"There will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears,

And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears."

-Mumford & Sons

Wiress

*There are SPOILERS here for people who haven't read my Wiress fanfictions!*

Everything is a blur at first. Death does that to you. Then, my eyes adjust. I've found myself in some new place. Funny. I thought death meant total blackness. But what I see is… the buildings of District 3. I've returned home. This can't be real.

"Hello?" I call out as I stand up. The city is so bare, empty of the thousands who usually stroll the streets. The majority of District 3 call this their home. So where is everybody?

Then I remember: I'm dead. This must be some alternate universe that looks like Panem. A place for the dead to live out eternity. Which means… Joules should be around here. I begin running towards my family's apartment. From where I am, it's ten blocks away. I'm just too excited to walk. While I jog, I come to see more people. More dead faces.

Suddenly, I hear a girl's voice call my name. I stop running to see who it is.

"Kalia." She's still wearing the jacket and boots of her tribute uniform. Cato cut her down during the bloodbath last year. But her wounds are completely gone.

"What are you doing here?" she asks. "You're not…"

"It's true," I confirm. "I just died."

I can speak normally again! Once I adjust to this new fact, I tell her about the Quarter Quell.

"Who killed you?" Kalia asks.

I shrug. "He came up from behind. All I know is it was one of the men."

"Do you think it might've been… you know… Beet-"

"Don't you dare accuse my husband of killing me!" I shout. "He was the love of my life! And… we were just about to have another kid." Hot tears are falling down my face.

"Oh. Wow." Kalia is starting to cry, too. "Wiress, I'm so sorry. About everything."

"This wasn't your fault."

Kalia puts her arms around me. "But I kept making fun of you, and I just… had no idea what you'd really been through. How'd you last so long, when I only made it through the first five minutes?"

"It's not because you're weak, I can tell you that." I hug her back, and I can't help wondering what it would've been like to hug my own daughter. The daughter that wasn't allowed to be born. "You were incredibly strong, Kalia."

"Thanks," she replies. "I feel like I disappointed my family… I've always been such a disappointment."

"My father always told me, 'You're only a disappointment if you think you're one'. Never forget that. You know, I've got a feeling that things in Panem are gonna change."

"What do you mean?"

"Right. You weren't there." I explain to her how Katniss and Peeta earned a double victory, how it might drive a rebellion soon. I can only hope they're doing well in the arena. And my poor Beetee…

I burst into another round of tears. He was hurting badly when I left. How long does he have before he joins me?

Kalia's eyes meet mine. "Hey, Wiress, I know some people that would want to see you. Come on."

She leads me through the city to an apartment complex. I know it well, because this is where I lived before moving into the Victor's Penthouse. Kalia had been my neighbor while we were alive, so it's only fitting that she's chosen to stay here. We ride in the elevator to the fourth floor; then she opens up the door to her apartment.

I take one look into the living room and I know we're not alone. First, I see a young boy, probably twelve years old. My former district partner, Cameron Lang. Sitting next to him is a girl who resembles me in nearly every way. Her skin is no longer bursting with rashes from the poison ivy that killed her. She's forever sixteen years old. Joules!

Kalia gestures to me. "As you can see, I brought a guest. She's new here, but she's been waiting a long time to see you two again."

"Hi," Cameron says warily. "Um… who are you?"

"Wait a minute!" Joules gets a good, long look at my face. "I think I know you… you look like my mother…"

"It's me," I say. "Wiress."

Cameron's mouth opens wide. "You're… you're so much older now. Does that mean…?"

"Yeah, Cameron. You're looking at the victor of the 55th annual Hunger Games." I can't help but grin, knowing that I honored his memory by winning.

Joules has remained quiet. "It is you," she exclaims in a low voice. She bolts to me full force and pulls me in. I hug her back just as tightly. Never mind that I'm old enough to be her mother now. We don't care.

"Cameron told me what you did for him," she continues. "When you didn't show up later, I had a feeling you'd won. I knew I was right! What's it like in the Penthouse?"

Her eyes sparkle as we settle on the couch and I tell them all about my life after victory. When I mention Beetee, Cameron gives me a mischievous grin.

"I thought you two were up to something," he teases.

A giggle comes out of me. "I named our son after you," I say. "His middle name is Cameron."

"I'm an aunt," Joules says happily, letting it roll off her tongue. "And Beetee's my brother-in-law."

"Yeah," I reply. Beetee was her district partner.

"You know what I told him the night before my Games?"

"What?"

"I said, 'You'd really like my sister'." She winks at me. "You two were made for each other. I don't know why it didn't happen sooner…"

"Because we never crossed paths at school," I say. "You were in all those classes with him, not me."

"Still, I should've set you two up." She snaps her fingers. "Darn it. Why didn't I think of that?"

I start laughing incessantly. How I missed Joules and her good sense of humor.

When I tell them how I died, there's not a dry eye among my companions. "How could they do that to you?" Cameron cries.

"Whoever it was, I think they were afraid that I could outsmart them. I'd figured out the arena, and somehow, they overheard my allies discussing it."

A string of silence fills the room, and I know what the others are thinking: We're all victims of the Capitol. We can't be angry at our killers because they were merely doing what they had to do for the sake of survival.

"I love you guys," I say. It takes everything in me not to sob. I thought Beetee's absence would make life here so empty. All I want is to feel his arms around me again. But with these wonderful people, I can move ahead. With them, I'm more than content.