A/N: Ladies and Gentleman, the conclusion of Mockingjay:
Katniss stands up and is ushered out of the room by Effie, Plutarch, and her prep team, touching up on any minor details. They probably need her to look like nothing has phased her, like she's still the same person who took Prim's place nearly two and a half years ago.
I don't see her again until the execution. There are steps leading up to the mansion from the city circle. Snow is tied to a post, but it isn't necessary. Where would he run to?
Katniss stands there, straight, holding her bow and single arrow, aimed at his heart, right where Coin had the rose placed. The rest of us, the victors, stand on the balcony, just a few stories above Katniss and Snow. I look out at the city, and the surrounding streets are filled with onlookers. There's a large audience anxiously awaiting someone's murder.
Coin has a smirk on her face, and I don't know why, but it makes me uneasy. She looks to be smiling for all the wrong reasons, but again, I might just be paranoid.
Johanna looks a little too happy as well. "Come on, through the heart. Through the heart," She says, eyes wide. I can't see any emotion in Annie's face or Beetee's but they both stand there folding their arms over their chest. Gale won't take his eyes off Katniss. Shocker.
Enobaria resembles the look on Coin's face, like death amuses her. You'd think she'd be more upset about all this, having been through torture. But then again, she was tortured at the hands of Snow, and she didn't even have any information.
Haymitch glances at Katniss every few seconds to be sure he doesn't miss the firing of the arrow, but he's also preoccupied with his flask being empty.
I see her fire the arrow, but instead of hearing cheers and shouts, there are gasps and screams, then complete silence. I don't realize what happened until I look to my left and see Coin, an arrow through her chest, falling over the railing of the balcony.
Everyone on the balcony runs over to look at the stairs she'd fallen onto.
She's bleeding from her arrow wound but also from her head, and her limbs all appear to be broken. If she wasn't killed instantly by the arrow, she's certainly dead now.
Obviously, now I know that Katniss chose to shoot her arrow through Coin's heart instead of Snows.
But why?
Did she miss? No, not possible. She never misses. And even if she did, there's no way she would have missed by several yards a few stories, right through Coin's heart.
No, this was intentionally done.
Only, did she go temporarily insane?
Was there some other underlying reason for it?
It's too chaotic now to ask questions.
Immediately I run, down the stairs and out the front door, scared to death that Katniss will be killed for her decision to kill Coin instead of Snow. But when I finally get out the front doors, that's not what's happening. Katniss reaches for her night lock pill and the horrifying moment comes when I know that she will take that pill and kill herself if I can't get to her in time.
Just before she tosses the little purple pill back, I close my hand over it and she ends up biting my hand. I yank it back, now holding the pill in my hand. "Let me go!" She screams at me.
It reminds me of before, when I begged her and everyone else to just let me die. I told her, "Katniss, please. Can't you see I want out of this?"
She didn't let me die and I won't let her die either, if my life depends on it. I've kept her alive this long, haven't I?
Our eyes lock, and another memory surfaces. In the tunnel. "Because that's what we do. We protect each other."
She tries to get out of my grasp. "I can't," I tell her, not letting her go. Holding on desperately to her.
But it's no longer up to me. Soldiers in gray grab her and drag her while she's kicking and screaming away from me. I try to go after her, wrestle their arms off of her, but even though my attempt would be pointless as there's no where to run, I couldn't try anyway. Because other soldiers are dragging me away too. The only thing I manage to do is get the pill away from her, and I watch it fall to the ground and get crushed to powder under someone's boot.
I'm taken to my room in the mansion, and the guards warn me that they'll be outside and to not try anything. They do allow Haymitch in, though.
He tells me that Snow died, no one was sure how. He either choked to death on his own blood or he was crushed by the crowd. "There's an emergency election in the study tomorrow, to elect a new leader."
"What difference does it make?" I shout, ramming my fist into the wall, creating a giant hole. "Really, Haymitch! Coin? Snow? They're all the same. Nothing changes here! We're all better off dead! I should have died after being shot here, in Snow's mansion. The dungeon underneath!" I scream still, now tossing everything I can across the room. I throw a lamp at his head but he successfully dodges it.
Then everything breaks down. The anger comes apart at the seams revealing only emptiness and hopelessness and fear. I throw myself onto the bed and can't stop the sobs from coming. He sits next to me but doesn't say anything. I don't blame him. This isn't his fault. What could he say?
