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The Price to be Paid	By : AislynnHunter Category: G through L > The Hunger Games Trilogy Views: 23980 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I in no way, shape or form make any money off of this story and all rights to the Hunger Games trilogy and the characters within belong solely to the author Suzanne Collins and the publishing company.

Chapter List
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Ch. 1
Waking Up to a New Life

I’m in a bed. Or at least, I think it’s a bed. Everything seems so out of focus. The last thing I remember is trying to get to Peeta after we won the Games. Oh God, Peeta. Was he even still alive? Did they let him die to punish me because I was unable to kill him? I couldn’t kill him though. I owed him from when he saved my life, it was a debt that I couldn’t let go unpaid.
Finally, I feel my eyes open and everything is still slightly blurry. They must have sedated me in order to carry me away. As my vision begins to clear I look around and see a familiar face sitting in a chair in the corner of the room.
“About time, sweetheart,” Haymitch says in a slightly slurred voice. No surprise there, he’s been drinking although now I feel I have a slightly better understanding and appreciation of the demons that he tries to quiet though the liquor. After all, I have now killed as well.
“Peeta?” I ask, my voice hoarse and raspy from disuse.
“He’s fine. In fact, the two of you couldn’t be any healthier. That’s what happens when you win the games, they fix you right on up.”
I pause a moment to process what he has just told me. But of course it makes sense; after all, the Capitol wouldn’t want to have to look at a disfigured victor. My disgust for the majority of the people living here rises. How can anyone be so shallow?
“What happens now?”
Haymitch pauses as though he’s not entirely sure what to say, and that worries me more than I can say.
“First there’s the crowning, that’ll actually happen in a few hours. And then there’s more interviews. After that…..I’m not sure. There’s never been two victors before. I gotta say, sweetheart, you really pissed a lot of people off with your little stunt.”
And there it is. The answer to the question I was too scared to ask. What will the punishment be, I wonder. As long as it doesn’t come back on anyone I care about then I think I’ll be able to deal with it.
Before I can form any sort of response, Cinna walks through the door on the side of the room opposite Haymitch’s chair. Cinna, the only person that I met in the Capitol that I can truly say I like.
“Hey there my girl on fire, I told you I would bet on you,” he says to me. I just shake my head. After all, what can I really say to that?
“Are you here to make me beautiful, Cinna?”
He looks at me with a wry grin on his face. “No one could possibly make you more beautiful than you are, Katniss. I’m here to get you to make my creations look good all over again.”
I don’t believe him for a second, I mean, I’m just a coal miner’s daughter from the Seam, but I understand that this is his way of trying to make me comfortable enough to go back on parade for the shallow people that just want to ooh and aah over the latest ‘stars’ in their universe.
“Well then I guess we’d better get going.”
~*~
It’s almost two hours later, but I’m clean and dressed neat as a pin with my hair perfectly coiffed and I just can’t seem to calm my nerves. I still haven’t seen Peeta. I’ve been told that they want our first reunion to be captured on the air. I can only imagine what kind of response it is that they’re all wanting out of me. Better yet, I don’t want to imagine.
I’m suddenly pulled out of my musings when the door opens and in walks President Snow.
“Katniss Everdeen. An honor, no doubt, to meet the young lady who so succinctly undermined my every plan for this year’s Games.”
The farther into the room he comes, the more the cloying scent of blood and roses fills my nose and throat to the point where I can’t escape from it.
“You see, my dear, you have become something of a sensation, both good and bad, and that just won’t do.”
Everything in me freezes down to the very marrow of my bones. Real terror fills me, terror for my District and for my sweet, innocent sister, Prim.
“What can I do to fix it?”
His face breaks out in a ‘cat that ate the canary’ grin, as if he has me exactly where he wants me with no room to escape and he knows it.
“I was so hoping you would say that because I have a very prestigious offer for you. Now don’t worry, you have the right to refuse if you so choose, I can’t force you to do anything you don’t wish to do. But I would so hate to think of what would happen to little Primrose Everdeen. District 12 can be so hard on the young, wouldn’t you agree?” Not giving me anytime to speak, he continues, “Now as soon as everything is finished in the Capitol, you will be allowed to go home until it is time for the Victory Tour. Of course, you won’t be alone, you’ll have a very special guest that I want you to get to know very well in the person of none other than District 4’s Finnick Odair himself.”
I don’t even know what to say to this. I can’t grasp whatever it is Snow is implying.
“I thought I was supposed to be with Peeta?” I meant it as a statement, but it comes out less sure than I would have liked.
“Tsk tsk. And here I thought we were doing so well in our communication, Miss Everdeen. No, Peeta is a boy and quite frankly, outside of the attraction he gains from being attached to you, there is little to no interest in the Mellark boy and that just doesn’t sell. You will publicly renounce Peeta during your interview with Ceaser and let it slip that the reason is because you have met a real man in Odair. After your Victory Tour is over, you will actually come to live in the Capitol because the splendor of it is just too much for you to turn your back on.” I start to interject and argue, but he cuts me off.” Now, now, don’t worry, you’ll be allowed to go and visit when I deem it appropriate and I’ll even let your mother and sister live in the Victor’s Village with a portion of your winnings for the rest of their natural lives. But, you simply must stay in the Capitol because there are a great many out there who would pay highly for the….pleasure of your company and it would simply be rude to ask them to wait while we fetch you from all the way on the outskirts of the country.”
Snow waits as though expecting me to argue, but I’m truly too dumbfounded to do anything. Seeing that he won’t get a fight, he simply turns around and leaves. I think he wished me well during the crowning and the interviews, but I couldn’t be sure I heard correctly over the pounding of blood in my ears.
That is why pretty boy Odair is to be my new ‘boyfriend.’ That is why I have to live in the Capitol.
I am the Capitol’s new whore and Odair is my teacher.

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Well, I hope you enjoyed it. Please read and review, I would love to know your thoughts, both good and bad. Thanks for reading.
Aislynn Hunter
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The Price to be Paid