THE LAST CHAPTER!!!!!!

I Hope you all enjoy and like. It's sad to be finished but it is finally over!

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All Alone

I make it back to the Capitol. I hear the loud cheers of the people. They are all cheering for me, but I don't care. I am too angry, too sad, and too tired to give a damn about anything now. I am taken back to the place where my designers created my dress. The place where I trained for the games. The place where I slept as the days passed. The place where I stabbed Slade with my fork. God… Slade… The thought of Slade makes my insides turn. When Slade died, my heart was torn out. Now, as I think about him, my entire body is eating itself into oblivion. I am losing it. I know it. I can feel it. I can feel my mind losing touch of reality.

I have to see people today. I'm not sure if I can handle it. I have to review with Caesar everything that happened during the games. I have to tell him what I saw, what I felt, and remember everyone that died. I am not strong enough to do this. I can't do this. All I want to do is crawl up in a little ball and cry until my life is over. The last think I want is to be around happy people.

My designers put me in a royal blue summer dress and curl my long brown hair. They make me look very presentable and sweet looking. Something that I really can't be right now. But I have to stay strong. Slade would want me to be strong. God, if only Slade could see me now. In a dress, clean, with my hair nice and fancy. I bet he would love seeing me like this.

I am taken into a picture perfect room. A red velvet couch with gold trim sits in front of a camera and a matching love seat. This is where Caesar Flickerman will interview me. Asking me about everything that happened in the last three months. Here, the whole world will bare witness to my emotional downfall if Caesar mentions Slade.

I wait patiently as they set up cameras, and as Caesar gets ready. I watch him as he practices tongue twisters. How can this man be so cheerful? Did he not just witness what I have been through? Does he not watch The Hunger Games? His he not fazed by the countless deaths that occur every year? Does this man have no conscience? I simply can't understand what this world has come to. Especially everyone in the Capitol.

"How are you holding up?" Danna whispers in my ear. I simply look back at her. My face vacant of expression, but my eyes screaming for a way out. "Don't worry." She says. "If they say something you don't want to answer you don't have to." I nod once, and Danna walks away from me.

"It's good to see you alive, Storm." Caesar says before the cameras roll. I say nothing to him. I have nothing to say to him. I have nothing to say to anyone. I just want to go home and let myself die there. "Alright. Let's start the interview."

The camera men count down from five and we are soon on the air. "Good afternoon Panem, I am Caesar Flickerman and I'm here with the seventy-ninth annual Hunger Games Victor, Miss. Storm Crafter of District 2. Welcome Storm." I nod once. "Alright, let's get down to business. You were by far the one tribute that shocked me, and possibly the entire nation of Panem, with all your actions in this year's Hunger Games. For starters, when you left the Careers. I didn't see that coming." He let's out a chuckle. "Then you save that little boy from District 5 –"

"That little boy from District 5 has a name, and it's Tayo." I say in a defensive, bitter, and unwelcoming tone of voice.

"Right." Caesar is thrown off by my unwelcoming attitude, but quickly regains his composure. "Well that really gave me a happy feeling inside, when you saved Tayo." He pauses. "One thing that I didn't see coming was how Slade stopped you from torturing Pane. Why do you think that is?"

There it is… that name. Just hearing Caesar say that name makes me want to get up and leave this interview right now. "I don't know. Why don't you ask Slade?" I say bitterly.

Danna soon walks in and sits next to me on the couch. "Please Storm." She whispers in my ear so that only I can hear. "The more you cooperate, the faster this interview will go." She stays next to me. Probably to give me moral support.

"I think he did it because Pane didn't kill my sister. Thresh did. And I had no right to take it out on Pane." I say answering the question.

"I think at that moment we all saw that your love for your sister was far deeper than we all thought. Especially when you started to cry." I nod. I see no need to answer that question with words. "The part that probably surprised me the most; is the part where you and Slade started to kiss, and build a relationship." I find myself smiling for the first time in days. The thought of Slade and I kissing is an amazing feeling. I love thinking about that time again. I frown again as I remember that I will never be able to kiss Slade ever again. "It was obvious that Slade liked you since the moment that he laid eyes on you. But when did you start liking Slade back?"