"I wish I'd have just died. I wish you guys wouldn't have come for me."
"I used to think the same thing. That I'd rather be dead than the victor of the last Quarter Quell."
I look up at him now. "I lost more after the Games than I did during them."
"What?" I say, sitting up now.
"The Capitol took them from me."
"Who?"
"My family."
"Oh." I say, forcing myself to remain calm. I do the same thing I do when I'm getting a flashback. I repeat everything I know to be true in my head. I find a quiet place in the deep space inside my brain, and I focus on breathing. In. Out. In. Out.
Eventually the sobs stop. Haymitch tells me that when he refused to play by the Capitol's rules after the Games, they killed his parents and his girlfriend.
"That's why you've always been afraid of people." I say. He nods.
"It's over now, Peeta. There isn't going to be any more Games, we'll see to it. Rest up, vote's tomorrow."
He starts to walk out of the room, but he is staying here too. "Where are you going?"
"Now I've gotta go talk to the other one." He says, and I assume he means Katniss.
The next day I wake up and he's already awake, lying in his bed across the room, staring at the ceiling. "What happened?" I ask him, sitting up.
"They won't let me in. They want to have her trial first."
"Trial?"
"Don't panic. They won't kill her. Worst they'll do is keep her isolated and under Dr. Aurelius' care. She lost it. Everyone knows that. This country would go crazy if they killed her after all of this."
I'm still incredibly worried, but I have to put that aside for now, as we're wanted in the study.
All citizens of Panem are able to cast a vote. There aren't very many telephones in the districts, only in the mayor's house and victor's village. But we're told there are polling booths all over the town squares of each district, and then after the votes are tallied, the mayor of the district will call in to the Capitol to give that district's final result.
The next day, the same day of Katniss' trial, we find out that Paylor won by a landslide. She had my vote. She's honest and hard working and she's not obsessed with power. I couldn't think of a better President.
She and some of her commanders that have now become her adversaries, have discussed the new form of government with all district mayors and have come up with a plan.
She is the President, but the power isn't centrally located like it was for Snow and how it would have been had Katniss not had the guts to shoot Coin. Each district mayor makes the decisions regarding his or her district, and President Paylor only oversees their jobs. With power more local, and more widely distributed, an oppressive government is unlikely.
Still, to prevent the tiny possibility, a new vote will be cast every ten years, either re electing the old President or electing a new one. Every five years, a new mayor may be elected or re elected.
Paylor has ordered for all district fences to be taken down. She was interviewed and the interview was broadcasted on television. In it, she said, "Panem, all of it's land and all of it's natural resources, belong to the citizens of the country, not to a single person."
The remaining victors will not be showered in riches from the Capitol any longer, but we'll be paid what's called "reparations" for a period of five years, after that, we'll need to work to make money. All free markets and free trade is now not only legal, but encouraged for the new economy to grow and thrive.
District travel is now legal and encouraged as well. Citizens of any district may now travel freely anywhere they choose so long as they can pay for it, but with free market now legal and encouraged, it's not hard to afford.
Memorials have been ordered to be put up in the training center of the Capitol, in addition to all seventy five arena's.
The last thing I saw on television after Paylor's interview, was an image of citizens destroying a statue of President Snow in the city circle of the Capitol.
I watched the trial but wasn't permitted to speak because Haymitch said I was biased. True. Haymitch and Gale and her mother weren't allowed to speak on her behalf either.
In the end though, it turned out okay but Dr. Aurelius played the "shell-shocked lunatic" card for her and she was sentenced to confinement back in the currently under construction district 12 until further notice. She is also to remain under the doctor's care by phone. Oh, and Haymitch has to go with her.
The morning he leaves, he tells me, "Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on her."
It doesn't help much, knowing half the time he'll be drunk but Dr. Aurelius was told to keep me here until he was sure that I'd be stable enough to go back to 12.
"We don't need them killing each other." Haymitch told me, mimicking Paylor telling that to the doctor.
Over the next several weeks, Dr. Aurelius has me rewatch the tapes to refresh my mind and encourages me to paint and draw in his new office in the Capitol during my sessions.
Delly is still alive and moved back to District 12, and I'm encouraged by the doctor to keep in touch with her, by calling at least once a week. He tells me to talk about fond memories we have of our childhoods. He tells me to try and avoid talking about Katniss while talking to Delly. He tells me to focus on childhood memories, telling me that remembering a simpler time may help my mind erase untrue memories that I've yet to overcome.
