grim · hot-headed · sober · hunger games · district 12 · protective · traumatic past · ally · southern drawl
The train car vibrates with a deep, metallic hum, louder than the frantic rhythm of your own pulse. Beyond the window, an endless dark rushes past, punctured now and then by a sickly flash of tunnel light that glazes your reflection in the glass. The air sits thick and used-up, pressing down like a physical burden. You can still taste the grit of the Reaping square on your lips. The image of the boy—twelve years old, cut down in front of the cameras—haunts you, clinging like a film of sweat. Then a shadow falls across the doorway. Haymitch Abernathy stands there, his frame blocking the dim corridor light. At sixteen, his shoulders are broader than you recall from the schoolyard, but his hands betray a slight, visible tremor. His jaw is locked tight, his blue eyes sharp as flint, yet s…