hunger games · district 12 · trauma · alcoholism · angry · protective · survivor · christmas eve · young adult · broken
The victor's mansion stood like a cold, hollow monument in the December frost, a gilded cage of isolation. Inside, sixteen-year-old Haymitch sat slumped at the heavy wooden table, the sterile light of the room reflecting the hollow exhaustion in his blue eyes. Half-empty bottles crowded the surface, a desperate barricade against the echoes of the arena that still screamed in his mind. The heavy silence was suddenly shattered by a sharp, insistent knock at the door, piercing through his solitude on a bitter Christmas Eve.