Alright, this one took me a long time to finish. But it's worth it, because it's pretty long :)
I walked along the beach, letting the waves wash up upon my bare feet. The wind blew through my hair and the sun warmed my face. It was so peaceful. I noticed birds far off in the distance, making this the perfect picture.
I heard a voice call my name. It was familiar in a sort of foreign way. I looked around for the person. When I turned, I saw the man behind me. He wasn't a stranger at all. The auburn hair and green eyes were a dead giveaway, but not as much as the bright smile that accompanied them. I hadn't seen that face since my last trip to Panem.
I ran to Finnick and threw my arms around him. It was amazing how much I had missed him. He appeared tall and handsome, and had definitely gotten older. But most importantly, he was safe.
Before I could say anything, though, I heard some sort of knocking in the distance. What was that? Suddenly my heart filled with dread as the picture in my dream melted away and I opened my eyes.
I slowly got out of bed and went to the door of my room. "Who is it?" I said quietly. My voice was still weak from sleep and I didn't know what time it was.
"Josh," my friend whispered back.
I opened the door and saw him standing there in clothes, wide awake. "What time is it?" I asked, rubbing my right eye.
"Early," he responded. "Can we talk for a minute?"
I let him in and shut the door. We both sat on my bed, which was a twisted mess because of how I had slept.
"Last night, Gale told me that the soonest we can go home is tomorrow," Josh said.
"Tomorrow?" I nearly exclaimed. He put his hand over my mouth- something that really could've become a habit by now- but I pushed it away. I brought my tone down again. "I didn't think it could be so soon."
"Neither did I. Tomorrow is a little optimistic, but he said we'll definitely be well enough within three days."
I looked at my hands in my lap. Three days? I could've gone a lifetime without having to explain things to the Hawthorne's. I missed my family, of course- but three days…. Here's the thing: I'm horrible with words. I can hardly say something accurately the first time, and when I try to correct myself, everyone just gets confused.
I looked up at Josh. "Will you help me tell them?"
"Why do you even need to ask me that?" He said. "Of course I'll help you. Even if I had nothing to do with getting us here, you're my best friend."
I smiled. "You really know how to keep things light, don't you?"
"It's the least I can do."
A few seconds passed before I sighed. "So do you think they'll help us?"
He seemed thoughtful. "Yeah. I mean, when it's an entire government against one criminal, how hard could it be to get back a time machine?"
"That's what I'm worried about," I said. "Gale might not mind helping us, but he may not be enough. And when we have an entire government helping us, don't you think they would do anything to get a look inside the machine?"
"There's a chance that you're right. But there are no more Hunger Games. Wouldn't that mean they're safe ?"
"I'm just not sure who we can trust here, Josh. Formend said he was able to get President Snow's diary. That could mean he was high in government status at one point."
Josh looked confused. "Formend?"
"You know; the guy who sort of dumped us in toxic chemicals? Does that ring a bell?"
"Oh… He didn't tell me his name."
"I don't know how much was in that diary, but he definitely knows that I've been here before," I thought aloud. "I wonder what his motive is. Why would he try to kill us? Just so he could use the time machine for himself? Has he already taken it into some other time period?" I felt my hands grow colder. "Are we trapped here?"
"That does make things a little harder to figure out," Josh said. "Did you ever consider the fact that if we go to the exact same place that Gale picked us up, we might be able to find Formend's hideout?"
"It's crossed my mind," I replied. "But he's too smart to just pick a spot in the middle of nowhere and build a gigantic building for torture. Chances are he's long gone by now."
"I guess you're right…"
Questions accumulated relentlessly in my brain. What did Formend want to do? Where was Philo taking us before he died? Would Gale determine what to do about our situation? Were we trapped here? Would our families simply have a funeral for each of us back home, without even knowing what happened? They all pounded me and it seemed as if noise was piercing my head. I put my hands over my face and sighed in exasperation. "Why does everything here have to be so complicated?!" I said. I'm surprised Josh didn't try to quiet me again after how loud my statement was.
I felt something rising in my throat. A sort of liquid seemed to dampen my eyes. No. I couldn't cry. I wouldn't. But obviously my emotions didn't get the message. I was unable to stop the tears that rolled down my face and fell into my lap.
"Haley," Josh said gently. That didn't really help. It just made me more frustrated with myself.
It was the first time I caught my mind wandering to the thought that I would never go home. I'd pondered that many times when I had gone into the 65th Hunger Games. Everything was so new and sudden then, and it was only natural that my mind went to the worst case scenario. But this time… I don't know. I probably assumed things would work out as smoothly as they had before. Evidently not.
I was no longer just letting tears fall from my eyes, but now felt short of breath. I inhaled sharply and triggered more tears. Everything felt hopeless.
Josh moved closer to me and put his arm around my back. I hated it when people saw me crying, but somehow I managed to stay near him. I rested my head on his shoulder- this was what you could call having a shoulder to cry on.
