The woods are silent thereafter, and Gale is ready for whatever fight the noise may bring. But when the girl steps around the tree, he visibly relaxes.
Catnip's mouth snaps shut, though, and she's evidently shaken by the young girl's presence. And Gale knows why; Catnip doesn't tell him how much she loves her sister, and she doesn't have to. Seeing Prim's reflection in those hallowed cheeks is killing her.
The girl's empty eyes, gray as a storm cloud, stare unblinkingly into theirs. She's a fragile, broken china doll, like the one his mother has sitting on a wooden shelf that stares vacantly into the room. The resemblance is uncanny, frightening, especially considering the blonde locks that fall limply to the child's shoulders.
Her waxen skin is glass, and her pale lips part as if to offer a word or two.
A small sigh erupts from those lips like it has cost her the world to breath it, and Gale feels a shiver so cold snake down his spine he cannot move. He cannot even help her.
Catnip is frozen, and her eyes are wider now, as if they are both realizing what this girl is at the same time. If she be truly be a girl.
Her dress is torn and burnt and white, and she looks at them a moment longer. Like an achy, old woman in the form of a tiny child, she speaks, "He-llp mee. Please."
The wind blows, but her dress stays still, never swaying in the wind.
And suddenly, he is so very, very afraid.
It's Catnip who whispers, "How?"
The girl just whimpers, "Please...please. They blew me up." And the wind blows again, and it seemingly take her away.
Where she stood is nothing.
Catnip takes in a sharp breath, and he is frozen to the spot. Suddenly, he feels her gray Seam eyes on him, and she whispers, "Prim."
"No, it wasn't, Katniss. Trust me."
Her eyes are blank and unfocused and she says, louder, "Prim, Gale, it was Prim...it was Prim, please, let me go...I saw her, those eyes..."
He grasps her shoulders in his two hands, and forces her to look into his eyes, and he says softly, "No, Katniss. Prim is safe at home with your mother..."
"No, Gale." The girl cries out, "My mother killed her, she's gone, they took it, they took her at the reaping...they will, they're going to, oh please, Gale, please." Katniss pleads, but he suddenly takes her into his arms, feels her stiffen but sinks to the ground with her.
She doesn't cry, but moans into his shirt, whispering, "Prim, it was Prim."
"Sh, she's too young, Catnip. It's okay. It was an image."
Catnip quiets as the dusk falls, and the memory of the ghostlike image burns their minds. Whomever the child was will stay with them for the rest of their lives, in the back of their minds.
Her voice is hard when she says, "Let's go home." No tears.
So is that girl a ghost? An image of future-Prim? Overactive imaginations? Hunger? Hallucinations? It's up to you.
HS1