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The canon fired, cementing what they already knew.
Their girl was dead, and the last hope of Twelve winning the games. He thought she may have a chance, not a huge one, but one nonetheless. She was the butcher’s daughter which made her stronger than most since she helped around the ship, and her merchant status made it so she was a least more fed than their boy. Sure, she was only fourteen, but she had the advantage and fire.
Don’t go towards to Cornucopia, Haymitch had said, but the boy didn’t listen. They never fucking do, but the girl…she did. She made it to the top five.
Haymitch fell back against the couch and finished off his drink.
A soft whimper pulls his gaze from the screen, and he sees the pain etched on Effie’s face. The tears silently fall down her face, and he thinks she can feel his eyes on her because she tried to wipe away her tears discreetly.
“Sorry.” Her cheerful voice tries to disguise the break, but she quickly excuses herself to elsewhere in the penthouse.
It was her first year, she didn’t really have the stomach for this yet. She had coddled the children leading up to the games, and the girl and she had built quite a bond. He shrugged, now she knew better.
He pours himself another drink and raises it towards the screen, “To another two.”
He stumbles down the hall, but his ears prick up at gentle sobs coming into the hallway from the crack in Effie's door. Haymitch’s curiosity gets the better of him, and he pushes to door open quietly. He can see the soft lines of Effie’s body shaking from her silent crying.
“Effie.” Haymitch may be a drunk. He may be drunk. He might be crass and abrasive, but this girl just watched everything she ever knew crumble around her. This situation needed some delicate nature.
“She reminded me of my sister.” Her voice is soft, broken. Haymitch finds himself drifting into her room, taking soft steps like one would do against a frightened animal, and sits on the end of her bed.
“Didn’t know you had a sister.” To be fair, he didn’t know much about her. It had been a few weeks, and she had been the epitome of an annoying Capitol.
“She died a few years ago.” Effie flipped over to face him, and Haymitch is taken aback by her bare face. He looks around and sees her dress and wig abandoned on the floor. “She was Lyra’s age. The two of them could have been twins.”
“Hard to think anything as delicate as you had a sister that looked like her.” He sees a small smile on Effie’s tear-stained face, and he considers that a win.
“Mother hated it.” The smile fell just as fast as it came, “Anemone was always more…built than Mother and I. She was the spitting image of Father; tall, muscular, and blonde, and he had her enrolled in sports as soon as she showed any interest.”
“I bet that made your mother so happy.” He lays down next to her, seeing her truly for the first time, and is transfixed by her natural look. She looks no different than the merchant girl that he fawned over before finding Lenore. In another life.
“She was so mad,” Effie chuckled as she looked at him with her sparkling blue eyes. It was obvious how much she loved her sister. “But Ane did so well. She excelled. No matter what she did, Ane was the best on the team. Our mother couldn’t be mad when her when she was shining such a good light onto the family.”
“She sounds like a good kid.”
“She was my best friend. I loved her so much.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know.” He watches her body tense and reaches out to take her hand into his without a thought. The slight squeeze she gives him, reassures him that he hasn’t overstepped. “I remember that morning. Mother’s scream still haunts me. They told me that she just stopped breathing in the night, something about her heart giving out. They never went into detail, and we never talked about it again after the funeral. I was sixteen. When I saw Lyra, looking at her…I saw Ane, and now they are both gone.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry to you too.”
They lay there until they fell asleep, hands still intertwined and breaths intertwined. They are two broken people who have to keep going through the motions until something changes…
That would take another nine years, but at this moment, Haymitch saw a brief glimpse into the Capitol's humanity.