Kindling the Spark

District Twelve

26: District Twelve

Prim POV

Every few hours, I glance towards the screen. I don't expect any news to come, but it's a habit from when Katniss was still being displayed in the Games. Where is Katniss now? Could she have been killed during the explosion? I would think that we would know about that. The Capitol have kept quiet though.

If Katniss is alive, will she be coming home? Maybe she was just injured by the explosion. Maybe she's being treated in one of the Capitol's hospitals now and once she's better she'll come back. But I know that this won't happen. The Capitol could easily take this as an opportunity to kill her after all of the rebellion she's done.

It would crush so many people. Every day now as I walk by, I can hear whispers about Katniss and the Capitol. How she saved Melanie from being whipped to death, or how she outsmarted the Capitol twice in the Games. Rumours about how she escaped the arena in a hovercraft filled with people loyal to her. If only. It could have happened. It should have happened.

There's a knock at the door and I get up to open it. Maybe it's Peeta again, coming over to try to cheer me up with cookies and cakes and freshly baked bread. It's nice of him to try, but he doesn't understand what it's like to have a sister missing, maybe dead. Maybe being tortured. All of his family are safely in the bakery.

I twist the handle. It isn't Peeta. It's Rory Hawthorne. I almost mistook him for Gale at first. He has the same hair, the same build. "Hello. Why are you here?"

"I thought you might want somebody to talk to," he says. "I understand what it's like. Gale was in the Capitol too, and he's been in the Games too before. He could have been captured or killed by them. He was always trying to stir up rebellion in the people and they hated him for that."

"They hated Katniss as well," I say quietly, stepping out of the way so that he can come in. "Everybody else loved them though. Have you heard the rumours, the ones about Gale and Katniss escaping in hovercrafts to a safe place?" The door clicks shut behind him and I lead him to the sitting room.

"Yeah," he says. "Everybody at the Hob is gossiping about it. They all want those rumours to be true. It's wishful thinking though, I think. Gale would have come back for us if he did escape. And Katniss.. I'm sorry Prim, but Finnick Odair was tearing her arm apart with his trident. She probably bled to death. Her allies betrayed and killed her."

"She wouldn't have bled to death," I correct him. "It would take quite a long time. Probably about half an hour. The Capitolites would have got to her sooner. No, if she was killed, it would be by Snow and the Capitolites."

"Maybe. I think Gale is probably in some Capitol prison now. God knows what they'll do to us. Maybe they'll get Romulus Thread back, seeing as Katniss and Gale aren't here to oppose Snow anymore."

"What could have happened though?" I think aloud. "Why would Finnick have stabbed Katniss in the arm, not the chest or throat? That's what he would have done if he tried to kill her. And Beetee with the arrow? What purpose did that have? And why did the Games go offscreen after that?"

"I don't know. But it had to be something big. They never cancel the Games, it has literally never happened before. The only thing that came close was last year when they let Gale and Katniss win. I've watched every Hunger Games there has been. And Gale wasn't in danger, so why isn't he back unless the Capitol imprisoned him. And they would only do that because of a direct act of rebellion."

"What's so special about the arm though? Wait.. He wasn't trying to kill her. Rory- the trackers are in their arms. They were trying to escape and Beetee shooting the arrow must have caused the force field to explode.. They use force fields to keep tributes in the arena Katniss told me.. They must have escaped and that's why the Capitol imprisoned Gale and stopped the Games!"