Chapter 10: The Games Part IV
"I didn't even know she had a brother." Katniss whispers to Cato.
"I didn't either, and I feel like it might be a little too personal to ask about." Cato whispers back.
"Give her some time. Ask her about it in the morning." Marvel says.
They all look at Glimmer sitting on the shore of the lake. She has her head buried in her knees, and her shoulders jerk occasionally showing that she is still crying.
"We should get some sleep." Marvel says.
"You and Clove, go. Kat and I will stay up." Cato says.
"Of course you will." Clove mutters under her breath.
"Got something you need to share, Clove?" Cato asks standing.
"No. Nothing." She walks away.
"Is everything okay?" Katniss asks in a low voice when Cato sits down next to her.
"Yeah, it's all good."
"Cato, do you know how long it's been?" Katniss asks, lying back looking up at the fake stars of the arena.
"How long what has been?" He lies next to her.
"Our time, in this hell hole?" She looks at Cato.
"I'm not sure, two weeks, maybe three." He says.
"It feels like years."
"I feel like that sometimes."
They hear a rustle in the sand and jerk up.
"It's just Glimmer." They both lay back down.
This is exactly what she hoped they would do. She walks over to one of the bags. Picks it up and walks into the trees. Just at the end of the oasis, she looks around, picks a tree and walks over to it. Up above her is a branch just high enough.
A couple minutes later she is sitting on a branch, looking at what she has made in her hands. She pushes the bag off the branch and sits in silence for a minute. She slips her creation over herself and tightens it. She is shaking and much too high up for her liking, but she doesn't care. In about 30 seconds she'll be back close to the ground. She breaths a few times. Soaking up the air she can. She thinks about Dawn, and remembers what she hates to remember.
"Dawn, where are you." She smiles sitting in her branch.
A single tier roles down her cheek as she hears the voice of herself as a child.
"Come find me." Dawn's child voice says.
"I'm in the highest tree and I don't see you."
"Look down, Glimmer." He laughs.
Glimmer looks down at the desert floor and sees her 7 year old brother under her.
"I don't know how to get down."
"I'll catch you." 7 year old Dawn holds out his hand.
"Please, you couldn't catch a pebble if I threw it to you." 9 year old Glimmer teases.
"A pebble, yes, but my sister, I would never let her fall."
She smiles.
"Jump already." He says stretching out his arms.
Jump already. She thinks again as the children's voice fades from her memory and her own thoughts replace it.
Jump.
She looks down again as 7 year old Dawn fades away, and 17 year old Glimmer returns. She sucks in her last breath, pushes herself to the edge of the branch, and feels the world slow around her. She is falling in slow motion, she catches every detail, her smile as she thinks about being with her brother, her red hair soft against her cheeks, a single upward jerk, and the faint boom of cannon.
I cried while I was writing this. I am such a happy person that when I was writing, I was like, "where the hell did that come from?"
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