Haymitch sends us all to bed and I do go at first but it gets too quiet so I sneak into Katniss' room and even though she is sleeping soundly, surely she won't begrudge be one night for my comfort.
In the morning, I'm already awake where she opens her eyes.
"No nightmares." I tell her happily.
"What?" She aks.
"You didn't have any nightmares last night."
She accepts this and tells me about the dream she did have last night, it's upsetting but it's not a nightmare.
"Peeta, how come I never know when you're having a nightmare?" She leans up in bed.
"I don't know. I don't think I cry out or anything. I just come to, paralysed with terror." I know this probably doesn't make sense to her but it does to me.
"You should wake me." She says sternly.
"It's not necessary. My nightmares are usually about losing you. I'm okay once I realise you're here." It doesn't embarrass me to tell her my true feelings anymore but I know it makes her feel uncomfortable. I should probably stop doing it.
Our final ceremony is in District 12 with our friends and family, for this I am grateful. It will be in the Mayor's house which I have never been in but am interested to see.
The usual routine which I have gotten so used to I could probably do it myself is repeated in one of the guest rooms in the house and my prep team are still talking about the Capitol party.
It's a nice dinner, not too formal but still fancy and we all enjoy it quite a lot. But to be honest, I'm happy the whole tour is over now.
I leave with my family, not getting a chance to say goodbye to Katniss but I am too caught up in seeing everyone.
My father, Jackson and my other brother, Leo are dressed in smart suits that I've never seen before and my mother in a floral dress. It doesn't suit her.
The next few days are a blur of working in the bakery and lounging around at home, this is my life now for the next month or so until the next Games.
Ugh. The next Games, where I'll no doubt have to mentor a boy who will die in brutality. Great.
I can't stay home and mope around any longer so I decide to go into town as I am supposed to be meeting my family there soon anyway, so just as I'm leaving the Victors Village, Katniss comes bounding up to me. I don't even try to suppress the smile on my face.
But then I see the game in her hand and remember the law against it. "Been hunting?" I say, eyeing it.
"Not really. Going to town?" She asks me.
I tell her about dinner and she accompanies me down the slope to the bustling town.
She breaks the silence after a while, "Peeta, if I asked you to run away from the district with me would you?"
Her question totally takes me by surprise, I stop her from walking on to check if she's serious.
"Depends on why you're asking." I tell her.
She tells me about an uprising in District 8.
"By 'we', do you mean jus you and me? No," I wish though, "Who else would be going?"
She tells me without mentioning Gale and I agree, knowing it won't happen.
She storms off when I tell her I think she won't do it but I halt her to a stop. Something is going on in the town, I look down curiously.
When we reach the growing crowd, I stand up on a crate to get a better look at what is going on. I give my hand to her to help her up too. But then I see why everyone is here. Before I can even comprehend the scene before my eyes, I yell at her to get down and go home.
She tries to climb back up but I push her down. "Go home, Katniss! I'll be there in a minute, I swear!"
She gives up on me and forces her way though the murmuring crowd.
I jump off the crate quickly and follow her, my leg slowing me down though.
From the crate I had seen Gale hung limply on a post, his hands tied and his back bare. Whip lashes scarred his back and a scary river of blood was tumbling down the rocks at his feet.
I break into the clearing by the platform where Gale is just as the whip is coming down, and Katniss throws herself in front of his body and then it slaps across her face and I all I feel is fury.
Blood is already seeping from her cut and I hurry to get to her but Haymitch beats me. He's raging at the Peacekeeper, pulling Katniss up by the arm.
I finally haul myself up the platform and I grab her other arm as carefully as possible.
"What business is it of hers anyway?" The man holding the whip snarls at us.
"He's her cousin. And she is my fiancée." I say with finality but I am just dying to punch this man into the ground. But I have to be strong for Katniss. "So if you want to get to him, expect to go through the both of us."
The Peacekeeper gets into a confrontation with another one and ends up walking off but not before splattering us in blood as he coils his whip. I resist the urge to wipe a drop from Katniss' hair.
Katniss pulls free of mine and Haymitch's grip and runs to Gale, trying to untie him. I get a knife and cut his hands free.
With the help of some others we carry Gale on a market table all the way back to Katniss' home so her mother can heal him.
I am aware of Katniss' worry for him and it makes me slightly jealous but now is not the time, because not only is Gale severely hurt so is she.
She pats snow onto her lash and I can't help but thinking it will scar.
A few of the men fill us in on what happened before we arrived. It sounded bad. Over 40 whippings.
Mrs Everdeen is on to Gale before we even lay him down. She clears everyone away apart from a few of us and her and Prim start their work.
It's quite literally magical. They are so quick and precise that I am mesmerised.
Gale's mother turns up soon and she takes the chair by his side. I feel slightly out of place seeing as me and Gale are hardly friends but I'm here to support Katniss.
Katniss starts to shout at her mother when she refuses to give him stronger medicine and she creates quite a scene but she doesn't care. She's really going for it but her mother just asks us to take her from the room.
Me and Haymitch hoist her up and lift her out of the room. We lay her on her bed and whilst leaving I tell Haymitch of her plans to run away. He smirks as we head back downstairs.
Katniss returns later and the door rings although it's absurd for anyone to be out in this weather. We all go to the door and I personally am shocked to see Madge there with a box in her hands.
She begs Mrs Everdeen to use it for Gale before running back down the path.
Inside are several vials, "What is it?" I ask as she expertly injects them into Gale's arm.
It's getting late and she tells us to go home even after I offer to stay so I trudge out the back door with my hood firmly wrapped around my head. I am just about to go inside my own house when I hear Haymitch grumble behind me, "Busy day, eh?"
His laugh echoes eerily off the trees.
