Chapter Text
Peeta watches the giant screen from his seat. He can feel the cameras pointed at him, and sweat pooling on his lip and neck under the bright lights of the studio. He listens to the exclamations coming from the audience and Caesar Flickerman, making sure to smile and nod at the right moments.
The reality is that Peeta never expected to be sitting across from Caesar again. He never expected to come out of the Games alive.
The scenes shown on the screen make him relive the last month of his life. He remembers perfectly how the shirt he was wearing on the day of the Reaping felt on his skin, how itchy his sleeves were, already frayed by the previous uses of his brothers. He remembers the sepulchral silence of the crowd around the square when they called the name of the girl tribute, a little twelve-year-old girl from the Veta. Lily Cole was her name.
He remembers the girl passing through the crowd around her, making her way to the stage. He remembers how she held her head high. After that his memories become blurry, he does not remember when Effie Trinket said her name, but he sees himself on the screen in front of him. He watches his past self walk onto the stage with a sorrowful face, his forehead furrowed in anguish, the shock evident in his features.
The images change to the parade and the pre-Games training phase, but Peeta's mind remains on Reaping Day. He remembers to look out the window of the Justice Building, trying to keep every detail in his memory, convinced that he will never see that place again. His eyes scanned the crowd, and it didn't take long for them to focus on his target. Katniss Everdeen, a faint smile on her face as she hugged her little sister, her shoulders relaxed with relief.
She was dressed in a pretty blue dress, and had braids on her head. Peeta remembers perfectly the twinge in his chest when he watched Gale Hawthorne approach the girl who had consumed his every thought for years and hugged her with all the familiarity he would ever have with her. He saw the most radiant smile he had ever seen on the girl's face, as the hunter lifted her slightly into the air. Of course, it was the boy's last Reaping.
"And they lived happily ever after," Peeta thought bitterly at the time.
Caesar Flickerman's laugh brings Peeta back to the present. They are reliving their interview the night before the Games, and the light banter they held that time.
"Tell me, Peeta," Caesar says in a light tone. Peeta can't help but jump in surprise at his voice. "Did you imagine yourself back on this stage?"
What a stupid question.
"Not really, Caesar," Peeta says, forcing as much good humor as possible in his response. "But I can't say I'm mad about it".
This draws a loud laugh from the audience and Caesar. Peeta wants to throw up.
On the screen the summary of his journey through The Hunger Games continues. He watches himself on the platform, his nervous hands at his sides as the counter ticks back. At the sound of the cannon he runs towards the Cornucopia. A few meters from arriving, he crouches down and manages to get hold of a weapon lying on the ground, a small axe.
The Peeta in the arena runs off, dodging the children running and the corpses that are already beginning to pile up on the ground around the Cornucopia.
On the screen he observes his first days summarized quickly, walking in search of water. A few days later he meets Lily Cole.
They stumble upon a nest of tracker jackers on the ground, Peeta gets too close and, too late, realizes that there are still some alive inside. They run off into the river, however, Peeta fails to dodge them all before diving into the water, getting two stings on his arms.
The camera follows Lily Cole as she drags Peeta out of the water with all her might, and begins to clean up his wounds, tearing leaves she finds on the riverbank, pressing them carefully onto his arms, talking to him non-stop so that he doesn't lose consciousness. Peeta remembers being curious about where Lily had learned which herbs would be helpful.
The summary continues, focusing on the plan they put together to eliminate the provisions of the Careers. The plan was simple enough, Peeta had to go to the camp they maintained on the shore of the lake and find a way to make the provisions they had piled up disappear. In the meantime, Lily was to light fires to distract the Careers and guide them to her, giving Peeta enough time to think about something.
Things did not go according to plan. Peeta managed to remove the provisions, noticing the steps taken by the District 5 tribute, throwing rocks towards the place until the mines detonated making the pile of provisions explode. However, he did not count on the force of the explosion. He walked very slowly, he ran too slowly.
On the screen, the projection changes to Lily. Peeta stops breathing.
It's the first time he's seen it.
Marvel appears among the trees and Lily backs away. He doesn't kill her right away. He surrounds her. Plays with her. Makes her beg. Makes her scream.
The studio goes silent, but Peeta forces himself to keep his eyes open, even though every muscle in his body is struggling to close his eyes, to get up, to run away, to scream.
The cannon sounds.
Caesar tries to pressure him for a reaction, but Peeta will not allow himself to appear weak. He talks about how his alliance with Lily and her memory kept him strong over the next few days, during cold nights and mornings without food, during his run back to the Cornucopia and his last confrontation with Cato, the District 2 tribute.
Finally, the trumpet sounds.
The image freezes with him, standing, his face and hands covered in dried blood, the bloody axe still in his hand. The voice booms in the studio, but Peeta still feels inside the arena:
"Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to Peeta Mellark, victor of the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games."
The audience bursts into applause.
Peeta doesn't move.