The 1st Quarter Quell

Chapter 20 - Prelude

Mason

A feast was bad for all of us, but at the same time it was a good thing. Sort of.

As soon as they mention the Feast, images of past Feasts at Games run through my mind like a kaleidoscope, but I immediately push them away. This is my Games, my choice. And I'm not going to let them decide for me what I'm going to do.

I sit here in despair as Althea writhes in my arms. I made a promise to her mother when she came to see me before we left -

She had come into the room in a flood of tears, not how people often saw the great Gloria Aldjoy in District 2. She had sat on the sofa and cried her eyes out. I had thought she'd never stop. She had told me how grateful she was when I saved her daughter's life in the mines some time ago, and how I'd gone to continue to look out for her after that. She had asked if I was willing to do the same in the Arena; I told her I'd never stopped looking out for Althea.

I'd joined up with the Career Pack to divert their search, antagonized Titan and Ruby so they'd be more intent on killing me in the end, playing along with Jasper's deceptive 'friendship' when he'd planned to kill her all along. I even sent them after the girl from District 3 when she planned to kill Althea.

Looking at her now, a girl I've always admired and looked out for, I feel like I've failed Gloria Aldjoy. By not going to this Feast I would still be failing her. I'm not one to break oaths, and I certainly won't start now, even if that means dying myself.

"Mason?" Saffron asks me after I zone out on her. Looking at the small girl with her big concerned eyes makes me not want to believe she had the potential to kill someone easily. Probably why she was voted into this thing. I saw her in action to know well enough not to underestimate her. I learned that well enough from Althea.

"Sorry, I- I just don't like seeing her like this." I mumble looking down at Althea. Her sky blue irises had become a thin, pale ring around huge dark pupils, her skin a more sickly colour than its normal ivory. It pains me to see her like this, it pains me beyond description. I'd fought so hard to look after her at this point and a silly mistake had put her life on the line.

"I thought you hated each other." Saffron says suspiciously, her eyes flicking between me and Althea.

"I've never hated her, it was all for the show." My voice breaks, and I swallow bile, "I'm going to the Feast."

"Mason, no!"

"Why not? So I can sit back and watch her die?" Grief breaks through my voice, but this time I don't hesitate to hold it back. I can't let her die, I won't. I've seen this poison run it's course in people with the videos my Father made me watch to toughen me up regardless of the tears, I've seen the pain it causes, the insanity, I can't- 

No. It won't happen to Althea, it won't.

"She- she might n-not even suffer that-"

"Saffron," I put my palms together, pleading, "My Grandfather made the biggest use of this storm gas in the Dark Days - first it's the burning lungs, then it's hallucinations. After that they start to lash out at anyone around them. Then, they start to hurt themselves. After that, they die. Slow and painful, and there's nothing to stop it except the antidote, the antidote I bet is at the Feast."

Saffron's eyes go dark with horror, and I have to swallow more bile as the unpleasant image of Althea dying like this clouds my thoughts. I push them away as best as I can. I keep telling myself over and over again that she'll pull through. that I'll pull through and get the antidote for her.

"The lucky ones," I scoff, "just die from suffocation, none of those effects." Althea stirs in my arms slightly, and putting a hand to her head, she's gone ice cold. I can't imagine the pain she must be feeling inside, even if she is unconscious and hallucinating. I don't know what I'd rather, her dying without the pain, her her surviving through a world load of pain. It's a decision no Gamemaker should be allowed to take. No one should be allowed to make this decision. But it looks like I'm going to have to.