The Hunger Games: The Violent Hour

(13) Gale

Sorry for taking so long to upload! But I’ve been really busy. Sorry for the shortness… I haven’t written in a while… So maybe my writing will be better now… or worse. Tell me! :) Enjoy!

                Maybe it would be better if I’d have died in my first Games. Second. Third. Was there a third? Maybe there was. Maybe I’m in them right now.

                Maybe the first ones never ended.

                That’s what it feels like, at least. I was a victor. I narrowly escaped the hands of death. I went back to the games. Survived them once again. Went through a mass rebellion and watched my own nation – my own District - burn to ashes.

                But that’s just not enough, is it? Fate’s twisted humor couldn’t spare me from this one. No one would. After all, I deserved it.

                I deserve this.

                Something is telling me that we could pull off something miraculous again. That both of my children could be spared from death. But I know that there is no chance, no way.

                An invisible hand is wrapping around my neck, clutching it with such strength that that breathing becomes a difficult task. My mind goes back to the reunion I had with Peeta after he was rescued during the rebellion. I saw that fervor, that passion in his face. I thought that it was because of his love for me. No sooner did I realize that he didn’t love me, no. He hated me.

                But does he love me now?

One could say so. But his love for me was taken just as quickly as it had come as soon as he was injected with Tracker Jacker venom.

The rotten smell of alcohol fills my nostrils and no sooner did Haymitch  come into my view.

“How you doing, Sweetheart?”

I gulp. “Fine,” I manage.

“Well, both the youngin’s have gone and left the coop. Want me to tell Bread Boy to go get them?”

I want to scream foul things at him for saying that. But the overwhelming memories of the time Peeta saved my life by throwing me that bread – I still have never repayed him for that.

“No, it’s fine.” My voice is so fragile, so weak, that I want to slap myself back into reality. To get a grip. But the people here have seen me at my worst, and this surely doesn’t top it.

Numbness replaces the pain. I stand, stumble around for a bit before I find the door. Peeta lightly touches my arm. “Training will begin soon…”

I nod. “I know. I- I need to go find them,” I say, which is a lie because what I really am going to do is go find somewhere to scream.

A shadow crosses over Peeta’s face and I see a glimpse of the person who he used to be. “Let me go with you.”

There’s been a change. Something’s clicked between us and I can’t really figure what it is. I’m sure we still love each other…. But what is it? Is it that we finally see each other for who we are? No, no that can’t be. Peeta saw who I was, and worse, whenever he thought I was a mutt. I’ve always seen people for who they are.

The thought nags me. What is it?

I press my lips tightly together before nodding once and continuing on my path. I hear Peeta’s footsteps behind me, and the walls suddenly start closing in.

Running. I mechanically push one leg in front of the other in the desperate attempt to get out of this building. I hear Peeta yelling behind me, but his words only barely register in my head. My name. A warning.

Pain.

It stabs my left temple with a pulse. I keep running. Running. Running. Peeta’s footsteps become the footsteps of many. Footsteps of the Peacekeepers.

I don’t dare to look back. I know flight is essential. The sudden urge to fly overtakes me and I begin skipping. There’s silence behind me as those in my pursuit try to figure out why I am moving so strangely.

Light. I see it, it’s just in front of me. It’s sweet brightness hits my face and gives me warmth that only being in Peeta’s arms can give me.

Or being in Gale’s arms.

My mind spits out the thought before I can control it.

                Thoughts reel in my head. All the times I spent with Gale. All the moments in the woods… All the times I looked at him and saw something more. The most painful, though, is the memory of the last time I saw him. The future I had in my head, what if it were true?

                I’m about to reach the door, right about to reach freedom when I see him.

                Gale.

                 He looks so different… yet so similar to the boy – the man – that I used to know. The strange glint in his gray eyes that should have warned me of his violent endeavor. The way his muscles lay on his body, giving him such an easy way of being. Those lips, the same ones that kissed me so many years ago, are now turned down into a permanent frown.

                He’s behind the door that leads to my escape. And I must do everything to reach it.

Escape. The word is bitter in my mind. Something I’ve used so many times to survive. But I was always to run away from something dangerous.

So what am I running from now?

Surely those behind me aren’t dangerous. So that only means one thing.

I am running from myself.

He sees me.

I’m opening the door, just about to reach him, and a smile flashes on my face.

That’s when I receive the lung-emptying shock.

Force field.

The thought registers in my head. The last thing I see before everything turns black is Gale running towards me…