THE MAN IN THE HANGING TREE | Gale Hawthorne

THIRTY TWO - The Hands of Death

(I don't usually put warnings, but there is a brief attempt of suicide in this chapter. It is an important chapter though, so I do recommend  reading it, and the scene isn't very graphic, but it is all up to your discretion. So please, only do what makes you comfortable!)

YOUR POINT OF VIEW

I wake up in a groggy haze. For a minute I forget where I am, for a fleeting second I think I must be at home in my warm bed. That the bright light shining through my eye lids is the rising sun, and perhaps the soft hum in my ears is Gale's soft intake of breath, and the pressure on my limbs are m silken sheets wrapped around the two of us.

But that all comes crumbling down, with a single jolt of electricity at my temples. 

Reality bears it's vicious teeth at me, as I remember everything: My parents are dead, my home is gone. I'm stuck at the Capitol, Peeta is here with me. Gale is in Thirteen, Snow just sent bombers to kill them all. I tried to warn them, that's why I was sedated.

Gale, my dad, Katniss, they're all probably dead.

Another blinding wave of electricity surges through my body, and this time I don't hold back. I scream in utter agony.

"That was stupid of you, Miss Abernathy." Snow muses, from the other side of the room. It's exactly like before, with the four peacekeepers and everything. Four demons doing the devil's bidding.

I gasp through the pain, defeated, exhausted, longing for the hands of death to finally come. "You won, Snow. You killed everyone I love." My voice is blank, shattered only by the cracks of pain.

He looks furious, and nods to the guard beside me. My body feels like it's on fire for a moment, my body seizes against the unmanageable pain. It's like the hands of death itself are squeezing my frail body, turning the edges of my vision black, bringing what I so longed for at last.

But by Snows angry reaction, I know something went wrong. 

I laugh at him, finally realizing. "They aren't dead, are they you prick?"

He approaches me surprisingly quickly for an old man, and slaps me across the face. The slap is nothing compared to the electricity that was just coursing through my veins, but it does bring the taste of blood to my lips.

"No." He growls, irritated. "Mr Mellark made sure they got your message, he warned them and they were able to get into hiding before our bombers arrived."

I laugh, in relief and mad pain. I can feel that my face is all cut up and bruised, and my chest hurts as if a couple of my ribs are broken, and my skin still feels like it's on fire-- but I've never felt more relived.

My dad, Katniss, Gale, they are alive.

"You won't win this fight." I rasp, my throat is dry and scratchy. "We, the rebels, have something you don't." I smile at the monster in front of me.

"Oh yes?" Snows eyes are cold, heartless. "And what is that Miss Abernathy?"

"Love, hope, something worth fighting for." I spit.

He shakes his head, not seeing the sentiment. "People don't fight for love, they fight for power and control."

I shake my own head, which is challenging with the strap holding my forehead down. "No, not Gale, not my dad, not the Mockingjay. They are fighting for the ones they love, for all that you've taken from them, for me and Peeta."

Snow turns from angry to calculating in a single second, motioning for the guards to pull me out of the electric chair. "That's right, isn't it." He muses. "They're fighting for love, for you."  His voice is cunningly cold. "Well I guess I'll just have to take their fight away from them."