Loose Ends

Chapter 7

" - Peeta, it's time to go...

- We can't just leave them here to rot Katniss! That's our son and Effie!

- You know what, you're right. "

I stomp over outside and start to dig in the dirt with my bare hands. My nails turns black and dry but I don't care. Peeta comes out with two buckets and he hands one over to me. We dig for hours and in the last 15 minutes, he leaves without saying a thing. As I am just about finished with the grave, Peeta comes back, with a stone, some chalk and flowers. Tears well up in my eyes but I take a deep breath and compose myself.

Peeta and I simultaneously go inside and I pick up Rye's body gently while he picks up Effie's. We lower them together into their resting place and cross their hands over their chest. I plant a kiss on both of their foreheads before refilling the hole. Peeta writes on their gravestone, places it and puts the flowers on top of the freshly dug soil. As we finish up our work in the most respectful way possible, my sorrow is replaced by rage.

I can see it in Peeta's eyes too. Celestia killed two of our loved ones and we aren't doing a single thing about it!

" - It's time to take action Peeta. What the hell are we doing here mourning and crying. I'm avenging my son and friend, not sitting here doing nothing.

- You're absolutely right. Willow is safe with Haymitch, no harm can come to her when he's constantly sleeping with a knife in his hand, there's no need to worry.

- Haymitch?! ... he's basically an alcoholic! Don't get me wrong I love Haymitch but really....

- Come on Katniss, give him some credit... After all he did get us through the games."

"- Fine, but we can't just leave them in 12. Obviously both Gale and Celestia know exactly where we live. We need to move them somewhere safe. We need to buy an expensive, highsecurity place in the capitol...no matter the costs.

- I agree, we should also move your mother... Is there anyone we're missing?

- No, I don't think so...

- Ok great, let's go.

Peeta and I make our way over to his car, which he brought, where Effie should be sitting in. I sit in the passenger's seat and when Peeta's starts it up, I take a deep breath, ready go face my home without Rye for the first time in a while. We talk during the entire way back, but we don't talk like we have over the past few years. Our conversations remind me of the games. Death. Change. Survival. Pain. These are common topics.

We drive for hours and when we arrive, I immediately go to Haymitch's. As I enter the house, he gives us both a hug, knowing what happened when I'm not hold Rye and Effie isn't there, dressed like a pink peacock. We explain everything to him, and as Haymitch searches for a property in the capitol on the phone with some incompetent real estate agent, I sit down the Willow to tell her the news. I know deep down she doesn't understand what happened. She's smiling. She says that she's happy he went to a better place. She says she wants to go there too. And when I tell her she can't, her little heart shatters but she understands.

Willow and Peeta pack the car while Haymitch and I walk over to my mother's house. But when I see a note, similar to

the one I saw on Rye's door at hers, my heart drops to my stomach. Haymitch and I walk to the door where my mother's lifeless body is propped up in a seated position.

"Three down. Looks like Team Snowthorne is winning..." - C.S.