The Littlest Victor

Chapter 2

The ceremonies and celebrations following the Hunger Games' conclusion were, in the considered opinion of the Powers that Were, a flop. Their Victor was easily the youngest in the Games' history, but she moved through the next days like an automaton. Her expression was frozen, and her eyes...nobody liked looking into her eyes. Well-meaning people crowded close to congratulate her, only to recoil when they got close enough to see what her eyes were like. Even President Snow, the coolest of all cool hands, wouldn't look into her eyes as he placed the golden crown of victory on her head. It was a little too large, and slipped down farther than it was supposed to.

Only once did her sedative-granted composure break. She was on television, being interviewed by Caesar Flickerman, when he asked her: "And what would you say to Katniss, if you could say anything to her?"

She had answered his previous questions in a strained, polite monotone, but that one got through. Rue suddenly gave Caesar a penetrating stare, and said, in a low voice: "I don't know what I'd say to her. What can you say to someone who laid down her life so that you could live?" Then she broke down in a flood of tears, and before anybody had the wit to turn the cameras away, all of Panem saw Caesar Flickerman holding Rue close, rocking her and crooning to her as though she were his own daughter.

Mercifully, that was on the last day of her Capitol stay, and the next morning saw her on the train back to District 11. She stared out the window as the Capitol's gaudy, colorful buildings went by, faster and faster, but did not seem to be seeing them at all. The people gathered to see her off waved tentatively as the train began to move, before turning and leaving the station, looking sheepish and ashamed.