Happy
Katniss opened her eyes. White. Everything was white and quiet. no color, no noise, no people. No Peeta.
She looked around, wildly. No Peeta! But she had just been with him, laying in bed, going to sleep...
Oh.
So that's why everything was white.
She started walking, seemingly in nothingness, no walls or doors, just the ground beneath her feet.
Eventually she reached a door. She heard stories about heaven, how someone you love comes and shows you the way. Cautious, she pulled it open to find not Finnick, or Prim, or Rue or even her father.
It was Clove.
Clove who had tried to kill her.
Clove who she had watched die.
Yet there she was, with no trace of the blow that had ended her life, sitting there patiently, as if she had nothing else to do.
She looked up at Katniss and smiled. Not the scary smile she had used in the Arena, but genuine like one you give a friend.
Katniss backed away.
"Don't be scared Katniss, I'm here to help you cross over." said Clove, and it was almost reassuring, even with their history.
"Why you?' Katniss said her tone harsher than expected. Clove seemed not to notice though, just smiled and walked up to her and calmly took her hand causing Katniss to flinch.
"Sometimes people are sent down here to help someone they love," started Clove, "and sometimes they are sent to give message, one that couldn't be given in life."
"What message?" asked Katniss.
"Well I wanted to thank you. For showing me what true bravery is. For showing me how cruel I was. But there are so many other people who wanted to thank you too."
"Who?" asked Katniss now eager for a reply.
"Cato. Cato wanted to thank you," said Clove with a soft smile.
"You won the bargaining again," said Katniss remembering how Cato had let Clove kill her.
Clove smiled. "He wanted to thank you for killing him".
"What? Why? He could have won!" exclaimed Katniss.
"You I both know nobody wins the Hunger Games," said Clove, "they become victor, sure, but nobody wins."
"But why would he thank me for something like that?" questioned Katniss.
They stopped suddenly, Katniss realizing they had come to a second door, with voices talking behind it.
Clove made no move to open it, and turned to Katniss, tears in her eyes.
"I loved him. Love him. That's why he volunteered. He always was going to, you know, but I never expected to get chosen. And nobody wanted to volunteer for me. Cato wanted to thank you because-because he knows as well as you do that they just want a show. He told me that he wasn't going to kill me, and I wasn't going to kill him. He told me he understood no one actually won." clove stopped to breathe, tears sliding down her pale freckled cheeks.
"As I was dying he told me the last secret he knew about the games, one that I'm sure you figured out after your second, even if you didn't know you knew it."
"What's that?"