leave out the bad parts [kass/annie - VT]

Kassandra was entirely out of her element at the party. She hadn't been to many parties in her life and suddenly it was a requirement for each stop on the tour. This one had a special District Four flair out on the beach. The roar of the waves was louder than she thought they would be. A constant rumble in the back of her mind as she stumbled to find footing in the uneven sand. She found navigating zero gravity easier than walking on sand.

She hovered around the bar where the workers were unsure if they could pour her a drink. She wasn't even fifteen yet, but she was a victor. She gave up, walking around the group instead, sipping on water that tasted less sharper than the water back home. Everything was sharper here- the ground, the air. The scent of fishing boats covered in guts coated everything and it was hard to ignore.

Her eyes fell on Anatalia Morrisen. She'd been avoiding her most of the night, not because she thought the young woman was unpleasant company but because her very presence dredged up too many questions inside her already overwhelmed mind.

How would Kass feel if every tribute she was locked in the arena with was still alive. If she had to live a street over from Jacob Fel, if Cyril and Red lived to despise her.

If Dio was alive.

She grit her teeth. She couldn't think about that world.

The night dragged on and she found herself watching Miss Morrisen. She sat by the fire, feet dug into the sand. Kass wondered what it felt like to stick her toes into the sand. Seemed unpleasant. It would stick between her toes and take ages to wash off, not to mention if she got any in her new arm. It'd probably seize up.

But there was something about her, something that felt familiar.

Kass trampled through the sand until she stood beside her, awkwardly holding her now empty water glass in front of her as if it was a shield.

"Can I sit here?" she asked.

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Annie offered her a spot and Kass took it, grateful to be off her feet. Then she pulled the most off the wall question.

How are you feeling?

Not how your body feels. Not does you prosthetic hurt? Not how are the scars healing or how is it getting along with only one hand. She's not asking about her mind, and Annie made it clear she didn't want the edited Capitol sound bite.

Kass let out a long breath, puffing up her cheeks as she went.

"Honestly?" she said, staring at the bonfire. No one had asked her it. She'd been stewing in the chaos of the tour and the stress of meeting people she didn't know who already hated her. Sisters, brothers, parents and friends of people she either murdered or benefited from their death. She never apologized for existing, which she knew they would have eaten up. I'm so sorry I'm alive Mrs. Tribute Mom, I should have died a painful embarrassing death so your little kid could go home and eat your shitty casserole.

"I feel old."

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"I don't feel like I have any responsibilities," Kass said, staring into the fire. Annie mentioned the world on her shoulders and yeah she thought about that every once in a while but it didn't feel right. She was given a stressful job or put in charge of anything. She was given a powerless crown and forced to smile for cameras.

"Before this I worked- I read cards on the street. I-" she paused, taking back the thoughts she was about to say about Killian and the resistance. About the real cause she had dedicated her young life to only to now have to hold it at arms length less it be discovered and destroyed. "I had a purpose- keep myself alive. Now... I have nothing."

Every need was filled. She had a house, she had food, she had clothes. There was nothing to work for. What else could she do that would top winning a Hunger Games in everyone's eyes?

The answer was topple Panem and the Capitol but despite her desire to watch it all burn, she was one person. A single girl cut off from her group with nothing but a sharp tongue against a country.

"I now it wasn't my choice, but I feel like they took all my choices from me."

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She smiled at the idea of surfing. It seemed ridiculous to Kass, but then again the largest body of water she'd been around was a pond until today.

"Yeah, I would charge money to read people's fortunes- their love lives, their financial future," she said, digging her left hand into the sand and feeling the grains wedge beneath her fingernails. "The day of my reaping I did a reading and it... it was all death and destruction."

She paused, thinking back on sitting on the porch of the orphanage- the cards laying against peeling white painted wooden boards.

"I really thought I was going to die... and I didn't," she said. "So I don't really trust them anymore. The cards seem to be full of shit."

Kass grabbed a handful of sand and threw it out towards the sea.

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