The Second Annual Hunger Games (Book 2)

Twenty-Five/Epilogue

After a week, Talon goes in for the surgery. Another week of speech therapy and I still haven't heard him speak. He signs to me, but won't talk. He says it's too embarrassing. They put me on guard duty; I guess I'm suited for it. Or at least that's what they tell me. It's mainly a lot of sitting in trees, watching for things that aren't there. When Talon isn't in speech therapy they put him out there with me. It's good because we can still sign to each other and no one can hear us. It makes it less boring.

After another week, I stop asking him to speak to me. I will when I'm ready, he says one day at lunch.

"Okay so never."

Not never.

"Then when?"

He purses his lips. Soon.

Later that night I sit in my compartment reading about the history of 13. It's not too dull, actually. They've had this compound, on a smaller scale, for years and the Capitol never knew about it until recently. They've expanded it a lot since the bombing. It used to only be two floors.

There's a knock on my door. I put the book down and open it. Talon smiles and enters without me asking him to. He closes the door.

"Yes?"

"Al-Aldera?" His voice is low and scratchy, but not at all embarrassing. He raises his eyebrows and swallows.

I laugh. "You can talk." It's almost a question.

He laughs too. "I can talk." His voice makes him so much more attractive.

"I thought you were never going to speak to me. This was unexpected."

"A lot of the best things are unexpected."

I freeze. "What did you say?"

"A lot of the best things are unexpected." He grabs my hands and holds them in his. "Like you, Aldera. I remember. I remember saying that to you that night. I remember we kissed and they dragged me away. I've known ever since the lake. I remembered when the water was dragging you away." He pauses. "I was just looking for the right time to tell you."

"You waited this long?"

He bites his lip. "I'm sorry. I was going to tell you the day we got here, but then I found out about my voice and I knew I had to wait."

I let out a weak laugh. "Well?"

He pulls me to him. "I love you, Aldera." He smiles, looking into my eyes.

As I blink I realize it. I let myself realize it and admit it. "And I love you."

He laughs and closes his eyes. "It sounds so good to hear you say that." He pulls me closer and kisses me. "I've waited so long to do that."

"You can do it again, if you'd like," now my voice is the weak one.

"If I'd like?" He kisses me again, harder, deeper. Then he pulls away and smiles. "I think we're going to be alright, Aldera."

"Me too." And for the first time it feels true. 

Hey everyone sorry for the short chapter, but it's sort of an epilogue. That's right, this is the end of the story. I'm sorry if it felt kind of abrupt, I tried the best I could to resolve it quickly, but I just felt that I needed to be done with this story so I can focus on other things. I have decided to kind of step away from wattpad and just write on my own for a bit. The next story I want to write is one that I want to publish some day and I want to focus on that. However, I'm not completely done with wattpad. I like to write short stories occasionally, so I may put some of those up here and you can check those out! Thank you so much for reading this story, I enjoyed coming up with it. As this is the end, I would really love it if you commented to tell me what you thought. I would LOVE your input; tell me things you liked and things you didn't, I won't get angry or offended, I just want to improve my writing :). Wow, I feel like this is a really long and serious author's note, so I'll just end it here. Thanks so much for reading and give this chapter a vote if you liked this story!