How to Kill a Mockingjay

chapter 9

Katniss:

Outside the compound is completely decimated. I know we need to phone Haymich so he can arrange us a way home. Peeta must've thought the same thing, because he has the cell phone out before I even say a word.

      It rings four times before someone picks up. "Hello?" Effie says. "Hi," I say. "Oh, Katniss, its you! How are you doll, hows your trip?" "Ummmm... We got bombed..." A long pause. " I'll send Haymich to get a hovercraft! Who all is with you?!" "Gale, his three kids, Peeta, and me." "Three kids, and no wife?" "She died..." Another long pause. "Be ready in thirty minuites, we'll be right over."  Thirty minuites later, as promised, there they are. Haymich runs over and starts asking questions, Effie finally has to make him stop. "Fine!" he says. Haymich walks infront of everyone and gives out orders to pack what you need and get on the hovercraft as soon as possible.

    I sit in between Peeta and Gale. The trip back home will be faster in the hover craft over the train, but it's still a 3 hour trip back to district 12.

Somewhere over district 9, I'm guessing, Gale cries himself to sleep.

      It's nice to have silence! I can finally hear myself think! I shouldn't be thinking like this, my bestfriend's wife, whom I'd only meet hours before her death, is dead, and I have to keep him on the path tward sanity. I do not want to see him end up like my mother. He is the only part of the old me I have left, the parts the games didn't destroy or "arrange". Not to say I'm not happy with Peeta, because I am, he's probably the best thing that ever happened to me! It's just that, without the games, we would have never met, and I would've been with Gale, and my family would still be whole. Peeta is the only part of the games I am thankful for. He's helped me keep my sanity when Gale left me to deal with the death of my sister and my mother abandoning me! Peeta was there through it all, so maybe I judge Gale a bit harder now, for leaving and forgetting about me. He is my friend after all... I don't know anymore. My mind is in too many places at once and my head starts to spin. I decide that I should probably just forget about it and get my sleep. I lay my head against Peeta's cheats and he wraps his arms around me and puts his head on mine. As I'm drifting off to sleep I hear him whisper, "I love you, always." Making my decision to forgive Gale harder and harder.