𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬 ☘︎ 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐇𝐚𝐰𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞

𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄 ☘︎ 7

The next morning I go out to get some more snow for Gale when I see the little girl with a mini blonde plait standing at the end of the path.

"Prim," I say, my voice hollow. "Rory's inside."

"I didn't come to see Rory," Prim says, sitting down beside me as I shovel snow into a bowl. "Well, I did, but I also came to check up on Gale... and you."

"I don't need checking up on," I insist.

"But your eye," Prim says.

"It's not my eye that's bothering me," I confess. "How can I live like this, how can anybody live like this? I'm in a big, posh, rich house and you're slaving away in the Seam, trying to make a living!"

"It's not living," Prim admits. "Neither of us are living. We're just... surviving. But... since the last games, something's different. I can see it."

I turn, interested and confused. "What can you see?"

Prim looks at me and answers. "Hope."

"You understand that you can come and stay any time, right?" I check. "You, your mother and Katniss, I promise."

"We're fine," Prim says in a prideful way. "But, thanks."

I lean forward and hug her tightly, clinging onto her jumper. She does the same to me, holding me and making me feel safe.

Well, that's a lie. I could never feel safe. Not now, not after what Snow's done to me and (more terrifyingly) what he's threatened to do.

Prim heads back inside with the bowl of snow that I give her, and so do I, soon enough.

☘︎☘︎☘︎

The next day, I wake to a quiet house. I don't have a clock, but a good guess is that it's at least four in the morning. Despite this, I rise out of bed and dress quickly.

I know where I'm going. I'm headed for the woods. However, with the new head peacekeeper (Thread, someone has told me his name is) I can't afford to let anyone know where I am. The District security has tightened a lot more since Gale's whipping, and I can't afford to become victim to it.

I quietly pack a bag of food (mainly just rolls and bread made by Austin) that I'm 'giving out'. This has become custom since the whipping. Anyway, carrying the food bag in my hand, I silently slip out the house into the quiet morning and walk towards the fence. Luckily, there's no peacekeepers guarding it. I slip through it and head right in.

Years ago, when I was about five and Gale was in a bad mood, my father and I went out into the woods alone. He was going to teach me how to swim.

And years before this, just by chance and a lot of walking, my father had found a brilliant lake about an hour's walk away from Twelve. He took me there that day, and that was the day I learned to swim.

After my father's death, I told no body about the lake. Not even Gale or Katniss. It'd been ages since I'd been there, years. Perhaps it was because it reminded me of him. Or that I was too busy feeding my family. Or that it hurt too much to go back there because good memories of a loved one lay deep below.

But now I'm rich and I have too much spare time to fill, so I decided to go today. I hike and hike for an hour and, at long last, I finally arrive.

I sit down on the rocks and pull some food out the bag.

That's when I hear a twig snap behind me.

I turn, raising my axe in the air. Then I see two women, both in long cloaks, standing behind me. From the Capitol, I think, they've come to torture me.