𓏲 . SURVIVAL GAME . .៹♡
                                                     CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
                                               ─── THE INTERVIEW

Everybody sat  in the large dinner area and talked to each other quietly.  Velren looked at his food in silence. He had lost his appetite after seeing what had happened to his district. Elias sat next to him while Katniss sat across from him with Gale and  tried to eat something.

"Come on,Velren." Katniss encouraged him. "You need to eat something."  

Elias nodded as he looked at his older brother. "Yeah, she's right," he agreed quietly and put a hand on Velren's shoulder to reassure him, "I don't think Finnick would appreciate it if you get sick from starvation."  

Gale, who had been listening in silence, nodded in agreement. But Velren shook his head in determination. "I'm not hungry." he insisted.

Before he could say anything back, the anthem of Panem started to play until the screens in the room turned on to show Caesar Flickerman,  the eternal host of the Hunger Games, with his painted face and sparkly suit. 

" Hello," he greeted in low voice with the biggest lie of a smile Velren ever saw, "Good evening and a big welcome to all in Panem. I'm Caesar Flickerman and whoever you are and whatever it is you are doing. If you are working, put down your work, if you're having dinner, stop having dinner because you are going to want to witness this tonight. There has been rapid speculation about what happened in the Quarter Quell and here to shed a little light on the subject for us is a very special guest. Please welcome, Mr. Peeta Mellark."

The camera angle switched from Caesar Flickerman to show Peeta, who was wearing a white suit. Velren's jaw dropped to the floor while  a sound escaped Katniss's throat. The same combination of gasp and groan that cames from being submerged in water, deprived of oxygen to the point of pain.

She rose from her seat and pushed  people aside  until she stood right in front of him.  She searched  his eyes for any sign of hurt, any reflection of the agony of torture.  But there was nothing. Peeta looked healthy to the point of robustness. His skin was glowing, flawless, in that full-body-polish way. His manner was composed and serious.

"Peeta," Caesar carried on, "a lot of people feel as though they're in the dark."

Peeta nodded his head, "Yeah, yeah. I know how they feel." There was an edge of bitterness to his soft voice.

"Now, so set the stage for us. Talk us through what really happened on that final and controversial night." Caesar suggeted and leaned in to him a little.

Peeta nodded again, but waited a while before he started speaking again, "Well, first of, you have to understand what it's like to be in the Games. You only get one wish, it's very costly."

"You're alive." Katniss whispered in shock, unable to comprehend that he was truly still alive. Velren could hardly believe it himself, that he was still alive, and with this surprising thought came others — particularly about Finnick. If Peeta was still alive, then that meant Finnick was still alive too.

"It costs your life," Caesar tried to state as if he knew what Peeta was talking about. "I think it costs more than your life." He objected, voicing what Velren was thinking in response to Caesar's words.

Caesar furrowed his brows in confusion. "How do you mean? What's more than your life?" "I mean to. . . to murder innocent people." Peeta replied.

Velren bit the inside of his cheek at that statement. He tried not to remember his first games, where he had lost his mind and become a force of nature that killed as indiscriminately as a sandstorm. He had massacred the other tributes after his ally had been murdered in front of him, but he had not been in control of himself, and now it seemed to him that someone else had killed them. But in his second games,  five tributes had been killed by him. On purpose.

"Now, that costs everything you are," Peeta said and Caesar nodded his head in agreement, as if could imagine it himself, like he was in the arena and forced to kill to survive. "So you hold onto that one wish, and that night my one wish was to save Katniss. You know, I should've just run off with her, earlier in the day like she wanted to."

"But you didn't." Caesar pushed. Peeta shook his head, "No." "Why?" Caesar asked him, "Were you caught up in Beetee's plan?"

Peeta shook his head ever so lightly, "No, I was caught up in trying to play allies. Then they separated us and that's when I lost her. Then the lightning hit and the whole forcefield around the arena just blew out."

"Yes, but, Peeta, Katniss is the one who blew it out," Caesar said to him as if it was some great secret. "No." Peeta objected and shook his head in denial. Caesar frowned,"You saw the footage."

At this, Peeta got angry, "No, she didn't know what she was doing. Neither of us knew there was a bigger plan going on, neither did Velren. We had no idea."

"You had no idea?" Caesar repeated. "No." Peeta said back with a bite to his voice. "Alright. Well, Peeta, there are many who find this suspicious to say the least." Caesar said and sat up in his chair ever so slightly, while his eyes challenging Peeta to say more. But Peeta only hummed, not saying anything else.

"It seems as though she was part of a rebel plan." Ceasar broke the silence, which caused Peeta to jump up and get very close to his interviewer's face, his hands locked on the arms of his interviewer's chair, "Do you think it was part of her plan to be almost killed by Johanna and Aurora? Or part of the plan to be paralysed by the lightning? No, we weren't part of any rebel plan. We had no idea what was going on."

Caesar placed his hand on Peeta's chest in a gesture that was  both self-protective and conciliatory, " All right, I believe you, Peeta Mellark. Thank you."

"Okay."  Peeta withdrew from Caesar and pulled his hands back before he ran them through his hair and ruffled his carefully styled blond curls.  He slumped back in his chair in despair.

Caesar waited a moment and eyed Peeta, "Now, I was going to ask you to speak about the unrest, but I think you might be too upset."

"No," Peeta denied, "no, I can." "Are you sure?" Caesar asked, his voice cautious. "Yeah, absolutely." the blonde boy reassured him. "Thank you." Caesar replied with a small smile.

"Yeah."  Peeta took a deep breath and then sat forward in his chair to look directly into the camera, "I want everyone who's watching to stop and to think about what a civil war could mean. We almost went extinct once before." he stated and Velren looked nervously around as the cafeteria was in chaos by his words. People were arguing with one another or shouting "traitor," "liar", and "enemy" at the screen itself.

"Is this really what we want to do? Kill ourselves off? Killing is not the answer. Everyone needs to lay down their weapons immediately." Peeta continued, "For all of us." "Are you calling for a cease fire?" Caesar asked, pretending to be shocked.

"Yes, I am," Peeta calmly answered, not knowing the repercussions that his speech had just had, "I want everyone to stop the senseless violence. This is not the path to change. And it's not the path to justice."

"Thank you, Peeta Mellark for those beautiful words, I hope you have inspired many," Caeser said. With this, the screen went black.

Everyone in District Fourteen kept shouting and screaming at the black  screen that Peeta was a traitor, a liar and an enemy. Katniss tried to calm people down, but no one listened to her.

Velren then had enough and stood up on his chair. In a voice that drowned out the crowd, he said, "Enough! Stop that!" The room gradually fell silent as all eyes turned to him.  "Don't you all realize, that he is forced to say those things." he yelled. "We cannot judge, without being in his situation."

Everyone listened carefully to the young man. Some in the crowd began to nod in agreement, while others remained skeptical. "He's right," some people murmured to each other.

As calm slowly returned, Velren sank back into his chair. Katniss smiled gratefully at him. "Thank you, Velren." she said softly. "Anytime." Velren replied back with a soft smile.

━━ AUTHORS NOTE

Here is once again a chapter. I hope you enjoyed it!

Please, don't forget to vote and share if , and if you want, comment too ! I'd really appreciate it <3

Thank you for reading this far.

Until next time, much love to you all!