The Hunger Games: Uprising!

Chapter 1

I make my way to the rock in the woods where Gale and I used to sit the weather is calm and cold with a few fluffy clouds helping to shroud to winter sun. I find it calming to sit here and gather my thoughts on what has happened over the last few years. As I sit and look out over the valley I think of what has changed since I returned home from the Capitol. Two years have passed since then and I'm still effectively banished to District 12 after my assassination of President Coin and the subsequent trial. To be honest, I have no wish to leave 12 these days, since I returned the closeness of family and friends has helped with my healing and grief of losing my sister.

Haymitch has returned to his life of drink and self pity but I still look up to him, in a funny sort of way I suppose.

As for Peeta, he is the only good thing that came out of my life from the games, if I hadn't volunteered for Prim at the reaping we probably would have never been drawn together. Just the thought of him brings a smile to my face, how he makes me laugh and how I feel about myself. He'll always be there for me as I will be for him but it took a long time for me to finally admit that I loved him, deep down I knew I cared, it was just that, I didn't think I realized it until he was Hijacked and I thought I'd lost him.

Then when we returned to 12 after the war I struggled with my emotions toward him. I've always been afraid to let myself love someone and have that taken away as it had been with my Father and Prim. But over time I came to realize that I need to live my life as I'm still young and I have so many years ahead of me but since I was eleven I've had nothing but misery in my life. The death of my father, The Games, losing Prim, the war.
Loving Peeta and letting him into my life could be the catalyst to making me realise that I can live my life and be happy in the memory of all the family and friends who have died so I could survive.

So why can't I do it, just say those three words to him.

I Love You...

The light is starting to fade and I realize I've been sat here all afternoon, Peeta will be worried.

I smile again at the thought of walking through the door and seeing him there, clattering around in the bakery when something odd in the woods alerts me, Silence. No birds, no insects, just the breeze. I reach over my shoulder for an arrow and then remember I didn't bring my bow from home as I wasn't planning on hunting. I listen intently for any sound and remember I've experienced this before both here and in the Games when a hovercraft is about to appear.

I look up into the trees for the tell tail sign of movement in the branches created by a passing hovercraft but there's nothing.

Snap! I hear from off to my right, definitely a twig or branch I think. I get to my feet and creep forward as quietly as I can. Something moves and catches my eye, I can't see it clearly as its obscured by foliage and the gathering gloom but I can just make out a grayish scaly flesh of some sort of animal. In an instant it hears me and darts away crashing through the undergrowth before I can get a good view of it. And then the birds start to sing and the chorus of the woods continues.

I rush back to the meadow. What was it in the woods, wild dogs and predators arent such a problem in the woods nowadays as they tend to keep themselves further out into the forest and mountains. Once I get closer to town I slow my pace and wander back to the town square, my mind whirling from the strange events in the woods. I decide to visit Peeta at the bakery.

When he returned from the Capitol Peeta wanted to rebuild the bakery in memory of his family. In any case it gave him something to focus on whilst he was still coming to terms with his Hijacking and grief. Because of the torture he endured Peeta never really understood what had happened to his family. Only returning to 12 could do that for him and accepting that his parents and brothers were gone was something else he had to come to terms with on top of everything else.

I open the door and I'm greeted by the smell of freshly baked cakes and bread. I look around the shop and see a dark haired man in his mid twenties stood behind the counter.
"Hi Joel", I say.

"Hey" he replies "Peeta's been worried about you, he expected you back ages ago".

"I know, I got a bit side tracked" I reply.

"Peeta, Katniss is here!" Joel calls over his shoulder  to the ovens that are out the back of the shop.

Peeta walks through with a blond girl who's about my age.

"Hi Katniss" she says

"Hello Megan" I reply.

Joel and Megan are brother and sister and were born in District 13. They lost their parents during the war and decided to move to 12 to start again.

Peeta stands in his white apron looking at me disapprovingly. I look down at my feet with a mischievous grin on my face knowing that I've worried him.

"Sorry Peeta I completely lost track of time" I say.

"Katniss I've been worried sick, you said you'd meet me for lunch at home, and now you're here and we're closing the shop!"

"I was just out walking and I just got a little side tracked I'm really sorry"

"He's been driving us nuts" Megan pipes in.

"Are you ready to go now?" I ask

"Yeah Okay, can you guys lock up tonight" he asks Joel and Megan.

"Sure thing" replies Joel

Peeta hangs up his apron, gets his coat and walks out into the street with me. The square is crowded with people doing last minute shopping or making their way home for the evening, it wasn't always like this. When we first returned to 12 it was a ghost town. But over time many people have returned or moved from other Districts. I feel safe walking at Peeta's side, we hold hands as we make our way back to victors village. Peeta still hasn't really spoken to me.

"Peeta I'm sorry about today, but you don't have to worry about me" I say sincerely

He sighs " I know, but if anything were to happen to you I don't know what I would do, you've been such a big part of my life for so long that to lose you now would finish me"

I stop him and wrap my arms around his neck "Peeta, I'm not going anywhere" I reply.

"its just were so close now that.... I stop him with a kiss and then look into his eyes.

Why can't I just say that I love him! I do, I just can't seem to say it!

"Do you have to work tomorrow?" I ask

"Of course not, why?"

"Spend the day with me, I want to show you something"

"Okay" He wraps his arms around me in a hug before we continue our walk home.