Chapter Nine

Hey guys! We're back! I especially love this chapter, and you will find out why in just a few minutes. Any way, sorry for the long wait. It is about six pages in Microsoft Word, so this is I think our longest chapter so far. Enjoy!

My name is Katniss Everdeen…. I am sixteen years old…. I'm running away with George/Ralph/Sam/Bob and my best friend… Can I even call him that any more?

My stomach twisted and rolled around like a restless sleeper, goose bumps had formed up and down my arms, and the hair on the back of my neck was on end like an enraged cat. I stood with the others sixteen-year olds and I can tell by their nervous looks they're as worried as I am. I can't look for Gale's face among the crowed; my eyes are just glued on Effie Trinket's hand as it reaches slowly into the round glass bowl. Everyone in the Square holds they're breath and for a single moment my heart stops.

Effie Trinket's hand reaches into the bowl full of names, I'm shocked, of all the names you could have picked. My heart instantly stops beating. Her name is called.

"Primrose Everdeen!"

The name rings through the silent Square, no one moves, no one speaks. I'm not even sure anyone breathed. At least I couldn't. But I'm not there, I realize, and the panic bears down on me like a thousand bloodhounds and every face around me transforms and morphs into, what was it? Something blood-chilling. Devils. Devils with blood dripping from their mouths and glistening crimson horns sticking out of their heads. Devils are boring down on me with icy claws, leering and smirking and laughing, cause I'm not there. I'm not there to save Prim, little Primrose, who will get ripped up in the blood bath. Everything is numb and I stagger to floor, but even that seems traitorous now. I should be protesting, biting and kicking and scratching.

Not her, Not her, Not her, Not her, Not her…. I keep repeating in my head as her fragile little body staggers up on stage. That…demon Effie Trinket grabbing her hand and holding it up for the entire Seam to see. All of District 12 gazing up at her tiny tear-stained face.

It's her! The devil's leer at me as blackness begins to cloud my vision. They sneer and laugh and point like the devil's they are. Laughing in my face.

Ha! Ha! She got chosen for the games, and your not there to help her! Their gleeful cackles echo off the walls of darkness.

Then, I see glimpses of a television, or a screen. With a single hologram floating on it. It's Primrose's battered bloody, dead body being carried off into the graveyards. Her high shrill scream explodes through the darkness, and I'm struggling, struggling to reach her, to save her from whatever thing was going threw her heart; Spear, Dagger, Arrow, Axe. Or worse being strangled to death by another tribute, or caught in a net with a spear through her chest, or even a pack of wolves ripping her flesh to pieces.

"NO!" I scream as loud as I can, it rips my lungs raw and I claw at empty darkness. The devil's still leer and laugh at me, but soon their cries begin to fade and I'm lost in a floating darkness. I've lost Prim…

I jolt awake. Sitting up, the graphic image still stitched between my every thought, my every breath. This is defiantly not as easy as I had thought. Gale slept soundly beside me, he had been sprawled out on the cave floor while I was snuggled into his side. He was still sleeping, grunting every so often in his sleep.

Beads of sweat are on my neck, forehead, and the small of my back. My hands are balled up in tight fists. Every thought, fiber, cell in my body are awake and running with adrenaline. Then, a wave of fear, worry that Prim would be taken away from the world within a week's time, crashes on me, with full force. I crawl up against the side of Gale's body. My body wracks with sobs. I place my hand over my mouth to muffle the sobs, hoping I don't wake Gale up with the loud, obnoxious noise. With much crying and effort, I find sleep. Again. But the devil's return.

I'm running, running fast, and running hard. I'm running through a dimly lit forest, and I could hear the steady pound of feet behind me. Something bad is chasing me and I'm… carrying something? Muffled whimpers are coming from my baggage, and with a sickening jolt I'm caught off guard.

"Prim?" I choke out, for that's all I can say since cramps are beginning to wrack my body.

"K-Katniss?" she whimper's softly and her eyes flutter open. There's a bad wound on her head, it seemed to be bleeding. A lot.

"P-Prim, Primrose I'm right here." I reply quietly.

Prim makes the tiniest of smiles, and her hugs my shoulders tightly. "You've saved me."

I hear the sound of pursuit inches closer than before, and I try to quicken my pace luckily Prim's not very heavy after been through a part of the Games. With a jerk I knew what was happening. I was running through the Arena with Prim on my back, trying to escape our pursuers. Somehow I had gotten into the Arena with Prim and I was keeping her save, but they caught me and are sending something after us. I had no idea how I knew this, but it felt as easy as breathing. I sprinted threw the woods like a horse, the familiar woods seemed like the back my hand to me as I run. I could hear the footsteps softening, and I run faster. They are almost gone! Prim gasps, as she sees something I cant. I'm looking around, my head whipping from side to side, my braid averting around and smacking my face in the process. While looking for the atrocious predator, something slips under my foot, causing me to loose balance and fall flat on my face. Prim shrieks and slips out of my grasp, following in my footsteps.

