Always: A Hunger Games Fanfiction

Chapter 7

Katniss

I stand there, motionless. I attempt to process what had just happened in my head. Peeta had another flashback. He tried to kill me again. 

I try my hardest not to think about it. I didn't want to think about it, but it kept creeping up on me. I can't avoid it. Gale is staring at me. I almost trick my mind into thinking that he looks guilty. No, that isn't possible. He wouldn't have attacked Peeta in the first place if he was going to feel guilty about it.

Peeta just ran out. I didn't follow him, even though I know he would've followed me. I just stood there, in complete shock, and did nothing. Haymitch told me to let him go, an that he'd be back. That he just needed time.

A part of me knows he's right, but there was a tiny part of my mind that thinks he won't come back. And that even if he did, he won't be the same.

Thoughts of those final moments in the Quarter Quell race through my brain: the explosion and the arena's sky opening to big hunks if metal. The hovercraft that came and took me away.Then, I think of being in the hovercraft, on the way to 13. I think of going to stab Peeta with a syringe because I thought it would be protecting him from the Capitol. But I didn't know that I wouldn't be able to protect him. He was in the Capitol. But I wasn't. And then I remember Gale telling me that there is no District 12.

My heart begins to speed up at the thought of Gale, and District 12. I shoot a glare at him, but he quickly looks away.

My heart beat increases still. Images from the arena keeps flashing through my mind. I can't make them stop. I remember when they told me Peeta was taken by the Capitol like it was only a week ago. 

I remember calling his name at the end of the Quarter Quell. I remember him not answering. Names begin to race through my head.

Finnick

Johanna

Coin

Prim

Beetee

Wiress

Peeta

Gloss

Cashmere

Enobaria

Brutus

I sink down to the floor, and cover my ears, trying to get the names to stop. "Katniss!" I hear Haymitch say. I don't look at him. I shut my eyes tight and pull my knees to my chest.

I start hearing the sound of Prim's cries for help, just like I did in the arena. I think of that fear when I was trapped with those jabberjays, and that invisible wall separating me and Peeta.

I think I start screaming but I can't seem to hear myself over the voices in my head. They get louder and faster and more jumbled up.

I don't know how long I'm sitting here like this. The voices slowly calm down when I use Peeta's real or not real strategy. I keep telling myself that none of it was real.

The voices and screams do come to a stop. I open up my eyes and look up. Haymitch is staring down at me. Gale is looking at me from the couch. He actually looks worried for me.

"What happened?" Haymitch asks, helping me up.

"I have no idea what just happened. It was just the terrible thoughts from the arena. Nothing like this has happened to me before. Besides in nightmares, but it's never happened during the day. I don't know if it was just from seeing Gale, or Peeta having another episode like that.

"I think you need to go lie down, sweetheart," Haymitch says, nodding his head toward the stairs.

"Don't call me that," I mumble halfheartedly. I slowly walk up the stairs. My hands are shaking. I curl up on my bed and trace patterns with my finger on the white sheets. I look outside, but there isn't much to see; just gray ash and burnt trees. 

I can just barely see people trying to reconstruct buildings and houses. I wonder what's happening in the District 13; all of the districts actually. Most of them were destroyed in the war.

I stay there, curled up in a ball for what seems like hours. I think I hear the door open downstairs. Haymitch must be leaving.

I walk down the stairs again. My legs are weak. My house is completely empty. I walk into the kitchen, and look out the window.

Peeta and I have windows straight across from eachother so we can see one another if we needed to.

I can't tell if he is there or not. I grab my jacket and walk outside. The smell of smoke fills my nose and my eyes begin to water. I doubt Peeta came back home already. I have no idea where he was, but I know where I'm going; the place that used to take away all of my problems. Where Gale and I used to hunt, and the one place my father and I shared together.

When I get to the torn down fence I sigh deeply. Going under it was part of the fun. It made me feel like I had a little bit of power over the Capitol. Sometimes that little bit made a huge difference.

I don't like that just anyone could come out here now. I knew I don't own the woods, but it used to be my little piece of home. My house in the Victor's Village certainly is not home. The little house that I used to live in was hardly home. It made an exception, though, because I had my family there.

But the woods is truly my place. It's where I could sit and calm myself down. It's where my father and I really bonded, and where Gale and I met. There were too many memories for other people to be here. 

I walk a little deeper into the woods, but I don't get lost. I could never get lost here. Gale and I made markings on the trees and put unnoticeable sticks in the ground years ago. Only he and I would notice them. 

I jump back slightly. There, sitting on a log a little ways in front of me is a blonde boy. Peeta.

"Hi," I say clearly. He doesn't have to turn. It's  like he knew I'd be out here.

"You shouldn't be here. I'm not safe anymore," he says quietly.

"That was just from seeing Gale and the fighting," I say. I sit down next to him on the log and put my hands in the pockets of my coat.

We sit there in front of a small stream. I see a few Katniss roots growing nearby. I smiled somewhat at them, remembering when my father and I used to pick them.

Peeta stares straight ahead. "It's not like you to run away. It's something I would do, not you," I say.

"I don't like being under pressure," he says. I look at him, but he refuses to look at me. 

"Peeta. . ." I mumble. Fianlly, he looks at me. His sparkling blue eyes send shivers down my spine.  I don't think before doing it. Maybe it was because of what happened early or where we are, but within seconds my lips are planted against Peeta's. 

At first he hesitates, but starts to kiss me back. He cups my cheeks with his warm hands. When we pull away from each other, our foreheads are only an inch away. We looked into each other's eyes for a few seconds, and then kissed again.

I lean my head on his shoulder and we watch the stream quietly. Then, a deafening rumble shakes everything around us. Explosions. 

Cliffhanger. Sorry, I know I haven't updated in a long time. Be sure to vote!!