Disclaimer: I don't own The Hunger Games. If I did, well, let's just say that several signifigant things in Mockingjay would have changed. Several. Like Madge wouldn't have died. And she and Gale would have gotten together. That sort of thing.

A/N: You guys have no idea how upset I was when I learned Madge died! And then Finnick! Oh my Lord. Mockingjay was SO SAD. I was reading it in public, though, so I couldn't cry. You guys can tell me what you thought about it in a review, okay? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the last book of our lovely trilogy. (And I fail so hard with titles!)

End in Fire

Our world was going to end in fire.

The ground shook and there was a resounding crash!

And that's how I knew it had begun. The bombing had begun and there was no turning back now.

I knew for sure that I was going to die.

Death had been looming like a raincloud for a while now, ever since Katniss pulled that stunt with the berries really, so it's not like I could say that I was surprised. I wasn't. I was just surprised that it had taken this long.

I went to go find my mother, who was shaking uncontrollably, and I knew that she knew as well as I did that we weren't going to get out of here alive. My mother, who wasn't very brave and could hardly face the world without her medication, was willing to wait to die.

Then the screaming began. I could practically smell the terror as much as I could hear it. This was madness, in the worst way. I had no desire to look out the window as I reached for my mother's hand and I pulled her into the living room to sit on the couch and wait for death.

"You can try and escape, you know," I told Nettie and Rose, who helped my mother around the house and basically took care of us, but they didn't budge.

"We couldn't do that miss," Nettie replied, flinching as she heard the terrified screams of the people outside, as well as another rumble of the earth as it was bombarded by fire. "We will stay by you and your family."

I was touched, and tears formed at the corners of my eyes. It took me a moment to speak. "Thank you," I managed to choke out. Nettie and Rose had practically raised me and I felt honored that they were going to stay with us.

My mother whimpered and clutched my hand tighter as cracks began to form on the white walls of our home. Smoke was beginning to fill the air now, and I was getting wafts of it up my nose. The smell of death, I noted wryly.

Father chose that moment to come running into the room. When he saw all of us, mother and I sitting on the couch grasping each other's hands, Nettie and Rose standing side by side behind the couch, he slowed down and walked calmly to sit beside my mother and then kissed her passionately.

I looked away, a bit pink. I had never seen my parents act like that before, not really. Occasionally I would see him peck her cheek when they thought I wasn't looking and Mother might sometimes give him a quick squeeze of the hand, but that was the end of it. Never before had I seen the raw passion of two people fiercely in love from the two of them before.

To be quite honest I had never thought of them to be in love before, period. With my father's mayoral duties and my mother's headaches there wasn't much room for that part of their relationship to be had.

But it was obviously there and I felt stupid for not seeing it. "This is the end," my father said after he had pulled away from my mother. Then he reached for my hand and I gave it to him willingly.

We all knew that these were going to be our last words, for none of us were going to speak again.

I closed my eyes as vibrations began to course throughout the house. I imagined what it would be like if I was out there running away, with Gale. He would be holding my hand as he pulled me out of this inferno and we would be outside and we would be saved.

For a moment I let myself imagine what Gale was doing right now. Probably trying to save as many people as he could. I closed my eyes and pictured Gale leading everyone out of the gate, taking them to the meadow where Katniss and I had spent so much time.

My life was a short and uninteresting one. There were so many things that I would never be able to do now. I would never get married or have children or get to be a grandmother. I would never truly fall in love with someone who loved me back, I would never get the chance to laugh again.

The smoke was getting thicker, and it was harder to breathe. There were more cracks in the wall now, and my mother was silently crying, the tears streaming down her face steadily. Nettie and Rose were holding on to each other for dear love and my father and I, who were so alike in temperament, just looked at each other, memorizing each other's features, and then away.

I wasn't going to cry for something that I knew now was inevitable. After all, we're all going to die eventually anyway. I was just happy that I was going to be with the people I loved, in my home, in the place that I grew up. I wasn't going to die in fear.

The screams grew fainter and the ground shook one last time.

I closed my eyes and thought of Gale.