𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘'𝐋𝐋 𝐉𝐔𝐌𝐏 𝐎𝐅𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐋𝐄𝐃𝐆𝐄 𝐓𝐎𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑.
What District 2 victor, Saffron Creek, and prodigy, Finnick Odair, share is the very antithesis of what has been stolen from them. They test the edges of the rules that construct t...
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fifty-nine heartbreaks . . . . .
The conclusion of the 74th Hunger Games sweeps the country off its feet.
"Holy shit," Saffron had laughed when she watched Seneca Crane allow two victors to emerge from the arena. Within hours of the finale, everyone knew the names of Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. The star-crossed lovers, the girl on fire, and the baker whose reputation no longer fit within the confines of District 12.
And everyone hears the whispers of a revolution.
But Saffron knows that it is dangerously easy to be swept away in such fanciful notions. She suspects that many are using the event to fuel their anger, but few have the rationality and power to enact real change. She is angry too, but she is no revolutionary.
And she knows that her home will support the current system while her friends will side with rebellion. How could she reconcile favoring the newly proclaimed Mockingjay and also protect her family in a district full of Capitol sympathizers?
This anxiety weighs upon her like physical weight. She is forgetful more often. Finnick, on the other hand, is restless. His fingers are always fluttering, drumming on something. His foot dances beneath tables as if he is trying to race into the future to meet the opportunities that revolution promises.
Then, the rules of the third Quarter Quell are announced.
"Saffron?" Six eyes land on her, but she is staring slack-jawed at the television. It is devastating. Panic is chased off only by shock. Her thoughts careen off track. Damn it.
Victors across twelve districts are all betrayed in the span of five seconds. Fifty-nine promises of safety lay shattered at President Snow's feet. This is the result of a fragile ego and the selfish desire for revenge.
In District 2, Cicero Helbor and Brutus and Enobaria grin to themselves, a delightful chill racing up their spines. Andesite Vander blinks several times to herself. Saffron Creek does not say anything.
In District 4, Annie Cresta succumbs to the terrors of her own mind, and she wails, clutching the sides of her head. Finnick Odair smiles, weakly, at Mags Flanagan, then tries to relax Annie from hysteria.
In District 7, Johanna Mason shrieks at the screen and the walls of her house and finally at herself for being so foolish as to think that her torture was complete.
In District 12, Katniss Everdeen runs out of her home and into the forest where she sits in the snow and cries. Peeta Mellark falls backwards onto his living room sofa. Haymitch Abernathy throws a glass at President Snow's hologram.
There is no question that Finnick and Saffron will be united beneath the Capitol's spotlight once more. This they are both sure of.
The future is a fickle creature, but they know they will pretend, and they will fight, and they will probably die.
