"Evelyn Brinley, better known as Lady Red, victor of the 72nd Hunger Games. Won her games at 15."
"Why Lady Red?"
"Because she always wears red. Oh, and she won her games by burning the remaining tributes alive."
✮
"𝑮𝒊𝒓𝒍 𝒐𝒏 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒆? 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒄...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
IF DISTRICT 13 HATED PEETA BECAUSE HE CALLED FOR A CEASEFIRE, Sasha didn't even want to think about what they thought about Evelyn at that moment. He didn't know if they all saw the program, Plutarch had only called him to the command room to view it. He didn't know if it was playing in the cafeteria, and frankly, he didn't care. He didn't care if they hated her; he knew she wouldn't say those words alone. It must've been a script. Or was she being manipulated?
He'd left the command room, his mind reeling, ignoring Heavensbee's questions. Sasha needed to talk to someone, someone who knew her. There were three people in the base who actually knew her; Cassandra, Xanther, and Apollo. He didn't want to tell Cass, he didn't know how she'd react. Xanther had disappeared off the face of the planet the moment he needed him, of course. So all that was left was Apollo. Apollo was smart, he'd have an idea whether she was saying that on her own or if the Capitol was doing something.
There were two places Apollo could've been. And Sasha had already checked one of those places; his room. When he wasn't in his room, he was with Beetee in 13's 'lab'. It was colder on the bottom floors of the base, and the lab was one of the last ones. It would've been nice if the jumpsuit came with a jacket, but it was good enough. If he could survive an arena then he could survive a little cold.
"Oh, hey," Apollo had a strained smile, looking up when Sasha walked into the room. Beetee wasn't there, but the boy wasn't alone. Another girl was there with her dark hair slicked back into a ponytail. They were both focused on something on the table.
The girl looked up and nodded in Sasha's direction, "Ella Feiner."
Sasha gave her a half-hearted wave, "Sasha Ward." Then he turned back to Apollo with a frown, "Walk with me."
Apollo thinned his lips, and his expression told Sasha that he already knew what they would talk about during their walk. He nodded and turned to Ella, "I'll be right back, try rearranging the wire, maybe that's the issue."
Ella muttered something under her breath, but Apollo turned and followed Sasha out the door. They walked silently for a few minutes, waiting for a completely empty hallway.
"I didn't see the whole thing," Apollo said eventually, "They shut it off almost immediately after what happened with Peeta Mellark cease-fire thing."
"I did," Sasha muttered, "She was talking about how the rebels were traitors and basically anything Snow would say."
"From the small clip I saw I'd guess that something happened. There wasn't a lot of emotion, and it sounded like she had to force out the small amount of emotion that was there. It was almost like they completely..." Apollo's voice trailed off and he cursed under his breath. "Brainwashed her."
Sasha raised an eyebrow, "What was that about?"
"Nothing, just upset about her being potentially brainwashed, of course."
