I got dressed in a hurry the next morning. Finnick was already in the kitchen plopping sugar cubes into his coffee when I scurried down the stairs.
"You were right, she did win." I mentioned,
He nodded, lost in thought. "Snow is going to be pissed, I bet he's going to try and get rid of them." he mused swirling his coffee.
I nodded and poured coffee into my mug. I snatched a sugar cube from Finnick and dropped it unceremoniously into the steaming liquid.
"Was this what it was like when I came out of the arena?" I asked him.
He shook his head, "Nah, the only thing they had to do with you was fix your tendon and your nose. Peeta's leg is going to have to be amputated, or at least that's what I heard from Haymitch. Katniss isn't in too good of shape either, although her injuries are going to be more mental." He tapped his forehead, "But that's something we both know about."
I sipped my coffee and let what he had just said slide by. We didn't need to bring that up this early in the morning.
"When do we get to go home?" I asked him.
"Day after tomorrow, once they do the recaps with the Victors we can leave. Of course you will be expected to make an appearance as the reigning Victor."
I stood and drained the rest of my coffee.
"We had probably better go and find Adrian, he'll want to make sure everything fits right."
Finnick sighed, "He's lucky that he's a good stylist, because he sure is high maintenance. "
I slapped his arm "You are lucky he volunteered to style you instead of turning you over to Selena like she wanted him too."
Adrian put me in a beautiful floor length green dress with laces up the sides. My hair was done with a braid across my brow and the rest curled and left down my back. I made my way through the tunnels and into the auditorium with the rest of the mentors.
Johanna came up from behind me and clapped me on the shoulder. "How's it going Beatty?"
I gave her a smile, "I've definitely been worse, what about you Mason?"
Her face split into a huge grin, "You speak for both of us." I laughed. Johanna was honest, she knew that none of us wanted to be here.
I slid into the seat next to Finnick who was wearing a velvet suit with a green bow tie made from the same material as my dress. "Lookin' good Odair"
"You too Beatty." I reached over and straightened his bow tie.
Caesar Flickerman took the stage in a blood red suit. "Ladies and Gentlemen are you ready to see your new Victors?"
The crowd exploded in cheers and hollers.
"Alright, alright! But first I would like to recognize our reigning Victor, Miss Sage Beatty!"
My head snapped up, surprised then I realized that the cameras were on me. I put on a big smile and stood from my chair, waving while the crowd cheered.
"Doesn't she look beautiful tonight folks? Who are we kidding? She always looks beautiful!" He turned his attention away from me and the cameras turned back to the stage.
I sat, exhaling. My legs were strangely numb. Someone tapped me on the shoulder, when I turned I was met with Chess's cold eyes.
"Hi," I whispered,
"We need to talk, closet. Now."
"Okay," smoothing my dress out I began to stand but he clamped a hand down on my shoulder,
"Not now, wait til they turn the lights off."
Finnick gave us a strange look, "What's going on Chess?"
Chess shook his head, signaling for quiet. Finnick got it, turned in his chair, and began to have a conversation with Chaff. All of a sudden the lights shut off and spotlights turned to the stage.
"Now" Chess hissed in a low voice.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me into one of the maintenance closets along the wall of the auditorium. It was so dark in there I couldn't hear myself think.
"Is there a light we could turn on?" I whispered,
"No, we don't want to alert anyone."
"Right," I should have known that, but that didn't stop the feeling of the cold fingers of fear that gripped my shoulder. I wasn't going to admit to Chess that I slept with a night light at home to scare the ghosts off. Being in the dark just felt like giving them an invitation to join me.
"Are you okay Beatty?"
"Yep, I'm fine." My voice came out at a higher pitch than I was expecting.
My throat felt like it was going to close up from terror. It reminded me a little to much of that church, when the spiders came out. I remembered what it had looked like, their little shiny bodies covering the ceiling, walls, and floor. Then I was there, I could feel my hand began to ache where the cursed thing had bit me. I looked down and my green dress was replaced with the blue and grey uniform. I looked around the world blurring, Maggie was sitting there her eyes pouring blood like tears. "You killed me, why did you kill me?" She screamed but in Dakota's voice.
Chess grabbed my shoulders. "Hey, come back"
"Yeah, sorry."
"It's okay, it happens to all of us."
I nodded, "Yeah it's nothing."
He gave me a sideways look, "If you don't mind me asking, what do you see? When the blackouts come?"
It shocked me, he had never looked so serious, but he looked right through me.
"I see Dakota a lot of the time, and Maggie, and blood, and screaming. Sometimes my mom. What do you see?"
His blue eyes clouded over with pain, "I see my District partner hanging from a tree, she speaks too me. I see the first person I killed, a boy from District 12, he was little, maybe 12 or 13. I still feel so terrible. He screamed, begged me not to kill him. But I did it anyway." He looked at his feet. "I still see him. He follows me around, I'm never going to be able to forget him." Tears were shining in his eyes.
I stepped foreword and hugged him. His tears fell into my hair and neck.
"I swear this is not what I wanted to talk about," he sniffed and I hugged him tighter.
"I know, so what did you want to talk about?" He sniffled again, "We need a beacon, someone people can relate to."
"Okay,"
"A Mockingjay if you will." he wiped his eyes, I nod,
"So who are you thinking?"
"I think she's sitting on that stage,"
A smile crept across my face.
"Katniss Everdeen, the girl on fire. The flame of the rebellion. I like that Chess, I really do."
"People are ready to fight, and what better year to end the Hunger Games than on a Quarter Quell?" Chess was starting to come out of it now, his eyes sparkling in the dark.
"So how are we going to do it?"
He pulled out a piece of paper from his suit pocket and stuffed it into the front of my dress.
"Everything is in there, also," he pressed what felt like a ring into my palm. "That's your token, show it to anyone who is involved and they'll know whose side you're on."
"Thank you Chess," I slipped the ring onto my finger, and I could feel something stamped into it.
"No problem Beatty, can I get a kiss for old times sake?"
"You wish," I said.
He laughed softly and pressed his lips against my cheek.
"Fire is catching Beatty, we are going to end this."
"We are."
Wow, I stink don't I... So here's an update, I'm so sorry for the long wait. I really hope you like this new chapter and I will try and have more up soon. Also I hope you liked getting a little deeper look at Chess.
All the love
Buckaroobelle