I had to bite my lip to hold back a grin as I listened to the Capitol attendants grumble as they packed up their belongings to catch the train. I had felt relief wash over me when Tissel had mentioned they had to be at the train station immediately after breakfast in the morning, and in my gleeful spite, I had even offered to help them pack. They had initially accepted my offer, though after only a few minutes it was clear I was just in the way and I happily made myself scarce.
I was setting down a tray of tea for them when the sound of the Games broadcast music came on strong through the television, Caesar Flickerman's voice calling for attention from those who were watching. At this point in the Games, that was most of Panem as our televisions only turned off in the evenings after their last broadcast of the day. From my father, I knew they were even broadcasting down in the mines with radios. Just compounding the misery of the workday.
Only a handful of the attendants milling about the room turned to look at the tv, and it wasn't until he announced a 'rule change' that everyone stopped in their tracks and their full attention was on the broadcast.
A rule change? I thought. I couldn't remember a rule change during the Games ever.
They cut to the Games, a split screen showing the tributes from both Two and Twelve. Peeta lay camouflaged in a creek bed, so it was hard to get a good look at him though I could see that he hadn't moved since they had shown him last night. Katniss sits strapped into a tree; exhaustion worn on her features. I had a moment to realize that these were the last two districts with both tributes still alive when Claudius announced the rule change.
Both tributes from the same district could be declared winner if they were the last two standing.
I blinked with my face impassive, trying to process this as the Capitolites shrieked with surprise and... joy? After a brief moment, I knew. This was for Katniss and Peeta. The star-crossed lovers bit. Though if really for our tributes or for the audience, it was hard to tell. These people were eating it up, some even began weeping as they chattered on about how 'they could finally be together'. If I was being honest with myself, I felt my own little flicker of hope. Not for their love story, but that we may not have to bring any of our tributes home in a wood box this year.
For Peeta, this was much more tenuous as the doctors had discussed the risks of his thigh wound going untreated for the length of time that it had already, sighting the fever that his tracker was reporting. There was already a good chance that the infection would take him out before anyone else could.
Katniss's realization came with our own, and the sound of her voice calling out Peeta's name echoed in the room before the broadcast cut back to the announcers.
I turned to leave then, slipping out of the room but stopping short when I nearly stepped straight into my mother. She was in her night dress and long robe, her hands clasped together in front of her as she peered into the sitting room. Her eyes were distant before she looked back to me, her hands reaching out to grasp my own.
"Mama, what are you doing up?" I ask in a quiet voice, but her eyes flicked from mine back into the room bustling with chatter for a long moment. I could see the haze of the morphling lingering in her drowsy eyes, as it always did when it began to fade.
"They might both come home," she whispered, her grip tightening on my hands as tears welled her in eyes. To this her gaze held my own and it was as if I could see everything she wanted to say in that moment.
I nodded softly, giving her a small smile. "They might come home," I confirmed. This was enough for her, and she let go of my hands, turning to disappear into the kitchen to retrieve her dinner of leftovers.
I stood there for a long moment, watching after the space she had just occupied as my mind milled restlessly though no single thought stayed long enough to take hold. The exhaustion of the day finally settling into my bones, my eyes burning and heavy but unable to find the sleep my body craved for hours once I had finally climbed into my bed.
I picked at my breakfast the next morning, listening quietly as their conversation continued from the night before. I wondered how much they could discuss the same thing in circles, especially given that they had no new information. During one particularly annoying bout of excited chatter, I rolled my eyes. Thinking I had gotten away with this, I glanced up at my father and caught the tiny shake of his head, his gaze telling me that he had seen this. I looked down at my plate, my cheeks turning pink with shame.
I could hear my father's voice in my head, telling me that my attitude needed to be reined in. I was getting too bold with my disdain for our guests. The older I got, the harder it was to hold it in.
Thankfully the phone rang, signaling them to shuffle from their seats to gather their bags as Tissel arranged the cars arriving to pick them up in just a few minutes. I quietly cleared the table, feeling a second pang of guilt as I scraped the remnants of my breakfast into a napkin that I planned to toss over for a neighbor's pigs later.
Though later came much sooner, taking my chance to slip out the back door as they loaded up their car. The mid-morning air was already thick with the humid heat of late summer. As I passed the pig pen, I stopped, tossing over the scraps from breakfast as the animal let out his usual excited noises at the sight of me. My neighbor had noticed me doing this a few months back but didn't seem to mind.
