𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐋𝐘 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐒 ━ CATO HADLEY₂

chapter, 𝟎𝟔

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐈𝐗 —
𝐐𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐋𝐋

❝ Promise me one thing. Ask for help in this hard time, not because you're weak but because you want to remain strong. ❞

— 𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐎 𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐊

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BEING HOME AFTER ATTENDING the party made me realized how much I miss my life before the Games. Of course, I had other things to worry about, starving for example but I was happy somehow.

Me and Cato didn't have the chance to talk in private after being interrupted on the balcony by Haymitch and my brother. Even though we should see eachother in our different Districts, we never did so. Months went by without seeing hte man I grew so close to in the moments of death, even sacrificing my own life after he died in my arms.

I continued to see Gale, even though he had a hard time watching me all in love with another as me and Cato announced our engagement. Me and Gale grew even closer, but I knew I had to give him up someday, knowing I can't offer him a future.

The day has come, the announcement for the next Games by no one other but our President is tonight. Every twenty-five years there's a Quarter Quell edition of the Games. Quells mark the anniversaries of the Districts' defeat by the Capitol, and include special celebrations.

The Games involves some sort of twist that makes them even more disastrous or difficult to compete in, or watch. A small box has small yellow envelopes containing specific themes or twists for each Quarter Quell. These instructions were planned at the founding of the Hunger Games, with plans in place for hundreds of Games. The President selects the appropriate card and reads it on live television to announce the theme of that year's Quell.

I will be a mentor for that year, together with Haymitch. I will train the unlucky chosen ones, only to either watch them get slaughtered or they win to be a Victor, thinking they escaped the horror, but in secret they never will.

I'm sitting together with Ace and Gale in front of our tv-screen after we had dinner, waiting unpatiently for the President's annoucement for the third Quarter Quell. We asked Haymitch to come over to watch it with us but he wanted to be alone.

Haymitch was in the second Quarter Quell, the 50th Games. Four tributes were chosen from each district instead of the usual two to remind the rebels that for each Capitol citizen killed, two rebels died. This put twice as many people in the arena and made it twice as brutal. I think the third Quarter Quell makes it even harder for him.

Gale wrapped his arm around me as we sit next to eachother on the couch. "What do you think will be different this year?" The blue eyes boy looks at me, sighing.

"Honestly, I reckon with everything."

Ace nods to show he agrees, when he suddenly puts the volume up when President Snow is announced.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the seventy-fifth year of the Hunger Games. It was written in the charter of the games that every twenty-five years there will be a Quarter Quell. Now, on this the 75th anniversary of our defeat of the rebellion we celebrate the third Quarter Quell."

The crowd cheers. Gale pulls me closer to him, kissing the top of my head gently as he rubs my side lovingly.

"As a reminder, that even the strongest cannot overcome the power of the Capitol. On this, the third Quarter Quell game, the male and female tributes are to be reaped from the existing pool of Victors in each district. "