Gale POV
I walked towards the fence without thinking, it's where I always go, when I need to calm down, when I need to cheer up, when my family is sick and I can do nothing about it, when In realise that without putting my name in that big glass bowl I despise so much my family will surely starve. I go to Katniss. But this time going to the forest will not help me in any way at all because Katniss won't be there. She is in an area full of murderers and her only protection is a boy who can decorate cakes. And I know Greasy Sae and my mother and everyone assured me that it was all an act that she wasn't really in love with him and that it was tactics a way for her to come home, come home to me. But as the games go on I realise that even if it started off as an act it has developed and she is falling in love with him just as she should be falling in love with me. I should have volunteered for Peeta, to protect her from Clove with her knives and Cato. But I didn't because I am scared. And so is she. So going to the clearing is no use at all as it will probably upset me more but I can't sit and watch while my Katniss kisses Peeta in a cave.
I am just about to turn around and go somewhere that won't stir the memories when I see Madge sat on a boulder about twenty metres to my left. She has her legs pulled up to her chest and her face is buried in her knees. Her body shakes and she sniffles like Posy does when we haven't any food. Like how Katniss was that night in the arena.
Madge POV
'Madge?' Gale's voice is about thirty metres away from where I sit on the boulder. I lift my head slowly hoping I had mistaken the voice and it wasn't actually Gale Hawthorne. But of course, it is. He crossed the space between us quickly. 'Are you hurt?' He asks, crouching down to look me in the eye. That made it about ten times worse because now I see the worry in his eyes, his thick brows knit together in concern and his lips part slightly as if he is about to say something.
'No. No I'm not hurt' I whisper when he says nothing. I try to stand but in doing so I fall and his strong arms catch me before I fall.
'What is it then?' He says once I'm stable, but he doesn't loosen his grip on my arm, his fingers are just missing the bruise but the pain is still there. I wince a little and his eyes dart to his hand. He drops it realising that his grip is hurting me. My hand instinctively goes to the bruise rubbing the pain away just as my mother used to do. 'You are hurt.' He says, whispering now.
'No, it's fine, just a bruise, I'm just being silly.'
'Let me see then, Katniss showed me how to heal bruises quickly, you know from her mother.' I don't know whether I should show him, my father told me to never tell another soul. Would Gale tell of my mad mother who we lock away because of her nightmares? Surely he would tell someone. But he hasn't got Katniss to tell now and I wonder who he talks to other than his and her family. Maybe he has no one to tell, maybe he is the safest person to tell.
'I don't know.' I say stepping backwards slightly, putting some distance between me and Gale.
'Madge, I'm not going to hurt you. You know that.' He says putting both hands in the air above his shoulders. It's an odd signal to do as it would usually show that the person is unarmed and of course I know he is unarmed. He's a hunter though so it would probably come naturally to him and Katniss.
'He told me not to tell another living soul.' I whisper dropping my head embarrassed by the weakness I had shown.
'I think we both know my soul was lost years ago so you're safe there.' He whispers back.
'Taken by Katniss?' The words are out of my mouth before the thought has fully registered in my mind. He looks taken aback, so much so that he drops his hands which were still hanging in mid-air and he steps back one step. Then he smiles a smile I've never seen before, not once while I watched him across the playground, or when Katniss and he walked towards the fence to go hunting.
'No, by my father when he was lost in the mine explosion.' My head drops again deeply embarrassed by how selfish I had been. Of course, he has suffered far worse than I could have ever suffered. I live in the big house with my mayor father and beautiful mother. I eat healthily everyday unlike many of my classmates from district 12. I had such an easy life and here I am crying because of a little bruise.
'I'm sorry, I didn't think.' I say quietly head still hung.
'It's fine, now please show me your arm.' He says stepping right up to me and pulling up the sleeve on my lilac dress. His finger traces over the blue bruises in the shape of four fingers, and the long, deep scratch of my mother's finger nail. His head snaps up to look at me like he has been brought out of a trance. 'Who did this.' He says finally. I step back and start to walk away. It was a mistake letting him see the bruise.
'My mother.' I say as I walk, tears filling my eyes. I can't let Gale see me cry I can't let him see yet another weakness of mine. I am meant to be strong, strong for my mother, strong for Katniss, strong for my district. District honour doesn't just exsist in the career districts, It is alive and well here in 12 where we all fight for Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. 'my mother.' Then I collapse onto the dry, dusty road.