Blaze

Katniss

I was sick, completely done with the Capitol, with Gale, with my mother, Catora. I was done. I didn't want to be around them or have anything to do with them. Catora was supposed to be my best friend, instead she stole the love of my life. Whether she intended to or not it still happened and I hate her for it.

It's hard hating her. She volunteered to be in the games for me, she's always been there to protect and help me, she stole for me, hunted with me, fed me, kept me sane and after all these years I think I began to take her for granted. What if Catora wasn't there? Would I have faired any better? Any worse? I certainly wouldn't have this problem with Gale if she wasn't in the picture. That's not the point though, the point is she's my best friend and I'm not suppose to feel this way about her.

Catora was always different from the other girls in the Merchant Area. She didn't seem to fit in with them. She always skirted around the edges of their groups but never actually talked to them. I remember feeling bad for her. That's probably why we started talking, because I felt bad for her. Then it became the other way around after my dad died. She began to feel bad for me.

I always felt like Catora was the daughter my father always wanted. Catora was a lot better at the whole bow and arrow stuff before I finally caught on. He was always complimenting her and encouraging her, it made me jealous. Even more so when after he died Catora seemed just as devastated as I did. He wasn't her father he was mine. Catora still had both of her parents so why should she be upset?

It sounds awful but after a while I hated when she would complain about trivial things like how her parents would bug her about trying to get into sewing more so she could run the shop one day or more recently how she just throws her money around. To me it always seemed like a bribe to get people to like her or that she was wasting it. I know she's doing this out of the goodness of her heart though and I can't hate her for that. I think it was just me trying to come up with other excuses to hate her, besides the obvious one where Gale liked her over me.

I left, not because the troupe of sick and the dying coming through Catora's house, where my family and I practically resided now seeing as Catora was always at Peeta's, but because I wanted to. I felt at peace in the woods. I didn't care if I was on my own. I just wanted to be alone.

So I snuck out, took up my bow and arrow from the hallow log just outside the fence and disappeared into the forest. As soon as I hit the trees I was running. I wanted to leave. I wanted to get away but my sister and mother were back there and of course Gale so I headed for the small structure. The place where Catora asked us to run, where Gale and I fought, where he was before the whipping. I never made it.

The snapping of twigs underfoot startled me. Pulling out an arrow and drawing my bow I swiveled around swiftly, taking in the Peacekeeper uniform and the gun at her side. "No! Please!" She cried out holding something up. The gun fell into the snow but there was no way in hell I was dropping my weapon. Just as I was about to put an arrow through her heart another figure appeared behind her. It was kind of hard not to notice her, she was making a lot of noise. She whispered something to the first women. She sounded scared.

"Bonnie, no." The other women whispered. My eyes flicked from her to Bonnie to what the women in front of me held in her hand. It was bread but there was this weird symbol carved into it. A Mockingjay.

"What's that mean? The bread?" I demanded gesturing to it with my bow.

"It means we come in peace. We're from District 8 and.." District 8? Catora spoke of an uprising there.

"Are you fleeing your district?" I demanded.

"Yes." The women breathed out. I put down my bow and sheathed the arrow.