Callie Hadley: District 2

Home at Last

     I hear a scream.

     I jolt up from my bed in a great panic, wondering if I had just imagined it.

     Then I hear whimpering and shuffling, and get up.

     I open my door, and the noises grow louder.

     I then realize that the noises are coming from the bedroom across from mine and sprint in.

      Cato looks like he's having a seizure from this nightmare.

     "Hey hey hey!" I say loudly and softly, hoping that it would wake him up.

     I shake him. "Buddy, buddy, Cato it's me! Wake up I'm right here!"

     There is some more whimpering, but he does wake up.

     "Callie?" He says groggily.

     "Yeah. It's Callie, brother. You were having a bad dream. I'll leave now-"

     "No! Please! You can just sit here, but stay. Stay please."

     "Fine."

     I climbed onto the bed and sat next to him. Soon I could feel his head on my shoulder.

     I stroked his head as he said, "I never wanted to kill anyone. Not really. But it drove me each time a step closer to you. I am so so sorry for killing Chase, and I should have listened to you every time you spoke instead of trying to keep up my 'tough guy persona'. This would have been done a lot faster if I had just listened to you this whole time. And I'm sorry you had to see me killing Thresh. But it was like you said. He attacked my family. Your blood is my blood. If your blood is spilled, so is mine."

     "Thanks man. So, do you want to talk about what your dream was about?"

     "Not really, but I'll tell you anyways. It was where Thresh was kind of me. Living my point of view. The dream started off with you looking me in the eye and saying: 'I hate you. You are not my brother. Brothers aren't monsters like you.' And this was also at the feast. So Thresh came after me, and killed me the way I killed him. I felt everything. It was terrible. And so is being powerless. But on a completely unrelated note, what was there between you and Chase?"

     I was taken aback, but I sigh, knowing I can't escape this one.

     "Something special. Something I've never felt for anyone before. I didn't even know him, but I could look him in his eyes and know exactly who he was and what he's been through. It hurts, knowing someone I love killed somebody else I may have loved. But at least I know you regret it."

     He mumbled something I couldn't quite hear, and then he said, "I didn't think you'd ever forgive me. It was hard to tell whether you were acting or not at times."

     "I was never acting Cato. That's exactly what they want. And I, I have to tell you something."

     "Okay, spill."

     "I-when I was alone, I was sitting up in that tree, remember? It was one or two days before you came and got me. And I got really emotional and bored. So I sang. Um, but the thing is, it was one of mother's songs."

     "No you didn't!" he exclaimed sitting up straight next to me.

     "Yes I did."

     "Callie-OH! Please don't tell me it was the one with the children!"

     "It was."

     "That's the worst one of them all!"

     "And I hummed the war one."

     "Callie, now they will for sure be after us."

     "Who?"

     "The Capitol! First, we broke the rules of their game, and you defied them!"

     "Mom and Carter defied them too! Nothing bad happened to them! They didn't die!"

     "There are just some things you don't understand. It's one thing to let two people out of the arena, but four! It's absurd! We defied them by doing that, and you defied them by singing the song about how they take children's lives!"

     "Your the one to talk about that, volunteering to die and all."

     "You've opened my eyes to realize how truly sick this is. But I know one thing for sure."

     "And that is?"

     "We can trust no one. No one but each other."

A/N: OMG! I can't believe this is the end of this book! But this is going to be a sequel like I said, and the next book is called Callie Hadley: Catching Fire.

And just so you know I DON'T OWN THE SONGS THAT WERE PUT IN HERE!!!!