Garden of Eden

Epilogue

Haymitch tilts his head back and pours the entire contents of the tiny glass into his mouth.

The pure liquid burns its way down his throat and warms the pit of his stomach nicely.

He has lost count of how many shots he has had. Somewhere around the fifteen mark, he reckons.

Haymitch takes a look around the huge extravagant house and hates every little single detail about it.

He hates the colour of the expensive curtains. He hates the intricate designs carved onto the side of the posh kitchen table. He hates the ridiculous patterns on the pricey rug. But most of all he hates how he's forced to live here completely by himself.

Two weeks after he emerged the victor of the Fiftieth Hunger Games his mother, brother, and girlfriend had all met with an unfortunate accident. That's total bullshit.

They were murdered by Snow. Their only crime being they were the unfortunate few Haymitch actually cared about.

When Haymitch had found out they were dead, killed in a mysterious house fire when they were finishing packing to move into this house, he had ran immediately to Konrad.

He had shown up, distraught and completely alone, on the doorstep of his mentor's house.

Konrad offered him comfort in the form of alcohol. That was the first time Haymitch ever drank.

Now he's dead too, thinks Haymitch bitterly, looking at the letter he had left behind.

Mitch,

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. By the time you read this I'll be well beyond reach. Give it twenty years and maybe – just maybe – you'll understand why I had to do what I did. You're a good kid. Don't let them break you like they did me. I'm sorry, kid, but I broke. Don't feel bad or anything. I'm with my family at last. I'm finally happy now.

– K. Stark

Haymitch crumples the paper, enraged.

What about my family? What about Lucas? He was only thirteen!

He pulls the knife he had buried into the table and flings it across the room. Not caring where it lands.

A glass sculptured lamp falls with a crash.

Haymitch has been in a foul mood ever since Konrad told him why Snow wanted to punish him so.

He had made the Capitol look the fool.

Bastard could have told me earlier!

Haymitch then begins to think back to his gruesome and bloody battle with Ruby. And how it eventually led to the deaths of those dearest to him.

It all started when first the boy from District 3 got killed in combat. Then the older brother from Seven got eaten alive by a pack of those golden squirrels. Both died on the same day. It would be yet another day before he would confront Ruby.

She was massive, even bigger than him, and just as fast.

He took an axe to the stomach, and she lost an eye, before the monster disarmed him during their harrowing duel to the death. With nothing left to lose, he turned and headed through the woods.

Haymitch can still remember the slickly feel of his intestines trying to escape through the hand he had clamped over his stomach, desperately trying to keep it in.

She had stumbled after him, holding the axe that should have delivered his death blow.

He had made a beeline for his cliff, knowing what to do once he got there. He reached the edge of the cliff just as District 1 threw her axe. However, he collapsed to the ground before the axe could hit him. It flew uselessly into the chasm.

Ruby stood, weaponless, as he began to convulse on the ground. She tried to staunch the flow of pouring blood from her empty eye socket, thinking that she could perhaps outlive him.

But that's where she was wrong.

Because what she didn't know, and he did, was that there is a force field at the bottom of the cliff. Her axe came back and buried itself in her skull, killing her. A cannon sounded, her body retrieved, trumpets signalled his victory. "Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victor of the Fiftieth Hunger Games – and second Quarter Quell – Haymitch Abernathy of District Twelve!" Claudius Templesmith had said. Haymitch remembers the roar of the Capitol which was played live through the speakers.

Drinking straight out of a bottle of Smirnoff, Haymitch now thinks about how he figured out that there was a force field in the arena in the first place.

He had finally made it through the seemingly impossible hedge with the help of a blowtorch. On the other side he found a barren land. A path led to the edge of a cliff. As he skirted its edge, thinking of his next move – now that he has seen the end of the arena – he accidently dislodged a pebble.

Tired, he had sat down to rest. A minute passed and suddenly the small rock had come back up to land beside him. Intrigued, he had stared at it first in confusion before he took on a more intense expression, remembering something.

Wanting to test his theory, he found a rock the size of his fist and threw it over the cliff. One minute went by before that same rock flew back and landed in his hand. He had laughed.

That was when he heard the scream; heard her scream.

The image of sapphire blue eyes suddenly appears before Haymitch.

Those mesmerising blue eyes which had kept him grounded and sane in the arena for so long.

Maysilee...

His mind still clouded, Haymitch drops the Smirnoff and stumbles upstairs. He enters his lavish room and pulls open a draw from his bedside table.

He reaches in and pulls out a golden pin.

Haymitch had promised her that he would return it to her sister, but he hasn't been able to bring himself to just yet.

He didn't think he was ready to handle seeing someone who looked just like her. And then, of course, as he had finally worked up enough courage to visit a certain sweetshop he had been stopped and told of the fire that had consumed his old Seam house.

As drunk as he currently is, Haymitch can't see anymore point in putting it off.

So getting up from the soft silky covers of his bed - he can't even remember ever having sat down - he staggers back into the hallway.

It's lit by a too bright crystal chandelier and Haymitch is wishing he had another knife to throw at it.

Somehow he manages to make it downstairs without falling and breaking his neck.

He opens the front door and is assaulted by the flurry of snow blowing in the wind. Ignoring it, Haymitch steps out and closes the door behind him. He walks down the paved path that leads out of Victor's Village and makes his way into town.