Chapter 21:
The weird thing about dreams would have to be the irony of them. Especially this one.
There's darkness all around me, it swirls but there's a peculiar brightness to it as if you were to be staring at the sun with your eyes closed. The brightness quickly grows and expands until it feels as if I'm surfing the sun then darkness, soo dark. Off in the distance I see a glowing light. I try to keep my distance from it remembering all those lame cliques of "Don't go to the light !" but it seems as if the iridescent glow is coming towards me. It comes closer into view and I can make out a figure. A woman!
She stands only inches away from me. I should be moaning on the ground in a pool of my own blood, well at least that's where I last left off, but I'm not. In fact I don't feel a thing. The numbness the pain. Gone. I quickly get to my feet only to come face to face with the strange glowing woman. She has long silky white hair and white glowing skin. She's dressed in a long, white, flowing gown. In fact the only part of her that isn't white is her eyes. One's a deep sapphire blue and the other is an astounding emerald green.
"You've fought so hard. You've brought honor to your District and family. You've won. Though your journey is far from over. There is much you still have to do." her voice comes and goes as if the wind was speaking to me.
"Journey? Far from over? What do you mean? Where am I?!" panic starts to flow through me, I didn't like this place. It didn't feel right.
"Patience. Everything will make sense eventually, but for now you must listen." The strange woman whispers to me in her wind voice.
"You have held your ground and fought like a warrior. You are victorious and there shall be peace for now. But don't sacrifice your stubbornness for peace, for it is what brought you this far." she says in whispers.
"I must go now. My journey ends but yours continues. It is time for you to wake up."
She turns away from me and starts walking.
"Wait!" I go to grab her shoulder with my hand which in turn goes right through her. I pull back my hand startled. She turns towards me.
"Whaa….t….ar….re…. you?" my voice quivers in shock.
She gives me a slight smile.
"I am you." and right before my eyes she erupts in flames before shooting upwards and shape shifting into an Eagle. Not just any Eagle though, a familiar one. And it isn't till she flies away that I recall the Eagle.
It's Wambli.
Everything goes blurry.
My eyes fly open as a jolt of left over adrenaline surges through my body springing me upward.
"Ahhhhgh!" I call out as my side lurches with pain.
Capitol nurses rush over in a failed attempt to calm me down.
"Where am I!? What happened?!" I shout.
"Shsssshhhh, it's all right, it's all right." they say in soothing voices. I start to panic more until the familiar face of Kekae comes forth. The nurses part to check on the weird charts next to my bed and the unsettling freakish tubes in my arms.
"Calla you've won and now you're here in the Restoration Center to heal. You passed out in the arena due to blood loss, and if you don't CALM down you'll rip you're stitches. So it's very important you don't panic. If you do then I'm afraid they're going to have to put you out. Do you understand?" she makes direct eye contact.
I nod my head slowly my mind still in a daze.
"So I won? I'm going home! I'm alive! I made it!" my emotions start to get the better of me.
"Yes, yes, but for now you need to rest and recuperate. You've had a critical injury." Kekae brings me back on track.
"I have to say though, in all my years as a mentor I have never seen something that amazing as what you did. You didn't want to die and you held onto that and never let go. Way to be a stubborn ass. You literally are a legend. But none of that matters now. What matters now is that you're alive and that you've survived. I am so glad for this!" she gingerly hugs me. A hug. Something I have never seen Kekae Sast give and thought I never would, not in a thousand years. I weakly hug her back.
"I am going home now right?" I ask still a tad dazed.
"Yes and everyone's excitingly waiting for you, all you need to do is give one finale interview, but don't worry about that now. All that's important is that you heal. Then we'll be on a train out of here faster than jackalope, I promise." she smiles.
It took 5 whole days for me to even walk normally. It turns out that hook wound really screwed things up, but thanks to Capitol medicine I was healing good and fast. I know have a 3 inch scare near my navel and a 1 and a ½ inch scare a on my back. My hand is completely
normal looking for the most part. My flesh has healed making it look like I was born with only 8 fingers. Even my healthy weight has been restored.
Going home to be in the arms of my family and fiancé you would think I was the happiest girl in the world, but the hard truth is that I'm not. Nearly every time my eyes shut I'm tormented by the grizzly images of the Games. This is what Coraree felt like? Suddenly everything seemed to make so much sense. What he felt. Not to forget that I killed people and as vicious as they may have been they weren't to blame for me being in the arena. It wasn't till now that I realized they weren't that different from me. They were just trying to survive. They were just kids. Who wouldn't lung at an opportunity out of the slums we live in called Districts. They just wanted to live. Tears poor down my cheeks.
"I'm sorry!...I'm soooo sorry!" I scream, tears flow from my eyes like a river filled with horrible memories. I cry for a long time, longer than I ever had before. When it's over I whip my face and sit down next to the window. It's cracked open so that the sun shine lights my face. I apologize to each and every one of them. Brook, Wave, the boy from 8, Henrick, Mapple, Orius, Drita, Shine, Platinum, and even Trench. I wish their spirits well in the afterlife and hope that where ever they are up in that bid blue sky that they can finally find peace there. As for me I know my journey is far from over and I only ask to find enough inner strength to finish it.
I smile because I swear I just saw something glitter in the sky.