The Hanging Tree. *ON HOLD*

Chapter Sixteen ~ The Hanging Tree

Chapter Sixteen ~ The Hanging Tree 

Prim's POV.

Finnick and I had been sitting in the room, waiting for Caden to come back, making awkward small talk and trying not to cry, when the little hatch door swung open and a stream of dull, yellow light appeared on the floor. Finnick and I jumped up, him quicker than me, since, no matter what Caden said, my ankle still hurt like hell.

'It's me! It's me!' We heard Caden whisper down to us. We relaxed but stayed alert just in case. 'Is Prim awake?' He asked, his question obviously directed towards Finn, but I answered,

'Yeah, I am.'

'Good, because you two have to see this.' Caden said, his voice displaying a little urgency. I looked at Finnick, who just shrugged his shoulders and started making his way towards the door. I followed, limping a little and wondering what was so important, but I saw as soon as I stepped out of the tiny room I realised.

In front of the hatch door stood a tree that had been there the night before, but this time it was much different. In the tree hung 15 lifeless bodies, a piece of raggedy rope around their necks.

The moment I saw them, all swinging gently in the breeze, their eyes wide and unresponsive, I turned my head to the side and threw up my berries and leaves, and then I collapsed onto the ground, shaking, with silent tears dripping down my cheeks. The blood had stained the green grass, and there was so much of it, that the grass had turned a sickly black. The bodies were just swinging, the ropes creaking ever so slightly, and my stomach couldn't take it. I turned to the side again, but since I was sitting down, the vomit went all over my trousers, but I didn't even notice.

'They weren't there when I left, but I came back and I saw them all strung up and I didn't know what to do and why would they leave them here? I thought a hovercraft took them away? The hovercraft we saw! It should have bought the bodies back to the Capitol! Oh my god...' Caden had been babbling away, keeping a safe distance from the bodies, but he had started walking forward, not noticing, and he had stopped in front a little girl, hanging from one of the lowest branches, her waist length brown hair coming out of its careful bun, and falling down her back, getting mixed into the blood that stained her chest, and even though I had only caught a glimpse of her I recognised her as the girl standing on the outskirts of the woods when we came bursting out the spiders close behind. She had several puncture marks, ripping the fabric of her shirt, but we could still make out the number 3 written on it.

'What?' Finn snapped, but when I turned to look at him, I saw he was a nauseating green.

'Nothing, nothing,' Caden said quickly, spinning around, looking surprised when he spotted us, 'we need to go, now.' He said.

'But-' Finn became to protest.

'We need to go. Now,' Caden repeated.

'I don't think... I... I can walk...' I managed to stammer out. Caden walked over to me quickly, and put both hands on my cheeks, and started speaking quietly, so that Finn couldn't overhear.

'Come on Prim, please, for me? We need to go, before the Capitol can pull anymore stunts. The tree is obviously for us, but we need to get out of here before anything else happens, ok?' the urgency in his voice was impossible to miss, but I wasn't that I didn't want to leave, trust me, I wanted more than anything to leave, but I didn't think I could.

'Caden, I... My ankle... I can't... Sick...' I mumbled, trying my hardest to string words together but it was impossible and all that came out was babble. I just couldn't get the image of the bodies from my head.

All of a sudden Caden started moving his face towards me and in less than a second his lips were pressed against mine. A million thought started running through my head, mostly about Ollie, and were the camera's on us? But they were pushed out of the way as my heart exploded and my stomach flipped a thousand times, and fireworks began going off in my head. Caden drew away all too soon a sad smile on his face. He stood up, without saying another word and reached his hand out to me. I grabbed it, eager to touch him again. He pulled me up and gripped my hand tightly, not letting go and I was grateful for the support.