Rue is tangled in a net woven from rose stems, she morphs into Prim, who begs me to save her, she morphs into Finnick, who pleads with me asking to see his son just once, the images keep coming, faster and faster until the net explodes, leaving only a bright yellow coat floating down to rest on the blooded ground.
Katniss screams, she's flailing, desperately trying to find an escape from the net which entangles her. A pair of arms circle her from behind, a soft voice muttering meaningless comforts, she leans into the steadily beat of his heart, drinking in the comfort.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asks as Katniss roll over so she's am facing him, she shakes her head before burying it in his chest with a hope to block out the visions of the dead. He understands and just lies there, gently stroking her hair.
Just as she am beginning to enter what she hopes would be a peaceful sleep the phone rings shrilly. Katniss jumps, after everything she's been through she'll admit that she is am more...cautious than others. Peeta gives a sigh and drags himself from the bed, Katniss hears him wandering through the house towards the sources of the incessant ringing.
"Hello, this is Peeta," she hears him say as he picks up the phone.
"Okay, I will pass on the message, thank you." After that considerably short conversation Peeta hangs up the phone. Katniss slides out of the bed and makes her way to the kitchen where she knows Peeta will be preparing breakfast.
"Who was that?" she yawns, stealing a cheese bun from the table.
"Haymitch," Peeta supply before pulling the bun from her hand and taking a bite, playfully she swats his hand away. "He said he wants you to meet him at midnight in the Meadow," Peeta sniggers as Katniss pulls a face.
"He's drunk,"
"Very drunk," Peeta agrees, laughing as he captures her lips with his but she push him away,
"I am sorry I must go meet the man of my dreams, a certain Mr Haymitch Abernathy," she laughs sneaking another cheese bun before heading upstairs to have a shower.
After she had plaited her hair into a braid and pulled on some comfortable brown trousers and a dark green shirt, Katniss heads back downstairs.
With a kiss to Peeta's cheek she walks out the door to find and face the drunken Haymitch with a loaf of bread in my hand. Normally this would be Peeta's job but he had just hired an apprentice in the bakery and needed to be there as early as possible.
So, putting on a stoic mask, she walks to Haymitch's house. Ignoring the geese waddling around her knees, honking for attention, she hammers on the door to see if Haymitch is even barely conscious.
"I knew you'd come, sweetheart," comes Haymitch's drunken slur. Katniss rolls her eyes as she pushes the door open trying not to retch at the stench of alcohol.
"Enough of that," she says, pulling the bottle of liquor from his grasp, he puts up a weak protest. Opening the window's wide, Katniss inspects the room and is surprised to find it isn't as much of a mess as she thought it would be. Yes there are empty liquor bottles strewn around the room but everything else looks clean enough.
"Have you had someone in to clean for you?" she frowns.
"Nah, Effie dropped round earlier, she was going to drop in on you too but," Haymitch hiccups, "some Capitol person called on her new whatchamajiggy." He hiccups again.
"Effie's here?" Katniss asks in surprise.
"Weren't you listening, sweetheart?" Haymitch growls, scowling as he scans the room for another bottle of liquor.
"If Effie's here you should lay off the drink," she advises and upon hearing a loud honking coming from outside the door, she added, "and look after your geese." With that Katniss left, purposely slamming the door behind her to aggravate the headache she was sure Haymitch had; oh how she loved to mess with him.
Back in her house Katniss decided to tidy up a bit, if Effie was here she surely wouldn't permit their house being a mess. Deciding to put off going hunting today, Katniss worked her way around the lounge. Just as she picked up her hunting jacket, the doorbell rings.
Knowing it wouldn't be Haymitch because he hadn't learnt the uses of a doorbell yet, Katniss decided it was Effie.
"Hello," she says opening the door to reveal a woman, she had a light blue wig to match her extravagant eye-shadow.
"Katniss!" Effie squeals, enveloping Katniss in a not-very-welcome hug.
"Hi Effie, come in. Peeta is in the bakery for now but he should be back soon," Katniss promised.
"Wow you've really changed this place haven't you?" Effie commented, peering around the room curiously.
