The Life of A Victor || Finnick Odair

CHAPTER 53

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The curtain got yanked back abruptly. Haymitch had a proposal for them, just in case they wanted to help the rescuing team. There was still a need for post-bombing footage. "If we can get it in the next few hours, Beetee can air it leading up to the rescue, and maybe keep the Capitol's attention elsewhere."

"Yes, a distraction," Finnick said. "A decoy of sorts."

"What we really need is something so riveting that even President Snow won't be able to tear himself away. Got anything like that?" asked Haymitch, causing the two boys to look at each other for confirmation.

Obviously, the three accepted, which led them to be prepped right after having breakfast. Soon, everyone was back above ground, ready to shoot the clips for the distraction. Katniss did the "Question and Answer" with Cressida, as Melo had nicknamed it, and explained her story with Peeta in detail, something she hadn't done before.

"President Snow once admitted to me that the Capitol was fragile. At that time, I didn't know what he meant. It was hard to see clearly because I was so afraid. Now I'm not. The Capitol's fragile because it depends on the districts for everything. Food, energy, even the Peacekeepers that police us. If we declare our freedom, the Capitol collapses. President Snow, thanks to you, I'm officially declaring mine today," Katniss announced, finishing her part of the interview.

However, just as she positioned herself back in between Melo and Finnick, they were called by Plutarch to speak to them. Haymitch didn't seem too happy with whatever Plutarch was proposing, much less Finnick and Melo, who were pale but nodding their heads by the end.

Finnick moved first to take Katniss' interview seat, while Melo stayed behind and stood again next to her, watching as his friend was about to talk. "You don't have to do this," Haymitch told Finnick.

"Yes, I do. If it will help her," Finnick replied, clenching his rope tightly in his fist before announcing he was ready.

"President Snow used to . . . sell me . . . my body, that is," he began explaining. "I wasn't the only one. If a victor is considered desirable, the president gives them as a reward or allows people to buy them for an exorbitant amount of money. If you refuse, he kills someone you love. So you do it."

Melo grasped his sleeves. He wasn't happy with the situation. Plutarch had insisted that Finnick was the one to speak, although he had volunteered to do it. Finnick was undeniably the most popular Victor, who the people would recognise right away and trust, but he was one of the most broken at the moment, too. And that meant not knowing how admitting all that Snow made him do would affect him.

"I wasn't the only one, but I was the most popular," Finnick continued. "And perhaps the most defenceless, because the people I loved were so defenceless. To make themselves feel better, my patrons would make presents of money or jewellery, but I found a much more valuable form of payment."

"Secret," Melo muttered under his breath, knowing perfectly well where all that talk would lead in the end.

"And this is where you're going to want to stay tuned, President Snow, because so many of them were about you. But let's begin with some of the others." Finnick said, explaining with every little detail the gossips and secrets he had been told over the years. "And now, to our good President Coriolanus Snow. Such a young man when he rose to power. Such a clever one to keep it. How, you must ask yourself, did he do it? One word. That's all you need to know. Poison."

Finnick listed a bunch of unsolved mystery death along the political ascension of President Snow to power. People directly dropping dead at a feast or slowly or inexplicably declining into shadows over a period of months.