As I reached the dirt road heading into the Seam, I noticed that there were only a handful of people passing by into town. My mind was occupied as I trudged the mile in the sun, a little surprised when I had reached the first houses. I had been noticed less the more I came to visit the Everdeens, and I was thankful that they no longer saw me as an outsider. Indifference was better than the resentment that told me I didn't belong.
I only made it a few more yards when I heard my name being called from behind me. The familiar voice made my breath catch and I froze mid-step, turning on my heel back toward him. Gale nodded, his lips turning up in a grin as he strode closer, his empty game bag bouncing against his hip as it hung from his shoulder.
"Hawthorne," I greeted, my hands clasping together in front of me to fight my urge to cross my arms.
This earned a smirk as his long strides stopped in front of me. "Madge," he returned the greeting, his use of my first name catching me off-guard as a blush crept across my cheeks. I was hoping it could be brushed off as flush from the summer heat setting in.
"Getting a late start?" I asked, nodding toward the empty game bag.
He shrugged, glancing down the road behind me. "There was... a lot of discussion going on this morning, I couldn't escape fast enough," he said, his tone too cool for his words. "I'm just going to check my line since it's almost noon. Want to come?"
His casual invitation surprising me for the second time in minutes. I nodded with a small shrug, trying to stifle the naïve excitement that bubbled up. I should know better than to think he thought of someone like me as a friend. He stepped around me, my nod a sufficient answer for him, his arm brushing mine as I turned to follow.
I was determined to not be a bother, so I kept pace with him, the idea of leaving the district again fulfilling the daydreams I had been entertaining since the first time I followed him past the fence. Logically, I knew better than to leave the bounds of the district. Especially as the Mayor's daughter. But what was overpowered my logic was the intoxicating liberation from the suffocating lack of agency. Of needing to watch every word, every facial expression, the implication of every action. Beyond the fence, the only person to witness my treason also enjoyed partaking.
This thought was halted when I remembered that Gale slipped the fence not only because he enjoyed it, but because this was how he kept his family alive. And here I was, gleefully treating this like an exhilarating excursion. This sobered my quick steps, and I found myself biting my lip as he held the loose fencing up for me to duck under. He eyed me carefully as I slipped through, returning the favor for him.
"It's only about three or so miles," Gale explained, his suspicious steely eyes still trained on my face as if he expected me to back out.
"Lead the way," I smiled diplomatically, gesturing toward the small worn path leading into the deep green underbrush behind him. I followed his sure steps, mine less confident but I refused to give him a reason to see me as a burden today. After the first ten minutes, he stopped on the narrow, trampled food path and turned to look back at me.
"It's a good thing I'm not trying to hunt today, you'd scare away anything nearby," he remarked, his tone not entirely matching the amused smirk he was fighting back.
My mouth opened twice, trying to piece together a snarky enough response to snap back. Finally, I rolled my eyes. "I'm not that loud," I argued, and his eyebrow arched in disbelief. "We can't all be as graceful as you are."
At this, his smirk broke through briefly and he moved just a step closer to me. "Try," he whispered, his eyes holding mine for a long moment before he turned away to begin back down the path. I stared after him before the increasing distance between us snapped me back into reality. Jogging to catch up, trying to keep my steps as quiet and deliberate as I could, I internally cursed the way he so easily got under my skin. His smirk telling me he knew exactly how much it caught me off-guard. A secondhand thought acknowledging what I was sure was an obvious blush across my fair cheeks, words running through my mind that would surely earn a scathing scolding from my father.
As we walked quietly, Gale took a few moments to point out different places familiar to him. A ridge holding a set of high trees he would use to wait for prey, a shift of his boot against the dirt showing a foundation of faded black pavement—a place he said used to be a large road through the woods, now overgrown and reclaimed by the forest. It made sense that at one time, people would have regularly ventured out into the wilderness, thinking back to our history lessons about the civilization before the Dark Days. But it was hard to imagine how everything looked before we were confined within the Districts.
His pace finally slowed as we approached the first of his snare lines, and I watched from beside a nearby tree as he knelt, removing the now-dead rabbit from the almost-invisible entrapment he had placed. After placing the animal in his game bag, I couldn't look away as his hands, scarred from years out here, reset the snare line. I hadn't noticed he had said something to me until my eyes caught him staring back at me, a dark eyebrow raised.
"What?" I tried to play off my distraction casually, pulling my hair back and tying it with the ribbon I had slipped into my pocket before I left this morning. He shook his head, going back to his work. "How did you learn how to do that?" I asked, leaning against the rough bark of the tree.
Finishing as he stood, Gale shrugged slightly. "My dad taught me some basic ones when I was a kid. I've had a lot of quiet hours to think out here, so I've figured out some of my own," he admitted. "I've been using this one for too long though. I'm surprised I got anything on it. They usually get wise to ones that stay in the same place and avoid them. I need to move it soon."
