hope in our eyes || 37th hunger games ✔️

Wonder

Aspen

-

"I told you... Aspen I told... I wouldn't let you leave me behind. And I... didn't. You... Aspen?"

"Olive... Olive, don't leave me. Don't leave me behind. Please"

"Go home, Aspen. Tell Violet... Cedar... mom, dad..."

"Olive? Olive?!"

"...tell them... protect them. Don't let... don't let them be... like Ana's family."

"I won't, Ol, I won't. I'll... oh, Olive, why? Why do you have to leave?!"

"And... Elliot. Get him to talk again. Get him to tell you... a story. He's good at..."

"Olive?... Olive! Olive no, Olive... OLIVE!"

-

I drag myself out of the memory; painful words, Olive's ice cold hand, my sobs, frantic voice, dead eyes...

I want to cry. I want to just lay here in the snow forever and cry. But I can't. It's as if the frigid cold has wormed its way all the way into my heart, clenching it with an unforgiving fist and making it impossible for me to feel anything.

Something flies across he sky and lots out the eerily bright full moon. The silver light disappears and I close my eyes. The whole world turns dark.

I stares into the void he backs of my eyelids create and wonder. Wonder what if I'd been able to save her. Wonder what if she'd never been reaped. Wonder what if I'd never been reaped. What if the Games were never even created? Wonder, wonder, wonder...

Olive wasn't just my sister. She was... family. Okay, obviously she was family, she was my sister. But I just mean... I don't know. I inhale and exhale deeply.

I try again.

"Olive..." I whisper. I hear someone shift and quiet.

"Aspen?" Someone asks.

"Olive was more than my sister, she was more than our friend. She was so much more. She deserved so much more."

"She did." The person whispers. I open my eyes and make out Eisley, a silhouette in the silver midnight light. I stare at her, eyes glowing, hair flaming. There's a long pause.

"Why'd she have to leave?" I ask.

"I don't know," Eisley says. "I... really don't... know."

"I wonder..."

-

As soon as we wake up, we cover the fire, pack up, and depart to go hunting. It just gets colder and colder as we go, and soon I find my teeth chattering.

"There aren't any damn animals." Hazel says, shivering.

"It's too cold," Mackenzie says. "We should go back. Towards the Cornucopia."

"The Careers are near the Cornucopia." I snap.

"Well, that thing that killed Olive is out here, so-" The look I give Eisley makes her words catch in her throat. "Aspen, I didn't mean anything by that."