After the Ashes - Story from Gale Hawthorne

 Chapter 1

*Gale POV*

  I wake in the luminous bedroom. I hear nothing but silence. After months upon months of this familiar quietness, it's easy to become accustomed to.

   Unsteadily, I crawl out of bed and place both my feet on the cold wooden floor. I sit there on the edge of the bed for a few minutes, deciding whether to get up or fall back asleep on the soothing, queen-sized mattress. I look over to the alarm clock sitting on my nightstand, next to a bottle of pills and an empty glass of water. 11:00 a.m.

   I slowly walk to the bathroom, placing one foot in front of the next. I look at my own reflection and do not recognize my own appearance at first. The person in front of me has a wild look, but not at all appealing. Untamed hair, hollow cheeks, and lazy apparel. Not to mention the bluish color hiding under each eye from lack of sleep. I brush my teeth and, now more awake, plan to get breakfast.

   I walk into my kitchen and pull open the refrigerator. I sigh. The fridge is so empty that my sigh almost seems to echo throughout the cooling kitchen appliance. I pour myself a small glass of milk and slice a piece of wheat bread. My consideration of a normal breakfast.

I walk back into my bedroom after consuming my small morning meal, and open my top dresser drawer. Inside I pick out a pale button-up shirt and dark Kakis.

I lazily dress and shuffle to the living room after grabbing a warm beer. I plop myself down on the plush furniture couch and pop open the tab on my bottle of beer.  The bubbling substance trickles down my throat. I begin to relax when I hear a knock on the front door. Ugh, I think. Probably a bill collector or something. I open the door readying my wallet and find someone else. Katniss.

My first thought is, this must be another hallucination. My doctor gives me pills for these painful hallucinations. And I take them frequently. But this time she looks so real.

"Gale," my 'hallucination' says while throwing her arms around me in a tight hug. I panic, pulling away frantically knowing my hallucinations never interact with me. "Gale?" Katniss repeats and I run to my bedroom in a violent craze, yelling, "It's not real, it's not real!"

I grab the full bottle of pills on my night stand and have a difficult time getting the cap off. Breathing heavily, shaking, wildly yelling I manage to rip of the cap. The pills scatter and I fall to the ground desperately swallowing whatever pill I find on the dirty floor.

"Gale!" I hear the hallucination of Katniss cry. But she didn't seem like a hallucination this time. I lay in the floor in a complete mental breakdown waiting for the pills to kick in. Her voice becomes echoed and hard to hear, my vision blurry. The last thing I see before I pass out is Katniss reaching for the phone.

                         **********

I wake up to silence, to dim lights, to the smell of whiteness. I look around. Yep, I say to myself. I'm in the hospital. And then I see her, sleeping in a chair to the left of my bed. Nervously, I check for any nearby doctors. But of course there are none. It was real. She is real. I have a wicked headache and I feel weak. I wonder how many pills I took. And then my whole breakdown comes back to me. I sigh, which is enough to wake Katniss.

"Oh my God, Gale," Katniss says through a breath of relief. I don't say anything. Katniss looks just about the same as when I left for District Two, but healthier. Then again, it has only been two years.

"Oh Gale...you look like hell," Katniss says in a small, sad laugh. Thanks, I think to myself. I think I already know that.

"Where's Peeta?" I say more rudely than I meant. She looks a somewhat taken back by that. I look at her impatient, waiting for am answer.

"I kind of just...took off. I didn't really tell him I was going," She says, biting her lip guiltily. "How are you...uh, holding up?" She says hesitantly. As if she didn't need to ask. Because it's obvious.

"Fine," I say, not ready to admit how much I miss her. How lonely I am. How depressed I am. But she sees through me, she knows how shitty it is for me. She is, after all, by best friend.

Suddenly my mother walks in accompanied by my two brothers, Rory and Vick and my only sister Posy.

"Gale!" my mother cries out. She runs up to me and gathers me in a tight hug. "I got a call that you were in the hospital, you scared me to death," my mother weeps. "I'm taking you home Gale, our home in twelve."

I pull away. "No, Mom I need to stay here. For my job, I can't just leave," I beg. I'm head director in Weaponry and Plans. Weaponry is distinctly managing new and old weapons as well as designing new weapons. Plans is planning what to do with our new Panem, with our government and how our newly born nation should run. I can't just pick up and go.

"I already talked to your advisors. You are coming home and staying for at least a year. Then if you are better, you can come back to your fancy job," Mom tells me calmly. Suddenly Posy hops up on my hospital bed and bounces up and down. "Gale your coming home!" Posy says excitedly, with the biggest grin on her face.

"Ouch," I manage to spit out. I'm still weak and her jumping around on my bed doesn't help. "Oops I'm sorry..." Posy says, getting off my bed.

Everyone looks at me with the same expression, concerned and worried. At the same time relieved. I want them all to leave. Being alone, it's what I'm used to.

"Come on guys, lets let him rest," Rory finally says. I think he understands that I want to be alone. Everyone slowly exits the room except Katniss. I look at her, expecting her to leave. She makes her way over to me and sits at the foot of my bed.

"Why are you here?" I say rather forcefully. She starts to talk and then I cut her off. "Because I'm hurt, right?"

" No it's not like that-" and I stop her again.

"Get out of my room, please," I say, looking away. I feel her eyes on me but I can't bring myself to look at her. I feel the terrible mix of anger, sadness, pain. All mixed together and magnified. She gets up, hesitant to leave. I feel the heat burning throughout my face.

"No," she dares. "I'm not letting you leave again."