Chapter 3
Empire
And form the rain
Comes a river running wild that will create
An empire for you.
Illuminate!
There's a river running wild that will create
An empire for you.
An empire for two.
-Empire by Of Monsters and Men
I don't think I'll ever forget the face Gale made when I told him I was moving in with Haymitch. He looked so sad. He tried to convince me to stay with him but I knew I couldn't. Not if I wanted to be my own person. I left that night, it was easier that way. I packed up the few clothes I had and went to Haymitch's house. Haymitch taught me all the rules and safety for being outside and even bought me my own phone and taught me how to use it.
One day when I feel confident enough I decide to go into town after Haymitch leaves for work. I don't know where I'm going, I'm too caught up in all the new sights and sounds. This is my first time going outside by myself. I end up in a park somehow. I wish I had thought to pay attention to where I was going. I'm not sure how to get back home. Oh well, I'm sure I'll get back home somehow. I look around and find a man scribbling on a piece of paper in the grass. I only know two people. Gale and Haymitch. It would be nice to meet someone new. So I jog over to him and squat down next to him.
"Hello." I smile brightly as he looks up in surprise. I like him. He has curly hair and bright blue eyes. I'm glad I decided to talk to him.
"Uh… hello." He brings his notebook to his chest. "Can I help you with anything?"
"No… I don't think so… I guess I just want to… uh… introduce myself." I feel uncomfortable all the sudden. I don't think this man wants to talk to me. Maybe I should go. "Well… goodbye." I stand up.
"Wait!" He stops me. "You don't have to go- I just didn't know why you came over here… We can talk if you'd like to."
"Okay!" I sit down next to him. "What ya got in that book?"
"Drawings," He smiles softly. "Of the landscape…" He opens the book and shows me the detailed drawing.
"It's beautiful."
"Thank you... What's your name? You look familiar."
"Oh," I laugh. "Katniss." I hope he didn't know Winter. I don't want him to think I'm her.
"Katniss..." He says. "I like it."
"Thank you! I picked it out myself."
"You did?" He grins. "How'd you come up with it?"
"I... I don't know." How did I come up with this name?
"Well it's beautiful."
"And what's your name?"
"Peeta."
"Pita?" I tilt my head. "Like the bread?"
"Yeah," He laughs. "My parents own a bakery… You know, I'm still not sure how that explains them naming me after bread, but…" He trails off.
"It suits you." I tell him.
"I don't think I've heard that before." Peeta laughs. "I usually get teased about my name when people first meet me."
"Well. I'm not like them."
"I can tell." He says. "There's something different about you..."
"Different?"
"Good different."
Peeta and I become friends quickly. We're always together and when we're not, we're texting or calling each other with our phones. My friendship with Gale was different. It felt forced but this with Peeta is natural. I learn new things about myself. I like archery and flowers. Especially dandelions. I learn new songs. Peeta says I'm a good singer but I'm not sure if I believe him. I only sing because I enjoy it, not because I think I'm any good at it. Things are going great but then Peeta starts asking about my past. I can't tell him the truth. I can't tell him that my body has been dead for who knows how long and I'm only a few months old. He wouldn't even believe me if I told him that.
"Katniss," Peeta pleads one day while I'm visiting his house. "Tell me about your past. I promise you can trust me."
"It's… it's not… I… I can't tell you." I'm starting to get upset. I can feel my heartbeat speed up. "Why not?"
"Because I'm afraid to."
"You can trust me Katniss." Peeta takes my hand. "I can help you."
Do I trust him with this information? Of course. He's my best friend. Would he believe me? Probably not. But I don't want to push Peeta away. I don't want him to think I don't trust him. "Okay, okay." I give in. "I'll tell you... You just have to promise to believe me."
"Why wouldn't I believe you?" He looks to me for an explanation.
"I'm… I'm not supposed to be alive."
He squints at me. "What do you mean?"
"I… it's hard to explain," I say. "My body… didn't always belong to me… It used to belong to a girl named Winter. She was... this man named Gale's wife, but she died and Gale decided to bring her back. But instead of Winter, he got me."
"Katniss, tell me what's actually wrong." He says. "You can trust me. You don't have to make up all these crazy stories-"
"I'm telling the truth." I interrupt him. "If you don't want to believe me, fine." I stand up but he grabs my hand and pulls me back down.
