Chapter 1: After the War

It has been a year sense the war in Panem has ended. I returned to the victor's village in District 12 with Haymich to find that people were already starting to rebuild and live their lives as best they could. I live each day wishing I could do the same, but most of all I wish I could forget her death. For the first two months I was back in District 12 I didn't leave my living room for anything other than using the bathroom, which was just a short way down the hall.

Greasy Sae has returned to District 12 a few weeks before I had, to help rebuild. When I arrived she began taking care of me. Coming to my house three times a day to make sure I would eat. She tried to get me to talk but soon gave up, realizing how vacant I was.

Then one morning I woke to a scraping noise outside my house. Not knowing what the source of the noise was I panicked slightly, until I reminded myself 'I'm Katniss Everdeen. I have survived two hunger games. President Snow is dead. We are under a new regime. There are no Hunger Games anymore.

I noticed the sound was constant and unwavering. I tried ignoring it for a while until finally I couldn't take it anymore. Angry I flew down the hall to my front door and ran to the noise only to stop dead in my tracks, after seeing who was causing the noise. There stood my boy with the bread, looking up from his work. His slightly curly blond hair shining in the sun, and his bright blue eyes piercing my grey ones.

We stood there staring in to eachothers eyes for a while, until he disrupted the silence-

"Hello Katniss."

"H-Hello." I managed to stumble out of my mouth.

"I'm sorry if I startled you." He said softly.

"I-it's ok. What are you doing out here?"

That is when I noticed what was in the wheel barrow behind him. The bushes that would forever fill me with sadness and the faintest twinge of happiness at their sight. Primrose, my beautiful little sister. With her beautiful smile, her curiosity, her undying want to help people, and most of all her little duck tail that appeared when she wore a shirt that was much too big for her small frame. Tears flooded my eyes at the sight of them.

"I'm so sorry Katniss! I thought they would help you. I will stop and take them away. I'm sorry." Peeta said quickly.

"No." I said firmly.

Peeta looked up at me with his piercing blue eyes, and his face pinched together in worry.

"I want them." The look on Peeta's face softened. But before I would let him say anything else, I turned and went back in to my house.

Once I was through the door I ran up the stairs to my room. Once in there I realized I hadn't entered it sense my last night here before the Quarter Quell when the pungent smell hit my nose. The white rose Snow left in my room was still there. It was no longer vibrant and white like the one he wore on the lapel of his over coat, but shriveled and dried up. The petals were still in-tact although they no longer were white but instead they had a yellowish tint and its stem a brown color. I could feel the fear and anger rising in me as I stood in my bedroom doorway staring at the dead rose lying on top of my dresser.

I continued to stand in my door way not knowing what to do, or how to react. When suddenly I could feel the tears flooding down my face one after the other. The anger I feel takes over, and the next thing I know I am back in my living room in front of my fire place with the putrid dead rose in my left hand. I let the fire with in me rage as I prepare to set the damn thing ablaze.

Just as I am about to throw the dead thing in to the fire one of the thorns cut my left index finger. Just one more way for that man to hurt me. I dropped the rose just outside of the fire place as the pain struck me. I looked down at my finger and began to sob. Even though the blasted man was dead I could still hear his word like he was standing next to me. 'Make me believe'

A lot of good that did me and the people I care most about. I played his game and look what happened. I had lost everything. My sister dead, and my mother never wanting to return to our home. Gale living in District 2 with the guilt of Prims death on weighing down on his mind. And Peeta. I felt anguish for Peeta most of all. He had lost everything. He no longer has a family. No bakery. He no longer had the girl on fire. Not that he would ever want to be with the one person on Earth who has caused him all this pain. We both are forever alone because of the terrible world we once lived in. I sob until I fall asleep. Leaving the dried dead rose sitting just outside the fire.