This Isn't Me ↠ Sequel to INWYTIA ↠ Team Crafted and Hunger Games Fanfiction

Chapter 3: Alive

"Hardly." President Snow laughed. "We have other uses for you."

"Like what?"

"You started a rebellion. You can end one too."

"I'm never siding with you again."

"We've been over this. You don't have to be you anymore. We don't need you to understand any information you've been given. You know nothing about District 13."

"Tracker Jacker venom?"

"Not yet."

A few moments of silence.

"You're just going to brainwash me." I concluded. "Take away the memories of the bad things you've done, give me the one's of-" I stopped.

"You can't even say their names." He sounded disgusted. "You're weak."

"Maybe so. But we both know I'm stronger than you." I stared at him. He didn't flinch or wince under my sharp gaze like most people. But I could see straight into his non-existent bastard soul. He was scared. "And I'm not just talking about physically."

"You're right. Too bad you won't remember how strong you are." He laughed evilly.

"We're a lot alike." I said.

That caught him off guard.

"I know I deny it and refuse it, but it's true. We're a lot alike."

"Oh Snow." His bastard demeanor had reappeared. "You're different from every single person in Panem. And not in any way you'd think."

I didn't respond.

"I'll see you in the morning. Be ready for brainwashing."

Jason

"He's in here."

The guard's voice echoed down the long hallway. I sat miserably in a cold prison cell that smelled of blood and urine.

General Pristeen walked into the room, her eyes were still angry and filled with fire.

"I'm sorry." I muttered.

"Don't say you're sorry." She said staring at me."I know you're not, not truly."

I didn't respond.

"You think that I'm not aware that my daughter is dead?"

Silence was my best option.

"She wasn't supposed to go into the Games. We were supposed to pick her up from District 2 a month or so after the reaping. We never got the chance." She laughed sadly. "The idiot decided to volunteer. She hated her life. But you know all about that don't you?"

"I do."

"I'm aware that my daughter is dead. Are you aware that you were the first person she trusted in eighteen years?"

"I-I never thought about it like that." I truthfully hadn't.

"Of course you didn't. Didn't think about it like that when you teamed up with that annoying blonde..." she trailed off before saying the choice words she had stored up inside for Vena. "Something about that arena made Snow trust people."

"She knew she was going to die soon, she wanted to. Maybe she wanted to let everything out."

"My husband and I," General Pristeen hesitated. "The second rebellion was quiet, the Capitol hushed it up. District 13 pulled a bad move rebelling then, half its people were dead from some kind of disease that had spread through. They didn't have the resources or the army to stand a chance." She sighed. "I supposed that's why they called us. We were the best generals. And they knew we hadn't been pleased with the President's way of doing things. We became spies. But President Snow figured it out, we fled before he had a chance to kill us." She hesitated again. This time as she spoke, she choked a little. "We had to leave her behind. You understand that, don't you? She couldn't come where we were going. No, better to leave her behind. President Snow would take care of her, he wouldn't kill her. We knew it. She had the DNA for success, he could brainwash her in favor of the Capitol. Perhaps a bad move for District 13 on our part, but we couldn't take our child here when she was a mere infant. They weren't ready yet, they didn't have the technology or the resources to spare."

Her voice had become very quiet. "I know she's dead. So don't you go snapping at me, saying that she's dead. You understand?"

"Yes."

"Her death was a combined effort. If we hadn't left her behind or we hadn't left at all, she would have parents. She wouldn't be alone, she wouldn't have volunteered. Then of course in the arena, you, Vena, Jerome, Thalia, and Mitch all had a part to play in her...death."

General Pristeen stared at the ceiling. "She's dead. God, my poor daughter is dead. She did nothing wrong, none of this is her fault. She just..."

Her gaze focused onto me. "Leave."

My eyes widened. "No punishment?"

"I'm surprised you're risking asking me. But no. Though, make no mistake, training is going to be even more hell for you now."

It was a small price to pay. I rushed out of the cell avoiding the gaze of the guard and left Snow's sad, regretful mother alone with her thoughts.

***

"Capitol News is airing now." Vena said.

"Got it." I turned toward the screen located in the training room. All the former Games tributes were warming up for today's training with General Pristeen (this time it was Snow's dad).

Caesar Flickerman's beaming face shined on the screen. Today, he was wearing all white. For once, he wasn't an explosion of color.

"Weird, he doesn't look like some crayon vomited all over him today." Vena murmured speaking my own thoughts out loud. 

I laughed.

"Today, citizens of Panem, we have a very special guest. It's been a while since anyone has seen her, but she is quite possibly the important single person in all of Panem...except for our dear President of course." Caesar rushed to add.

"You don't think-"

"No she's dead. We know that for sure." I muttered dismissively. "We saw her die remember?"

Maybe Vena noticed how bitter and angry I sounded because she said nothing. Instead she just leaned in and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "It'll be okay. We'll win this war."

I simply nodded.

I didn't focus on the T.V. screen anymore and instead tuned it out.

"J-Jason." Vena stuttered.

I didn't respond.

"Jason!" She gave me a slight but aggressive shove. It wasn't enough to make me stumble but it certainly got my attention.

"What?" I snapped glaring at her.

Vena's eyes were wide and her mouth hung open. She seemed, for once, at a loss for words. Instead, she just pointed upward at the T.V. screen.

Everything faded away. The shouts of alarm and surprise of those in the training room and those outside the training room for that matter became a buzz in my ears.

No. 

My eyes were playing tricks on me. I was simply tired, too tired, I was going crazy, seeing things. She couldn't...she was dead.

Snow was dead. 

There wasn't any possibly way she could be on the screen in front of me right now, looking absolutely breathtaking in a simple white dress that stopped at her knees. Her dark hair was done elaborately and the snow white tips seemed freshly dyed. Her face...had makeup on. I had never seen her with makeup. She looked different but not any less beautiful. It was as though she had never been shot. She might have not even been in the Games at all. 

But there she was.

Sitting on the white Capitol chair, smiling at Caesar Flickerman.

Her face was free of worry.

She looked happy, carefree, burdenless.

Almost as though she had never met me at all.