Maybe It Can Be Real

Chapter 21

ALL RIGHTS GO TO SUZANNE COLLINS. I OWN NOTHING.

ENDING OF LAST CHAPTER:

I laugh. "You made dessert too? You are too much."

"It was simple, really. All I did was make pudding," he says while chuckling.

"Pudding?!", I screech. I sprint into the kitchen and search for it. I finally find it in the fridge, so I grab two spoons and sprint back into the living room. I pull Peeta onto the couch and give him a spoon. "Eat," I command.

We both dig into the pudding in comfortable silence.

****

Peeta and I both crawl into bed. I lay my head on his chest, and his arms wrap around me, making me feel safe and secure. He kisses my forehead.

"Night, Peeta," I say with a slight yawn.

"Goodnight," he replies.

Within a few minutes, Peeta's breathing evens out, signaling he has fallen asleep. I want to follow him into that world, but I can't for two reasons: 1.) my mind is awake, racing, but my body is tired physically and 2.) I don't want to sleep in case I have a nightmare tonight.

Tomorrow will be six years since my father died, so I'm pretty sure I'll have a nightmare. It's weird, but I can usually tell when I'm going to have one. I don't know.

Eventually, after hours of tossing and turning, I fall asleep.

****

I crash down into the water with a big splash. My head pops up, me gasping for breath. My arms flail around for a minute to try and keep me above the water. When I'm finally stable, I look around for my father. I finally see him to my right, hunched over in laughter.

"Daddy," I whine. "Why'd you throw me in?"

"Because you need to know how to stay afloat in water, Princess," my father replies while still laughing.

"I don't need to know that!", I exclaim. I start to go back under, so I swing my arms more to keep me up. I look down, and I gasp when I see that I'm the size of, like, seven year old me. I look back up to my father when he begins to speak again.

"You told me you want to learn to swim, so this is the first lesson. I'm going to come in and get you now," he says as he dives in and swims over to me. When he gets close to me, I reach my arms out to him, then he suddenly gets pushed back.

"Daddy?", I call out, scared.

He smiles at me. "I'm coming, calm down. You're doing great."

Again, when I reach my arms out, he gets pushed away from me. I start crying.

"Why are you crying? It's okay," my father coos. He opens his mouth to say something again, but he gets pulled under the water and further away from me. I scream a deep, guttural scream.

"Daddy!", I holler to him. "Daddy!"

I can see him thrashing around in the water to try and come up. He's able to get up long enough to say, "I love you," before he is pulled back under. He continues moving for a few seconds, then the water becomes still.

I begin to wail now. I can taste my salty tears dropping into my mouth. I'm breathing heavily from both treading and crying.

"Katniss!", someone calls. For a moment, hope bubbles up in my chest because I think it's my father. That hope deflates when I realize it's not his voice but Peeta's.

Peeta?

I finally see his blonde head bobbing up and down from sprinting to me. He's his seventeen year old size, not seven. He races down the hill and across the field a little to the edge of the water.

"What are you doing in there?", he shouts. "Get outta there!"

"B-but my-my dad," I stammer.

"Come on! We've gotta go!"

"Where?", I ask, confused.

"The reaping, of course!", he says, exasperated.

"We can't go without my dad! He drowned!"

Oh my God....

****

I sit upright in bed, my body heaving with sobs. I jump when I feel Peeta's hand rubbing my back. I turn to the side and wrap my arms around him. I cry into his neck while he mutters soothing nothings into my hair.

"You're alright, shhh, it's okay, Katniss. It's okay," he whispers.

"N-no it's n-not," I cry. "My father died again in my d-dream!"

"It wasn't real, Katniss."

"Yes it is! He's dead!", I howl.

"Not in the way it happened in your dream," he says calmly.

I continue to cry for a long time. Eventually I must fall back asleep, because I wake up later without Peeta. My throat closes up when I remember what today is.

I get up, and throw a random pair of clothes on. I braid my hair while I go down the steps, sniffling all the way down. I see Peeta on the couch with his back to me. He's muttering things under his breath to himself.

"Hi," I say hoarsely.

He turns around quickly. "Hey. How are you?", he asks quietly.

"Okay I guess," I reply sadly.

"I have something to show you, but we have to go out in the District. Is that okay?", he questions.

I nod my head.

"Okay. Let's go," he says as he grabs my hand and pulls me to the door.

****

I cry quietly into my hand at what I see before me. Peeta brought me to a new area in the District - a cemetery. There's only a few headstones, but the one I'm looking at is for my father. Next to his is Prim's, along with an evening primrose bush.

"Thank you," I choke out.

"This is what I was doing the last couple days. Why I left early and came back late," he says.

"It's fine. I love it. Thank you again," I whisper.

I walk over to the primrose bush and pluck a bud from the bush. I place it on my father's headstone. I kneel down and kiss each headstone.

"Can we go back now?", I snivel. "I love it, I really do, but it hurts," I say.

"Yeah, I understand," he replies.

We walk back to my house hand in hand, silent except for my hiccuping cries.

************************************************

Hello!

Here's a chapter!

I've gotta go, so this is gonna be quick. (Also why this chapter is short)

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Shoot straight and be brave my fellow lovelies,
Weezabeth <3