Stargazer • The Hunger Games

SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
❝Nothing To Remember❞

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Everything after my victory was a blur. I remember the muted silver lights and sterilised innards of the hovercraft as it plucked me out of the arena before taking me on a quick trip to the Capitol. Nurses injected me with cooling fluid and hooked me up to machines that created syncopated rhythms beside me. Words were exchanged from person to person but none of them were directed to me. Luckily, because I found it not possible to speak back to them. While I was in my sedated state, my mind wandered to what I had been through in the past week. I had gone from living in luxury to living in a tree. My emotion known as love had bloomed in a sudden crescendo before getting annihilated into a million microscopic pieces. If I could go back to those few moments before the games had begun I would have stepped off my platform early and gotten blown up. At least I would not have to face what I was about to go through.

Fifteen minutes was all it took for the hovercraft to return to the Capitol. I felt the bone jittering landing before the wide doors opened, letting harsh rays of pounding white light into my vision. After that everything continued to blur into one. I was wheeled on my rickety metal bed into the medical centre where they poked and prodded me once more. Cold black eyes stared down at me, flashing a weak light into my eyes every so often before summing up my entire existence into one simple sentence. "She's in shock."

Of course I was in shock. Who wouldn't be after all that I had witnessed. The past few hours were the icing on the cake when it came to shock. Watching person after person die until it came down to just myself, Moss and Eric. Watching my closest friend and my only love die before shooting an arrow into my rival's chest. If that did not cause shock then I don't know what did.

For most victors, they were presented to the people of Panem with in a day or two of winning. Some who left the arena without even the slightest scrape were usually mingling with the Capitol before the day was out. Me on the other hand, I was frozen on my rickety bed in the medical centre. For three days I dared not move or sleep. Either would cause nightmares or make myself extremely uncomfortable. My mind was just a blank canvas, unable to absorb even the slightest drop of paint.

On the third day I stirred from my catatonic shock as one of the nurses had called it. One moment I was counting the dots on the ceiling for the thousandth time and then I was up and walking towards the door. I shocked the nurses and I also shocked myself.

Timidly, I spoke for the first time since becoming victor. My throat was cracked and my voice was small but it was enough to grab the nurses' attention. "Do I get to see my mentors now?"

The nurse who had diagnosed my shock looked up at me from her seat, this time it was her to be the one in shock. "Alice? You're up!"

"No use wallowing around in my regrets for the rest of my days." I walked slowly around the room that was joined onto the one I had been inside for the past few days. It was silver just like the other one and smelt strongly of sterilisation.

"Well then!" The nurse stood up in a rush and hurried towards me. Her cool black eyes matched her braided black hair and chalk white skin. "Let's get you looking spic spec!"

For the next hour the nurse ran me over with every physical she could conjure up just to make sure I was stable enough to face the public eye. When her tests proved that I was able to be put in a chair in front of thousands of adoring eyes, my prep team that I had almost forgotten about rushed into the room. Their eyes were bright and their smiles wider than any seen before.

"Alice!"

"Oh dear I knew it was you!"

"Our victor!"