It was true, after the rebellion when Katniss had moved in with Peeta they hated that they were living in a Capitol house. With the help of some people from the Capitol they found and destroyed every surveillance camera in the house and given it a complete make over. Peeta had been the main decorator, he had painted the walls and chosen furniture to match; but Katniss didn't mind, she was glad, she loved the way he had done it and knew that if she had been in charge it wouldn't have come out half as well as it did.
"Peeta's doing really, but yeah, we prefer it this way," Katniss agrees.
"So, how are you?" Katniss knew Effie was asking more than her physical well-being but decided to ignore the deeper meaning.
"I'm fine, Peeta burns himself now and then but it is much more pleasant here without the Peacekeepers breathing down our necks.
"How are you holding up?" Effie's voice was full of concern, normally she wasn't like this but war changed everyone, nobody was normal after it.
"Fine, there are still nightmares and Peeta has flashbacks but it's very rare. We've got each other," Katniss supplies, then, right on queue, she heard Peeta returning.
"Hello Effie!" He exclaims as he entered the kitchen.
"Peeta!" Effie gives Peeta a much more welcome hug, out of the two of us he is the more touchy-feely one.
"How are you?" he asks, sitting down on a seat pulling Katniss onto his lap. Katniss blushed furiously but stayed put.
"I'm perfect! It's been so long, I've missed you both so much!" Great, she's back to squealing again, Katniss thought but she just smiled through the oncoming headache.
"Us too, it's been a shame we haven't seen you more often really, are you staying for dinner?" He asked.
"I'd love too," Effie smiled showing her pearly teeth.
"We should invite Haymitch too, he's been having a rough day," Katniss adds in and Peeta nods, we both know what a rough day feels like. "I'll go and get him," she says, getting up and heading out of the door.
Back at Haymitch's house she don't find him as drunk as she expected, he's just sitting staring into the corner of the room.
"Haymitch?" Katniss whispers, not wanting to startle him. He jumps and points the knife he's holding at her.
"What are you doing here?" he asks, surprise in his tone.
"Effie's coming to ours for dinner, do you want to come?" she replies, between her and Haymitch there is never any sweet talk, we both like to get straight to the point.
"Sure, I'll come in a minute," he grunts, heaving himself up from where he's sat. She nods and leaves him to get ready.
Dinner went as well as either Katniss or Peeta could have expected, Haymitch didn't get drunk and Effie only reprimanded his table manners a few times. As they got up to leave Katniss offered to walk Effie to where she was staying.
"So why are you here anyway? I always got the feeling you didn't like District twelve," Katniss questions as they head though the dark streets.
"I just came to see everyone and I have been sent to look over how the new school they're building is going." Effie answers, Katniss nods in understanding, if anyone would make sure a project was finished on time, it would be Effie. "Here it is," Effie announces as they reached a modest sized house near the new school construction site.
"Goodbye Effie, it was great seeing you again," Katniss smiles,
"Goodbye Katniss, I hope to see you soon," Effie says opening the door into the house. And that's when Katniss hears it. Tick tock tick tock tick tock. Katniss' face falls, images flashing before her eyes, Rue, Mags, Finnick, Prim. Dead. Effie, noticing Katniss' expression, shut the door quickly. "I'm sorry Katniss, I forgot the clock was even there, I'm sorry." She tried to rectify her mistake but the damage was done.
"It's fine," Katniss chocks out, "bye Effie." She runs home, into Peeta's arms, sobbing, begging for forgiveness. But she knows she can never get it, for those she hurt the most aren't there to hear her.
In bed that night Katniss can't fall asleep, terrified of what awaited her. Eventually though the monotonous breathing of Peeta lulls her to a land of darkness.
Haymitch was drunk, not drunk drunk, but drunk enough to go and see Effie drunk. On the way to where she said her house was Haymitch stops. He's by the new school being built, five or ten minutes away from Effie's house. On a bench near the site is a body, arms clutch around their body protectively. Swaying slightly Haymitch makes his way over to the body because he knows that braid, the face untainted by a scowl.
It's Katniss.
A/N – I wanted to write a Hunger Games fan fiction so...here we are... I know it's not that good but it was fun to write ;) please comment or review ;)