An Unfinished Battle (The Hunger Games FanFiction)

Chapter 14

"Peeta, no!" I exclaim, "You can't break up with me, you can't just give Gale what we wants we have to fight back!"

"Katniss, calm down" he says, clutching my arm, "I'm not leaving you. I'm always going to be with you, you know that."

The anxiety rushes out of my body, "Then what do you mean?"

"I just need to get out of here."

I glance over at my mother, as if to ask her for help, but she blankly stares off into space. I scoff. I just accepted her back into my life and she's already shutting me out. Every time I need her she does this to me.

"It's not safe here," Peeta continues, "We know Gale is out to get me and we know that District 12 is the first place he's gonna check."

"I realize that but," I say, "I-I just don't want to be alone Peeta, I want to be with you..." I want to say more, but my words are choked by the familiar lump that forms in my throat. I've done enough crying for the past two days, this is ridiculous.

"I know Katniss," Peeta wraps an arm around me and presses his lips against my forehead. My frazzled hair surrounds his face and envelops the two of us in our own tiny little cave. "I know," he says once a again, his lips murmuring against the sensitive skin on my brow, "But we have to. We don't have much of a team at the moment and the only thing we can do right now is run away."

"Can I come with you?"

"I don't think that would be the best idea, sweetheart."

"Why not?" I ask, the fury churns inside of me like a hurricane. Hot tears swell up in my eyes, but I don't allow them the pleasure of cascading down my cheeks.

"You have to stay here for your Mother, and Haymitch. What happens if we both leave, and Gale finds them here? You know he would kill them in an instant. Either that or he'd torture them until he got information about where we were."

"We can take them with us, right?" I suggest, desperate for any other option.

"That's not going to work," Peeta says, smoothly. That's the thing that intrigues me about Peeta; no matter how difficult the situation is, he always faces the truth in the calmest way possible. "We cannot take your Mom because then Haymitch would be here alone. The old man's done so much for us, we can't let him die because of this dumb mess we're trapped in. We can't possibly take him along, he's in a coma. Even if he woke up in time, Gale would come here and find the house empty and he would seek us. We'd be running in fear forever. It would be an endless game of hide and go seek."

"But-" I begin, although I'm not sure what exactly I am going to say.

"Katniss," my mother says from at cross the room. I have been looking so deep into Peeta's eyes in our little burrow of hair that I forgot she was even here. "Peeta's right. He needs to go and you need to stay." She says flatly.

Everything inside of me collapses. There's no option. I have to stay, Peeta has to go. The way my mother says it makes it seem so simple, and maybe it is. But to me, it's the hardest thing in the world. Heartbreak and woe are feelings I have become too friendly with the past 5 years. Peeta can take everything away, he can take all the ugly and mush it all up, he takes all the ugly mushed up goo an mixes them together and makes beautiful colors, and with those magnificent colors he paints the picture of our life, our new, happy life. He takes all of the the bad from the past and makes it good. He always knows what to say and what to do. Everyday since that first day I told him I loved him we've been together. Every single day. I woke by his side, ate by his side, smiled by his side, laughed by his side, cried by his side, slept by his side. He's always there, but now, he won't be.