She turns to me as quick as she can, screaming, "Katniss!" I shift my head to see what she is looking at. Just then, a man with blonde hair (A/N: It's supposed to be Cato, not Peeta. Don't freak out) raises his hand, which possesses a knife. He brings his hand down. Prim's blood-chilling scream cuts through me as though I've been slashed in two. I can only see the man's blazing blue eyes as he plunges the dagger through my heart.

I start awake, my body cold with fear and sweat beading on my neck and face. I could feel Gale's intense stare sweep over me, and I stare at him. A sudden fear crept over me; would Gale turn into a devil too? But I caught myself that was the stupidest thing I had ever heard, or thought of for that matter. Gale would never turn into a devil that was just a dream. He is staring back at me with a look of deep concern, and suddenly I find myself sobbing loudly into his shirt.

"I'm fine." I say. I'm still trying to convince myself that I am, I doubt Gale will believe it. His fingers gently stroke my hair.

"You sure? It seems more of an understatement."

"Gale!" I punch his shoulder.

"Ok, sorry. That was mean. No time for joking. I get it," His voice is amused, but concern flickered behind his handsome eyes.

"So? Do you want to talk about it?" he asks me gently while rocking back and forth on his tailbone. I glared at him, his voice sounds as relaxed as though we were going to pick raspberries back home. But even that tiny thought makes my stomach twist.

"Do you really think I would want to talk about it? I'm crying my eyes out, and you want me to talk about it?! Are you serious?"

"Yeah! I mean, it's a friendly gesture. Doesn't everybody do that when someone's crying? Don't they usually say 'Do you want to talk about it'?"

"Whatever." I say, trying to change the subject, but I can't help but let a small smile grow on my face.

"So… What do you want to do? The whole world is ours now. We don't have to worry about school, feeding our families, the reaping, or any of that junk. We can do whatever we want." I think by the way he said whatever, he was implying on something completely opposite of what I was thinking.

"Well, I'm kind of tired of hunting. This is the first time we don't really need to worry about keeping a food on the table. One, we don't need as much food, and two, we don't have a table. So, that kind of leaves out the idea of hunting for today. We could look for berries and such, but that's not very fun." I sigh with exasperation of thinking. "And I guess we could just relax, have fun, be ourselves. What are your ideas?"

He sighs. "Well, I was thinking that we could climb a tree." He says without looking at me, his gaze is on something past me.

I turn around, and the first that flashes threw my mind is; it's huge. A giant oak tree probably the size of the Justice Building back home is there. It's branches thicker than a human, its leaves brushing the sky, and it's easy enough too. Handholds to climb up, but the first large branch big enough for a person is a good 20 feet in the air. It's so…..intense.

"Holy freaking crap! That's a tall tree!" the words come out before I can stop them. Gale is finding handholds for the tree, and he's already halfway to the first branch. I can't help but stare at his strong muscled body, climbing up the tree, his muscles flexing each time he pulls himself up onto another branch.

"Katniss! Hurry up! Are you coming, or not?"

"Y-yeah. I'm coming." Snapping out of my gaze, I find myself easily catching up to Gale, and within a minute or two, I am at his heels, waiting for him to go faster. With his stronger body, it's hard for him to pull up more weight.

"Hurry up! What's taking so long?"

"Its kind of hard to pull more weight, cause, if you haven't notice, I weigh a lot more than you do."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You also have more muscle than me. Oh, and, you might want to watch where you put your hand." Just as I say this, he places his hand over a red ant. As a reflex, the ant bites him, making Gale fling his hand backward, almost falling over. I place my hand on his leg, hoping and praying that it will help him stay on the tree, so I won't have to fix a hand, and a broken body tonight. Luckily, he catches himself before he would plummet to the hard earth.

"Thanks for the warning." He says sarcastically.

"Yeah. Do you think we have gone high enough? Can we stop on this big branch right there?" I point to the one roughly to my right, and Gale places his hand on the huge branch, dragging himself onto the small but big platform. I do the same, and he reaches his hand out to me. I take it with content, and we both sit down near the center of the giant twig. He doesn't let go of my hand, for which I am thankful. We have a few minutes of silence, both watching the sunrise with intense fascination. I find my head leaning against his chest, and his well-muscled arms wrapped around me. The sunrise is incredibly beautiful. Blood red to crimson, crimson to red, red to hot pink, hot pink to light pink, light pink to peach. And eventually fading to an almost white as the large ball rose above the horizon. I could feel tears well up in my eyes, not tears of sadness, but joy. The wind whistles like a lullaby threw the leaves, I could hear the faint song of mockingjays in the distance. Gale hugs me tighter, and I crane my neck to look up at him. His gray eyes are locked on the rising sun, but when he feels my gaze he looks down at me. His eyes great big gray pools of love.