I think about this question for a long time. I hadn't thought about that at all. "I think…" I pause. "I think that it was after Slade came and saved me from Blaine." I take a long pause, thinking back at that time. "The fact that he was forcing Blaine to apologize for killing Tayo made me realize that he truly cared about me." I can literally hear all of Panem falling in love with what I just said.

"What is your only regret from The Hunger Games? What do you regret not doing?"

"I am leaving with only one regret. And that's not kissing you sooner." I hear Slade's voice say inside my head.

I smile as I have the perfect response to Caesar's question. "My only regret… is not kissing Slade sooner." Caesar lets out a somber smile. He remembers Slade saying that.

"Now. About Slade. Remember back to the moment when he was dieing in your arms." How can I forget? "What was going through your mind?" As that question comes out of Caesar's lips my heart, or what's left of it, drops.

"What do you think was going through my mind?" I say in a harsh tone. What a stupid question. "I was angry, I was heartbroken, and I was in disbelief. Every emotion that has no relevance to joy, I was feeling. I watched a person that I let myself fall in love with die. I watched my fist kiss… my fist love… die. I felt as if I let everyone down. I let down Poppy, Cato, Clove, and Slade. I just wanted to kill Falcon in the worst way imaginable for giving me so much grief." I can feel the tears fall down my cheeks. I want to try to stop them, but I can't control them anymore.

"Why didn't you? Why didn't you kill Falcon in the worst way imaginable?"

I think long and hard about the question. I know so many more horrible ways to kill someone than how I killed Falcon. I killed him in a fast and almost painless way. I wonder why myself. I seem to only come to one conclusion at why I didn't. "I guess at that point… I was just so distraught and weak, that I didn't have enough strength to torture him. At that point… I wanted it to be all over. I just wanted to go home."

"What do you think you will do now?"

I shake my head. "I don't know. I have no family to come home to. No friends. I have no one waiting for me back home."

Caesar realizes that no matter how long this interview goes, I will not put on a fake smile and look approachable for the public. He realizes that this interview is going no where but south. "Well thank you Storm Crafter. I hope you are able to rebuild a life for yourself. Congratulations on winning the 79th annual Hunger Games." He says in a dim tone. He quits the happy act and finally feels remorse for everyone who's won The Hunger Games.

"I hope now that you people at the Capitol finally realize what you are doing to families with this game." I say bitterly. Then, I walk away.

I am taken to a train that will bring me to District 2. I don't want to go there. I don't want to see Poppy. I don't want to face her. I don't want her to know that I wasn't able to protect her son. I sit in a chair next to the window. I bring my knees to my chest and sit safe and close to the window. I look out it. I watch the scenery go by, but I don't take any of it in. My mind is too lost the thought of everyone's death. I see their faces, hear their screams, and listen to their last words.

"Strom! Help!" I once again hear the young voice of Tayo scream frantically. I can once again see Blaine snap his neck. The sound of his bones crunching ring inside my head.

"I'm sorry for killing that pathetic and useless excuse for a human." I hear Blaine spit out just seconds before Slade slits his throat. I can hear his last breath escape his lips. I can hear Flora shriek as she watches someone that she probably liked die.

"But I didn't kill her though. I'm sorry for everything that my brother did. I'm sorry about all the pain that he caused you. But you have to realize that everything that you went through, I went through too. I had to watch my brother be brutally killed by his brother." I remember Pane saying just before I killed him. I can see myself throwing the knife into his throat.

"No." I hear Flora let out in a weak and quiet tone as I crushed her skull with a rock. I may have killed her the same way that Clove died, but she deserved it.

"Goodbye… Strom…" I shut my eyes at the sight of his death. Slade is defiantly the one tribute I will never get over.

"If it were any other situation, I wouldn't have killed him." I hear Falcon as he begs for his life, just seconds before our fight unravels and I send knifes into his throat. I smile at the thought of Falcon dead… but I don't feel as if I have accomplished anything. I didn't want to kill Falcon until he killed Slade. But he only killed Slade in the game of survival. This game changed Falcon. He was a good person. He was just sucked into the game of survival. And he was turned into a beast. Tears begin to roll down my face as I think about them all. I guess I have too large of a conscience.

