ʀᴇᴅ ᴅᴀᴡɴ (ɢ. ʜᴀᴡᴛʜᴏʀɴᴇ)

ᴏɴᴇ

After some time of waiting, I finally look up to see Katniss running towards Gale and me, Boggs by her side. I look at her smiling when her body comes crashing into mine for a big hug.
"I've missed you." I mumble. She breaks the hug and looks at me with a warming look.
"Me too."
"I can't beleive you are going through with this." Gale finally says as she they stop hugging.
"You can still say no."I remind her.
"I need to see it for myself." she replies, with a certain look.
"This way." Boggs says, snapping us out of the little bubble we had created. Without losing any more time, we entered the jet and took off.

It's been some time now that we see ashes and ruins when we look out of the windows of the jet. Disctrict 12, our home, was destroyed. I remember vividly the moments when Gale and I tried to save as many people as we could. But we couldn't save them all. The plane lands and the gate starts to open slowly.
"13 swept everything, top to bottom so you'd be safe." Gale reassures Katniss.
"You sure you don't want me to come with you?" I ask her. See, me and Katniss are like sisters, our fathers died in the mines and Prim, her mother and Katniss treat me like a member of their family. We used to hunt in the woods but that was before Katniss was reaped, a day that'll be forever carved in my mind. While she was in the Games, Gale and I took care of her family.
"Yeah. I'm sure." she answers blankly.
"We'll have our eyes on you from above."he says and with that Katniss takes off. I've know Katniss my whole life. She might not want to show it, but I can feel her sadness, her grief.
I look closely and release a small gasp as I see her stepping on one of the many skulls surrounding her.
"That's enough I am going to get her." I mumble as I see her getting down on her knees. I start to walk away but Gale grabs my wrist.
"Don't."he simply tells me.
"How am I supposed to watch her suffer like this?"
"She wanted to see it for herself, let her see what's left of it." I stare at him, trying to read his emotions. I've known Gale my entire life, yet sometimes I really can't understand what he's thinking. I sigh as he removes his hand from my wrist and I see Katniss is entering our old house.

When all this is over, we come back to District 13 and I help Kat find her family's room.
"You okay?" I ask her as we walk up the stairs.
"No." she states. I know, stupid question. Not so smith right now.
"What did you get from our house?" I ask trying to change the subject a little.
"Nothing important." she says and hits her bag. I don't know if I'm getting old or if I heard correctly but the bag...meowed?
"Here, this way." I say, opening the metal door and letting her walk in first, ignoring what I just heard.
"It's okay.We're okay." her mother tells her as she hugs her. Prim comes and hugs me too.
"We're all here now."Katniss responds.
"Buttercup!"Prim says breaking our hug and turning her attention to Katniss's bag. Oh, guess my ears work just fine.
"I smuggled him in." Kat says while Prim hugs that cat that I will never,ever like.
"I got dad." she says while taking
a photo of her father out of her bag. Her mother takes the photo and examines it.
"And I got some of your herbs from the kitchen."she adds.
"They have strict rules." her mother says, now petting Buttercup.
"I don't know what they'll do if the find him here." she continues. Her mother goes back to what she was doing and I notice Katniss's sad expression. She may have survived the games but part of her died.

It's been some time now that the three of us are having dinner. At least the two of us. Katniss hasn't touched her food.
"You should try and eat something." Gale tells her, concerned.
She ignores him and we hear the sound of the introduction of the 'Capitol TV'. We turn our heads to watch the latest news.
"Hello. Good evening. And a big welcome to all in Panem. I'm Caesar Flickerman. And whoever you are, whatever it is you are doing, if you're working, put down your work."Caesar says and I notice his mood has changed. He isn't as happy as usual. And that worries me.
"If you are having dinner, stop having dinner. Because you are going to want to witness this tonight. There has been rampant speculation about what really happened in the Quarter Quell. And here, to shed a little light on the subject for us is a very special guest. Pease welcome Mr. Peeta Mellark."he continues. I drop my fork. We thought Peet's was... Gale notices my expression and holds my hand for support.
Peeta is now on screen but I can tell he looked different. He looks less like... Peeta.
"Peeta, a lot of people feel as though they are in the dark."Ceasar says.
"Yeah I know how they feel." Peeta answers as Katniss stands up and moves closer to the screen.
"Now, so set the stage for us. Talk us through what really happened on that final and controversial night."Caesar says. I get up and follow Katniss, Gale close behind me.
"First off; you have to understand that when you're in the Games you only get one wish.It's very costly." Peeta replies. Seems to me like the Capitol is putting words in his mouth...
"You're alive." Katniss whispers.
"It costs your life."Caesar tries to make a guess.
"I think it costs more than your life."Peeta tells Caesar.
"How do you mean? What's more than your life?"
"I mean to murder innocent people, that costs everything that you are."
"Yes..."
"So you hold on to that one wish. And that night my wish was to save Katniss."
"Yes..."
"I should've just run off with her earlier in the day like she'd wanted."
"But you didn't. Why? Were you caught up in Beetee's plan?"
"No, I was caught up trying to play allies. And then they separate us and that's when I lost her." Peeta says. Gale comes up beside me. Peeta is a good friend. But I swear this isn't him. I can feel it.
"And then the lightning hit and the whole force fiel around the arena just blew out."
"Yes, but, Peeta, Katniss is the one who blew it out."
"No."
"You saw the footage."
"No, she didn't know what she was doing. Neither of us knew there was a bigger plan going on. We had no idea."
"You had no idea?"
"No."
"All right. Well, Peeta, there are many who find this suspicious to say the least. It seems as though she was part of a rebel plan."
"Do you think it was part of her plan to be almost killed by Johanna? Or part of the plan to be paralyzed by lightning? No, we were not part of any rebel plan. We had no idea what was going on."
"All right. I believe you, Peeta Mellark. Thank you."
"Yeah..."
"And I was going to ask you to speak about the unrest but I think you might be too upset."
"No, I can."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely."
"Thank you."
"I want everyone who's watching to stop and to think about what a civil war could mean. We almost went extinct once before. And our numbers are even fewer."Peeta says making Katniss look at me.
"It's not him." I mouth, sure enough.
She ignores my comment and turns her attention back to the screen.
"He's one of them." I hear someone say and Katniss turns around to look at the direction the voice came from.
"Is this really what we wanna do?"Peeta continues.
"He is a traitor." Someone else yells.
"Kill ourselves off? Killing is not the answer."
"I can't believe he is doing this." another voice coming from the crowd.
"Everyone needs to lay down their wealons immediately."
"Traitor!!"A guy yells while he stands up.
"He is not one of us!"
"This is treason!"
I turn around to look at them expecting them to stop.
"Are you calling ceasefire?" says Caesar.
"Yeah, I am." Peeta confirms.
"You're a puppet!"
"Hang him!"
I examine the look on Gale's face.
"I want everyone to stop the senseless violence. This is not the path to change."Peeta goes on and with that Katniss starts to walk away. Exchanging a quick look with Gale, I run after her; I don't want her to be alone. Not right now.