The Return of the Hunger Games [FALLEN ASHES] Book II

(19)

I cant stop staring at the screen, even when it goes black. I'm looking for a reason why Thalia would do such a thing, why she would kill her own blood. I finally snap out of it when Kal gets up abruptly and storms off the stage. I watch as he leaves and then I turn to Pluto. He doesn't know what to do either, so he gets up and announces that they will continue the LIVE interviews tomorrow. Once I see the red light from the camera go off, I quickly stand up and thank Pluto for the interviews and run off the stage as well.

Once I'm backstage, the cameras are blinding as the flash hits every second. I can hear Kal yelling and screaming, I find him and run towards him.

"Why didn't anybody tell us anything!?" He exclaims to my parents.

I put my hand on his arm and he pushes off him angrily.

"Kal!" I yell, grabbing him furiously now. "Not here! Not now!" I say, moving my eyes in the direction of all the cameras.

Kal watches and realizes that the paparazzi are filming and taking an immense amount of pictures.

"Lets go up to the floor." My mother says.

We all hop into the elevator and its the quietest we've ever been. Once we get to the 13th floor we all gather around the living room, including Manara and Tau.

"Someone please explain!" Kal yells.

Anger begins to register into me as well, someone should have told us, anyone.

"I'm pretty sure Pluto explained it all." My father says.

"Why were we not informed of all this!? You should have realized that there were going to be questions about both Thalia and Roselyn!" I yell.

The elevator door rings and opens and out steps Gale.

Kal is immediately even more on edge.

"You knew about this!?" He asks.

Gale takes in a deep breath. "Yes." He admits.

I chuckle and cross my arms. "Unbelievable."

"I can't believe you guys."

I can see the guilt in all the adults eyes.

"I want to see the tapes." Kal says.

"In the morning." My mother tells him.

"No! Now! I dont care if I don't sleep for about a week, I'm watching the Games!" He yells.

I nod in agreement. Everyone just stares at us, but they know they have no choice but to show us the tapes. We're not taking no for an answer.

Kal and I change into our normal, more comfortable clothes and sit and wait for my mother to come back to the floor with the tapes. I'm nervous about watching the tapes, but I'm tired of all the secrets. I'm done being clueless. Rayla takes a seat next to me. I'm mad at her too.

"Elissa, Kal." Rayla says. All the adults are having a conversation in the kitchen, no one can hear us. Kal and I turn to Rayla. "There are some things that happened in that arena with the other tributes that you guys," she takes in a deeo breath, "That you guys might find unbearable. A lot happened and thats one of the reasons why they didn't want to show you the tapes." She explains.

I look at her for a while. This coming from Rayla must be a warning that watching the tapes might not be such a good thing. But I'm curious to know what Rayla means by all of this. I've seen plenty of unbearable things, a few more won't be so bad.