Hijacked

The Truth Hurts

Catora was back with Caesar Flickerman but this time, she looked a little thinner, a little less put together. My chest tightened seeing her on the screen. "What are they doing to her." I said louder than I expected. Heads turned my way in the cafeteria. "Look at her. She looks sick!"

"Hello Catora Melane." She smiles almost weakly at Caesar and she's rubbing her stomach. Do my eyes deceive me or.. Is her stomach bigger? No... It can't be.

"Hello again Caesar."

"You look well." He says with a tight smile. She shrugs a little.

"I'm tired. Don't get much sleep."

"Any reason why?" She nods her head slowly before placing her hands on the armrests of the chair.

"I keep thinking about Peeta, the rebellion. It keeps me up at night." She yawns for an added affect. "I'm sorry Caesar, I won't be my best for this interview." She says with a small smile.

"That's quite alright Ms. Melane. I will try to keep this brief before so you can head back to your room and rest." Catora nods and looks at him expectantly. "So, to begin with, you have seen the propaganda videos of Peeta and all your friends from District 12." Catora frowns and everyone begins to whisper around us.

"Yes, I have."

"What are your thoughts?" Caesar asked. Catora sighs.

"Well, I'm not surprised to see that Katniss and Gale have joined the rebellion. They're from the Seam in my District and.. Well I guess you could say that the kids from the Seam aren't as cultured as the kids from the Merchant class." Katniss gasps.

"What the hell is she talking about!" Gale snaps, standing up roughly and glaring at the screen.

"It's not her! Okay? They're making her say that!" I shout back at him.

"It sounds pretty real to me." He says roughly, still glaring at Catora's image.

"The kids from the Seam never followed the rules, they were always looking for a fight. I tried my best to keep my friends out of trouble but.." She shrugged lightly. "I can't help them now.." She pauses. "But that doesn't mean I want them to die." I sigh. That sounds like her. It doesn't sound scripted.

"Of course not, of course not. Hopefully you can convince them to stand down now." Caesar says, gesturing towards the camera. Catora shakes her head.

"They probably think what they're doing is to help me, save me somehow but they're only making things worse.. I'm sure the other District's had a sort of 'Seam' such as ours." Catora says, putting air quotes around the word Seam." Caesar nods slowly though I doubt he would know. "Well if there are, Katniss and Gale are merely enticing more young men and women to go to their deaths... If what Katniss and Gale think they're doing is going to help me, then I can't change their minds."

"Damn right she can't." Gale muttered, sitting back down. She looked towards the camera and I felt like she could see me, right into me. Her eyes looked sad, and people might expect that. As the camera focused on her face, she wiped three fingers underneath her left eye. Most people might see this as brushing away a tear. I saw something else. It was one of our signals from the second arena. It was the three fingered gesture signifying goodbye. But to us, it also meant, help.

The interview went on for a couple more minutes but nothing terribly interesting, just what she had been doing in her time off. According to her, she had tea with the President and had met his granddaughter. She visits the rose gardens around the mansions and reads books that Avoxes bring her. All of them lies. I can tell. No way would President Snow give her that much freedom or freedom at all.