"Haley," he said, "You shouldn't worry about anything. This is my fault, and I'm going to get you home, no matter what it takes."
I tried to bring my hand up to my eyes, because he had just made more tears come out, but he held it away. I finally looked him in the eyes. "I promise," he continued. "I'll explain every detail to Gale today. I'll even go and get the time machine by myself if I have to. But you will go home; whether it's today, or in weeks."
"Josh…" I trailed off. I had to compose myself. Come on, Haley, you can do this… "You'll never know how glad I am to have you as a friend. But I'm not just going to sit around pretending I can't do anything to help. We'll both talk to Gale. We came here together and we're leaving together."
He half-smiled. "Just stay positive."
I felt like and absolute wreck. It seemed like Josh knew what he was doing more than I did, and I was the one who had been here before. Well, when I thought about it, I was kind of a weakling then, too. I could've been dead about three times if someone hadn't saved me. Had I cried at all during that trip? I nearly did when I said goodbye to Finnick. Maybe the fact that the time machine was much harder to find in a whole country instead of just an arena made me emotional.
I dried the remaining tears on my face. "So that's it? We're telling them today?" I asked.
"The sooner the better," Josh replied. It seemed like there was something he wanted to say, but couldn't bring himself to. He spoke slowly. "Have you ever thought that Formend might be the Heat villain that Gale told us about?"
"I've just naturally assumed that," I said. "I mean, he tortured us, and then Philo broke us out to ask us questions. That fits the description."
"But there has to be more to the story there," Josh went on. "He knew we were from the past. Why did he let us go? He knew that we wouldn't be able to answer questions about Panem, so what was the point in him letting Philo rescue us? Nobody is that stupid."
"That's what I've been asking myself all this time." A sudden thought invaded my mind. "Why do you think Gale hasn't asked us about Philo? Or Heat? He knew that we were prisoners of Formend, so why hasn't he asked us to lead him to the hideout?"
Josh understood what I was saying immediately. "That's a good question… Do you think he knows something that we don't?"
"He knows a lot of things that we don't; but there is something in particular that I think we need to find out."
My friend closed his eyes and breathed out slowly. "I can barely even wrap my mind around this whole thing."
"That's why paying attention to the details comes in handy," I replied. "Last time I came here, I wasn't really keeping track of anything. Now I'm used to remembering facts."
He smirked. "Alright then- what color shirt was I wearing yesterday?"
"Sky blue."
Josh raised his eyebrows. "Lucky guess…"
I laughed quietly. "Trust me on this one: you'll want to scrutinize everything."
"Well how am I supposed to remember what you're wearing, along with all of the other huge details that keep happening?"
"You don't need to remember what I'm wearing," I said, still humoring him a little. "Just try starting with major events."
He looked at the ceiling, as if that would help him with recollection. "Let's see…. We got here on a Friday. Within a few minutes, Formend's hovercraft thing picked us up. We were knocked out for who knows how long. I got dropped in the water and you…" His smirk came back. "Jumped in. I guess that's why your hair turned blonde."
"Not funny," I replied, even though I wanted to laugh. I glanced up at his hair. "And you're one to talk."
I noticed that his arm was still around me, so I moved away slightly to where he wasn't touching me anymore. We weren't in a desolate moment now, and I didn't really want it to get awkward.
"Hey, don't hate on my hair," he said, smiling. "At least I've never dyed it."
"That was one time!" I exclaimed as quietly as I could. He was referring to the time I was twelve and dyed mine at a party. I was grounded for innumerable weeks after that.
"Anyway, Philo broke us out and started leading us to 'his house'. Then the P.G.R.T. shot him and Gale lifted us up into their hovercraft by freezing us with those scary little devices on our arm."
"Those were scary," I said. "That's probably one of the most surreal things I've ever experienced."
"You mean besides time traveling into the future?" Josh asked sarcastically.
"Yeah, besides that."
"Ok, so after you got your cut treated and all that painful stuff, they shoved us into the hospital for… Five days?"
"Six."
"Wow, that long?" he said. I nodded and he continued, "Then we came to the Hawthorne house. This is our third day here."
I smiled. "Excellent. Now all that we really need to worry about is telling Gale today."
"I say we tell the whole family at once," he proposed. "They're all going to find out eventually, so we might as well make it less confusing and tell the story to all of them at once."
"I hope they side with us."
"I'm beyond hoping it. I'm depending on it."
I sighed. "Alright. Should we spill it this morning?"
"That's probably the easiest way." He patted my back in a supporting, friendly way. "If you don't want to explain, I'll be glad to."
"No way. We're doing this together."
Several hours later, the two of us bravely faced the Hawthorne family. Josh said we had something important to tell them, and they all assembled in the living room- Julia, Lucius, and Camilla all sat on the couch, Marcus leaned against a wall, and Gale sort of stood in place, ready for whatever we were about to throw at him.
