03

PRESIDENTIAL PALACE

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"Just when you think things couldn't get more exciting going into a very important quarter quell... Our two lethal lovers, my favourite expression, from District 12 have surprised us with a new twist in their love affair-" Evelyn groaned and turned the broadcast on mute so she no longer had to listen to Caeser Flickerman's voice. Everything about him annoyed him; from his voice, to his laugh to his hair. 

"You don't believe it either?" Atlas Mills slurred as he leaned in the doorway of the train carriage, an almost empty bottle of whiskey in his hands.

She shrugged, "Does anyone?"

"You'd be surprised," Atlas coughed as Elodie Lliana squeezed past her fellow mentor silently to join Evelyn on the couch. Elodie was already wearing a lavish, forest green gown that flowed around her legs as she walked barefoot through the train carriages. Her silent lips were painted to match her gown, not a single crack in the paint.

She glared at their outfits as her brows furrowed. A questioning look that was both annoyed and demanding. 

"I'll get ready in a minute," Evelyn smiled, reading the expression of her silent mentor. 

"Have you talked to Snow? Are you a mentor this year?" He cut himself off with a scoff. "He won't, he never will," Atlas grinned after wiping his mouth from the alcohol that slipped past his drunken lips, "I don't understand, Evelyn. It has been what, four years since El and I were your mentors? Five?"

"Seven-" she corrected, receiving an uninterested wave of the hand from the man.

"Regardless, you won the Games years ago and yet you haven't been a mentor once. You leave for the Capitol for months on end and come back as if nothing has happened. What has Snow got you doing? Prostitution like your dear friend-" he teased with a smile before Elodie launched a pillow across the room to hit Atlas in the face.

Evelyn had to hide the redness in her cheeks and the anger in her eyes so she turned to the windows, pretending to care about the landscape. This was a usual occurrence for the three victors, finding themselves in petty arguments due to Atlas' drunken thoughts. Which always resulted in Elodie taking Evelyn's side and Atlas smashing everything in sight.

Elodie smelt the air with a cringe. Her look was scorning as she looked him up and down. 

"Aren't you curious? Because I know that I am-"

"Just stop it! I do what Snow wants because I know that if I don't, the people I love, my family, my child, could be used as a pawn in his games too. It isn't my job to ask questions, it's my job to simply do them, okay?" she snapped, fists forming at her sides in anger.

He raised his hands innocently before rummaging around in the alcohol cabinet for something new to drink. Evelyn scoffed and walked past her two mentors and into her own temporary bedroom in the train, the doors sliding shut behind her.

Elodie's eyes returned to his face with anger. 'Really, Atlas?' she appeared to say, though her lips did not move. They never did. They would fake a smile or sneer, but never talk. She hadn't in years. She could. From Evelyn's memories of school, Elodie had the most beautiful voice ever. She had a magical ability to make the room fall silent as she sang or recited poetry. But the games ended that.

Atlas suddenly covered his mouth and stumbled out of the carriage to find the nearest bathroom. Elodie shook her head. She was always there to clean up his messes; all of them in their masses. She did so without a fuss. Always has been and she most likely always would.

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After curling her hair and pinning half of it up using her grandmother's ruby red pin, Evelyn finished applying a soft bronze eyeshadow to her eyelids and bright red colour to her lips. She backed away from the mirror to inspect the gown that she had found on her bed that morning, attached to a letter from her outfit designer from her 68th Hunger Games, Octavius Embers.

It was an exquisite gown, to say the least; minuscule, individually placed diamonds filled the bodice that hugged her frame, stopping at her feet where you could see her black, velvet heels thanks to a high leg slit. It was a daring cut in the dress, but she loved how it showed off her small scars from the arena, all apart from one. It showed that she was a survivor.

Evelyn exited her room for the first time since the argument in the main carriage with her old mentors, although she could hear Elodie yelling at Atlas to watch her dress as he threw up several times whilst she prepared him for the event. She joined the two other victors at the exit of the train, noticing how they held arms closely.

Atlas sported his usual black suit and colourful tie, this time it was a fiery orange that shined under the light. He turned to her and nodded, gaining an elbow in the side from Elodie, "I am sorry about earlier. I would like to say that it was the whiskey talking, but it wasn't."

"Let's just get this over with, okay?" she asked, taking his other arm that he offered her, linking them at the elbow gracefully. Just in time for the door to open and for blinding paparazzi lights to hit them.

Evelyn Miracle hated the Capitol and the attention that it gave her, people would stop her in the street to take pictures or talk about her experiences in the Games. Sometimes even going as far as to ask to see the scar. Of course, she refused to ever show anyone that mark on her body, it was the only private thing about her. Everything else was public news, other than her daughter of course.

But she plastered a ruby red smile on her face and feigned her happiness for the pictures. Her mind all of the potential headlines that would be printed above her picture.

'The Capitol's Miracle: Home At Last'

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It was overbearing to be in the same room as everyone else at the party, their constant chatter and dance requests. She was almost thankful when a guard approached her and informed her that President Snow was waiting in his office for her.

Evelyn had dodged everyone that tried to stop her and ascended up the grand staircase, knocking twice on the door before shutting it behind her. Like most times, Snow waited out on the balcony that overlooked the quieter area of the party, his garden. The stench of roses floating up to the balcony and attacking her senses.

