Catching Fire: Prim [Completed]

Chapter 5: What Happened?

"Let's go," Peeta says and I feel Katniss steer me into the Justice Building. Then I hear a door slamming shut, and Peacekeepers' boots moving back to the crowd. Katniss releases me and I see Haymitch, Effie, Portia, and Cinna. They're under a static filled screen, waiting anxiously.

"What happened?" Effie exclaims as she hurries over.

"Nothing," Katniss replies quickly.

"We watched Prim deliver her speech, then the screen blurred out. Haymitch claims he heard a gun fire, but that's ridiculous."

"Nothing happened. It was just an old truck that backfired," Peeta lies smoothly.

Then I hear two more shots. Who was it? Roy? Thresh's grandmother? Another innocent citizen?

"All three of you, with me," Haymitch grunts and we follow him, leaving everyone else behind.

He takes us into the Justice Building, up a spiralled staircase, to a long hall. Then there are double doors and a room. Haymitch rips off our microphones and stuffs them underneath a couch cushion then waves us on.

I'm pretty sure Haymitch has only been here once, on his Victory Tour, but he seems to know the building awfully well. He leads us through dozens of staircases and narrow halls, knocking down a few doors in between. We arrive at a ladder, leading us to a trap door. I go up first, and find myself in the dome of the Justice Building. There are bits of broken furniture, piles of books that are coated with dust, and windows that barely let any light in. It's dark, dusty, and creepy.

"What happened?" Haymitch asks as he kicks the trap door shut. Katniss relates all the things that happened in the square. The speeches, the whistle, the unisonous gesture, our hesitation on the veranda, up to the sound of the bullet.

"Haymitch, what's happening?"

"It will be better coming from her," Haymitch says, indicating me.

"It'll be a hundred times worse coming from me," I say.

I tell them anyways, them being Katniss and Peeta. I tell them about President Snow, rumbling in the districts, the berries, and the death threats.

"I was suppose to mend things up, but I guess I did so bad that I ended up killing 3 people," I sigh. Peeta looks up at me, Katniss, then Haymitch.

Then suddenly he's yelling in our faces.

"This has to stop, you guys talking amongst yourselves, and not letting me in. Thinking I'm too weak, too inconsequential to handle anything!" Peeta exclaims as he strikes a lamp.

"It's not like that, I didn't know until-"

"It's exactly like that, you guys are leaving me out of everything! I have family too! People I care about back in 12, that could be as dead as yours if we don't pull this thing off. After everything we've been through, don't I deserve the truth?!"

"You do well in front of the cameras as it is, we don't want to add any stress-"

"Well you overestimated me. I really screwed up today, didn't I?! What's going to happen to Thresh and Rue's families? Are they gonna get their share of our winnings? Did I give them a brighter future?! No! They'd be lucky if they make it through the day!" Peeta exclaims as he sends a status flying across the room. I've never seen this side of him, and it makes me queasy.

"He's right," I pip up. "We- I should've told him before."

"Even during the arena, the three of you had something going, didn't you? Something I wasn't a part of," he says in a quieter voice.