Hunger Games (DNF)

Part 2, Chapter 38: wallowing in my own misery

Wilbur POV.

For almost a month I stayed in my house, doing almost nothing, eating almost nothing, and thinking almost nothing. Well nothing besides the fact that George was missing, and nobody knew where he was.

Maybe if I knew he was dead it would have been easier, but since I didn’t it was worse. Maybe he is still hiding out in the forest alone, or maybe he had been killed by a wild animal. The Capitol could have even killed him already and not told anyone.

Niki constantly tried to get me to eat, but I didn’t want to. She eventually gave up and now just comes into the room 3 times a day to offer me food and water. Sometimes I said yes, sometimes I didn’t. Niki seemed to be getting more and more worried but she never said anything.

She came into the room again today and examined me sitting on my bed for a few minutes, staring at George’s empty bed. “Wilbur… are you going to be getting up anytime soon?” she asked, giving me a worried look.

I shrugged, unsure if I wanted to get up. If I did all I would get was everyone’s pity, and it was hard enough to put up with Niki’s pity. Not that I was mad at her, it just made me feel worse about my situation.

“I didn’t think so,” she muttered to herself. Niki walked over to the window and opened it up, letting some fresh air into the room. Then the blond woman gave me a sympathetic look, “I’m going to work but if you need anything I am just down the road.”

With that she left, and I barely sent her a glance as she did. I knew maybe I should have been kinder to her, after all Niki let me live with her and I hadn’t been doing anything for the past month at least since I was too busy worrying about my brother.

Sure, Niki was sympathetic and didn’t mind that she had to do everything, but now I was feeling even more guilty. For almost 5 weeks I had just been sitting around while she was working to provide us with food, electricity, and warmth.

For about 3 or 4 hours I just sat in my usual spot, thinking about George, and the recent games, and everything else that had been happening when there was a knock on the door. I stayed motionless, not caring who was there. They should just come back later and Niki will be here to answer the door.

After a minute since they knocked I expected them to leave, but they knocked again. Then a minute later they knocked a third time. “Wilbur are you there?” someone called out from the street below, their voice being heard clearly through the open window.

I recognised the voice, my brother’s mentor Beetee. For the first time in a day I climbed out of the bed and walked over to the window. I looked down at the street below where the victor was in his wheelchair.

Beetee was looking back up at me and I felt self conscious. I hadn’t really cared about how I was looking since I was mainly worrying about my brother. Now, my hair was a tangled mess, my eyes' wary look showed the fact that I had had many sleepless nights, and my clothes were all wrinkly.

Niki was the only one who I really let see me in this state because I knew she wouldn’t judge me. I felt bad as I looked down at Beetee. He brought me from my thoughts as he spoke up again, “can you come down so I could talk to you?” the victor asked.

After a few moments of consideration I nodded. “I’ll be down in a minute.” I responded, it was the first time in about a week that I’d talked and my voice was incredibly wary sounding.
When Beetee nodded I moved away from the window with a sigh.

So I spent a moment brushing my fingers through my hair and quickly changed into some clean clothes that Niki had left on the end of my bed before walking downstairs. When I opened the door I gave him a small smile. “What would you like Beetee?” I asked.

“Well I was just wondering if you wanted to come over to my house for a hot drink. We could talk and see how you were doing.”
Being completely honest I would have rather just gone back inside to be miserable in peace, but I nodded nonetheless.

So Beetee began navigating his wheelchair down the streets and I hurried to catch up with him. As we walked along down the streets on either side of us were peacekeepers standing around each with a weapon. They’d been here since George disappeared.

I wondered if it was like this in all of the Districts, since all of the tributes are somewhere, possibly in the Capitol. There might be a lot of peacekeepers because President Schlatt thinks that we’d think this would be a good opportunity for rebellion.

They seemed to be suspicious of me and Beetee being together, but didn’t say anything. When I looked at them though, the masked peacekeepers looked away, or began walking down the street in the opposite direction that we went.

Beetee led the way to his house and I followed him, entering the victor's village and down the cobblestone path to his house, the second one on the left. This is the house that he was given when he won the 39th Hunger Games, over 40 years ago.

I’ve been to his house a few times before and Beetee beckoned for me to sit down. When I sat down at the couch I couldn’t help but notice a large wooden crate in the middle of the room. “What is that from Beetee?” I asked him.

The victor looked back at me and smiled. “It was sent here from Techno and arrived yesterday,” he stated. “What he sent is actually what I wanted to show you.”
Although I wanted to just go back and wallow in my misery, what he said piqued my curiosity.

“What is it?” I asked him, standing up and looking at him again.
Beetee smirked, “it is upstairs in the first room on the left.” The victor stated. “Just… don’t be too loud when you get there.”

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion but nodded nonetheless. I just figured that maybe it was one of Beetee’s inventions. So I left the room and headed to the elevator.

Yes, Beetee had an elevator, he got permission from the Capitol to get one installed because he obviously couldn’t use the stairs when he was in a wheelchair. I went up one floor and looked around at the hallway before heading to the first door on the left.

From behind me I heard the ding of the elevator, signalling it was going downstairs to probably get Beetee. I knew he would be up in a minute but didn’t bother waiting for him as I walked over to the door.

When I opened it my eyes widened. George was laying on the bed in the middle of the room.
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