"Miss Miracle, thank you for joining me this evening," he started, taking her hand in his own and kissing the back of it carefully, she cringed internally but smiled to show respect, "I fear that we have some very important matters to discuss."

"We do?" she asked, holding onto the marble railing to keep herself from acting out irrationally. Gripping the golden rail so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

"Well, of course, it isn't every day that I find out that one of my informants have been lying to me. And for so long. So when something like this arises, it must be dealt with accordingly," he threatened before motioning to a glass of champagne on the table.

Evelyn took a glass with a swift motion and returned to her place next to the older man, "I have no idea what you are talking about." Her velvet red lips brushing the side of the glass as she sipped the sweet liquid. 

Snow sipped on his own glass as though that would make her suspect him less. But she knew. Evelyn knew that his mouth sores and stomach ulcers were from drinking the same poison as his enemies and victims. If only he knew that she took the initiative to drink the antidote every train ride to the Capitol.

President Snow merely smiled before pressing a button on a remote, a gunshot echoed throughout a monitor screen on his desk behind them. It was the events from Katniss and Peeta's Victory Tour at District 11, it showed Evelyn pushing Katniss to Peeta before running to her family. The camera zoomed onto Aeliana's face as she screamed for her mother, picking up the sound as well.

"You see when I first met your younger sister, I was confused. You and the rest of your siblings have the same brown eyes and brown hair as your parents, yet your sister has blue eyes and golden hair. Still, I was willing to let this slide. But imagine my surprise when I get records and pictures that had been hidden for six years of you leaving the Capitol. In these pictures you were, what, six months pregnant?" he asked, his eyes gleaming as he watched her face fall dangerously.

"Seven," she corrected, downing the rest of the bubbly liquid in her glass. Fuck the antidote. It wasn't the poison that would kill her, it was the fear for her daughter's life. 

"Ah, I thought so," he grinned, his eyes now scanning the faces of the party just as the District 12 victors arrived and were pulled immediately to the buffet table, "You must know what this means, right? You wronged me, and the contract you signed when I employed you for your position."

"She is a child!" she begged, placing her glass on the side to give the situation her full attention. Jaime was right, she needed to deal with this. And there is no better time than the present.

"Your point is?" he asked threateningly, "Get out of my sight whilst I think of the proper repercussions of your actions."

Evelyn gulped, her eyes meeting those of an exposed Katniss, pleading to be saved from the people who asked her questions and swarmed her. Just like they had to Evelyn at her Victory Tour. The District 11 victor turned silently and slammed the large oak doors of his office shut, an evil smile creeping on to his features once more. His pearly white teeth stained red.

Elodie rounded the corner, a fake smile falling from her lips as she lay eyes on Evelyn.

Evelyn placed a hand to her stomach, the corset on her gown growing sickly tight with the rise and fall of her chest. Elodie rounded the corner, the forced smile on her lips falling as her eyes fell on her. "He knows, Snow knows about Aeliana," she almost sobbed saying her daughter's name, knowing that she had just put her only child in Snow's eyesight.

Elodie ran to her side and pulled her to the garden where the cold air instantly hit her, calming her down. Her sob finely ripping past her quivering  lips.

Elodie dramatically took a few deep breaths, holding her mentee by the arms tightly to get her to do the same. Though she never spoke, she always managed to say the right thing. It took several minutes and many tears until she calmed down enough. 

She simply nodded before turning to the drink stand, "I need a drink. Several of them. Bottles of them."

Elodie nodded and let her friend walk to the side of the garden where she harassed a waiter that refilled the glasses of the party-goers. She successfully stole the bottle from his grasp and stumbled away to watch everyone from a distance.

Evelyn Miracle had been happy to finally sit down in peace, drinking away at the bottle, until Peeta Mellark sat by her side, a defeated look on his face. He glanced at her with a polite smile and looked away, turning to face her again as if it clicked in his mind who he had sat by.

"You're Evelyn Miracle, 68th Hunger Games winner..." he muttered, scratching the back of his head with embarrassment.

She nodded drunkenly, "That would be me, Mr Mellark."

"I actually had no idea that you were coming, but I did want to talk to you. About the Victory Tour, when we stopped back in 11. I just wanted to say thank you, for pulling Katniss out of the drama. I don't know what would have happened if you didn't pull her from the crowd, so thank you."

There was a small silence filled with nothing but the music and laughter from everyone else, "Do me a favour, Mr Mellark," she caught the eyes of an angry President Snow from afar and offered her hand to Peeta, "Dance with me? I think that we could both kill some time."

Peeta nodded and took her hand, walking to the dance floor to slow dance to the soft music in the background; keeping their distance respectfully as they talked quietly.

"Have they started?" she asked him, watching his face contort into confusion, "The nightmares, have they started?"

He nodded his head, "Do you get them too?"

"Seven years later and I... Just wait until the nightmares don't wait for you to fall asleep," she smiled weakly, though Peeta could see the facade that she wore. Evelyn Miracle might have a hard outer shell, but she was breaking inside. It was only a matter of time before she exploded.

The soft music died down and was replaced with the presidential welcoming music to signify that President Snow was making his grand entrance. Evelyn pulled away from Peeta and stepped back, lightly bumping into Katniss Everdeen who was being pushed in the direction of the steps by her mentor, Effie.

Evelyn smiled before joining them, but all she felt was numb.

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I can't wait until Finnick can actually be introduced to the book and you can see the dynamic between them, I hope you enjoyed