Disclaimer: Suzanne Collins owns the characters.
A/N: Written for forum Starvation's monthly writing competition. Prompt for April: Solitude. This takes place in a sort of AU where the rebellion is crushed and everyone but Katniss killed.
Katniss was alone. She had spurned both the boys who would have loved her, and she had been unable to save either of them.
She was captured in a cell of fire, the burning columns a rude mocker of the "girl on fire" status Cinna had created for her – Cinna, who they had killed also. Above her the citizens of the Capitol walked and stared. Some laughed. Most whispred. None cried.
They had made her the poster child of the crushed rebellion. She was on television once a week, in addition to the Hunger Games being increased to twice a year, with a duel to the death between the two victors. What better way to destroy the hopes of anyone involved in or even watching the rebellion than to kill the speaker and the strategist, the two commanders, and imprison the girl who had been the face to the rebellion? Katniss could do nothing by herself, and she was truly alone.
All she could do was not let them see her cry.
She wanted to sob, to let their names fall from her lips.
Gale.
Peeta.
Prim.
Madge.
They had killed everyone in the rebellion, everyone from District 12 except for her. They knew well enough that Katniss was only the pretty face, the fiery spirit for the innocent citizens of Panem to rally behind. She had never been brave, a planner like Gale. She had never had the eloquence to convince skeptics and build hope like Peeta. She would have run before she stayed and fought.
She had wanted solitude in the past, as a renowned victor and rebellion leader.
Now she only hated it.
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