A Blooming Rose (hunger games fan-fic)

Chapter 20 (Victor's Interview)

Rose stood on stage with Caesar Flickerman once again. The Capitol doctors had fixed Rose up amazingly so she did not have a single scar left on her. Trillium had dressed Rose in a dark blue dress that flowed down to her feet. There were thick that formed a v-neck. The sleeves reached down below her elbows and were cut open and partly see through. They were studded with silver jewels. The dark blue material met at her right hip, which had a silver moon on it. Trillium had curled her hair the best he could and sprayed it with sparkles so every time she turned her head, her hair shone. Her makeup was mostly light sparkles, with bits of blue here and there like in her eye shadow and lipstick. Her shoes were silver sandals and embedded with gems. Around her neck was a small necklace with a single diamond on it.

Before she had left her room to come here, Chaff came into see her. He congratulated Trillium on an amazing job on her outfit and asked for a moment alone with her. Once Trillium left the room, Rose sat down with Chaff by the window.

"Is everything alright?" she had asked.

"Yes, yes, Rose. Everything's fine. The Capitol never got a glance at you during the games." He blinked a few times.

"I tried to hide the best I could. Do you know about..." She rubbed her ear and scratched her nose.

"Couldn't even tell." He squeezed her hand reassuringly, then pulled out a small container.

"What's this?"

"Contacts." Rose stared at him puzzled. "For the interview. Caesar always showed the games to the victor and reactions vary on the person. I wasn't sure how you would handle it, so I had these made for you. They'll hide your eyes so they still appear crystal blue."

"Thank you, Chaff."

"Welcome back, Rosalinda!" Caesar said, bring her back into the present. "Don't you look absolutely stunning! You seem to shine just like the stars." He looked at the crowd. "Doesn't she?"

The Capitol crowd cheered in agreement. Caesar laughed and led Rose to the beautiful white leather seats on the stage. Caesar sat down on the one on the left and Rose took the right. She smiled at him.

"Rosalinda," he began.

"Please Caesar," she politely interrupted. "Call me 'Rose.' Rosalinda seems too long some times."

"I bet it does," Caesar laughed. "Now, Rose." He had paused a moment before and after her name, making sure he got it right and she was alright with it. When he paused after her name, Rose just smiled and gave a small nod. "We're going to view your games and once we're done, we'll get your thought on what was going on."

"Alright."

Rose and Caesar watched as the Games played on a large screen. They started with the Reaping, then the parade, the training scores, then the real Games began. Rose watched as she raced for the weapons and bags close to the Cornucopia. Rose was terrified watching as the tributes began killing each other. She spotted Jonathan. He was fighting Sorrel.

That's who killed him.

The games continued and went through the days, each day that was uneventful only begin about five minutes each. When there was something strange, or a battle between people, they showed the entire footage. They showed Rose waking to seeing the Careers, her agreeing to help them, then them killing her friends. She saw her helping Sorrel, her escape and her tumble into the river. Chrysa helping her to the cave.

They didn't catch my gills.

They showed Vanil's death, Rose's conversations with Chrysa, her leaving and being killed. The next thing she knew, it was a day or two later and she was walking through the woods. The tiger attacked her and they showed the entire fight. Once she killed the creature, Rose hurried and found Affron. They watched their entire conversation.

Rose felt a tear roll down her cheek. She was thankful for the contacts. The flood came and went. The screen showed every death, even if it didn't involve any fighting. The feast came, and Rose could tell that the Capitol people were bored by it. Soon, the fight between Rose and Nilla came and not long after that was the final battle between Rose and Sorrel. They showed their brief conversation at the beginning, then the actual fight. It horrified Rose even more to see it; the spear entering her leg, her still continuing to climb and fighting Sorrel from above before finally throwing the deadly knife.

Then Rose was lifted from the arena and the screen turned off. Rose barely realized she had been sitting there for almost three hours. Caesar laughed and looked at the crowd.

"What an exciting event!" he said. "Wouldn't you agree?"

The crowd cheered and after they calmed down, Caesar looked at Rose.

"Alright, Rose. Let's get your thoughts on some of those things we saw. Let's start with the Bloodbath. Any comments on that?"

"Let's just say, Caesar, that my only thought was to grab what I could, meet up with my allies, and get out."

Caesar nodded.

"And you chose two wonderful allies, indeed. Loredana and Ash."

"They were two people who I trusted the most in that arena."

"And you risked everything for them. After you knocked down the Tracker Jacker nest, you fought the illusions and found them. Then the next day, you wake up to Careers in your camp! What was going through your head then? You must have been terrified!"

"I was a little scared. I thought they were there to kill us all; I never expected they'd want me to help their friend. I should have seen they were only trying to get to me; they never meant to spare Loredana and Ash."

"But they trusted you with their lives, Rose. That has to help ease the pain a little, yes?"

"Not by much. There were too many people who died for me. I should have been dead a long time ago."

Caesar nodded.

"There were a lot of people who risked their lives for you, who trusted you. Do you think you could name some?"

"There was Loredana and Ash, like we already said. Vanil, Osie, and Affron of all people." Caesar laughed a little at this comment. "And Chrysa. She saved my life, after all."

"Yes, yes. It was amazing to watch. Now, going to those tigers we saw. They were created to make a tribute see the thing they loved the most. We learned from Sorrel that that was a girl from his home, but what about you? What did you see?"

"I... I just saw the tiger; a large, white tiger with glowing eyes."

"Now how did that work?"

"There are somethings in our world, Caesar, that I care for, like my family. I've learned, though, not to hold onto something so hard that you love it."

"Why's that?"

"Because if there's something that you love so much, you could lose it in the blink of an eye. Being a nurse in my district, I couldn't think like that."

"Ah. We're going to fast forward quite a bit, now, and go to the end. The final battle between you and Sorrel. I must say, we were all very amused at the conversation you struck up with him at the Cornucopia. Do you have anything to add? Any feelings you want to share that you were experiencing then?"

"I was surprised that he had made it as long as he did. He was a strong fighter, that's for sure. Guess when I worked my 'nurse-magic,' it worked a little too well."

Caesar laughed.

"Well, it would have been either him or Nilla you would have fought. Guess you got lucky."

"You could say that, Caesar. You could most definitely say that."

Caesar smiled, took her hand, and stood up.

"Rosalinda Cobain!" he shouted. "The victor of the 51st Annual Hunger Games!"

The crowd went crazy with excitement.