I considered this as he strode past me, his arm nearly brushing mine as I felt my pulse thudding in my head. Chalking this up to the heat, I mentally scolded myself for not stopping at the small creek we had passed for water. It was hotter that I would have thought under the cover of the trees, the canopy holding in the dense, humid heat even without the direct sunlight. Still refusing to complain, I turned to follow. "How often do you move them?" I pried, still curious.
I listened as he explained how he tried to change them with the season, sometimes sooner if he wasn't noticing good results. As we stopped at the second snare a few minutes down the path, he took extra time to explain how this one worked. How he had been experimenting with various methods. His face changed, relaxing into a certain concentration that intrigued me. I realized with an uneasy pang in my stomach that I wanted to listen to him talk like this all day. I would have willingly stayed here until the sky went dark. I trusted his assuredness in this most unfamiliar place to me.
Once we finished the snare line, he continued down a path until he reached a thick patch of bushes. I watched as he began pulling a handful of the little berries off. Reaching his hand out, he offered them to me. "Blueberries?" I questioned as I took them.
"Yeah, these pop up heavy this time of year. Posy loves them so I always stop to get her some," Gale confirmed, slipping some into a small pocket of the game bag before taking some for himself. I sat down on a fallen log, inspecting the tiny berries before popping one into my mouth. Gale moved to sit beside me, eating his own handful. He glanced over to me, "Sorry strawberries are out of season now."
This made me blush though I shrugged it off, biting back a smile. "I like blueberries well enough too," I noted which earned a grin from him.
He didn't say anything for a long moment before speaking up again. "There's another patch nearby, they look just like this except... more vibrant. The leaves look a little different too. Don't eat those unless you have a death wish."
"Don't we all?" I joked; my brazen sense of dark humor coming out, something I usually kept tucked away inside my mind. Gale snorted a laugh, shaking his head as it hung down a little.
The conversation changed, and I listened as his tone changed, his frustration melting out of him as he talked about how he dreaded going into the mines in just a handful of days. I could see the righteous fury blazing in his eyes as he ranted about the unfairness of the society system. While not unwarranted, it unsettled me.
I knew this was his safe place, where he could say everything he kept pent up inside every day. I knew his anxiety was warranted. I remembered the ceremony for the miners killed in the accident that had claimed his father. I remembered all of them, but this one stayed with me. Seeing kids I went to school with at the front of the stage, now without their fathers and mothers as my own father stood safely beside them. It was those ceremonies where I felt my own status creating an "us and them" dynamic.
But for once, as I quietly let Gale vent everything into the secure, serene silence of the forest, I didn't feel that his anger was directed at me or what I represented. He was trusting me with his treasonous words the same way I was trusting him by following him out here.
As the sun began moving lower in the early afternoon sky, we began the hour-long trek back to the district. After ducking back under the fence and reaching the first houses at the edge of the Seam did something seem off. There were two miners sitting outside the Everdeen's house along with a woman in a dress that ended in worn hems at her ankles. I glanced up at Gale, but it wasn't until I saw the color drain from his face that I realized what was going on.
Inside the Everdeen's house was an injured miner. The ones sitting at the stoop of the house had patches of blood on their uniforms, and the woman stood nearly catatonic staring down the path from where we came without really seeing us. I stopped, putting my hand on his arm. This brought him back to reality, looking down at me with his gray eyes steeled against this fresh panic.
"Gale, go home. I'll take in what's theirs," I said, trying to keep my tone confident though dreading what I would see when I walked into the house. "You don't need to see that."
Glancing back to the small house before he nodded, reaching into the bag and pulling out the three rabbits he had divided up for Prim and her mother. I took them from him, turning away and walking off before he could change his mind. I could feel his eyes on my back as I climbed the stairs, earning suspicious and confused glances from the two men on either side of me. They didn't say anything though, and I took a deep breath before pushing the door open.
I need to say thank you to those of you who have continued to read this as I have taken some time away to figure out how to grieve while balancing school and work, and a special thank you to the anon reviewer just a few days ago. Your review made me smile, and motivated me to finish this chapter I have been chipping away at for weeks now. I won't make promises on when I'll update, but I'm hoping I can keep this inspiration thread going. We're winding down the first part of the story aligning with the first book, and I think I'll keep the story within the same posting until the end of Catching Fire. Building the companionship between Gale and Madge has been a beautiful part of my conscious mind recently. As always, thank you endlessly for reading and I'll see you soon!