Fire Extinguished (Flaming Desire Book 1) A Katniss and Finnick FanFiction

Chapter 9

Katniss POV

Something deep inside me starts to burn. It burns more and more until it starts to spread. For a moment, I feel the ghost of my old self return.

The one who didn't know love and didn't experience death and anguish. The person who wasn't controlled by the games. The girl who started the rebellion. The one with the berries. The child who would do anything for her sister. For Prim. The one with fire, strength, rebellion. The girl whose name is Katniss Everdeen and all she wanted was to get home to her family. The girl who never wanted to start a war. The girl who had no idea of what would lie ahead.

"We can't just run away and hide! We have to help them! We can't just leave them there to die!" I scream in frustration. I think of District 12 and how I wasn't there to help them. The burning just grows. I will not let anyone else die because of my mistakes.

"We are going to stay put and you are going to listen to us," Haymitch says with a scowl sketched across his face.

"But-" I start.

"No! Katniss, you can't go around doing whatever you want. You need to grow up and realize that not everything will help. Just because you are the rebellion doesn't mean everything you do will be praised. Your decisions always have consequences," Haymitch shuts me down.

My face falls. The berries. Having two victors. The wedding dress. I didn't think and now all the consequences have led up to war.

"Fine, but once we land, I'm going out. I can't be stuck here forever," I surrender and with that I walk out the door and to my room.

Finnick POV

The moment she leaves the room, smiles grow on our faces. We don't need words to explain why we're smiling. Seeing Katniss like that is enough. The Girl on Fire is on her way home.

•••

I walk back to our room to find Katniss pacing furiously. I lean against the door frame and wait for her to notice me. When she does, she raises a questioning eyebrow.

"Having fun, love?" I say with a teasing smile.

"Don't you dare joke about this! People are dying. Mother, father, children. Don't you feel the guilt? Because I do. It's always with me, surrounding me. It slowly kills me inside knowing that innocent people die because of me." Her eyes go blank, staring not at something but the guilt.

"Katniss, you can't blame yourself for everything."

"If I don't blame myself, then who is there to blame? Everything is because of me. All of this is happening because of my stupid choices!" She looks at me as she says this, but I somehow cannot find the courage to look at her back.

"Blame Snow. He murdered them. Not you. He is the killer. He's the bad guy," I try to convince here.

"We've killed too Finnick. What's the difference between him and us?" She shakes her head. tears starting to form because of frustration.

"We need to! We needed to survive. He doesn't because he wants to. He wants to keep him power, so he kills."

"Who cares what our intentions were! We've still killed people. No matter what our reasons were, people are still dead because of all of us," she sighs.

She is shaking her head and looks up to say something else, but is cut off by the hovercraft landing.

Katniss pushes past me and goes down the hallway. I chase after her. "Where you going?"

"Just follow," she says angrily.

I follow her into the control room where Haymitch and Plutarch are making some final adjustments to our landing.

"Where's the weapon room?" Katniss commands.

"Why are you asking and what tells you we even have a weapon room,  sweetheart?" Haymitch says with eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Because you would never get us out of the arena unarmed," she says with a little bit of annoyance in her voice.

"So why do you need to know where it is anyways?" Haymtich asks. He sounds tired of arguing with her.

"You and I both know it'd be a sensible thing to arm me before going outside."

Haymitch nods to me. I pull Katniss out and lead her to the weapons room.

Katniss quickly rushes after me and says, "You knew where the weapons room was and didn't tell me?"

"You never asked," I reply calmly.

We pack up and get our specialty weapons of a bow and arrow and trident, before heading to the exit.

We enter the elevator down and before I press the button I ask, "Ready?"

"Always."

For a moment, I see the Girl on Fire flash in her eyes. I press the button and seconds later the door opens and we feel the breeze of fresh air. We're in a forest. Just the right place.