star crossed lovers ➸ cato hadley

i. the capitol

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐎𝐋.

"I'm Natalie Mellark. I'm the victor of the 74th Annual Hunger Games. I killed my brother, Peeta Mellark. And I killed my worst enemy, Cato Hadley."

It was the only four sentences that Natalie Mellark was able to string together since her capture. It permanently embedded into her brain as much as the torture that President Snow gave. Natalie didn't know what was real or what was fake but she fully believed with every fibre of her being that she had killed her brother and killed her greatest enemy.

The thought of being a mother and a wife had never entered her mind. That was the first thing that Snow had erased. Then began the false images of her brother's lifeless corpse, each one all the same. Him lying on top of the steel cornucopia with the set of twin daggers embedded in his heart. Her hands were coated with his blood. At first, all she could feel was guilt at breaking her promise until Snow worked his way into her brain, changing her memories to please him however he saw fit. Now whenever she saw his corpse, she felt no remorse. Snow had her believing that killing her brother was her plan all along.

Unlike the other captured victors, President Snow had Natalie living in luxury for the last four weeks. While Peeta and Johanna who were forced to endure the sounds of their screaming, Natalie got to listen to the sound of the birds chirping every morning. Before the Games, the Mellark twins were always so full of joy, now they were nothing more than victims to President Snow's mind tricks. It was all a game to him. He slowly broke them down piece by piece, wanting to see who was the first to fall apart.

As Natalie stared at the padded wall in front of her, repeating the four sentences over and over, President Snow believed he finally knew the answer.

It had taken eight weeks for the legendary Natalie Mellark to break. The supposedly saviour of the thirteen districts, the face of the revolution and it was gone before it even began. The first few weeks had been the hardest for President Snow. In the beginning, Natalie tried her hardest to fight back, the little pieces of Natalie's memories fighting its way to the surface caused more grieve that Snow would ever like to admit. But that had been made him more determined.

As the weeks passed, her body was slowly dying as she stared into the same four walls of her room every day. She was barely existing, not even acknowledging when the peacekeepers dragged her from her room, shoved her into a chair and injected her with tracker jacker venom, filling her brain with unsolicited images of her brother and male from district two's corpses.

President Snow picked up the needle and slowly pierced the skin, the venom sinking its way into her bloodstream. "I really did wish you accepted by offer, dear Natalie. Maybe then all of this could've been avoided." He whispered, wiping the tear that fell down her cheek as her eyes finally closed.

     At nine year's old, Natalie knew what she wanted. And that was to be married to the latest Victor: the fourteen year old Finnick Odair. It was the last day of his victory tour and little Natalie had forced Gale to come with her to wish him a congratulations on winning the games. What she didn't know then was that nobody won the games, instead a survivor emerged with their sanity hanging by the thread.

Natalie forced her way through the crowd to get as close as she could to the victor, her hand holding onto Gale's in case the pair had spilt up. "Come on, we need to get closer." Reluctantly, Gale followed. But with the equally eager teenager girls from district twelve fighting their way through, Gale could no longer keep hold of Natalie's hand and lost her in the crowd.

It took Natalie a while to realise that Gale wasn't beside her, the anticipation and the excitement getting the best of her. "Gale?" She called out, looking around for him.

Everyone was too tall for her to try to and pick him out of the crowd, her voice getting drowned out by the loud chatter and hushed whispers. "Gale!"

Panic swept into her body as the minutes passed and there was still no sign of him. What if something bad happened to him? It would be all her fault for bringing him here. Tears ran down her face as she made her way through the endless bodies pressing against her, finding a quiet space for her to try and calm down. She tried to convince that she was going to be okay, she would find Gale eventually, Finnick would have to go home and the crowd will go away, but her mind wasn't catching on.

Muffled screams and cheers sounded around her and in her state of panic, she didn't register that she was missing the chance to see Finnick. She  would've had risked her mother's wrath all for nothing.

She pressed her hands against her ears, blocking out all the noise. She started counting to ten in her head repeatedly, just like Peeta taught her, mumbling the numbers under her breath until the noise became more bearable.

The crowd soon began to disperse as Finnick left the stage though some lingered in hopes to get another glimpse of him and the chance to talk to him. But Finnick was tired and all he wanted to do was gone home.

He began his walk to the train when he saw the young Mellark all alone. He couldn't leave her alone, not after seeing her upset. He walked over to her and softly touched her shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?"

Natalie jolted and looked up to find Finnick staring down at her. Any other time, she would either be rendered speechless or giggling and blushing like crazy. But right now, her main concern was trying to find her best friend.

"I've lost my friend. I can't find him anywhere" Finnick Odair had thousands of things he should be doing right now based upon the mayor's judging stare and helping a district twelve child was certainly not on that list. But he didn't care. "What's your name?"

"Natalie." She frowned.

"Well Natalie, it sounds like you need some good luck." He smiled and crouched down in front of her, taking off a bracelet that was on his wrist and put it around her wrist. "This was my good luck charm throughout the games and now it your lucky charm. I bet you that your friend is looking for you right now. Until he does, I'll be right here waiting for you. Is that okay?"

Natalie nodded, her fingers gently tracing the design of one of the charms. It didn't matter to her that Finnick had lied to her in that moment to try and make her feel better because she wanted to believe that it was going to be okay. And as soon as she heard Gale's voice, she had forgotten all about it.

"Natalie!" Gale shouted.

"Gale!" Natalie called out, immediately jumping to her feet and soon he was broke through the crowd. A smile broke out on her face and she ran over to him, Gale automatically wrapping his arms around her as she crashed into him.

"You found me." Natalie pulled away with a smile as she looked up at him. Gale wiped her tears away with a smile of his own. "I'll always find you, Mellark. You can't get rid of me that easily."

The two children took each other's hands, giggling as they ran away from the crowd and towards the electric fence. Natalie let go of his hand to push back the part of the fence that was broken, stepping out onto the meadow. She turned to face Gale, her hand reaching for his once again only to find his hand coated in blood, pressed against his stomach, blood spilling out the corners of his mouth.

"Run." He mouthed before he crashed to the ground revealing President Snow holding the bloody knife in one hand, another holding out a single white rose.

Natalie woke to find herself in her room. Her hand drifted down to her wrist, only to find it bare, the bracelet no longer on her. She had no idea when she lost it, whether it had fallen off or whether Snow had taken it from her. Not that it matter, she was never getting out of here alive. She just hoped that wherever it was, it wasn't in the Snow's grasp and had in someway found it's way home. 

XXX

/ AUTHOR'S NOTE /

part three has officially begun! it's been a busy couple of years but we're back and we've hit 100k reads! that's just crazy to think about! thank you to all those who have read this and continue to read, it means a lot to me.