The Hunger Games: Victor

Chapter 4

There are thousands of people, dark silhouettes of children, dancing on my chest around a fire. They are screaming, they are singing, they are whispering darkness into my ears. I am suffocated by them, and I am afraid. The fire is consuming me, burning my heart from the inside and filling my lungs with smoke. The silhouettes are whispering “freedom” to me, but the words sting like poisonous death. I cannot free myself from them. They are consuming me, filling my brain with guilt and regret. I look down but I can’t move my head, and I can see that blood is staining my hands. It is soaking into me. I’m trapped.

I wake up in a strange bed with the sun hitting my eyelids. It’s warm and smells like clean laundry, and the bedding is made of soft silk and feathers. I move my hand up to cover my eyes from the sun and I look at the walls of the room that lay just in front of me. They are the colour of an eggshell and have rectangular paintings of tributes on them, each with a scribbled signature on the bottom of them. I look at their faces; Primrose in a forest surrounded by animals, Katniss adorned by flames with her bow ready, a portrait of Zayn staring up into the night sky, a redheaded girl from the 74th running in the forest, Rue from the 74th laying dead surrounded by flowers and a large boy from the 74th holding a flame in his palm. They are all gorgeously crafted, and I can’t take my eyes off them.

“Peeta painted them.”

I turn over in the bed and see Harry laying beside me, his hair scrunched up against the pillow. He looks sleepy, and a lazy smile trickles across his mouth when I turn to him. The blanket is pulled up over his shoulder to hide his bare body and he adjusts himself so that the blanket no longer covers his face.

“They’re beautiful. He’s an amazing painter.”

“What else does he have now besides painting?”

I frown at that. I know Harry doesn’t mean it spitefully, but thinking about Peeta having nothing but his paintings of his dead fiance is a painful image. Harry reads the dismay on my face and moves closer to me, reaching his hand across the space between us and placing it on my hip.

“You know, you look beautiful without clothes on, you should do it more often.”

“I’ll consider it,” I say, and I can’t help but laugh. Harry laughs with me, and for a moment I forget everything about this world we’ve become entrapped in.

But then Harry sits up and I see his mockingjay tattoo, and everything comes flooding back to me. I stare at his chest and find that the Capitol brand isn’t the only tattoo that adorns his body. On his chest are two birds, mockingjays that are facing each other. Flames make up most of the rest of his tattoos, making his body into a canvas of war and rebellion.

“We should probably get ready, we’ve got a meeting today.”

“A meeting? With who?”

“Niall, Havoc, Cainon, Gale. A couple others too. The leader of the district rebellion is there, along with some people from District 13.”

“District 13? That was destroyed years ago.”

“Or so we thought. Come on, it’ll all make sense soon, I promise.”

I get out of bed and wrap the top sheet of the bed around my body. Harry smiles and tosses me a black bodysuit from where he’s standing.

“This is your uniform. We’re all wearing something similar. Gotta look cool when you kick ass.”

I nod and go into the bathroom. The outfit is simple; a black body suit with gold accents, and a light grey outline of leaves around the chest area. It’s meant to look somewhat regal, and it’s incredibly elegant. I grab a brush from the bathroom counter and take it through my hair. There are lots of gaps where my hair burned off in the climax of the games, and it frustrates me to no end. I scavenge enough hair to pull my hair into a low ponytail and observe myself in the mirror. I look very fit in the body suit, a combination of the games and the complementary shape of the suit. My face still looks beat up, with the loss of part of my lip and a few left over bruising, but my eyes are intense and look alien to me. They look like the eyes of someone who is angry and fearless, though I know that inside I am afraid and unwilling to fight. The girl in the mirror deceives me, she wants to look unlike the truth.

“Kate, come on! We don’t want to be late.”

I leave the bathroom and Harry grabs my hand. He is dressed in roughly the same outfit, but it is fitted with gun holsters around the waist. He takes me out of the room and down the hall. The inside of the building looks similar to the training centre, but much more elegant. This building was probably meant for Capitol citizens, and Capitol citizens only.

“What is this place?” I ask Harry. I doesn’t turn to talk to me as he leads me down the hall.

“This is where lots of people stayed to watch the games. It’s kind of like a ritzy resort for people with bets on tributes. It has 24/7 coverage of the games, betting tables, TV’s in every room; the like. It’s also our base in the Capitol.”

“How did you take this place? It must have been heavily guarded.”

“You’ll figure it all out in a bit, we’re here at the meeting room. Just listen to what our leader has to say, she’ll fill you in on all of the details and all of the plans.”

Harry kisses my forehead and opens the door of the room we’ve stopped in front of. The people in the room are seated at a large circular table, but they rise as I enter. I see Niall and Gale together, smiling at me. Across from them are Havoc and Cainon, along with the design team. There are others too, wearing grey suits that I can only guess are from District 13.

“Welcome, Miss Lindhill,” calls a sweet voice from the head of the table. My heart stops as I see her, the leader of the rebellion. She is wearing a bodysuit similar to mine, but the leafy pattern is in gold rather than grey, and she has her own mockingjay pin on her chest. Her blonde hair is braided and circled into a bun, and her intense amber coloured eyes stare into me. She’s smiling warmly, and I can’t help but smile back, despite my utter shock at seeing her.

“Dieter!”