. About all the harm he's caused. All the lives he took.

"Yes, I think that would save time" I respond.

"Sit down, please" he gestures for me to sit across from him and I do so.

"I have a problem, Miss Hart" he asserts. "A problem that began the moment you took our arena and used it against us."

"I mean, you can't know this, but in several of the districts, especially your own, people viewed your little trick as an act of defiance. And if you can defy The Capitol and walk away unharmed, what is to prevent them from doing the same? What is to prevent, say, an uprising? That can lead to revolution. And then, in a fraction of time, the whole system collapses" he levels with me.

"It must be a fragile system, if it can be brought down by just a few bombs and some shampoo" I deadpan.

"Yes, it is, indeed" he agrees. I almost laugh.

"Do you still have that knife? I see it's no longer in your hair" he asks me, changing the subject.

"I always have it on me" I affirm.

"It was that girl's right?" he asks.

"Clove" I grit out, knowing he already knew her name.

"She was a lovely girl" he tells me, clearly trying to get a reaction out of me.

Lovely wasn't the first word that should come to his mind. She was snarky. Could kill you in a second. One of the reasons why I loved her.

"Tell me. At what point did he realize the depth of your love towards her?" he asks.

"I never loved her" I say, remaining emotionless.

"Don't lie! You promised" he argues.

I can no longer hold off my scoff. "Why don't you just kill me now?" I push.

"I've killed entire families for less. But I don't want to have to kill yours or you" he tells me.

"What do I need to do?" I ask impatiently, knowing he expected something from me.

"When you're on tour, you need to smile. You need to be grateful. Don't do anything to fan the flame of rebellion. You didn't mean anything by using the bombs. You just saw no other way to win" he tells me.

It was the truth. I hadn't meant for it to be rebellious.

"But, above all, when you get back to the Capitol, you need to make sure they know that you were never in love with Clove. A victor strung up on some dead girl is not desirable" he tells me.

I nod but don't understand why he needs me to be so desirable.

"You think you can manage that?" he asks.

"Sure, but why?" I say, rudeness seeping through my voice.

"I'll tell you that later. For now you'll do what I've said" he tells me.

"Okay" I accept.

"Okay, what?" he pushes.

"I'll convince them" I say, trying to hide the annoyance in my voice.

"No. Convince me, Miss Hart. Do convince me. For the sake of your loved ones" he threatens, making me clench my jaw.