LEGENDS ▹ the hunger games au

𝐯𝐢𝐢𝐢

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐃

THEY were doomed from the start.

Katniss could still remember when the order came. It came in a white envelope, a golden Capitol emblem on the front and a wax seal of a rose on the seal.

She couldn't read it aloud, too nauseous and dizzy to even consider such a feat. Booted feet limply stretched out, she had slid down the length of the wall, and as she did, she sensed Peeta reaching out for her.

"Katniss, it's gonna be okay—," he tried to find a way out; he always tried to find a way out, "We'll say no, we'll say we can't, we'll think of something—,"

"And then we'll wait to see who Snow kills first?"

It was a hopeless venture. Katniss saw no way out. She was now a simple cog in the great Capitol machine, another mutt to join the masses, a grateful victor who bowed and scraped before a merciful President. If she malfunctioned, they'd do what they'd threatened to do since the very beginning.

What they had done to Haymitch and Johanna Mason and all others who dared to say, "No".

It felt as if Snow was giving her one final choice, here and now — in this moment.

Choose a side; with him, or against him.

No other options.

Against him meant the unthinkable; the death and destruction of her whole district, of all of Panem if Snow was right about the effect she could have.

But what being with him meant wasn't any better; this way, Katniss would save her family, all those she loved and cared for, and in payment, she would sacrifice her child.

It boiled down to this: Prim, or her unborn child.

No, there was no way out, only through.

Wasn't it the thing she dreaded most about the wedding, about the future — the loss of her children to the Games? And it would be true now, wouldn't it? If she hadn't spent her life building up layers of defenses until she recoiled at even the suggestion of marriage or a family?

She was angry, of course. Enraged, even. But more than that, she felt defeated.

A Capitol marionette, body limp and waiting for the strings to be pulled taut and dance.

If they didn't live here, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad. But they did live here. Gale would never understand. She barely could. She longed for a world where Peeta's child could be safe.

Peeta looked hopelessly down at her and there were tears in his eyes when she took his hand. Had he been stalked by the same fears that she had? That every victor had? Every parent in every district in Panem?

They had switched roles that day; Katniss with an analytical calm and Peeta with a destructive anger. They had marched over to Haymitch's, not bothering to knock as they pushed through the front door and waded through the flight to reach the man in his kitchen.

He put on a loose smile when they crossed the threshold of the doorway, "Ah, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Knock it off."

Haymitch looked mildly startled.

Katniss was still uncharacteristically calm, still as she sat at Haymitch's table.