I finally reach District 2. I look out the window to see everyone in town square cheering as the train arrives at the station. Practically everyone in the District is here to see me come home. I know that I should be flattered. But I'm not. All I want to do is be all alone in my home and cry for weeks on end. I don't want to see anyone's smiling face.

I walk out of the train to have the air filled with their cheers and their applause for me. I tell a Peacemaker that is escorting me to take me somewhere away from everyone. He does as I ask and takes me into the room where Tributes say their goodbyes before going into the Capitol to participate in The Hunger Games. The same room where I first saw Poppy.

I stay inside this room for quite a while until a Peacekeeper comes in and tells me that I have a guest. I decide the let the guest come in out of curiosity of who it is. Soon after, two Peacekeepers bring in, none other than… Cortex, to come see me.

"Why are you in shackles?" I ask as he comes in, in handcuffs and shackles.

"I was arrested for killing two women." Prostitutes no doubt. "I guess you can only kill in The Hunger Games, and get away with it, eh Storm?" he says in a smug manner.

"What do you want?" I ask bitterly.

"I was wrong about you Storm. You are strong. You are strong enough to win the games."

"Is this all you came to tell me?"

"You aren't like your sister Storm. You are still weak. You rely too much on others to kill instead of killing them yourself."

"Did you not just see The Hunger Games? Or do they not allow you to watch television in your cell?"

"Oh I saw you. But all I saw was you crying over that stupid boy from here." He chuckles in a disgusting way.

"Get out." I say calmly.

"He wasn't that handsome Storm. I guess you were just so desperate."

"Get out!" I yell as the anger fills my body.

"I saw it coming you know? I knew he was going to die. There was no way that he was strong enough to win."

"Take him away from me!" The two Peacekeepers grabbed Cortex violently and shoved him away from me. Screw you Cortex… I won, and you can't take that away from me.

A few minutes pass when another Peacekeeper walks in. "You have another guest." He says.

"I don't want to see anyone anymore." I say looking out the window.

"She says it's important that she sees you."

"Who is it?" I say still looking out the window.

"She says her name is Poppy."

My heart drops at the thought of seeing Poppy again. I don't want to see her, but I know that I should. "Let her in." I say after a sigh.

The door closes, a few seconds pass, and then the door opens again. I am not facing the door, but I can tell by the atmosphere, that Poppy is inside the room. I turn around slowly and see her solemn face. Then, she runs at me and gives me a tight hug. I can feel her balling into my shoulder… and I soon do the same.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I couldn't save him." I say as my voice is muffled in her shoulder.

"No sweetheart. You tried to save him. I know you did." She says in a reassuring tone.

"I could have tried harder."

Poppy grabs my face and looks into my eyes. "Storm, you made Slade happy. I haven't seen him smile so blissfully since before Cato died. You gave Slade the beautiful gift of love. And I know… I know, in the bottom of my heart, that he loved you. Thank you Storm for everything you did for Slade. I can't thank you enough. You don't know how happy you made me."

I smile at her, still tearing up though. "Your son was the best thing that ever happened to me. Thank you Poppy. Thank you for mothering a most perfect thing in my life."

"Oh Storm." She brought me back into another tight hug. "I just can't believe he is dead." We both cry as the image of Slade's death comes into our minds. "But wherever he is, he is with Cato and Clove, and he is watching over us." I simply nod. I don't know what to say now. I can't say anything. "You know, I was the person who sent you that letter. I made sure that everyone from District 2 was with me in wanting you to come back to us." Finding this out makes my broken heart melt. I can't say anything. I am so surprised and happy that words can't come out of my mouth. And Poppy understood this. "Storm." She says pulling me away. "We have room for you to stay at our home for a while if you'd like. I know that you don't have anyone to come back to."

"Thank you Poppy. But I need to be by myself for a while. You understand?"

"Of course Storm. Just come to me whenever you can."

"Thank you Poppy." She smiles at me, and then leaves me to be alone in this room again.

