. SURVIVAL GAME . .៹♡
                                                        CHAPTER FIFTEEN
                               ─── THE MOCKINGJAY & THE PHOENIX

Velren sat in the dark, quiet hospital room to which he had been brought. His body was covered in these plain white pyjamas. He sat on the edge of the bed, his legs dangling, and tried to block out the horrible thoughts running through his mind. 

Tears freely streamed down his cheeks, and he sniffled every few seconds. In his trembling fingers, he gripped his familiar gray knots tightly, which he couldn't seem to stop fiddling with. His skin was sure to get small burns soon from how tightly he clutched the rope and how fast his fingers moved as he tied and tied.

The hope that had once lived within him was like a tenuous flame that now seemed extinguished, smothered under the relentless weight of the thought of Finnick, caught in the clutches of the Snows' cruel control. God knows what the Snows would do to him, so many things. 

"Velren." The stern voice had shocked him, he was too lost in his own thoughts to notice that someone had entered his hospital room. He stopped sniffling and a sigh escaped his mouth. He didn't need to turn his head to know who it was. 

Katniss was standing in the doorway with a menacing look aimed directly at him. It almost looked like she wanted to kill him. But Velren knew she wouldn't do that. She looked broken, there were tears in her eyes, similar to his own.

Despite the overwhelming hurting, he spoke up. "Have you forgotten that they have Finnick, too?" His voice was hoarse from the crying, and Katniss could definitely tell. His breath hitch, as his gaze slowly lifted from the knot in his fingers, to look straight at her. 

"They took him." As those words left his lips, it was as if everything was real. Finnick was gone and perhaps he would never come back.  He cried again as he didn't know how he was going to continue without Finnick by his side.

Velren felt the familiar pain coursing through his body as he gripped the knot so tightly that his fingers turned white. He held his breath, trying to keep everything under control and not collapse. He wouldn't let it happen if that was the last thing he could do. He knew Finnick wouldn't want that. "He's uh- he's in the Capitol with Peeta, Johanna and Aurora."

The menacing expression that was once on Katniss' face changed to one of compassion. She and Velren were one and the same person. Both mourned endlessly for the one they love and have lost. 

After a moment, Velren had finally stopped struggling, his body slumped in place. "I wish he was dead." His eyes were blank, for he was lost in his own thoughts, a place that seemed even worse than the arena. "I wish they were all dead, and we both were too. It would be  best."

Katniss stared at him as the eerie, unknowing silence gripped the room. She nodded in agreement. The thought of dying in the arena now seemed like salvation to her. The current agony surpassed everything. Fear and darkness surrounded them like an endless prison. Death seemed like liberation at this moment.

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"Velren, you have a visitor." The words that came out of the nurse's mouth gave Valren a sense of relief. His eyes shot up in certain excitement, but his lips remained straight and monotone. The knot between his fingers, which he had been fiddling with for the last hour, now lay motionless on his palm as his attention was focused entirely on the newcomer.

"Who is it?" he asked, his voice coarse and tired from the long hours of silence that plagued the room. With that, the door opened to reveal a black-haired boy. His younger brother Elias stood in front of the door with a small smile.

"Hi, Velren." He went into the room, and the nurse shut the door behind him. "Are you alright?" Elias asked, although he already knew the answer. Velren didn't answer the question directly, however, instead he asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to make sure you were okay. " Elias explained to him as he sat down on the chair next to his bed. But Velren was suddenly filled with rage, and he suppressed any trace of sadness that flowed through his veins.

"I'm not well, Elias. " Velren hissed.  "I've lost my boyfriend to the Capitol,and you ask how I'm doing?" His tone was as sharp as a knife, and Elias felt the sharpness in his chest.  He took a deep breath, trying to remain calm. "I just wanted to be there for you " he said. "You don't have to go through this alone."

Velren rolled his eyes.  "Be there for me? I don't need anyone to be 'there for me'. I need Finnick back!" He pounded his fist on the bedspread, and the sound echoed in the silent room.  Elias saw the tears welling up in Velren's eyes and slowly got up and walked to the bed. "It's okay to be angry." he said gently. "I understand that you miss him." Velren snorted and shook his head. "You don't understand," he muttered, but his voice lost some of its harshness.

