Infelicitous | f. odair

22 | THE ENEMY

Snow was angered by her joust at him, so much that he clenched his jaw tightly, keeping a calm expression on his face. His hair was starting to turn completely white. It was a strange sight to see, the president aging so quickly under her own eyes. They made him look immortal on television.

"That stunt you pulled in the arena was unacceptable, Miss Hunter, but I'm sure you knew that the second you did it. Am I correct?" He raised an eyebrow, taunting her from where she stood in the middle of the room, gazing down at him as if he were the one who was in trouble. Greyson swallowed hard, her cheekbones becoming more prominent as she inhaled a sharp breath. He continued talking. "Ah, so you do. Tell me, how long until he notices your . . . indifference toward him?"

She was quick to cut in, thoughts of the raven haired boy on her mind. "I'm in love – " Snow cut her off with a laugh, stretching his wrinkling skin.

"Miss Hunter, you're just a child. You don't even know what love is." He stared at her for a moment, deciding what to do with her, it seemed. "You've almost cost me my position, so here's what I'll do. You can stay inside this house for the rest of your pathetic life, living out your days with the rare visit to the market." He paused, watching her carefully, as if he wanted to see her crumble into nothing but dust. "And for every act of defiance, I kill someone you love."

Greyson felt every ounce of the conversation going well disperse into what felt like dread. She knew where Snow was going with it all, the small talk and the pressuring weight of what she did during her time at the Capitol. Maybe she should have died in the arena and let Everest win. Maybe everything would've turned out differently.

Snow leaned forward on the couch, the white rose clipped to his suit jacket pressing tighter against him. "There was the chariot ceremony, the training center, your disruptment with the gamemakers during your private session, your little moment with the tribute from District Eight, and let's not forget your most defining act of all; Everest Reyes."

Tears burned at her eyes and she wanted to scratch them out with a fork, for she was trembling, melting at the words that kept pouring from Snow's putrid lips. She would've done anything to make all of the pain stop then and there, yet she didn't, and rather let the events play out into what fate had in mind.

She clenched her fists, her cheeks turning red in anger. "You leave Everest alone, he has nothing to do with this!" She spat at Snow, searing hatred flowing through her veins.

Snow stayed calm, eerily calm. "Miss Hunter, you've just murdered your entire family. In fact, as we've been having this conversation, they've been executed for treason."

Greyson trembled, the mere thought of her sweet, innocent parents and three little brothers being murdered, made her want to throw up. She grimaced as if someone ripped out their heart and stepped on it, squeezing the blood out of it right before her eyes. "You can't do that, the Games are over." She forced out of her throat that was closing up from the strength she used to not cry in front of him. She didn't want him to see her cry, not when all she had left was her dignity.

Snow stood up with a toothy smile, showing her his pearly white fangs. "Oh, my dear, Miss Hunter. Make no mistake. The game isn't over." With that, he left her, weak and emotionally impaired; broken beyond repair.

Someone shook her shoulder, bracing her back to the tumbling world of reality. Boggs was worriedly crouched down in front of where she sat, concern swimming in his dark brown eyes. Greyson could feel wetness on her cheeks, indicating that she'd been crying the whole time. Boggs frowned at the young woman, his elbows resting on his knees.

"You okay, Hunter?" He asked her.

Greyson breathed out and then inhaled, doing this twice more before nodding her head to Boggs. He cared about her, a strange thing to see from someone besides Finnick and Johanna. Johanna, she thought. She hadn't thought much about her recently, not with the demands from Plutarch and Coin and her trying to patch up her relationship with Katniss. Johanna was a strong person, Greyson knew this, but she didn't deserve to be left behind in the arena. Nobody did.

"What's wrong?" Gale Hawthorne walked over to them, his brow furrowed at the victor's fragile state. He'd seen it with Katniss, that same fear and empty gaze in her eyes whenever she was left with her own thoughts for awhile. "Greyson?" He quietly asked.

Greyson knew Gale from the cafeteria and a couple passes in the hospital level when he went to visit Katniss. He was a good friend, even though Greyson could see that Gale had his sights set out for Katniss. Gale was competing against Peeta Mellark, the boy who was considered dead. Possibly.

Greyson, hummed, responding to her name. "I-I'm okay. I'm fine," she said unconvincingly.

Boggs sighed and stood up, keeping a watchful eye on Greyson as she unbuckled herself from her seat. They landed in District 4 ten minutes ago, waiting for Greyson to stop staring out into thin air, but she never did, which had Boggs calling her name for a few minutes until she blinked.

Greyson wiped at her cheeks, preparing herself for what she was about to see. Gale came up beside her. "You alright to be doing this?"

She nodded her head without a second thought. "I have to see what he did."

Gale stepped back, letting Boggs open the back of the hovercraft. Light filled the aircraft, however, they knew that whatever was out there, was anything but light, leaving only room for darkness and the dead victims of District 4.

A/N: hii! another chapter done, finally haha. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I know I enjoyed writing it. I gave a little information to Greyson's past and what she did in her Games, sorta. I wanted it to be vague so. I'll be leaving questions at the end so please take some time to answer them! thank you so much for reading! I'm so happy that Infelicitous has reached 40k+ it's absolutely incredible! you guys are amazing!

who do you think is Everest Reyes?

School is starting soon, who's not happy about that? *le cries in the background*

Snow's an a**hat. not really a question but I think we can all agree that he is.

Do you think Finnick will live by the end of the book? (Do you think Greyson will?)

If you could have me improve one thing in this book, what would it be? And please be honest, I don't mind polite criticism.

that's all the questions for now, I hope you enjoyed reading, I'll be seeing (not really but you get what I mean) you soon! xx