Silence

The voices of the past, the sounds of our pain, are the loudest in the silence of the night. Madge is about to make a huge decision, but is it for the right reasons and does she have all the facts?

Chapter 1

Prayers

Thanks to my betas, RoryFaller and Belle453. You ladies are in inspiration.

Disclaimer: I do not own the HG trilogy or any of the characters created by Suzanne Collins, although I sure wish I did.

Every day, the young woman prayed for peace. She prayed for a peaceful transition from tyranny to democracy for the new nation of Panem. She prayed for a peaceful rebuilding from the ruins of her home District 12. She prayed for peace of mind for her friends and what was left of her family who had fought so hard for this new world where justice and freedom were now possible. Selfishly, she prayed for peace in her own wounded heart, first broken by a brash young man and irreparably damaged by his death. As she silently returned to her cell in the cloistered monastery each night, she prayed the most fervently that any of this was possible.

The irony was not lost on her. During the war, she had fought alongside the freedom fighters from District 13 for a world she now chose to remove herself from. Her friends would marry who they chose, regardless of class distinction. Her friends would raise their children free of the fear of the Hunger Games. Their children could choose a life that suited them, not the demands of an evil dictator. However, she would do none of this, simply because she couldn't see herself marrying or raising children now that he was gone. Her friends could not understand that by even considering this life, she was also living a life that was not possible before the war.

In the new world of Panem, she no longer had to hide her faith. In secret, her mother had passed on to her a belief in one God, a benevolent and loving father. She had to admit that her faith in that God was sorely tested before and during the war. How could a loving God allow innocent children to die under any circumstances? After the war ended, she left her unit and eventually found herself on the doorstep of the monastery.

She welcomed the ritual of the Mass, of the monastic life itself. The community had provided the young woman with some semblance of serenity which had long eluded her in the dark days of the war. Despite her comfortable childhood, she thrived in the austere environment, taking no issue with the vows of poverty and toil.

Even the daily silence of the monastery from vespers until 9 a.m. the next morning was comforting, although initially it was overwhelming. Meditation did not come easily to the young woman, because her thoughts always strayed back to him. There were too many unanswered questions surrounding his death and her broken heart stubbornly refused to believe he was gone. After all, his body was not found in the wreckage of the hovercraft. However, the entire crew as declared missing, and eventually killed, in action and that was that.

Despite the messy end of their love affair, she had mourned his death along side his mother and siblings, cradling his baby sister in her arms as they both cried until there were no more tears left. When she announced her intention to spend time at the monastery after the war, his mother was the only one who understood. Having lost her husband at an early age, she chose not to remarry. The two women shared a bond in a sisterhood of sorrow, with the knowledge that no other man would ever measure up to the one who came before and it was unfair to even try.

It was this belief that prevented the young woman from officially becoming a novitiate and taking the first step in to the religious life. Mother Superior had spoken with her at length about this. "My dear, you cannot hide your hurt behind these walls," she said. The young woman was charged with the task of honestly examining her intentions and motivations. The young woman knew that she would not have considered this life, were it not for the destruction of the one she had hoped to build with him. Honesty was something she valued and that held her in a terrible limbo between the life that she had dreamed of and the life that she believed was possible.

She had prayed for peace, but deep down, she questioned if it was possible for her.

Meanwhile, somewhere over Panem…

"Can't this bucket of bolts go any faster," he bellowed at the hapless crewman. The teenager cowered in his seat, until the Second-In-Command expertly steered the furious General the rear of the hovercraft. The General was frantic and that was making it exceptionally hard for the crew focus. After all, the General was the one who always remained calm and this was more than a little bit out of character.

The Generals mood wasn't any better when he was away from the crew. "Don't say it Thom, just don't," he snarled at his Second-in-Command, as the General dragged his hand through his thick, black hair. "You know as well as I do why we have to get there yesterday," he said. Of all this mistakes Gale Hawthorne had made in his life, this was the biggest. The woman he loved was about to make a huge mistake, one of epic proportions, and he had to stop her, the security of Panem be damned.