The Life of A Victor || Finnick Odair

CHAPTER 66

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Dove walked around the remains of District Twelve, finding it difficult to recognise anything from her visit years ago during her Tour. It had taken months for Dr Aurelius to let her leave the Capitol after making sure she was mentally stable enough.

I guess that after the show I put on during Snow's death, anyone would be worried whether I was OK mentally or not. She thought, being careful not to trip over the ruins of a house she was passing by.

"Isn't it funny that you were dismissed before I was?" Dove asked, turning around to meet Katniss's eyes.

"I wasn't dismissed. I was forced to come back. It's different," Katniss answered with a light tone. She had come back to Twelve a couple of weeks ago after months of solitary confinement. Being back home with her little sister seemed to cheer her up greatly. "No one would want me anywhere near the Capitol after Coin."

"Who knows? Maybe in some years, when everyone has forgotten about it. Now that Paylor is president, things might just change," Dove said, turning back around to keep walking forward. "How come Prim let you come with me all alone? I thought you said she wouldn't leave you out of her sight."

"Ask your husband. Finnick talked to her, and she suddenly was all right with letting me go alone with you," Katniss commented with a light tone, trying her best to remember where the house was. Showing Dove the way to the Caldwell house was more difficult now that almost everything was in ruins.

As they took a turn, they encountered a house that had escaped most of the bombing. The structure didn't seem dangerous. With a bit of work, it could go back to shelter a family. From what Katniss said, that was the Caldwell house, although now it didn't have an owner. No Caldwell or close relatives had survived the bombing.

Inside, the floor was covered with dust and ashes. A part of the roof had collapsed, letting the sun lighten the small living room that led to the only two bedrooms. The tinier was some type of nursery, with the beds and bedside table still intact. Beside a tiny window, a bed with perfectly maintained covers held a wooden bow and quiver with at least a dozen of arrows.

Her fingertips traced the bow, noticing the slight figures created by a knife. Alder had tried to decorate it by cutting a few places, creating a pattern of flowers that Katniss seemed to know from the Meadow not too far from where they stood.

Dove took the bow and the quivers, securing both on her bag before stepping outside, where the ground had been more damaged than the rest of the house. Near the backdoor, there was a place filled with wild, wilted flowers. The ground was different, as if the dirt had been brought from another location that wasn't the same as its surroundings.

"Will it be considered profanity if I dig his corpse out?" Dove wondered out loud, glancing at Katniss, who had found a trowel somewhere around the back entrance.

"I think it's too late to be worrying about that," Katniss answered, giving her the trowel. "Be careful. From what I heard, they spent all the money they had to burn his corpse and put it in a jar. We better not break it or his ashes will go everywhere."

"Thanks for the heads-up," Dove chuckled, taking the trowel to dig carefully around the wilted flowers. Katniss was at her right, helping her get the dirt out of the way while she continued digging. After a few seconds, something bright blue stood out under the dirt.

It was an urn with the letters 'A.C' engraved on the lid. A.C—Alder Caldwell. They must have really spent a lot of money on this. Dove thought, cleaning the dirt from the urn with her shirt before carefully leaving it in her bag.