Elias sat down on the edge of the bed and carefully wrapped his arms around Velren to comfort him. "I'm here." he said quietly. "You don't have to be alone."   Velren fell silent, and his body gradually relaxed.  Finally, he buried his head in Elias' neck while tears ran uncontrollably down his cheeks.

The two brothers sat like that for a few minutes until they heard a sympathetic voice,"Mr. Black." Velren looked up and saw a man dressed all in black and wearing a communication cuff around his wrist. "You're needed in central command, we were requested to escort you." he said quietly to the older one.  Velren nodded and slowly pulled away from his brother before he wiped away the tears and stood up from the bed.

"Please follow me, Mr. Black." the man said in a formal voice as he gently but firmly led Velren out of the room. Together they stepped into the gleaming metal elevator that would take them down to the lower floors. The doors closed behind them and silence fell. The soft whirring of the elevator motors was the only sound that filled the room as they slowly began to move.

The man stared stubbornly straight ahead, his eyes fixed on the flashing lights indicating the floors. Velren looked around, observing the smooth polished walls of the elevator reflecting in the faint light. The silence gradually became oppressive, and Velren decided to speak up. "Any news? Anything I should know about?"

The man turned his head slightly towards Velren without looking him directly in the eye, and Velren noticed that the man looked as if he didn't know the answer to his question. Or he just didn't want to tell him. "I'm just here to escort you." was his short reply, which offered no further explanation.

Velren shuffled to the edge of the elevator and looked around at the other people. He saw a line of people from Districts 12, 13, and 14, all dressed in dark gray jumpsuits. "We were always told there was nothing left of Fourteen." Velren muttered quietly to himself. "The Capitol has bombed the surface into rubble." the man replied abruptly, his voice suddenly sharper and with a hint of bitterness. "But we're military, so we learned to survive down here. Preparing and training. The war never stopped for us."

Finally, the elevator reached the control center, and the man led Velren into a large room where several people were already waiting. They were seated around a large table. It was Plutarch, Beetee, President Alma Coin of District 14 and Katniss. "There's the boy on fire." Plutarch said with a grin when he saw Velren enter the room. "Or our Phoenix."

Coin rose from her chair and extended her hand to Velren. Her handshake was firm and piercing, almost uncomfortably sharp, like a blade cutting into his skin. Velren felt the pressure and resisted the urge to grimace. When Coin finally released his hand, he felt a wave of relief, as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

Coin smiled at Velren, but her smile didn't reach her eyes. It was a cold smile, like a mask she wore, her lips drawn into a thin line. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Black." she said with a voice that didn't match her  gaze.

Velren nodded slightly, observing her with little apparent interest. Her words sounded polite, but he sensed a subtle tension in her voice. Coin continued, "You're a courageous young man. I know how disorienting this must be. And I can't imagine what it's like to live through the atrocities of those Games."

Velren felt his blood start to boil. He wanted nothing more than to confront the woman and slap her across the face. But he bit his tongue to suppress this urge and nodded again instead, as if unsure what he should do next. Then he forced a weak smile. "Call me Velren, Madame Coin." he said as politely as he could manage.

"Please know how welcome you are. I hope you find some comfort with us. We, too, have experienced fourteen losses." Her eyes seemed to gaze into a deeper past as she spoke. Velren had heard about the epidemic that had ravaged the lives of many young people in this district. It was a tragedy that he knew had cut the people here to the core.

Plutarch, who sat next to her, seemed to smile as he watched the others in the room. "This is history." he finally said and pointed to the table where they sat. "Right here, at this table."

Coin placed her hand on Velren's shoulder. He would have liked to brush it off, but he held back. Coin noticed his tension and slowly withdrew her hand. "I apologize." she finally said. "I wish you had more time to recover, but unfortunately, we don't have that luxury. Please have a seat."

Coin gestured to an empty seat at the table next to Katniss before taking her own seat.Velren made his way to his chair, his shoulders raised and his back tense. He sat down, fiddling with a loose string on his hospital gown.

Coin wasted no time getting to the point. "Are you both aware of what's happened? Katniss, when you shot your arrow at the force field, you electrified a nation. " she began to say. There have been riots and uprisings and strikes in several districts. We believe that if we keep this energy going we can unify the districts against the Capitol."

