Prologue:
"Ivy! Run!" he screamed, shaking my shoulder violently.
I was crying, tears dripping down my face, "Not without you! You have to come with me!"
His shaking was quickly replaced by a tight embrace, "I can't" he whispered.
"Why? Why can't you come with me? Couldn't there be two victors?" I said, not even trying to whisper back.
"You know they would never do that. If they did, people would be outraged. Everyone would try and do the same thing each year and that's not at all what they'd want." he was logical, as always.
Cooper would never be the one to think anything if he knew it wasn't true. That was me. I was the one who always tricked myself into thinking maybe the craziest things could come true. Like two victors. Somehow, I'd convinced myself that they'd let there be two victors. Just once. An exception for us, just a little break in the rules.
But this was the Capitol we were talking about.
Letting go of the hug, Cooper rub my arms gently, as if they were cold. We just stood there for a moment. For a second, I thought it could last forever. And it would. Just not in reality, in my heart it would, and I would cherish the memory the rest of my life. Even if I went totally insane, or got Alzheimer's, this was the one moment that I would always remember.
We were snapped out by the smell of smoke, fire burning away at the dry brush.
"Go." he mouthed.
But I didn't want to. Physically, I didn't think I could either. Running would mean running away from Cooper, and that wasn't something I thought I could do. He was going in. I was retreating.
"Go." he mouthed a few more times. When I didn't move, he yelled it, "Go, Ivy!"
And so I did. I wasn't sure how I made it out alive. Speed was an issue, stumbling over roots and rocks in the dark slowing me down tremendously. But I made it. I was safe.
And probably the last alive.