Alyssa of Nine (Reimagining the Hunger Games)

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Victor

The next place I fully remember finding myself is lying in a hospital room, and I looked around, wondering how I got here after I was taken on board the plane back to the Capitol from the arena. Then I realized, I must have either passed out or I was kept under some kind of heavy sedatives.

I tried to sit myself up, but some Capitol Nurse is suddenly right at my bedside and she says, "Don't move Miss Whitestone. You've just lived through a brutal two-week ordeal in a desert arena. You still have quite a bit of recovering to go before you're of a condition stable enough to even meet with visitors. And before you ask, Noah, Henrietta, Athena, and your makeup team are all well. Now get some rest, that is something you need. Rest." She implores, so I give in for the time and close my eyes again.

***

A few more days pass, during which time I discover that while I was skinny before I had entered the arena, I was now so thin I could see several of my bones almost protruding, but that wasn't surprising. I could also see that the cut in my hand and any traces of the other wounds I suffered in the Games, even scars left over from where Caretaker Grimes or Mrs. Bryant had struck me many times in years before, were all gone. I don't know how they did it, and I'm too busy being thankful to have survived to really care.

They feed me, but not full course, regular meals, let alone any of the decadent, lavish kinds of rich Capitol foods I had indulged in before my Games. They might give me a small bowl of applesauce in the morning along with a glass of water, or a plain serving of meat and vegetables with just one roll of bread for dinner.

It turned out I had some considerable difficulty with even keeping most of that stuff down. If I had been allowed anything heavier I would likely throw it back up again. I was pretty much sure I never wanted anything else to do with the Capitol for the rest of my life anyway. Unfortunately, I already knew enough about a victor's life to know that I would never be allowed to just slip away back home in quiet seclusion to try to forget.

***

One day, just after I had finished my lunch, I had a visitor. Athena, Henrietta, and my makeup crew were likely still hard at work with their plans for my makeup and Victory Parade dress, as well as determining what I would wear for my televised victory interview tonight and for the official Crowning Ceremony tommorow morning. So I was able to understand why they never visited. Noah however, I still waited for. I don't know why I wanted to see him again so much. He's only my mentor, and it's not as though he could really be in love with me. We both know that would be extremely dangerous. But still I waited for Noah to come.

And soon enough, Noah came to visit.

He sits down in a chair nearby my bed, and says, "Hey. How are you doing?" He asks me. "Well, I'm better than I was when they first took me out of the arena. But not in every sense. Still, I managed to stay alive through all that, and that's not nothing." I reply.

All of a sudden, something seems to come undone in me. After everything I had been through, these Games, losing Marina, Jayden, and Matthew, not being able to save them, even the two tributes I had killed myself--Adonis and Emerald. Not to mention the hard truth of what I now was, not only in the eyes of this nation but to myself, I end up crying. Not hysterically, just quiet sobs, and Noah lays down on the bed next to me, and holds me in his arms. "Noah! You're not supposed to be this close to me. There could be Capitol spies watching us. I-I'm fine. Really."

"Damn the whole Capitol, the poisonous President, and his corrupt spies." Noah whispers. "And you're not all right. But I'll tell you something. You're going to keep surviving, even if I have to be by your side every step of the way, and I'll still be your mentor, mentor. I admit I have another confession. I love you, Alyssa Whitestone. And I'll go back in the arena before I'll ever let you go."

That is exactly what I was afraid all along would happen. But instead of arguing about it, I decide to let Noah hold me in his arms for the time. Neither of us could have known it just then, but we would both be fated to return to the arena with other renowned victors for the Third Quarter Quell.

***

I stand in front of a grand mirror, and I am wearing a powder-blue long-sleeved dress of a light, floaty material, like silk. My makeup is light and natural this time as opposed to all the gold shimmer powder and dramatic black eyeliner and mascara they put on me before. My own Victory Interview would begin in five minutes, and Noah is backstage with me as well. "Now, when you're up in front of your audience, and Caesar asks you about how you survived, or even about the letters I sent you, tell them that the only thing I meant by it was to push you, to make sure you would win. Remind them that you are Alyssa of Nine, and that you've been a fighter, and a victor all along."

"Okay." I say, barely above a whisper. Noah says to me, "I'll see you when it's over." And as soon as I hear Caesar say loudly to the audience, "Ladies and Gentlemen, now that you've seen the Games and witnessed the shocking and epic finale just five days ago, this is the Victory Interview you've all been waiting for! Let's give our loudest cheers yet for the deadly wrathful Queen who survived against the odds, Alyssa Whitestone!"

And I walked onstage and sat down in the chair next to where Caesar also sat down, as the thunderous applause died down. The first few questions he asked were mainly about where I had learned all my survival skills, or if it was an easy thing or not for me to kill Emerald and Adonis, and who was the most difficult of them to take care of in my opinion. I was also asked how I felt about Jeremy's murder, or even the murders of my own allies, and even what I intended to do with all my new found wealth, since I was no longer just a mere orphan from District Nine. I answered these questions as best as I could.

Then, Caesar asks me, "Now, I have one last question for you, Alyssa. It's about your mentor, Noah Linwood. Were those letters he sent you in the arena only letters of mentor support, or, could there have been the blossoming of a very forbidden romance?"

To this, I say, Noah and I would never even think of being in such a relationship. Noah has been an excellent mentor to me, and I made a point of learning as much as I could from him in training for the Games. I told everyone here that I wouldn't be so easily defeated, well here I am, alive, and blessed by the Capitol for being alive today, for my fame, and my fortunes. I know I won't be living in the District Nine community orphan home anymore, that's for sure."

"No, that you will not." Caesar replies. "You are as much a darling of the Capitol as any other victors. And we love you for it!"

Then Caesar says to the audience, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Queen of the Pyramids from District Nine, Alyssa Whitestone, our proud nation's newest victor of the 73rd Annual Hunger Games!" And the audience goes wild.

***

At the Crowning Ceremony the next day, I am wearing a jeweled powder blue dress with long sleeves, and it is President Snow himself who places a Crown of Victors on my head. "Congratulations Miss Whitestone. You are very fortunate to have survived. I know your District must be very proud of you, and so must your little friends."

"Thank you." I say to him. Maybe, after all, I have been overworried. Maybe he suspects nothing. I almost feel like breathing a sigh of relief.

But then Snow says something to me that causes the relief to die and be replaced with only more growing fear. "I suggest you be careful, or you could very well be the cause of the sudden downfall of your friends, and others from your District. I suggest you think about whether it's even worth it to put Noah in such danger."

But even though I am terrified at even the thought that something terrible could happen to the people I care about, to my district if I'm not as careful as President Snow expects, still I don't show it since all the eyes of this nation are on me. I am a Victor, and the show must go on.