Coin paused and  looked back and forth between Katniss and Velren. "But if we don't." she continued, "If we let it dissipate, we could be waiting another seventy-five years for this opportunity. Everyone in Fourteen is ready for this."

Katniss spoke for herself and Velren: "What about Peeta and Finnick? Are they alive?" Her words were flat, but her eyes betrayed the anger that burned within her. Velren understood her rage, as they had also left Finnick behind.

Plutarch considered, then furrowed his brow. "I don't know, and I wish I did," he began with apparent concern. "But there's no way for me to contact my operatives inside the Capitol."

Beetee, who was sitting nearby, cleared his throat softly to draw attention to himself. "The Capitol has always suppressed communication between the districts. " he explained in a calm, matter-of-fact voice, and  his eyes drifted over to Velren and Katniss. "But I know their system very well; I managed to break through. All we need now is the perfect message."

"Katniss, Velren here's what we need to do." Plutarch said  while  he  leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. "We need to show them that the Phoenix and the Mockingjay are alive and well and willing to stand up and join this fight. 'Cause we need every district to stand up to this Capitol. The way you both did. So we're going to shoot a series of propaganda clips, propos, I like to call them, on the Phoenix and the Mockingjay. Spreads the word that we're gonna stoke the fire of this rebellion. The fire that the Phoenix and the Mockingjay started."

Velren could feel his anger returning. His hands clenched into fists, and his knuckles turned white with tension. They really expected him to forget all this? To just pretend that nothing had happened? They had betrayed Finnick and left him to die in the arena. "You left them there."  he said in a hissing tone. His eyes were red, not only from anger but also from tears. "You left Finnick and Peeta in that arena to die."

"Velren, there are so many—" Plutarch began, trying to calm him, but Katniss's furious scream cut him off. "Peeta was the one who was supposed to live!" "Ms. Everdeen, Mr. Black." Coin said in a quiet tone. "This revolution is about everyone, it's about all of us. And we need two voices."

Velren and Katniss stood up at the same time, as if a shared signal had been given. Anger coursed through their veins, and their hearts beat in unison. "You should have saved  them." Velren spat out like venom, and without another glance, he turned and left the room, Katniss following closely behind.

Coin watched as Boggs followed them, letting out a frustrated sigh. "Maybe you should've saved Peeta and Finnick instead." she finally said. Plutarch shook his head almost immediately. "Oh, no. No, no." he replied, emphasizing each word. "Listen to me. No one else can do this but them." His voice was calm, but his eyes showed his conviction in the plan.

Coin looked at him, her brows furrowing. "This is not the girl and this is not the man you described." she said, with a hint of doubt. Plutarch nodded in agreement, his expression changing as he recalled the battles the two had fought. "Well, obviously we need to make it personal. Remind them who the real enemy is." he said, as if it were the simplest answer to all problems.

Coin remained skeptical. "They know who the real enemy is. That's not the issue." she replied, though her voice sounded less confident than she hoped. She knew Katniss and Velren had already been through a lot, and she wasn't sure if they could bear this burden any longer.

Plutarch, however, was unwavering. "Unless they've forgotten,." he suggested, his voice calm yet firm. "There's explaining and there's showing. Let them see what the Capitol did to District Twelve and District Thirteen."

Coin hesitated, her eyes narrowing as she weighed the idea. "They can't handle it. The games destroyed them." she said. Plutarch merely shrugged. "This is the only choice you have. People don't always show up the way you want them to, Madame President. But that anger, that anger-driven defiance, that's what we want. And we can redirect it. We need to unite these people out there that have been doing nothing but killing each other in an arena for years. We have to have lightning rods."

Coin bit her lower lip. Plutarch was right. The people needed  leaders, someone they could follow. Someone who showed them that life was more than just fighting and dying."They will follow them." Plutarch continued, his voice growing in conviction. "They are the face of the revolution. Let them see it. Let them go home." 

Coin finally sighed, resigned to the realization that she had no other choice. She gestured to Plutarch, as if giving him the final word. "Send them."

━━ AUTHORS NOTE

Let's go! The Mockingjay Part One! In the next chapter, there's a flashback in which Velren finds out something terrible about his family lineage after winning the 73rd Hunger Games - ehehe evil laughter😈😈 Keep your eyes peeled for the next chapter!

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! If you did, be sure to vote, comment and share!

 Until next time, much love to you all!