Hunger Games: The Second Quarter Quell - The Story of Haymitch Abernathy

Chapter 12: The Tenth Day

Standing up a little straighter, Haymitch felt a pang of anxiety at the seriousness of Maysilee's tone, and stepped out from behind her. 

Lying ahead of them, just off the right-hand side of the path, lay two, horrid-looking bodies. 

From where Haymitch stood, he could only just make out what he was seeing: one girl, extremely grey-looking, her long, brown hair matted and mangled, and a boy beside her, his skin blackened, with what was probably smoke and ash, beyond recognition.

'Come on,' Maysilee hissed, taking a step towards the bodies. 

Reluctantly, Haymitch followed, his stomach filling with disgust as they approached. The female had clearly been dead for a while – her skin was skeletal and purplish, and her open mouth leaking some sort of strange, purple liquid. 

Haymitch immediately glanced up at the bush behind her, which sprouted a ton of juicy, purple grapes, and immediately made the connection back to the two District 3 tributes, and the apples. The grapes were poisonous.

'That's that District One girl. Fleur Revere, I think her name was? But I'm not a hundred percent sure,' Maysilee commented, turning to Haymitch for confirmation.

'Definitely her,' he agreed, though his attention had been since drawn elsewhere. 

The male, who lay beside Fleur, his arm interwoven with hers, was none other than Lux Maverick, the Career who'd been leading the pack when Haymitch had outrun them on the day of the eruption. 

Although he was difficult to recognise, as a thick layer of smoky ash had coated his skin, and his hair was extremely rumpled, which was much unlike his usual charming, put-together character.

'You said he ran to look for Sterling,' Haymitch pointed out, turning to Maysilee, who frowned.

'I thought he did. I heard them; all three of them. Him, and... Pia and Salty, was it? They were yelling out his name. I just presumed they were all heading back for him,' Maysilee explained quietly. 'But I did only see them at the edge of the clearing. He could've run in any direction, after that. But by the looks of him, he definitely got close to the eruption.'

'So he...'

'Realised he couldn't save Sterling, I'm guessing. Then turned around and ran back to her. But she... Fleur was long dead. He must've been in love with her before the Games began,' Maysilee theorized, gesturing to the way Lux had positioned himself, right against Fleur, his hand wrapped around her arm and his face tucked into her shoulder.

'How do you know?' Haymitch questioned, confused.

'I don't know. I saw how they were with each other a bit before the Games. And I'm fairly good at reading people, I guess. You should know; I knew you didn't want to know me before you even knew it yourself,' Maysilee smiled weakly, glancing back at Haymitch, who allowed himself half a grin.

'Yeah. I guess I should've gathered that,' he admitted. 'How do you think he actually died though?'

Maysilee glanced back down to Lux, who looked physically fine, despite his coating of ash. 'If I had to guess, I'd say inhalation, but if Lux ran back here, and lay down with Fleur, he would've known he was going to die, meaning...' Maysilee reached a careful foot forward, pushing Lux Maverick's head over to the left so that his face was now visible. 

The same purple which Fleur sported also liquid leaked from Lux's mouth.

'So... he accidentally ate the grapes, too?' Haymitch enquired. Maysilee shook her head, gesturing to the obvious purple stain around Fleur's mouth.