𝑳𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝑹𝒆𝒅 || 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝑮𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔

𝟓𝟒 || 𝑨𝒇𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝑮𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑶𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒓

EVELYN HAD BEEN OUT IN THE DARK PLENTY OF TIMES DURING HER STAY IN THE CAPITOL, especially when they sent her out on missions, but she never really got the chance to stop and stare at her surroundings. She didn't have the time to do that. But now it felt like she had all the time in the world. The night was going by painfully slow, and the only noises around her were shuffling feet when they switched rotations to watch Peeta. Apollo was asleep beside her, although his slumber was much more peaceful than hers. She heard from multiple people that she often talked in her sleep or reacted to some nightmare, probably from her experience in the Games, but he just sat there with his eyes closed and his head leaning back against the wall.

Evelyn turned her attention towards Sasha, who was sitting by the windows, which had been smashed in. She didn't like that he was just sitting there in the open with no walls or glass to protect him, but then she had to remind herself that she didn't care. Sasha had made it clear that she wasn't his responsibility, which meant that he wasn't hers. But it would still be nice to have some company.

After a little bit of hesitation, she stood up and joined Sasha at the window. "Hey."

Sasha glanced at her but didn't turn his head, nodding in acknowledgment. There were a few minutes of silence that nearly made Evelyn regret her decision to join him, but he finally cleared his throat and started talking. "I didn't know about you at first when I was your brother's mentor."

Evelyn stared at him, trying to figure out why he was saying this. "Okay?"

Sasha smiled slightly at her sarcastic answer, pushing some hair out of his face before continuing. "I'm sure he had told me at some point, but it was my first year mentoring, I was still trying to cope with my own games, and I'm surprised he even survived with a mentor like me. Of course, they," Sasha tilted his head in Peeta and Katniss's direction, "survived with a mentor like Haymitch, so I guess it's not too shocking."

"Sash?"

"Yeah?" His voice softened a little bit as he looked over at her, his eyes scanning her face as if he were looking for something. Or maybe he was looking for someone.

"What are you going to do after all of this?" Evelyn asked him. She tried so hard to imagine what her life would be like after the war ended, if she even lived through it, and she couldn't. It was hard to imagine your future when you couldn't even remember her past.

Sasha looked down at his hand, picking at the skin of his thumb as he shrugged. "I'm not sure. I've never been the type of person to think of my future, Panem really never gave me a chance to. When you're young, you worry about being reaped, and when you're older, you worry about having enough food on your table. Unless you do get reaped and win the games, then you just drink the days away and hope you die within the next twenty years instead of the next sixty."

Evelyn hated to admit that she understood what he was saying. There was no point in growing up anymore. Her past, her present, and her future were gone. They were fighting for future generations, not themselves. There was no recovery from this. They could win the war and pretend everything was fine go back home, but they'd only be fooling themselves. There would be nightmares, flashbacks, and everything Evelyn had tried so hard to avoid. Dying didn't seem too bad. A few minutes of pain, and then nothing. No pain, no fear, no misery.