Pretty As a Primrose (A Hunger Games Fanfiction)

Chapter 11

The anthem plays, but my mind is elsewhere. I slowly bring myself back from my thoughts just long enough to see the cannon fired just this morning was for the girl from district 7. Then my mind slips back out into the endless sea of thoughts. What will happen to us? Will the career tributes come back to kill us? I'm almost certain they will as soon as our location has been discovered, but I'm willing to bet that won't be for a few more days.

"You can sleep now. I'll keep watch" I recognize Rue's voice before I see her. Then two eyes glowing in the dim moonlight appear, wide and awake. Unlike mine that are struggling to stay open.

"Thanks" I whisper, relieved that I can finally rest. I curl up on the ground, the cave blocks out most of the wind but it's still chilly enough to make me shiver. I slip my arms out of my arena jacket and pull it tighter around me. I close my eyes and wait for sleep to come. I finally stop shivering enough to drift off to sleep.

My mind takes me somewhere I'm familiar with, a field full of flowers. It takes me a few seconds to realize the flowers are primroses. Something isn't right about these flowers, I kneel down and pluck a flower gently from the ground. I observe the flower, it's withered and wilted. A dying primrose, I realize. Then I hear the crying. I spin around and see my mother and Katniss picking flowers one by one, my mother sobbing harder each time my sister tosses aside a dying flower.

"Mom! Katniss!" I exclaim, trying to get their attention. They don't even look up, Katniss continues to pick the wilted flowers and my mother continues sobbing.

"Katniss? Mom, I'm fine!" I run through the field until I'm standing right in front of them. I wave my hands in front of their faces, in hope of getting them to acknowledge me.

"I can't believe she's gone" Katniss whispers, her voice isn't directed at me but to my mother. My mother nods then slumps onto the ground, she gathers a bunch of flowers and holds them close to her body. She whispers my name over and over, more tears sliding down her reddened cheeks.

I sit up, not because the dream scared me back to awakefulness though. But because the dream was a reminder that in the coming days there will be no way to evade my death. I pull my jacket back on and that's when I realize how hot it is in this cave. I wipe my forehead with the back of my hand and see Rue with her eyes focused on the mouth of the cave.

"Morning" she says. I nod and check Peeta's forehead. At least the night air has cooled him off, I draw my hand away before I wake him.

"Where is Silma at?" I ask Rue, the girl with the brilliant red hair was nowhere in sight. Rue wrinkles her forehead briefly then she shakes her head, as if shaking away a thought.

"She went to get breakfast. Probably stealing from the career tributes" Rue replies.

"How long ago did she leave?"

Rue opens her mouth to reply, but the only sound registering in my ears is the scream coming from outside the cave. Rue and I exchangea quick glance, neither of us are entirely sure but I can guess that scream came from Silma. I crawl out of the cave and scramble to my feet, if she is badly wounded I won't have much time to get there quickly enough to save her.

Stupidly, I didn't bring any form of weapons with me nor did I bring any medicinal plants to work with so I'll have to drag her back to the cave. And that is only if I get there in time. In district 12, I didn't run often in forest terrains. My feet trip on roots sticking out of the ground, my hair catching on low hanging branches, but I manage to stay upright.

The red hair is impossible to miss on the brown dirt of the forest floor. So would be the massive pool of blood. I drop down next to her and survey just how bad it looks. A knife is lodged in her skull. There is no way I could ever save her, not with an injury like this. I find her hand, covered in her own blood, and hold it.

"Don't worry. You'll be in a better place" I whisper. Her head moves just slightly up and down, she knows any place is better than this place. She has no last words, just a simple nod. Then her body goes entirely still, I gently set her hand back at her side and take one last look. This girl, once so full of life running through this forest with that red hair flying behind her, now lays before me dead. Dead. Gone. Never to be seen again. Her cannon has fired, letting the whole world know she is gone from this horrible, cruel world. I force myself to get up and return to Rue and Peeta, before someone finds me here.

The goes silent and a little mockingjay lets out a low whistle, just as a hovercraft descends and lifts Silma out of the arena for good. Sunliht reflects off the knife buried in her head and it dawns on me that I didn't think about who killed her. The girl from district two is the only one I know of that is skilled with knives, and to get a perfect hit to the head like that isn't simply beginner's luck.

The careers know our location now. For all I know, they could be watching me now as I hurry through the forest back to our cave. We would have to find a new shelter if our location has been discovered, and getting Peeta into the cave was a tricky job so getting him out and carrying him to somewhere else will be even harder.

"Prim! I'm so glad you didn't get hurt! I was so worried but-" Rue runs up and hugs me, but she's talking so loudly I clamp my hand over her mouth.

"Shh. They know we're here. They killed Silma" I whisper close to her ear. The look on her face turns from relief to anguish in a matter of seconds.

"We need to leave then. But what about Peeta?" She asks.

"We'll have to help him walk" I reply. I duck into the cave and see Peeta still asleep. I shake his shoulder gently. His eyes open and he sits up.

"Did I miss something?" He asks sleepily. I shake my head and tell him to be quiet.

"Don't talk. Rue and I are going to help you walk because we have to leave right now" I say. Peeta nods, I hold his arm and help him out of the cave. The bright sunlight blinds me briefly, I squint my eyes and continues walking forward. It must be a weird sight, two twelve year olds helping a sixteen year old, but I don't care.

We get about two feet before a rustling in the bushes stops us. Frozen with fear, we wait for our killers to jump out and attack but something catches my eye. It's not another tribute, but a gift from a sponsor. The parachute is tangled in the leaves of a bush. I make sure to walk cautiously towards it just in case there is another tribute hiding nearby. The gray parachute is holding a small package wrapped in cloth, it occurs to me that we can use the cloth to wrap Peeta's leg. I open the package and inside it holds a silver knife. I think back to my training and how I excelled with a knife over any other weapon. I look up towards the sky.

Maybe Haymitch hasn't completely given up on us.

I take the knife out of it's cloth wrapping and admire it, the blade is long and sharp and oddly enough, the handle has a swirled pattern on it. Kind of like vines crawling up a brick wall. It puzzles me as to why they would take the time to add a nice pattern onto the knife when at any given moment that pattern would be caked a layer of blood.

Why would Haymitch send this to me now? I know I don't have any weapons but I think I'd be just fine if I didn't have a weapon. A little voice in my head keeps trying to tell me that Haymitch wants us to fight the careers instead of run from them. I push that thought away. Haymitch may be a useless drunk, but I know he is smart or he wouldn't have won his Games. With the state Peeta Is in and setting two twelve year olds up against a pack of bigger, stronger, and older career tributes, we would be dead before we even had a chance to fight back. Haymitch probably just wants me to have a weapon in case we do get attacked.

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Hi! Sorry it took so long to upload this, I'll be uploading hopefully every other Wednesday. Possibly every Wednesday if I have time. I'd like to know, should I write a sequel to this? Like what Catching Fire would have been if Katniss hadn't volunteered for Prim? I'm planning maybe 10 or so more chapters for this story, but I thought I'd ask now.

So comment, vote, and please don't be mad for how long it took to upload :)

Thanks!

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