Ash. That's all that's left now.
At first we were a spark, ignited by your bravery and my foolish infatuation. Because when I look at it now, that's what is was. I was utterly carried away by an unreasonable passion of love. And you'd always been brave. It didn't start at the Reaping. Standing up and singing a song in class, venturing out into the forest and catching squirrels, rabbits, birds. The spark started at the Reaping, and before we knew it, we'd begin to flicker.
It wasn't until we reached the Chariots. That's when we grew. The cheers and adoration from the Capitol only made the growing light larger in size, adding to a heat that I'd always felt in my heart.
At the Interviews we burst into flames. I can't take all the credit, because you were incredible. Flawless. It was so easy to fall in love with you. Everyone fell head over heels like I had, eleven long years ago. Yet I can still picture it like it was yesterday. I can picture everything vividly. The arena, my ploy with the Careers. Me, finding you. You finding me. Our first kiss. Our last kiss. Even the parts I didn't witness, but was shown; your alliance and burial of that sweet little girl, your narrow escape at the Feast. They're memories that will remain with me forever. That's a fact.
We transformed into a roaring inferno. We thought we'd had them beaten. Yet we were wrong. We were the fools. You held the berries in your hands and looked me square in the eye. We'd both put them in our mouth, together, and then I thought then we'd both spit them out, together. But you surprised for the last time because you hadn't.
If you hadn't been so brave, I don't know if I would have fallen in love with you. If you hadn't been so brave, you might still be alive.
Because as you lay in my arms, smiling, life fading from you in seconds that will always feel like hours, the inferno burnt itself out, into wisps of smoke and debris.
Haymitch visits me from time to time. We no longer talk, only sit in silence in my house. I think very little anymore, and on the rare occasion I do, I'm thinking about you.
Ash. That's all that's left now.