Something I hadn't considered was how to start this confession. I couldn't start saying random facts about time machine building, or they would be lost. I looked at Josh, as if asking him to begin.
My friend cleared his throat and straightened his stance. "Before we say anything, I just want to make it clear that we have no intentions of holding you to anything. You've saved our lives, let us in to your house, and been more hospitable than anyone we've ever met."
Gale's eyes seemed to have the slightest bit of something in them. But what was it?
"We just…" Josh trailed off. He seemed a little ashamed. "We haven't been completely honest with you."
"About what?" Camilla asked.
"For starters, we're not from District 1," I said. "We're not even from Panem."
This is where a little more knowledge could've come in. By saying that we weren't from Panem, the family could've written me off as crazy. Because, the fact was, I wasn't even sure that the rest of the world existed anymore. Maybe Panem was the only livable place left.
Julia seemed confused, adding to my assumption that there were no other countries in the world. "Then… Where are you from?"
"North America," Josh said without hesitation.
It took everyone half a second for realization to enter their minds. Lucius was skeptical. "Oh really? And how is that?"
Oh no, now what would I say? "Uh… Has anyone here ever heard of time travel?" I asked, sounding ridiculous.
Gale and Camilla nodded. They must've been more connected with what the world used to be like. Or maybe the term just sounded familiar.
"Well, time travel was a fictional thing. It meant being able to go to different times in history. No one ever thought it was possible. But I became so obsessed that I started building a time machine to travel with. Does that make sense so far?"
Everyone nodded.
"Alright, so, with Josh's help, I built a time machine. Long story short… It worked. I was transported into the 65th Hunger Games."
"Hold on," Lucius interrupted. "You expect us to believe that? If something like that really was possible, the Capitol would've figured it out by now."
"Bear with us for a second," Josh said. "Anyway, Haley went into the Games and somehow returned to the machine and went back to the past alive. A year later in our time, I was being an idiot and decided to use the machine. When I came back from the future she was furious to say the least. We were kind of in an argument when I accidentally brought us here. The machine overheated, and Formend's hovercraft captured us. The hovercraft you were in rescued us, Gale. But… The time machine is still with Formend. We can't go home unless we have it."
Gale took it all in with serious eyes. He was completely unreadable. "Who's Formend?" He asked.
"Oh, well, that was what he told me to call him," I answered. "He wouldn't tell me his real name."
"And you didn't hear anyone call him Heat?" He questioned.
"Not once. But I'm naturally assuming that he is Heat. He tortured us, and Philo broke us out. That's what Heat does, right?"
"Yes. But I'm wondering why he needs your time machine. And I don't know why he let you go, since you know what he looks like." Gale crossed his arms. "You did see him, right?"
"Of course. And I've also been wondering why he let us go," I said. "Apparently he knew about my first trip to Panem."
"What does he look like?" He asked.
"He had bleached blonde hair that came down to his forehead. He was extremely tall and thin. He looked about thirty-five."
Lucius stood up and began to leave the room. "It's just a story, dad. They're probably another pair of spies that Heat sent out."
"We're not spies!" I said. "How can I prove that I'm from the past?"
He turned around and crossed his arms. "First of all, if you were from the past, you wouldn't know so much about us. Just because you went into an old arena doesn't make you an expert on Panem. So how do you know about most of the things from Julia's history book?"
I copied him and crossed my arms. "Because Panem is the country in a book called The Hunger Games. The book follows the events from the 74th Hunger Games up until the end of the rebellion. I don't know how the author of the book knew about all this, but nevertheless, I haven't found out that one fact in it was wrong." I turned to Gale. "You were practically Katniss Everdeen's best friend. Your mom is Hazelle, and your siblings are Rory, Vick, and Posy. Your father died in the same mine explosion that Katniss's did." My voice began to take on a sort of pleading tone. "Please. You have to believe us."
I started to regret some of the things I'd said. Gale didn't break in his firm appearance, but his eyes reflected a certain amount of pain. I'd just brought up his dead father and his former best friend. And who knows? Hazelle may have died at some point too. But thankfully he didn't look angry.
"How do you suggest we get your time machine back?" He asked.
"Well…. I'm not sure," I admitted. "To tell you the truth, I haven't exactly thought about that. I just know that Josh and I can't do it alone."
"Alright, I'll tell you what I'm going to do; I'll take you to the hospital today and get you tested, to see if the Magnopolium is completely gone. If it is, you can help me devise a plan. If not, you'll train with Julia, Marcus, and Lucius while I decide what to do next."
"That sounds fine to me," Josh said. "Will we be able to help attack Heat to get the machine back?"
"Maybe," Gale said. "It depends on how you two fare with weapons."
Well, I would probably do alright as long as I didn't have to kill anyone.
Wow, that was a long chapter, haha. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has suggestions for what my next story should be. Don't worry- this story isn't even close to being over. But I'm a little bit stuck on what to write next. I want it to be diverse and unusual (kind of like this one).
