Fire from Ashes
written by: Kastin Valaut
Part 1
Home
Finally I'm heading home, with the girl that I love...she helped me win the hunger games...I really am thankful that she didn't leave me to die when Katniss Everdeen shot that arrow at me. I am trully greatful that she saved me.. well not just me, she saved us both. Now I just can't wait to get home, she looks at me and asks " Are you all right? you don't look well" I nod, and then she puts her hand on my forhead. Her warm hand against my cold body, I tried to sit up; but only to fall back down. You see when the arrow hit me, it hit a part of my back muscle so its hard to move my back without it hurting. She then says "easy, you can't get up yet until your back is strong enough" then she leans in to kiss me. then she got up to go get some food, I lay there quietly and patiently, I find my self falling asleep, and then i find my self in the arena again...running, i don't see Lucy. I yell her name, but no words come out of my mouth...this is no dream; this is a nightmare. I jolt awake, and i see lucy standing over me; with a worried face she says "hey you okay?" i shake my head "no, I'm not okay" she then asks "another nightmare?" i nod. she sits down near me then goes to help me up she then hands me some food. I eat and then the intercom says " welcome home victors of the hunger games" and lucy helps me get up and then we head off the train. All i see is flashes and its repeatidly flashes, my back is better so i stand up as straight as i can i fell Lucy's hand grab mine and we walk into the crowd. As we walk down the road i see lucy waving at the camera people, while smiling she blows a kiss towards a camera. she then says "hey come, show some enthusiam" i smile at her i then wave to the crowd. i hate being the center of attention, expesially since theres cameras flashing everywhere; its almost as if its blinding me, but i just let it pass and i feel my back starting to ache again and we finnaly get to the victors house. lucy opens the door up and helps me to the couch as i lay down she kisses me on the forehead. "don't worry, well heal your back injury. All i need is something to help me find were the injury is and ill be able to heal it, or atleast make it feel a whole lot better" she smiles and then she gets up and walks away to the kitchen to look for things for my injury. "I feel the pain near the middle of my spine but to the left, does that help lucy?" i ask, she answers "Oh, then that'll be easy to fix" she says confidently. i take of my shirt and she rubs something on my scar where the injury happened. I jolt in the pain "sorry" she said i tell her it's okay then she puts a needle in my back to heal the wound. "okay everything should be fine in about two and half days, But for now just rest okay?" she asks i answer her "okay, no work for me till wednesday." she laughs and walks away. I start to drift asleep only to have another nightmare about the games...only this time its lucy dead in my arms...i jolt awake. i breath heavily and i see lucy rush towards me "hey jason, you okay? it sounded like another nightmare." she sits next to me and puts her arm around me "yes, it was another dream about the games...but this time it was worse, i...i probably never have felt more scared in my entire life." i tell her, she then asks "what happend?" i look at her, then i say "you were dying in my arms, and your last words were "I love you" and then you closed your eyes and went limp." she kisses me on the cheek then says "jason, i promise i wont leave you, i wont die on you, you have to believe that. besides it was only a dream..." i then hold her in my arms as i hug her and she gets up and then kisses me on the lips. i get up to stretch and to get something to eat. i walk to the refrigerator and grab some eggs and i then make a dozen eggs for lunch. i call for lucy that its lunch time and she walks down the stairs to grab a plate of eggs and toast she kisses me on the cheek and then whispers "I love you" i answer "love you too" and she walks to the table and eats, i do the same. she then helps me up to my bed and i sit up only to be joined by lucy i wrap my arm around, i ask her " do you remember that night in the arena?" she than asks "what night?" " the one were you refused to take my jacket, even though you were freezing cold, and then i brought you into that one cave were i made a shelter... you know that night?" i tell her. she then says "oh yah, what about that night?" she asks me, "that was the night i fell in love with you" i kiss her on the forhead. she than asks "really?" i nod. she than leans on my arm and we both fall asleep. i find my self in another nightmare..im running from something and i yell "LUCY were are you?!" i hear her scream i sprint to were the scream was and i find milton holding a knife to lucy's throght "lucy, nooo let her go!" milton just answers "im sorry friend but i can't do that, if you take one step closer she dies!" and he puts pressure on the knife and it cuts lucy a bit and she screams. "ohhh hush little one it'll all be over soon, with you and your little friend in a pool of blood!" lucy says " Jason please...go...ferget about me...save your self..." "SHUT UP" milton says "If you move at all i will kill her were she stands!" i shake my head and i grab my bow and an arrow and load it and aims it at miltons head and i shoot it hits him but lucy falls to the ground. i run up to catch her. i see a stab wound in her rib cage. "lucy? stay with me" my words are choked up by tears...she reachs up and wipes my eyes and says "don't cry...please...just dont...dont cry" i see a tear fall down her cheek. "dont die on me lucy, you'll be okay, I promise" she then tells me to come closer, i lean foward and she gives me one last kiss...and then she says "i...i...I...lo...love...yo...yo..." she dosent complete her sentence and then her eyes close and her body goes limp. i wake up startled and lucy wakes up. "it happend again...i saw it happen though, as clear as i see you now, you died in my arms." i hold her in my arms "I promise that i will keep you safe, I promise you that you won't die, I love you so much lucy" she then says "I love you too, and i told you before i wont leave you, i wont die on you..." i see some hair in her eyes and i move it out of the way. "i promise i won't let this dream come true, the only thing i dont understand is that it was in the arena." she then changes the subject and asks "do you want to know when i first fell in love with you?" i tell her sure. "it was when you won your first duel, and i came up to you and gave you that towel, do you remember that?" i nod. "I kinda miss the days before the games...but if i didnt go in the games i wouldn't have met you..." she then says. we both get up she goes out to practice her archery skills and i go out to watch since my back is still not fully