The Hanging Tree

Chapter 2

The games. Those are the worst memories. Memories that greet me in my sleep, they appear as nightmares. Rue's death, Cato's arm around Peeta's throat, Clove's dented head, Glimmer's swollen puss covered body. They're all there.
After we returned home from the second games Peeta stays the night.
The morning right after we came home, I went to meet Gale in the woods. I slipped between the wires, they hadn't been turned on yet. Through the meadow you could see my old home. I walk towards it and just stare. The old shack is small but filled with memories. I open the cracked wooden door. It leaves a splinter in my thumb but I don't pick it out. It's nice to feel something for once. The house is exactly like the last time I had seen it. The sofa was covered in dirt and dust, along with the stove and counter right beside it.
The windows made the small place feel like home. There were spiders nests in the currents and dirt covered the floor. The table that had once carried patients laid on its side. Most of the patients had survived, but I could never stand to be in the same room when my mother and Prim had tried they're best to care for them. I'm not a healer, I'm a killer.
The next room over was our bedroom. one bed that I had once shared with my sister and mother. It seems so longer ago, that I had sung to my sister that morning of the reaping. I shiver.
The thought of the reaping chills my bones, I can't stand it. A knock comes from behind me, I turn around cautiously. A boy with brown shaggy hair and olive skin smiles at me. I run into his arms and squeeze him tightly.
"Nice to see you too, Catnip," he chuckles. Our embrace lasts only for a moment before I pull away.
"Gale, you have no idea how much I've missed you," which is true, I missed him like hell, he's the one thing to really kept Prim and mom alive. Without him they'd starve during the first games.
"I think I know how you feel......" he looks down at me and nudges my chin a little. His lips meet mine, and I don't pull away.