Eventually, he gives me a release form that I'm to hand to Effie, who'll then make arrangements to get me onto a hovercraft to take me back to 12.
Before I leave, he says, "Just because you're stable now doesn't mean you're magically completely better. Remember how to control your flashbacks and how to avoid your triggers."
"I will."
"And tell that stubborn girl to call me. I can't keep pretending that I'm treating her forever. She does have to pick up the phone once in awhile."
I laugh. "Got it. I'll see that she does."
Effie cries when she drops me back off in District 12 but then I remind her that she can come anytime and she cheers up at the invite that felt kind of forced. She's kind of a lot to handle but every once in awhile it'd be nice to see her.
Back in the district, the first thing I do is take a tour of the place.
The Hob is back up but is now called a "farmer's market" where everyone trades their goods. There are still broken, burnt pieces of wood and ash is everywhere, but new paint and construction masks the smell of burnt ash from the district.
The school is back up though all grades are now being taught in just a few classrooms, with just a few teachers, as now there are just shy of one hundred children living here.
My family's bakery is gone, but most other merchant stores are as well. Some are rebuilding, and I know I plan to do the same and reopen my family's bakery. For now, I guess I can bake in my own house in the Victor's Village which I still get to keep.
Before going back to my house for the first time, I want to see her, but I can't. Greasy Sae comes out of Katniss' house as night falls and tells me that Katniss is sleeping. If Greasy Sae just left then I doubt that she is sleeping, but I don't argue.
Instead, I knock on Haymitch's door.
"Hey."
"Come in," he says, only slightly drunk tonight.
We catch up on what's been going on in the district, and he tells me to go out into the forest the next day. "It's weird, the meadow is turning green again, so I heard. Nobody's been taking care of it or anything."
I make a point to go and see that.
Before I leave for the night he tells me, "And Peeta?"
I turn around.
"Leave her alone for a few days, okay? She may still need some time."
I nod and shut his door.
The next morning I wake up very early, a few hours before dawn and head into the woods and spend a long time in the meadow. Haymitch was right, and the rumors he heard were true. The meadow is turning green again. It's obviously not been seeded, and no one is taking care of it. It's almost like it's a sign of more peaceful times to come, but I know that's not possible.
Most of it is still black and charred. But there are patches of new grass in different areas of it, and no one can explain how.
On my way back, a little after dawn, I walk by different bushes of evening primroses and I know what I have to do.
To pay tribute to Prim, I dig some of them up and take them to Katniss' house in the Victor's Village.
She wakes up and comes outside when I'm about halfway done planting them in her front yard.
She looks horrible, like she just gave up on life. She's got no color in her face, she's thinner, her hair is matted and she just looks like she's got no will left.
And still, I have to fight the urge to run up and hug her. She eyes the bushes. "You're back."
"Dr. Aurelius wouldn't let me leave the Capitol until yesterday. By the way, he said to tell you he can't keep pretending he's treating you forever. You have to pick up the phone."
She spends a long time analyzing me, and I'm wondering if it's because she still doesn't trust me. I still wouldn't blame her.
She tries to get the knots out of her hair and she angrily asks me what I'm doing.
"I went to the woods this morning and dug these up, for her. I thought we could plant them along the side of the house."
I have no idea why I said "We" and "the house" instead of "your house."
She nods but then nearly runs back into the house, slamming the door shut, and I hear a clicking sound that tells me that she locked it as well.
As I walk back to my own house, a part of me wonders if we'll divert back to the way we were with each other after the first games. Not so much as a nod to say hello.
Will we pretend like nothing happened? Like we're strangers?
Or are we too damaged? Maybe the two of us are just beyond any kind of hope for a normal or at least semi-normal life.
Only time will tell.
A/N: Suzanne Collins' novel doesn't end here. She skips from this part to Katniss going hunting and then to them eventually falling for each other again. But since I'll be writing a post-Mockingjay, pre-epilogue story after this, my version of Mockingjay ends here. Thank you so much for your support and reviews and I hope you like the coming story as much as you liked the last three.
My post-Mockingjay story, "Deliverance", has now been posted. The first chapter is up. I also recommend these other post-Mockingjay fanfics: "The Way Back" By Katnissinme. Also, "Grow Together" by Miss Scarlet.