healed. i set up 10 targets, three targets are 10 feet away, 2 are six feet away, 2 are eight eight feet away, and one is 10 feet away. she hits every one in the bullseye. "your getting better!" i say estonished. i then set up a moving target; its about 15 feet away. "okay let's see you hit this one." she lines up her bow and lets it fly and it hits right in the middle. "how's that?" she asks. "wow your really good." "thanks, but i think my sights are off, so im probably gonna take em off. I find that im better withought the sights." she tells me. I look at her and then i hear a car pull up to our house. we head inside to find our president sitting at our table. he then says "please come sit down and let's have a talk" i sit down in a chair and lucy stands behind me. "are we in trouble ?" lucy asks "Oh no, Oh no, your not in any trouble at all, i just wanted to invite you to the victors banquet." he says, i then say "Sir, may i ask why you didnt send us a letter or something instead of comeing here? i mean no disrespect." "that is why i am here, you two have been selected to enter in the arena again to have another hunger games, but this time it's differnt well have 5 victors from the past hunger games. that includes you two." i look at lucy. "im not sure Mr. President, this is a real awkward time. but if we can manage it we will go." he then responds "Excelent then, well ill be off. Good day to you both." as soon as he leaves i say to lucy " it's happening" she looks confused, and then asks "whats happening?" i then answer her question "my dream, your death, it all happens when we enter the arena again." she once again reasures me that she'll be fine. "im not gonna lose you" i tell her she responds "you won't, I promise." she kisses me and we both get ready to go to the capitol. as we head out the door, i ask lucy "now are you positive you want to go?" she answers "Jason, i'll be fine i promise; and to prove it i'll stay by your side at all times, okay?" i kiss her and we head off to the capitol.
Chapter two
The capitol
I sigh, im now back at the capitol. Its where it all happend, i try and shake the memories away. lucy grabs my hand, i lean close to her and i whisper "when we get into the the arena just run into the woods, i'll grab the gear and ill then come find you. what ever you do don't come back for me okay?" she nods, she then kisses me one last time before we enter the building. as soon as we enter the doors we get amushed by a crowd, i wave at the cameras, i see lucy waving and when we finnaly get to where we are supposed to be, i look around it's all different. "Welcome back victors of the Hunger Games, here you will train to fight against each other in the arena" I sigh and I look around for something to do first. i pick up a sword and a flashback happens "Had Enough?" milton kicks my rib and i roll over, "i'm just getting started" Flashback ends. i swing the sword back and forth, the capitol sees that I'm pretty good with a sword so they put up practice dummies. they pop up and i knock em' down, one pops up behind me and i roll out of the way and lunge at it from behind and its goes down. i get up and shealth my blade. i see milton walking near me, "hey, i know you" he's suprised that i remembered him. "i want a rematch!" he says, i nod and unshealth my blade he runs at me and i roll out of the way and lunge at him he deflects and kicks me. i jump up, i say in my head "okay gotta plan my attack." He lunges at me i dodge to the right his left leg is unprotected i attack he falls, then he gets up and attacks to the right i duck and knock his arm with my sword hilt, he falls down i kick his back and he goes down on the ground. he jumps up and he power attacks at me at the lower left, i deflect and return a power hit and the i spin around and i knock his feet off the ground and he flips back onto his feet i turn around and spin my sword and i hit my blade at his hilt and it goes flying out of his hand and it lands on the ground with a clang he runs and grabs his sword and hits me at my left shin, i get up and i try and get him on the ground again but he just sees my movement and deflects it. i can see that he is using his anger against me, he charges at me i block his attack with my sword but he knocks me on the ground, i get up and kick him in the stoumoch and he staggers backwords. i run at him he lunges at me at the left i dodge to the right, i see an opening at his left leg and i attack, and this is where it all went wrong... he saw it coming and he kicked my blade and he power attacked near my face, i barely had enough time to block with my sword, i duck out of his way and he attacks at my back i dodge he kicks me, "Come on don't tell me you gotten soft?" I run up and attack, he blocks it and kicks my face. i feel blood trickeling down my face. i look around and i see Lucy watching she mouths the words "I love you" I nod at her and then i use my anger to attack and he's caught off gaurd but he still sees my attacks and blocks them, i roll over to get behind him and i lunge at his back, he dosent see it so he couldnt block it, he falls he then turns around and attacks i deflect it and i attack him at his feet witch has him on the ground, he gets up and i kick him in the face he tries to attack my leg but i kick his sword out of his hand i then shove my sword near his throught. "Are we done?" he nods. He then says "you have beaten me twice, but you will not beat me in the arena." i respond "We'll see about that!" i walk out of the training area, lucy runs up and hugs me. she cleans my wounds on my face. "there thats the last one" i get up to walk around and I limp lucy comes up to catch me. we then head off to our rooms. i lay down and lucy puts medicine on my leg and i fall asleep. yet this time i don't have a nightmare i have a nice dream. i then wake up the next morning to go and train again, my limping stops. succeed in every training session the capitol has, "everyone, everyone this is now the time to choose your allies, you may choose up to two people as you allies, or if you want you can go solo." I can see that everyone wants me as an allie execpt milton. i go up to choose my ally, "okay name of your first ally?" the lady asks me, i then answer her "Lucy Rakbet, no one else ma'am" she then puts it into the computer and then says "thank you" i walk away. i hear everyone asking for me as there ally, but the lady keeps telling them "sorry he only wants one ally." we are then rushed into the elevators, lucy walks beside me "remember, run into the forest don't worry about me find shelter. I'll bring weapons and equipment. and I'll come find you." she nods and she leans in to kiss me, and i enter the pod that brings us into the arena. we hear the countdown. ..2...1...the buzzer goes off. i run to grab stuff and i see lucy run off into the woods and no one is following her.
