Just Another Games....

Chapter Twenty Two

I try to fall back asleep, but end up sitting there watching the sun rise. I get up and pack all my stuff away and decide to make a fire to see if Gale will make an appearance.

After an hour, he does. By then I have eaten the rest of my roots and berries. I find him sitting at my fire after checking my snares. I have a groosling and a squirrel.

“Hey Catnip. I saw your fire.” I notice he is in a defensive position with my knife in his hand. Wait, my knife? He must see me staring because he says, “Yeah, I kept it. Thanks, by the way.” I then notice that he has some vine wrapped around his arm.

“What do you mean? What happened, and how did you get my knife?” I think back to yesterday.

“Katniss, you attacked me yesterday. You stabbed me then went after Johanna. You killed her.” I don’t believe him. I would never attack Gale. Johanna though...

“Don’t lie to me Gale! I would never purposely hurt either of you.” I say, my words full of venom.

Gale’s voice stays neutral. “Katniss,” is all he says. I storm off. Don’t stop, even when I reach the water. I swim to the sand island next to this one. I climb up on a sand dune and look around.

I see something black moving in the sand. I roll down the hill and follow the footprints. The girl can’t be more than fourteen with straight white-blonde hair down to her shoulders. She makes eye contact, before all the color drains from her face. She then falls over. I hit the ground and flatten myself.

That is when the cannon goes off. I look at the girl and see that there is an arrow where her heart is. I look at my bow and notice my arrow is missing. I dig around in the sand, and end up dumping arrows all over. I gather them up and start running away. I try to follow my footsteps back, but they disappear after a few feet. I turn right and hope I can make it back to the tree island. I only make it a few feet before I trip on something, and everything slowly goes dark. Slowly enough I see a flash of black and red...

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When I woke up Gale was standing over me. "Are you okay Katniss?"

I look around, stunned. I stand up and push Gale away. "Leave me alone."

"Wait, Katniss, is that blood on your hands?" I pause and turn around, slowly raising my hands to my face. My hands are stained red. I look down but don't find any wounds.

"Are...Where did you come from?" I don't know what just happened and secretly hope Gale has some idea of what happened.

"When you stormed off before I got mad and saw you half way to this island so I waited until you were on the island then I followed you. Once I got to this island I wandered around before," he pauses for half a second, "I found you here."

Gale seems to be hiding something but I let it go for the time being. I check my bag and find that I only have ten arrows in my quiver. "Did you take anything from me?" 

"No, I just found you here and was too busy making sure you weren't dead. There were a," Slight pause again, "Few cannons. It scared me."

The sincerity in his voice washes away any doubt or anger I had toward Gale. All of a sudden it is like someone turned out the light. "Gale?" I cringe at the fear in my voice. As my eyes adjust to the dark I see Gale siting on the ground. I sit next to him.

"What? Katniss, do you know what time it is? It should have been dark a few hours ago. I'm surprised that the anthem didn't wake you up. It was blaring." He looks at me in horror.

"What's wrong? How many people are dead, Gale?"

"There are only eight people left."

"What happened Gale?" I think about what happened. The Gamemakers must have sent something in...

He doesn't reply for a while. When I open my mouth to ask again, he answers. "Katniss, what do you last remember?"

I tell him that I saw a girl then I blacked out. After I finish, we sit in silence again.

"Katniss, I followed you, and I saw you kill that girl. Your description matches perfectly. You killed her, and then you started running around and screaming. You ran around killing whatever you saw that moved. I saw you kill that girl then another boy. After that, I fled. I was wandering around for hours, when you came out of nowhere at me. You just stood there and stared at me, then fainted. I sat here with you until you woke."

I sit there, trying to make sense of his words. All of a sudden my side is on fire and I look down to see Gale's knife in me. "I'm sorry Katniss, but I don't want to worry about you later. Happy Hunger Games!"

Then everything goes dark as the knife goes in my neck.