It takes four hours for the streets to fall empty. Once they are, I am escorted to my old home. They tell me that in three days I will be able to take my home in Victor's Village. I am alright with staying in this home for a little bit longer.

I walk around the home. It is so empty right now. The home that once held Clove and I, is now an empty brick building. I look into the kitchen. I can see the ghostly figures of Clove and I when we were young. We were having a food fight. It all started because I accidentally threw some chocolate batter in her face as I was mixing it. I walk into the bathroom where I see Clove wiping off blood from my lip. My uncle cut my lip. Clove was so furious that I thought she was going to kill him then and there. I walk into the living room. I can see Clove and I watch movies all night long. I walk into my bedroom. I can see Clove talking to me about The Hunger Games, and how what she is going to do will make our lives so much easier. Little did she know, it would ruin my entire life. Lastly, I walked into Clove's old bedroom. I can see Clove and I sleeping in her bed. I was terrified because there was a thunderstorm that night. Clove let me sleep in her bed with her and sang me to sleep. All the distress that I feel for my sister is back, as I looked around the house. I guess the turmoil of a sister is far deeper than anyone can ever imagine.

I look at Clove's old bed. The bed is made; it's a little wrinkled because I slept on top of the covers the day before my reaping. I crawl into the bed, not going under the covers. I don't want to ruin the bed. I begin to think about everything that I had been through.

At the age of eight I witnessed my brother Carsh's death on national television in the 70th annual Hunger Games. Four months later, I find my father's dead body on the arm chair. All the liquor that was once in the cabinet is now in his body. Six months after my father's suicide Clove and I find our mother face down I the bath tub full of bloody water. Two weeks after our mother's death we are taken to our uncle. Two years in his hell hole Clove finally kills him. We secretly bury him and make sure that no one knows he is dead. Clove and I didn't want to be separated in District homes. A year later… Clove volunteers for the 74th annual Hunger Games. And… I watch her die. Five years… Five entire years pass. I spend those years training for The Hunger Games, and then… I am finally chosen as Female Tribute of District 2 for the 79th annual Hunger Games.

Five kills in one day. I take five tribute's lives on the first day. Two days later, I kill another tribute. Then, I leave the Careers. Four days pass and I save Tayo from the Careers, taking Nara down while I was there. Three days later, I witness Tayo fall to the hand of Blaine. I then become allies with Slade again. Next thing I know, I am face to face with the brother of the man that killed my sister. I was so blinded by revenge that I was willing to kill a person, who had nothing to do with my sister's death. I eventually killed Pane because I had to survive. Four days later a feast is held, and I meet up with the little princess. I feel no remorse killing her. Even if I killed her the same way Clove was killed. Flora 100% deserved it. Weeks pass after Flora's death, and Slade and I make a connection that I never want to end… but eventually it comes to an erupt halt. I watch as Falcon stabs Slade with his own sword. Six days after Slade's death I am a complete wreck, but I finally see Falcon and take him down with all the knifes I had.

Ten people. I took ten people's lives in the two months and three days that I spent in The Hunger Games. I killed. Watched people be killed. And held my first love in my arms as he slowly died. It all seems to happen so fast when I bring it all together like this, but as I re-live it… it feels like years of my life.

I press my knees up against my chest. I begin to cry as I think about everything that I have been through. I want to kill myself right here, right now. But I promised Slade that I would live. And I won't break my promise to him. No matter how hard it will be. I will live on, for Slade. I think about all the people that left me here to rot on this earth.

I hear three loud thumps hit my front door. I jump at the loud deep sound. "Peacekeeper's! Open up!" A Peacekeeper shouts from outside my window. I can't help but to smile. It is about time the Gamesmakers come and punish me for flipping them off. I know that I am going to be carried away and probably killed for treason. But, knowing the Capitol, they will make it look like suicide, so they won't be held responsible and look like animals. Funny how powerful and corrupt the Capitol really is. And yet now one cares to stand up and fight. We as humans are truly a bunch of cowards. I would do something if I cared enough to… but I don't.

I don't have a father. I don't have a mother. I don't have a brother. I don't have a sister. And I don't have Slade anymore… I am truly… All Alone…

~The End~