Prompt: Let it snow
Oh the weather outside is frightful
"Use this for your friend," Madge's hands trembled as she thrust the glass vial into Katniss's hands. The falling snow muted her harsh whisper."
She might have been shivering from the cold but it was more likely from the fear. Fear of the new peacekeepers- cruel and distant in their pristine snow-white uniforms. Fear for Gale, strong Gale who always seemed so invincible. He didn't seem invincible when Katniss had dragged him from the square hours earlier, his body limp and bloody.
She heard a low, broken moan the moment before she'd knocked on the door. So different from the last time he'd spoken to her. Pretty dress, he'd said all those months ago. She hated the words then but would have given anything for him to say them now.
Katniss's eyes were hard as she tightened her fist around the bottle. "He can't pay you for this."
Money. It all came down to money. She wanted to shake Katniss by the shoulders and shout, "I don't need his money I need him to live!"
"Don't tell him." The flat words fell from her lips before she could stop them.
He already hated her for all the wrongs she'd committed. For having the audacity to be born on the wrong side of town, to have the wrong color hair, to wear a new dress on the single worst day of the year. What was one more thing to hate?
Yet she couldn't bear it if he hated her for this.
"Don't tell him," She repeated firmly.
"I won't lie to him." Katniss stepped away from her, one foot back in her world. "But I won't say anything if he doesn't ask."
The door shut quietly, a permanent barrier keeping her on the outside. She couldn't give him warmth or comfort, he already had Katniss for that. She couldn't give him friendship, he would reject that. But she could give him morphling.
But the fire is so delightful
Hot flames licked up his back, scorching his bones and devouring his flesh. With every pulse of his heart, he felt another lash of the whip.
Had it been hours? Days? Maybe longer. Maybe he was dead and this would be his eternity. Burning for his sins while the voices of the living pleaded for his soul. His mother, Rory, Vick.
He wanted to shout to them, tell them to save their time. Life was cruel, why should death be any different?
Cool metal pressed to his cracked lips. He wanted to laugh. They offered water to a dead man. A solitary glass of water to douse the white-hot fire. Still, he drank with greed. If this was his last sip of water, then he would be damned if he didn't get every drop of it.
He slumped back down, coal dirtied hands dangling past the edge of the table and silently prayed to whoever listened to let him die.
Then the fury calmed. The curdling heat left his bones and a gentle haze came down over his eyes. Grey, like everything else in the godforsaken district, but painless. Chilled fingers pressed to his cheeks and stroked damp hair back from his temples. His blurry eyes focused on her. Dark hair, dark eyes. She looked like an angel come to save him from the wrathful pain.
Katniss.
Maybe death had come for him after all.
Since we've no place to go
She stood in the shadows of the house, praying that the peacekeepers didn't come this far. There was no logic or reason as to why she stayed for so long after Katniss closed the door.
A naive hope, maybe.
Of course, she didn't expect Gale to leap to his feet at the first sip of morphing. Didn't expect him to throw open the door and whisk her into his arms with a plea, 'don't ever leave me'.
Dull embarrassment flushed her cheeks. No, she didn't expect anything at all but she stayed anyway, cheek pressed to the hinge of the door.
His earlier groans had quieted into rattling gasps. Somehow that seemed even worse as if he didn't have the will to fight any longer. The rushed footsteps had also stopped, no one was moving.
Was she too late? Did her fear of the peacekeepers prevent her from getting him morphling in time?
She cursed her stupidity for waiting. She should have been braver. She should have just brought the morphling as soon as it happened rather than waiting for the dark.
She should have been more like Katniss.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow"
She sprinted through the pitch black of the night, gasping for air through her tears. She made desperate bargains with the desolate world. If Gale lived, she would volunteer for the next reaping. No, she wouldn't. She was too much of a coward for that. If he lived, she would… she would do nothing. She would remain in the shadows, watching and wanting. Then she would do her duty and marry another townie while he slipped deeper into Katniss's magnetism.
Even now, back on the "safe" side of the district, she couldn't shake the looming fear from the Seam. IT had settled in her belly and threatened to claw its way up her throat.
She skidded on the ice and landed on all fours. For several painful moments, the air left her body and the world spun. Her pitiful, choked coughs brought no relief from the harsh darkness closing in. Then the panic broke and she sucked in a deep breath of icy air.
She told herself it was better this way. She would go home and forget tonight. He would never need to know and life would continue as it should.
Next Prompt: TBD!
If anyone has suggestions for a prompt, send them my way!
-M-