Story

Finally, another chapter!

Comments?

Yay, the next chapter!

Haver's explanation of the window was much better than Clark's. It'll be interesting to see if Haver ever worms the truth out of him.

Yay for another chapter!

And the PTSD among the winners has to be something fierce. After all, they had to kill to win. Not only do they have survivor's guilt, they have murderer's guilt.

Damn the Capitolites for setting up this situation.

How can Clark redeem himself?

If Matilda's trauma is an indication, Clark's nightmares must last a long time. Poor winners. They can never be at peace with their consciences.

Andreia

Yeah, the excuse about the groosling breaking the window is pretty lame, and no one believes it. When it comes to making plausible excuses, Clark has a lot to learn. He definitely doesn't want Haver to know what really happened, though. Haver knows that something doesn't add up, but he doesn't know what -- his best theory is that Clark jumped out the window, but the lack of injury says otherwise.

Exactly. The victors have to live with the fact that they outlived twenty-three other kids and the fact that they killed some of those kids themselves. The Capitolites see the Games as entertainment and soon forget most of the "contestants", but the victors have to live with what happened and their part in it.

Clark can't forgive himself for what he did to Lysander and Lois. Everyone in Panem knows what happened to Lysander, but what happened to Lois is a mystery, and Clark can't talk to his fellow victors about it, because that would reveal his powers.

In real life, PTSD can last for a lifetime. A casual observer might wonder why a person doesn't just get over it and move on, but it isn't that simple. Those painful memories can be close to the surface, or more deeply buried, but sometimes, something will trigger those memories, and they come back to bite.

At last! A new chapter!

Clark's excuse was very weak, but at the moment he had nothing else to say. I hope the PK's don't hear about this.

Poor Matilda, its a wonder she is still alive.

Yes, Clark's excuse was dumb -- and now Haver is wondering what's going on. He doesn't know about Clark's powers, but he is getting the impression that there's something he's missing, and he's curious.

I'll be writing more about Matilda soon.

Some people are wondering where the heck the next chapter is, so I thought I'd say something here.

I had it almost ready for beta on May 14th--on which day a major wind storm snapped two key utility poles and knocked out power to a third of the town -- including my house. When the power finally came back on, I turned my computer on and tried to open the story file, only to find that there was something wrong with it and it wouldn't open (possibly because the file was open when the power went out -- I'm not sure). I had backups of all my chapters except the one I had almost had finished. Since then, I have been re-writing the chapter from notes and memory as time permits (the end of the school year is very busy, and not just during the regular work day). Hopefully, I will get the chapter finished this weekend.

Thank you so much! For your clarification and all your effort put in this wonderful (and stressful) story. I can't wait to read the next parts!