Twice The Price (Hunger Games - Haymitch Abernathy)

Chapter 3 - Goodbye

I am taken down small corridor towards a room with large pine door. I am lead inside to somewhat plain room. There is a dusty blue settee with a larger oak table in front. The large window placed exactly opposite the door, lets in a limited amount of light through the grime that has covered it over the years. A small chandelier hangs in the the centre of the room that has a musky smell to it. Behind me the door shuts and I'm left alone with my thoughts.

I wander over to the settee to wait for my for my final visits from the inhabitants of District 12 who want to say their last goodbyes. In come my mum with Kayle in her arms. I can see her eyes a red and puffy she has been crying. I run over and give her a hug. We sit on the settee with Kayle between us.

"Why me mum?"

"I don't know Haymitch, I just don't know. You have to come home. You have to!"

"I'll try. I can't promise. I don't want to make a promise I might not keep. If I don't win. Don't stay still, move on but don't forgot me. I'm not becoming a name in the sky"

"I could never forget you. You are the inferno that keeps me going. The day your father...part of it went out but two parts remain. He left a hole that will never heal. It might not hurt as much but there will still be parts missing. And I don't want to make that empty space bigger"

I try not cry, the words sting my wounded heart that still yearns for him. Wishes that the unfortunate events that have fallen upon my family never happened. Hates that the Capitol are pulling Kayle's family apart. Soon there will be nobody left. "Mum" is all I can manage. Kayle stands up and walks across the room to look at the ornaments on the mantelpiece above an empty grate. "What are you going to tell him?"

"I don't know. I just don't know what to say"

There is a clatter and the sound shattering of glass from over where Kayle is, I ignore it.

"Urmm, tell him the truth. Not yet but when he asks. Tell him. Don't lie. He deserves to now what happened to me if I don't come home. And whatever you do don't let him volunteer. It's not worth it. Only let him take tessarea if it is absolutely necessary. And please look after him. Keep the money coming in by mending the old clothes and creating new ones" I tell her

"I will. Now say good bye to him, there isn't long left"

"Kayle. Come here"

He puts a quaint looking object back on the hearth and comes over to me. I pick him up and sit him on my knee.

"Kayle. I'm going away for a little bit"

"I know. You were picked. Are you coming home?"

"I don't know. I really don't know. I will try my hardest to come home but I can't promise you anything"

"Okay, do the people picked ever come home?

"Only once" I say, thinking of Ander Welpt winner of the 21st Hunger Games, at 18 years old.

"Maybe, you can make two"

"Maybe Kayle, maybe"

I give both of them a hug as the peacekeeper comes in and tells me time is up. And once again, I am on my own. But not for long as Alex comes in. Their are no tears this time.

"I can't believe you were picked. First Yasmine, now you! I hate the Capitol! I hate the gamemakers! I hate the person that came up with these sick games! And all for the entertainment for the idiots in the Capitol! I hate living here! But where is there to go! We know nothing about the outside world. If there is one. It's just Panem. The twelve districts, the Capitol and the ruins of District 13" She almost shouts at me.