"It's kind of hard to believe." He says. "Do... you have any proof?"
I think about it. "No, not that I can think of."
"I'll look up Winter," He says. "On my phone, maybe she had a social media."
"Maybe..." So I lean in as he searches for her on Facebook. "Her last name was Hawthorne." I tell him. He finds her profile and there's a bunch of photos of me- her. There's even a photo with her birth and death year on it.
"This page does look real..." Peeta says. "But this is so crazy-"
"Why would I fake this?" I interrupt him.
"I... I don't know!" He says. "It's just... crazy I guess."
"I know..." I sigh. "You probably think I'm some... crazy lunatic."
"No... I don't know," He runs his fingers through his hair. "I believe that you really think this happened... but I don't know if I believe that... it really happened."
"So you do think I'm crazy!" I cross my arms.
"I don't think you're crazy... It's just... a lot to take in." He tries to reassure me.
"This is why I didn't want to tell you..." I laugh. "Because I knew you wouldn't believe me."
"I... this page looks too real... it's just... I never thought it was possible to bring someone back from the dead."
"It's not..." I shrug. "It's possible to bring new life to something dead. Gale did something wrong. Or else I'd be Winter."
"I wonder what went wrong..."
I try to think. Did Gale give any clues? "When he realized I wasn't Winter... he asked if I was PrimRose."
"PrimRose," Peeta says in thought. "I remember hearing about a girl named PrimRose going missing a while back... I'll look her up." It turns out that PrimRose died at a doctor's house a few days before I was... reborn. Gale must have had something to do with this. I just know it.
"Does it give the doctor's name?" I ask.
"No," He says. "Why?"
"I think it was Gale." I sigh. "Can you drive me to his house? I want to ask him about it."
Peeta takes me there but refuses to wait in the car. So we go together to knock on the front door. When Gale opens the door he steps back and frowns. "What?"
"Did you kill PrimRose?" I decide to go straight to the point. Something flashes in Gale's eyes. "Did you?"
"I... uh..." Gale studders. "It's hard to explain,"
"Start explaining."
"Does... he have to be here?" Gale points at Peeta.
"Talk."
Gale sighs. "I had to replace Winter's brain. It was... damaged. I had to wait a long time to find the right donor. Prim was terminally ill. I tried so hard to cure her but I couldn't. So I figure... It wouldn't' hurt to ask if she wanted me to use her brain."
"You... you killed her."
"She was going to die!" Gale shouts. "And she wanted to help me, she even signed the papers."
"So... I have Prim's brain?"
"Yeah."
"Then why don't I have any of her memories?" I question.
"I don't know." Gale shrugs. "Maybe the brain lost all her memories when I used all that electricity to wake you up... I can't be sure, but if that's why it would have ended up the same way if I used Winter's brain."
"I would have still been Katniss?"
"Maybe not Katniss," He shrugs. "But you wouldn't be Winter... You remind me of both of them. The only thing that confuses me is that Prim once told me that if she ever had a daughter, she would name her Katniss."
"She did?" I ask in surprise. "But I named myself that... what if... what if I'm not really Katniss? What if I'm Prim?" I start panicking.
"Her memories are gone," Gale says. "I spent months of trying to see if you were really Prim. I'm sorry for freaking you out."
"But-"
"You're Katniss, okay."
"Okay."
I walk back to Peeta's car with him. "So it is true," He says.
"Yeah," I look back at Gale's closed door and then I look to the woods. I like the woods I decide. The woods are nice.
I'm finding new things about myself everyday. Peeta takes me to see a musical the high school put on. I decide I like this form of storytelling. I listen to the soundtracks to several Broadway musicals. My favorites are Wicked and Hamilton. Peeta and I grow closer and closer until one day we realize we want to be more than friends. One year after I woke up for the first time, I move out of Haymitch's house and move into my own apartment. I help Peeta out at the bakery. People around town start recognizing me as Winter so Peeta and I move to the other side of the country. I'm piecing my life together and finding out who I am beneath the skin.
Okay, I'm really sorry if any of you thought this was a Gale/Katniss story. I should have made it more clear that they wouldn't end up together in the end. I'm a huge Gale fan but I just don't ship him with Katniss. I don't know... Anyway this was the last full chapter and I'm going to be posting an Epilogue soon. I hope you guys liked this story. Please tell me your thoughts in the reviews.