"Katniss, I think we're safe now." he whispers.

I beam up at him, and he chuckles. I find myself giggling. I shiver. Yikes, I really hope that wears off.

"You cold?" he pulls me closer.

"No…" my voice trails, it dreamy note to it.

"Too bad," he whispers, resting his chin on the top of my head. Silence creeps in, and stays with us for at least 10 minutes. "Catnip?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think….that…Gosh, this is going to sound really pathetic." He seems to be talking half to me, half to himself.

I shift my body so I could look at him, he's staring at the ground. Frowning, but even when he's frustrated I feel my heart melt like butter on a hot pan.

"What?" his eyes alternate back to me, looking straight into my eyes with love, appeal, and a pinch of nervousness. I wonder why. Gale is never, ever, nervous to talk to me.

"Will you marry me?" Wow. I was not expecting that.

A new door seems to open in my mind, one that had had a lock on it until this moment, and a bunch of idea's and possibilities go threw my head like channel's flipping on a TV screen. Some good; like cradling a tiny baby in my arms, then the baby, 12 years later being picked for the Reaping. Watching him or her die on the TV screen, and Gale fighting to the death to protect him or her. Then me being all left alone. My stomach lurches, and ever muscle, joint and cell freezes in my body.

Yes or No?

Doubt flickers in Gale's eyes that soon fill with a strange hurt. He probably saw the hesitation in my eyes, which made him worry. But if we are running away, we won't need to go into the Hunger Games, I guess because we are free, we are as safe as we can get. I mean, what harm can it do?

"Yeah. Yeah! I will!" I press my lips to his, and my hands find his hair, and he puts his arms around my waist, to deepen the kiss. It goes on like this for a while, then we decide its time for breakfast, well, I guess more of lunch. But any way, we head down the tree for brunch, I guess you could call it, and the whole way there is a skip to my step. Apparently I'm smiling the entire time I am cooking brunch for us, because my cheeks hurt when I'm done. I never knew that just being engaged to Gale would make me so happy. I mean, I knew I loved him, but I never realized that I would turn into my mother if anything ever did happen to him. All in all, it makes me happy that I know no one could ever take him away from me now.

My fingers are intertwined with Gale's, as we spend our time walking around our campground and wondering off a little bit, and talking about our future plans. We didn't decide on much, except that we wish that our family could be at our wedding. We also didn't want it to be too big. If we were back home no, this is our home now I mean, if we were back in District 12, we would only have a few people from the Hob come and maybe a few other people, but gossip spreads fast, so it might be more than wanted at our wedding. Oh well…

We spend a long time talking about how different our wedding would be, just from being here and in District 12. There are no more specifics of our conversation, but the general idea of our relationship. Time flies by really, really fast, and before you know it, the sun is getting ready for bed. You can tell by the way the birds slowly stop chirping, the way the mosquitos are hunting for food, and when Gale deliberately dozes off.

We head back into our 'home' and I get this sudden urge to clean up our area. Making our bed, moving a few large rocks in the main area of the cave, and taking our supplies to one corner of the giant rock, are some of the things I spend the next twenty minutes doing. My arms reach down to grab a small boulder, when I catch a glimpse of something white underneath it. Moving the rock to the side, the white thing gets bigger and yellower, when I notice that there are scribbles on the paper. I pick it up, careful not to rip the delicate note. I blow the dust and a tiny spider off of the paper, then slowly read it.

Dear Gale and/or Katniss,

If you have found this letter, it obviously means you have come to the cave. Tell both of your mothers and siblings that we are OK. As you know, we were 'killed' in the mining accident. Right as it was happening, we ran as far as we could to the forest. As you also know, we have been curious about the 'mysterious District 13' and have been taking notes about everything we have noticed. We found it as our only chance to make it with out being killed by the peacekeepers, or worse. We hope that you will stay safe, and I know how smart you two are. Don't do anything stupid, and I know we could count on you. Right now we are heading to District 13 in order to fight against the Capitol, and win the rebellion.

May the odds be ever in your favor. I'm just kidding. Haha. But seriously, don't do anything stupid. Love you both.

Travel safely,

David Hawthorne

And

Ash Everdeen

P.S. We are still alive, obviously, but just go to District 13. There is a map on the back of this letter. Follow the path we are taking, and we hope to see you guys in District 13.

I read this at least four times over, just to make sure I'm not hallucinating. Gale looks over with curiosity, and asks, "Whatch'ya got there, Catnip?"

"I uh, I found this under the rock." I hand it over to him so he can examine it. When I'm sure he read over it a couple of times, I ask him, "Gale? What does it mean?"

"We're going to District13."

Hey y'all! I hope you guys liked this chapter, it was a lot easier writing a happy chapter full of love than a depressing chapter full of death and agony. We put a lot of work in this and we will try and update as soon as possible. Reviews are always welcome, and we will get back to you as soon as we can!

HUNGER GAMES RULES!