3I walk into Capitol elementary with the task of picking up my siblings. I talk to the secretary at the desk; she nods and calls their teacher. I sit on an uncomfortable bench, shaking my leg anxiously until they come out with confused faces. I don't answer their questions and usher them into my truck. I wait until were far from the school before turning to them.
"We're leaving" I state, turning away from them.
"What?" Caleb asks with a gasp
"We're leaving this place" I repeat
"Why?" Prim says suspiciously
"I've been offered protection for us. We can leave here and live happily without mom finding us. Without anyone finding us. We can make a new life, new friends." I try to say lightly
"Where are we going to go?" Caleb rotates
"It's an island." I say quickly before letting out a sigh "Do you guys want to stay? Because you don't have to follow me. You can continue living here." I say gently without looking at them. I need to know if they want to go even though the thought of them staying nearly brings tears to my eyes.
It's quiet for a while a while before they answer.
"I want to go with you" Caleb says with finality. Prim nods her head in agreement.
I let out a happy sigh and give them a small smile. I speed home and we rush in.
"Only pack the essentials" I warn "Mom will be back soon." They both nod with scared looks in their eyes. They know what will happen if we get caught.
I burst into my room and it sets in that this will be the last time I see it. I grab a duffle bag out of my closet and stuff some underwear and other essentials into it. I hear a car door slam outside and I freeze. I sprint to the hallway and see Prim and Caleb looking at me with wide eyes. I look around the upstairs level of my house for a way out.
"The window" Caleb supplies. My head snaps towards it and the tree that leans against it.
"Let's go" I order. Flinging the widow open, I usher Prim and Caleb out. They shimmy down the tree and I follow. We all land silently and we sneak to the front of the house. Mother is sloppily putting the key into the lock.
She's drunk.
She unlocks the door and opens it with a bang. She wobbles in, closing the door behind her. I hear a thud and I'm guessing she passed out.
I look towards my younger siblings. We nod to each other and bolt to the truck. We slip into our seats easily and I start the truck. We buckle ourselves in before I take off to the docks to meet Wiress.
We're there in less than five minutes and the boat is waiting for us. I drive up the carport and hop out. Wiress steps out from the shadows.
"Nice timing" she compliments. I nod and grab Prim and Caleb's bags. They introduce themselves she kneels down and looks at them with motherly eyes.
"I'm going to protect you guys from now on." She smiles. The nervous grins my siblings were wearing morphed into relieved smiles. I walk down steps into the boats hull and try to find my way through the winding corridors.
I fail miserably. A groan of frustration escapes my throat as I try to decide which way to go. I drop the bags to the floor and run my hand through my hair. A chuckle from behind makes me snap my head around painfully.
"I'm impressed you didn't break your neck" The man I've seen in my nightmares says.
"You" I growl before pouncing and knocking him to the floor. His head bangs forcefully onto the ground.
"Katniss Everdeen, I see you haven't forgotten me" he groans
"How could I? You were there when my life was destroyed! You stood there while Boggs killed my father! You just stood there!" I want to scream and cry but, my voice comes out level and low. I guess it's hard to break habits.
"I'm sorry!" he croaks "I've known your father for a long time. But, what he did, it drove me to the wrong side. I thought I was doing the right thing."
"What did he do!?" a scream finally erupts from me and the hall grows deadly quiet.
"He made you" Haymitch whispers. "He made you what you are. A weapon."
"Are you saying I was a mistake?"
"Heavens, no. You were the single greatest thing to ever happen to William but then, he turned you into a weapon to use at his disposal. That's what I thought at first. Then I realized if he hadn't of done it, Boggs would have gotten it and made things even worse."
"What is it? What did he do to me?" I ask sitting up and leaning against the cold steel wall.
"It is a serum. When you were an infant, William injected you with a portion of it. The serum, I've nicknamed Occult Serum, enhances your mind and physical properties. Mostly your mind is affected. The serum unlocks parts of your brain that normal people would never be able to access. You are aware of everyone and everything around you and you can tamper with them; mold them to how you want"
I scoff, if I could control everything around me, dad wouldn't be dead, mom would drink, I wouldn't have been-
"But not all at once of course. You have to learn and expand your powers. That's why you're here. Wiress wants to help all of the kids that this has happened to."
"Wait" I cut him off "All of the kids? There's more like me"
"Twenty-four."
"Why? Why did this all happen?" I plan on getting all of my questions dealt with before anything else.
"William, I, and many others were all part of a research lab in the middle of Oregon." I nod. Mom used to say he took those trips very often.
"We were working on a serum to improve humanity. Make all the diseases in the world disappear. Stuff like that. And, well, it didn't do any of that. It created psychics. The serum was tested on a volunteer. What we didn't know was that she was pregnant. Nine months later, a baby boy was born but, the mother died. We didn't think anything of it until the boy started making bottle fly across the room. Boggs and some others saw this as an opportunity to make superhumans. Others, such as your father and I, decided it would be best if we just destroyed the serum. Only thing is that we didn't know how and Boggs was catching onto our plan fast; so the twenty-four of us with kids made the ultimate sacrifice."
"You sacrificed your children. You made them superhuman" I finish. My anger that had been fueling me for all these years had finally leaked out, leaving my incredibly tired. I finally had an answer.
"William didn't tell me until he finished doing it. I wasn't aware that Boggs had caught up to us so fast. I overreacted and left. I didn't see William again until that day. I found out his reasons after Boggs killed him. I was depressed for months. So I left Boggs and his leader and found Wiress. I found you"
"What are you to me anyway? An uncle?"
"A godfather and now mentor." I look towards him with wide eyes. My godfather? He stands up and offers me his hand.
"Let's restart this together" he grins. I grab his hand and he hauls me up. When I stand, his eyes narrow on my neck and face.
Shit. The bruises.
"Katniss…"
"It's nothing" I assure him
"That's not nothing" he points to the fingerprints on my neck.
"I'm fine Haymitch. Let's go, I want you to meet Prim and Caleb, my brother and sister."
"I will find out what happened to you eventually but, for now, I would love to meet them."