Dark Light

“Prim!” I can't lose her again. “Prim! Where are you?” I run around the corner and into the bedroom. Willow's on the bed, her arms behind her back and her mouth covered in a dirty strip of cloth.

Willow squeals and begins crying violently. A man in all black jumps out from behind the door and sprays a soft fog in my face. The world goes blurry but I remain conscious. I fade in and out, falling on my hands and knees. Straining to look up before I blackout, I notice a small little bird.

It's screaming out my name in Prim's voice, over and over again. I recognize the bird.

A jabberjay.

-

My eyelids feel heavy, my tongue paper dry. The room is ice cold, and I feel the hard metal cutting into my back underneath me. I recognize the light fixtures above me and the familiar feel to the room. But this makes no sense. All of the Capitol hovercrafts were destroyed years ago.

I try my hardest to sit up but I'm strapped in place. “Let me out of here!” I yell.

The man in black appears at my side. “Hello, Gale,” he says calmly. I start saving the spit in my mouth. “We've been watching you since the 74th Hunger Games. We need you.”

I spit a big glob of mucus at his covered face. The man flips a switch on the wall.

The pain is excruciating. “You can't kill me if you need me,” I say in as strong a voice as I can manage. My teeth are clamped together with strength I never knew I had. My toes curl painfully. I lose control over my body completely. A scream escapes my cracked lips and cuts through the air, loud and clear.

The hum of the machine dies down. Vomit rises to my throat but I can't roll over. I throw up in my mouth and do all I can not to choke on it. “Let me go. I just want to live a normal life.”

The man laughs harder and harder, coughing from the effort. “You have to help us, or they all die.”

The wall to my right retracts into the ceiling slowly. “No!” I scream at him, my voice cracking from the emotional pain. I close my eyes. “It's just a bad dream. When I open my eyes I'll be next to Willow. This isn't real,” I whisper to myself.

I open my eyes.

The tears come all at once. Willow remains on her bruised knees, looking fragile and thin. Her once white night gown has become a ripped up rag, hanging loosely off her shoulders. Eyes sunken in, hair and face pale as the moon, Willow looks ghostly yet astonishing in every way.

Katniss lays unconscious on the floor next to her, blood seeping from a head wound. Her signature dark braid is a knotted mess on her head, but her rosy cheeks make her look as though she had just rested her head on the ground for a light nap.

Peeta is the only one standing. His eyes look sad and wise, reflecting his traumatizing life. I see the deaths he has seen, the love he holds in his heart, and the memories of his innocent childhood before it all began.

“Save them. Their lives are worth a hundred of mine,” I spit at the man. “And you, you're just a worthless piece of--”

A loud crack, the sound of my breaking fingers, forces me to stop. Black dots swim across the light above me but I keep my eyes wide open. “You will never make me a piece of your games!” Another bone snaps, this time my wrist.

“Gale NO!” As I twist my head to silence Willow, the man in black walks briskly over to my wife, grabbing a large chunk of her blonde hair. “Stop! No,” she says. The man slaps her hard in the face, leaving a red hand print on her cheek.

She crawls away, only able to use her legs. More men dressed in all black appear, roughly re-tying the cloth around her mouth.

Using all the strength I can muster, I break the leather bonds around both ankles and one wrist. The broken bones in my other arm shoot pain everywhere in my body. “Aaaaghhh!” I yell out. The leather begins to break.

Red lights flash. Loud sirens wale in my ears. I look up.

Katniss is cutting away at the tough material. It finally breaks. I fall to the ground, my left arm limp at my side. I lose all vision. “Catnip...”

“I'm not gonna lose you, Gale. Come on. Come on!” She wraps my good arm over her shoulder, my other lifting gently over Peeta's. I see their faces and the blood.

Blood is everywhere. I can never escape from it. Their shirts are soaked to the point of looking black. The red lights keep flashing. They flash on and off. On and off. “Gale!”

I try to turn my head, but my neck feels broken and stiff. Maybe I'm just hallucinating. “Gale!” I hear it again. I drag my feet, making Katniss and Peeta stop. My neck is still stuck.

“Must...go...back,” I manage to say between deep gasps for air. My head slams into the wall, leaving a pounding at my temples. My legs drag behind me as I'm pulled even farther away from the sound.

I start to walk along again. We walk for what seems like hours but is only minutes. The walls look like they're melting to the floor, about to take us down with them. Bats fly at my body violently, and the dust from the old district 12 coal mines clouds my already restricted eyesight.

I look down. Prim's mangled body lays on the hard floor. She's burnt and has an expression of sadness mixed with shock on her face. “No,” I say. No one hears me. Katniss walks right over her little sister's face, leaving more dirt in her hair than there already was. “No!” My body shakes with frustration. “No! Prim, nooo!”

My body goes limp. I forget about the pain in my arm. I forget about grown men needing to be strong and hold back all emotion. Prim. She's all I see. No noise enters my ears. I squint my eyes without fully closing them. The tears come soon after.

My face hardens. I control my body. I clench my teeth and squeeze every muscle in my body. I vow to myself an unbreakable promise.

There will be peace.