Part 2
Flames
Chapter 3
back in the arena
i managed to get cornered and i attack the two people that are cornering me and they go down. i run into the forest in the direction lucy went, i dodge branches, trees, logs, rocks, and i finally come to a shelterd area. i whisper "Lucy?" she walks out and i run up to her, she shows me where we can set up our camp. I set down the equipment. and i lay down. i say to lucy "okay, whats the plan?" she answers "I'm not sure" she kisses me on the forhead and i go asleep. i have the nightmare again where lucy dies. i wake up to find it's morning. i don't see lucy, i say "lucy? LUCY?" i see her bow is left behind so i pick it up and i grab 5 arrows and i bring my dagger. i yell "LUCY?" she pops out of a bush "yes?" i then tell her "Don't ever do that again, i thought you died!" i then hold her, she hugs me "hey i promised that i wouldnt leave you Jason, you just gotta let loose, besides it was just a dream." she then kisses me. "okay then, come on lets go" she follows me back to the camp. we get ambushed as we get to our camp, i unshealth my blade. they grab lucy and take her away "LUCY NOO" i yell they then grab me but i put up a fight and i kill 3 of the goons that tried to grab me i look around for there leader but i dont see him or her i run off in the direction that they took lucy. i yell "LUCY? LUCY WHERE ARE YOU?" she dosent answer so i yell her name again and this time i hear a scream. i sprint at the area were the scream came from and i see milton holding lucy with a knife at her throught. "LUCY? are you okay lucy?" i then speak to milton "let her go right now!" he then responds like a maniac "sorry friend can't do that," "Jason run off without me...ill be fine." "SHUT UP" milton snaps at lucy. i take a step forward, "one more step and i'll kill her where she stands!" a flashback hits me, i hit the arrow at his head and he stabs lucy. the flashback ends, i draw an arrow and i shoot the blade out of his hand he lets lucy go and i let loose another arrow at his head this time and he goes down. lucy hugs me and then she says "i told you i wouldn't die" she smiles and i then kiss her and we run off to find every one else and it turns out only 4 people including me and lucy are left. i hear something i tell lucy to hide under a log and i load my bow up, i hear a person accidently break a tree branch while they were climbing and i let loose the arrow and it hits him right in the gut and he falls out of the tree. i tell lucy "It's safe to come out now lucy" she then climbs out from under the log. we walk down a path way and the last girl attacks us from behind lucy grabs my knife and throws it at her heart, and it hits her and she goes down. "LADIES and GENTLEMEN I GIVE YOU YOUR VICTORS!" a voice says on an intercom thats able to send stuff all over the television network. "we won lucy!" i grab her and i pick her up and i twirl around in a circle, i then put her down and she kisses me on the lips. we are then taken out of the arena and put into our origonal clothes that we came in with. as we walk out of the capitol building, we once again are ambushed by a crowd with cameras. i think this is the first time lucy dosn't want to wave and look at the cameras. i ask her "hey Badger, whats up?" she looks at me..."nothing" i than ask "are you sure, cause your not acting like your self." when we get on the train she finnaly cracks open
Part 3
Victors
Chapter 4
Home
"Badger whats wrong, please tell me" i hold her hand and she then answers "I'm still a lil bit shocked about when milton had that knife to my neck, i thought i was gonna die. but when you came out i knew that i wasn't gonna die." i kiss her, "I promise, as long as i live you will never be harmed, okay?" she nods. i pull something out my back pocket and i kneel, "Lucy Rakbet, all this time ive been with you, i have fallen in love with you, and i'm gonna ask you one question." i open the box and its a diamond ring, "Lucy Rakbet, will you marry me?" she didn't have to think at all and she says "Yes, Yes i will marry you." i see a tear running down her face and i wipe it off. i kiss her on the lips and for once in my life, for once my life is at peace.
THE END