133 FIRST BLAST

This milks pathos from the audience like nothing else. Alabaster could be making things up, but every Finnick knows as well as any Career that a lie is most effective when injected with the barest hint of truth. Finnick remembers seeing Alabaster's mother in the reaping replays. The cameras had lingered on their parting embrace, the commentators making remarks about Alabaster's nobility, his bravery for making such a huge sacrifice for the sake of his family and his district. A soundtrack of soulful violins playing in the background top off the whole exhibition. Finnick tries ineffectively to block the image from his mind.

After Alabaster comes Bellona, and if Finnick needed any proof that all of District 2's hopes of winning this year were riding on her, this interview was it.