Author: admin

I get some teeth into his palm and he jerks his hand back, but I’m only free enough to yell. “Ma! Sid! Maaaaa!” Blair, kneeling on my right arm, leans in. Tears cut channels through his soot-blackened face. “We’re so sorry, Haymitch. We tried. You know we did. We just couldn’t save them.” “No! Let…

No stranger would it be If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree. Strange things indeed. A dead man calling out. His ghost. No, Lenore Dove said it was a bird. Birds. Jabberjays. The failed mutts let loose to die in District 12. But they defied the Capitol’s sentence of extinction by fathering…

I don’t see President Snow all night. Or much of my team either. Proserpina and Vitus swing by to congratulate me, tipsy and pink-faced. Drusilla and Magno, who success seems to have reconciled, kiss and coo and briefly pose for photos with me. Magno can’t even remember my name and insists on calling me Hamwich,…

I slam my eyes shut. This must be a nightmare. Or perhaps I’ve gone to another world, a bad one. I try to will myself back into unconsciousness, to escape this evil place. But in my heart of hearts, I know it’s real. I start shaking as hard as the rabbit. Harder. Awaiting my snake….

Bam! They start drawing the names at the reapings, beginning with District 1. “Silka Sharp!” “Panache Barker!” They machine-gun through the tributes with a quick shot of each and a counter in the corner of the screen that tracks from one to forty-eight. Being the home of the victor, District 12 is allowed a bit…

I can feel consciousness threatening to slip away as I free the sunflower from my neck and place the blasting cap in it. I bite off the fuse with my teeth, leaving a few inches, and toss the remainder aside. This time it works, Ampert. Loose cannon going off, Louella. Wyatt. Lou Lou. Wellie. I…

I recall the library, his knowing smirk . . . “Bet I know a thing or two about your dove.” “Like what?” “Like she’s delightful to look at, swishes around in bright colors, and sings like a mockingjay. You love her. And oh, how she seems to love you. Except sometimes you wonder because her…

“She did?” Her eyes widen. “What did she mean? A good victor?” Great question. “It means, I think, that you never stop being a Newcomer.” Wellie tears up, then steels herself with determination. “I can do that. For the others,” she says. “Hide me.” She reaches out her arms for me to carry her. Nearby,…

Not a bad poster, all in all. Snatches of sleep breed nightmares, and the dawn finds me weak and weary, like the guy in Lenore Dove’s poem. The arena leaves no time to properly grieve anyone and I’m left feeling cheated, shallow, and coldhearted. Louella, Ampert, Maysilee, everybody deserves far better. I just can’t generate…

“Why?” “Because I’ve got a feeling Wellie would want to get as far from that volcano as possible.” “I don’t know. We’ve been all over that area with no sign of her.” “Exactly. It’s like Mags said. In the arena, you generally keep moving. And she hasn’t been there yet. Let’s just give it a…