A/N: Thank you to everyone who's read, favorited, or added this story to their alerts list. Special thanks to Ellenka, Cloud-Lover26, Theonechance, K, KidTantei, Solaryllis, and cherri0196 for reviewing. Hope y'all enjoy this next one (it's a bit darker than the first)!

Two: THE WALL

The Seam is far scarier at night than it is in broad daylight.

Not for Gale though. Not for most of the Seam kids. They've been trudging through the narrow mazes of shabbily built homes and dirt roads their whole lives.

So here he sits, at around nine o' clock, under the glow of a dimly lit lamp with a group of his friends. They're drinking cans of cheap beer from the Hob and playing cards, betting on stupid things like pencils and bits of soap. Only the things they have to spare.

Which isn't much, obviously.

Somewhere in the middle of a lengthy game of poker, Gale sees her.

A dark-haired girl he recalls from his class. He's not sure of her name, but he doesn't care. What he does care about though, is her see-through shirt and the generous cleavage displayed.

She's smiling seductively at them, leaning against the side of a building.

His friend, Heath, lets out a low whistle. "That is one hot slut," he murmurs under his breath.

"What's her name?" Gale asks just as quietly.

His other friend, Abe, replies, "Sylvia, I think." After a pause, he adds, "People call her the Queen of the Wall."

To most people, that would sound like complete rubbish.

But Gale and his friends know they've hit the jackpot.

Well, they will have, once they get her.

Heath starts to get up. "If you don't mind, I think I'll just –"

Abe stops him. "Hey, hey, hey. Slow down, there. I saw her first."

"You did not–"

Gale sighs exasperatedly. His friends can hardly be sixteen, the way they behave. They're pathetic. He knows who really deserves the girl, but he has a better idea than to fight like a child.

"Hey," he interrupts his friends' arguing. "Calm the fuck down." After his friends have quieted down, he continues: "How 'bout this? Whoever wins the game," he nods at the cards laid out on the ground, "wins the girl."

Heath and Abe look at each other and grin. Heath nods in agreement, and Abe says, "Deal."

After ten minutes, Gale finds himself staring at five cards.

Ace of Diamonds. King of Diamonds. Queen of Diamonds. Jack of Diamonds. 10 of Diamonds.

A royal flush.

Gale's won the game.

He smirks as his friends shrug in defeat.

"I almost won," Heath grumbles. "If it weren't for that stupid jack of diamonds..."

Abe, on the other hand, is grinning from ear-to-ear. "Good luck, man," he says to Gale. "We'll be waiting right here." He winks.

Gale jumps to his feet and makes his way over to –what's her name, again? –Sylvia.

She looks better up close than she did from where he'd been sitting before.

She has on a thin, poorly-sewn (not that Gale minds) sleeveless shirt with a plunging neckline, and tight, frayed leggings.

"Hey," he says huskily. "What's a pretty girl like you doing out here all alone?"

She smirks at him. "Waiting for a pretty boy like you to come and get me."

"Oh?" He leans in closer, his voice breathy now. "So I've got you now?"

The corner of her full, pink mouth twitches upward. "Not yet." She gently traces his lips with her finger. "Not here."

"Then where?" With his chest so close to hers, Gale feels the front of his trousers begin to feel too tight.

She pushes him away slightly and takes his hand. "I'll show you where."

Five minutes later, they're standing in front of a brick wall at the edge of the Seam. The Wall. About twenty or thirty yards ahead is another electric fence, kept there to prevent people leaving the district. Not that it's switched on or anything.

Like most else in District 12, it's pretty much useless.

Sylvia turns to Gale and puts her hands on his muscular chest. She leans in, and without further ado, she presses her lips to his.

Her hands are wrapped around his face and head, crushing fistfuls of his black hair. Her tongue is in his mouth. He sucks on it, and she lets out a moan.

He backs her towards the wall. Slowly, step-by-step.

Finally, he pushes her against it, pinning her hands above her head. Sounds of pleasure escape her as Gale kisses her neck, strokes her body. She grabs his hand and places it on her breast. He squeezes, and she whimpers.

Ten minutes later, their clothes are off.

After another ten, he's inside her.

And for yet another ten, he loves her. Loves her for letting him forget, even if it's only for a few minutes. She lets him forget that he and his family have next to nothing when it comes to money. She lets him forget the measly amounts of stew his mother is able to pour onto his siblings' dinner plates. She lets him forget Posy's hungry crying, and the growls of Vick and Rory's stomachs.

And while he loves her, he lets his fingers stroke her in places that make her scream his name. Her nails dig deep into his back, and he loves that too. Because that pain is better than the pain of not being able to feed his family to the fullest, the pain of not being able to buy medicine for his sick baby brothers and sister, the pain he feels because of the wretched Capitol, the pain he feels as Rory's twelfth birthday approaches closer and closer and closer.

He continues to stroke her, until she explodes. He can feel the sudden rush of wetness between her legs and now, it feels even better.

He thrusts and he thrusts, until he, too, explodes: his strong, firm hands grasping her round, plump bottom tightly. And at this point, he loves her the most because right now, his mind is full of nothing but her, nothing but the ecstasy filling him in all the right places.

But he's careful too. Careful to pull out of her, because there are some things that people in the Seam just cannot afford.

Another ten minutes, and his clothes are back on and he's making his way to where his friends are still waiting for him.

When Gale reaches them, they look up excitedly.

He doesn't say anything, and just takes a seat next to them.

They gaze expectantly at him, but he still doesn't say anything.

"So?" Heath finally asks. "Did you fuck her or not?"

Gale smirks and finally relents. "I fucked her, alright. Took her right up against the wall."

Heath laughs as Abe whistles, saying, "Sweet, man."

He's still in a daze of sex and alcohol as he creeps quietly back into his house later that night. And the minute he lays his eyes on the sleeping forms of his too-thin siblings, he knows he can't make himself forget. Not forever.

And maybe he doesn't want to forget.

He does not want to forgive.

He wants them to pay.

Hope you enjoyed that! :D Let me know what ya think! :)