When I Died

Chapter 12

The next day passes quickly and soon enough the helicopter is coming in to land. Even from the house I can hear Buttercups wails. I run down as officer Galdin is getting out with a red animal crate. He shoves it into my hands.

"There's your stupid cat. It's a nuisance if you ask me. It tried to claw my face out when I was putting it in the crate."

I look at him with a dark look.

"Of course he did. What would you do if a stranger came and tried to put you in a tiny cage."

He mutters, "stupid smart Alec girls." He gives me a dark and storms back into the helicopter that takes off as soon as he sits down, without another word. I watch it disappear and then turn and stride up to the house. Buttercup meows loudly. I try to calm him. At the sound of my voice he stops. I see Bonnie check the window and then she jumps up and runs out to me. She takes the crate from me and we walk back up to the house.

We walk in and close the door. Then I open the door to the crate and my familiar scruffy buttercup leaps out. He jumps into my arms and meows as if saying, I missed you. I smile and stroke him. Bonnie bends down and pats him and he surprisingly doesn't hiss at her. I put him down and he starts examining the litter box and scratching post. He scratches on the post but hisses and kicks the litter all over the place.

"Oh Buttercup!"

I brush it back in and he starts scratching the door. I open it. The fussy cat is back. I sigh. It's good to have him back though. I turn to Bonnie.

"He likes you. Do you like him?"

"Of course! I've never had a pet!"

He comes back inside and we press for the elevator that's here in a minute. We step inside but Buttercup hesitates before following. Then the doors close and he goes aywal. He whines and scratches at them until we get to the top floor. I pick him up and sit on the couch, turning on the TV to the news channel.

"Uh, uh, uh, uh." Bonnie says picking up the remote. "No news. I understand you want to see your family but it makes you too upset. Every time you've seen Katniss on the TV or family or friends, you've cried." I go to protest but she cuts me off. "It's true. Name one time you haven't." I close my mouth. "How about this channel?" She says, flicking to a children's channel with a weird underwater cartoon on. I sigh and nod. "Fine."

I watch a purple starfish try to solve the case of her missing purse and then another episode about a friendly shark going camping (fire underwater?) and then he gets pushed off an underwater cliff (can't he swim?) where he falls onto a sponge that sends him flying back up and hitting the fish that pushed him off. It turns out to be the evil captain Swordfish that is thown in an underwater jail. The whole show is unrealistic and strange but I watch it anyway. Bonnie sits beside me holding the remote, playing with some metal mind game she found with the board games. After the shows finished I take buttercup downstairs and leave Bonnie with her mind puzzle. Buttercup sniffs at the kennel then settles down inside it so I go outside and sit down in the sun. Twill had gone hunting and max was in his room watching TV. I looked out at the setting sun and then down at the tree line. Twill would be back soon. She said she'd be back to cook dinner. Maybe the tiger found her? Worry grows inside me as the minutes drag on. I decide to go inside as its getting cold. I sit in the kitchen watching the trees. Suddenly they break apart and twill climbs over the fence, loaded with a few game bags.

We have satay rabbit and chicken for dinner, with some wild lettuce that twill found. Then we get to have jam & honey on apples for desert then me and Bonnie go downstairs with Max to show him the library and movies. We fight over what movie to watch an end up having to spin the bottle. It lands on Max and he chooses the very first Hunger Games. We take it up and watch it. Twill comes up with some raspberries and sits and watches as well.

All the people are clueless and most of the killing happens because of the game makers. There are no carreers but one and two eventually figure out the team up strategy and figure out how to use a few weapons. The winner is a person from district one, who ends up becoming a ruthless killing machine by the time he's victor. It was actually quite interesting, watching it, knowing that it would never happen to you again. Even if in some odd ending, the Capitol did win, I'd still be trapped here with no escape. What if that did happen? Would Coin still send us supplies? What if Coin died? What would happen then?