4
By the time they made it back to the woods, daylight was declining into pinkish hues.
Katniss had wanted to leave immediately but with Haymitch almost out for the count and Cinna planning to pop out at some point, she had wanted to make some things certain. Like the fact Prim would know not to go outside, not to leave the Village and not to open the locks on the door and windows under any, any circumstance whatsoever.
The warlock promised the protections on the Village were entirely impermeable, completely different than the ones Effie had cast, that nothing could come or go without his say so, but Katniss only believed what she could see and magic was intangible to her.
She had also warned Prim not to untie Peeta or get too close to him, not even if he woke up. That didn't sit quite right with her but she figured Peeta would ultimately understand her reasons and wouldn't be mad at her for it. He would want her sister to be safe too.
She had also told her to be wary of Haymitch because she had no clue how withdrawals worked – even less when magic potions were involved – but she sensed it wouldn't be pretty and Haymitch could become dangerous. Cinna had insisted he would stay mostly lucid throughout the process with his potions' help but mostly didn't cut it for her. She had told Prim to search the house – and she had insisted on the searching part, every little nook would have to be inspected – and to get rid of all the booze she could find.
Prim had wanted to talk to her, she had seen that plainly, but she didn't have time and she wasn't sure she was calm enough for that. Every time she thought back to the fact her sister had been stupid enough to lie and sneak out on a stupid field trip next to the Hellmouth, rage washed over her like an unstoppable tide. It was an uncomfortable feeling because she couldn't remember ever being this mad at Prim.
By the time she had finally been ready to go, Gale had managed to get his ribs fixed by Cinna and find enough arrows for both of them. Some were from his own stock, she recognized the fabrication, some were similar to the ones she had used in the hell dimension so they must have come from the basement. She really needed to take fifteen minutes at some point and craft her own or convince Haymitch to order some lighter ones that would suit her style better. She supposed the ones they had at the house were some he had ordered for himself on the rare occasion he used a bow – which was never except if he couldn't help it.
They hadn't talked on the drive.
She had been wolfing down the now cold burgers and fries that were left and Gale had seemed lost in his own thoughts.
He parked the truck well before the road branched into the one that led to the hotel. They didn't want to come blazing in and attract questions from the police.
"How do we do this?" he asked.
"You heard Haymitch." she reminded him. "We patrol and we make sure nobody gets hurt. We try to get information while we're at it."
She finished the last bite of her third burger in a too big gulp that hurt when she swallowed it. For a second, it seemed like it would remain stuck in her throat before uncomfortably sliding down.
She wondered if a Slayer had gone that way before: death by burger.
"We make sure nobody gets hurt outside but we leave the human prisoners to be eaten and turned into more vampires inside?" he scoffed. "That's alright with you?"
Of course it wasn't alright with her.
But she wasn't suicidal either.
"Haymitch said…" she insisted.
"Haymitch said." Gale repeated in a mocking mutter. "I don't get why you listen to that guy. He's a joke. You saw him, right? He's a total wreck."
And so it starts, she mused.
"If you've got a problem with the way we do things, you can leave me here and go back home." she snapped, hopping out of the truck and slamming the door shut. She immediately regretted the angry move because that wasn't stealthy and Peeta's truck was already not in the best shape and she didn't want to make it worse.
"Like hell." Gale grumbled, getting out of the truck too. They reached for the trunk at the same time, their fingers bumped into each other. She snatched her hand away, finding the whole thing very awkward. It never used to be awkward to be alone with Gale or to touch Gale for that matter but now… He opened the trunk and handed her her bow and quiver. "I don't get why he's the one calling the shots, that's all."
"Who should be calling the shots, then?" she snapped. "You? You sure love to tell me what you think I can and can't do."
She shouldered her quiver and her bow, slipping a stake out of her jacket pocket. Just in case.
"It's not about telling you what to do." he grumbled. "It's about keeping you safe. And, hey, if there was someone in charge who seemed trustworthy, I might not be so worried but, seriously, what do you have? A drunk and a witch and now there's a half demon person too? You trust those people?"
"With my life." she hissed. Well, Haymitch and Effie, at least. "They know what they're doing, that's the thing you don't get." She hopped across the small ditch by the side of the road and stormed between two trees, pausing only long enough to get her bearings. She wanted to cover some ground through the woods around the hotel before heading to the Hellmouth, just to be on the safe side of things. "Effie could have been Called, she doesn't look like it but she's a great fighter."
"She's a witch and you can't trust magic." he spat. "It's… It's unnatural and wrong. You've seen the thing at the talent show like I did. That demon…" He shuddered but kept pace with her, his bow in his hand. "It's wrong."
"I don't like magic much." she admitted. "But that was dark magic. Effie's magic… It's different."
It was different from Cinna's magic, it was different from her mother's…
She thought back to that moment in the Village's deserted street, next to the fountain, when the witch had saved Peeta's leg and then Peeta's life, when, for the first time, she had accessed her full potential… Despite being worried sick about the boy, Katniss had been in awe when Effie's eyes had turned golden, when everything had turned golden… It had been a little scary but not in a bad way. Effie had looked like some sort of goddess. A good one.
Her magic…
It was difficult for her to say, she had no talent to distinguish it, she could barely tell when magic was involved, but it didn't feel threatening like Cinna's did for instance.
"She's good." she finished and it was a lame enough explanation that Gale shook his head.
"Until she turns bad." he insisted. "And she's not the one in charge anyway. Abernathy…"
"Stop badmouthing him." she growled, annoyed. "Everything he's done for me…"
"That's manipulation at its finest…" he scoffed. "He gave you all those things so now you feel grateful and you do what he wants because you think he cares. I'm telling you, men like him? They don't care about anything but getting the job done and since he's very bad at doing his job…"
"You don't know anything about Haymitch." she snapped. "He trained five Slayers."
"Yeah, and they're all dead or you wouldn't be here so, sorry if I don't find this great news." he retorted.
"They lasted longer than most." she insisted.
"Says who?" he challenged. "Him? The witch?"
She pursed her lips tight to control her anger.
She had known it wasn't a good idea to bring Gale.
"I've read some of the Watchers journals." she replied. "I know what I'm talking about. Madge's aunt? Johanna Mason? They're easily considered two of the best Slayers of the century."
"Since when do you care about being the best Slayer?" he challenged. "I thought you just wanted to protect Prim? Guess what, when you get yourself killed, that won't be protecting your sister."
She didn't answer because she was too angry to be coherent and they were too deep in the woods now for her to send him back to the car by himself. With her luck, he would get himself killed by a vampire.
They walked in silence for a while.
That was the bright side of working with Gale in the woods, he could keep up with her and be just as discreet as she was in a way Peeta or Haymitch – never mind Effie – had no hopes to be. Gale knew how to avoid creaky trigs, knew how to hunt…
Even if there didn't seem to be anything to hunt around there…
The closer they got to the Hellmouth, the less traces of animals they found.
She wondered if that was because the vampires ate them or because animals' instinct knew to avoid black magic like it would a forest fire.
"You're really going to send Prim away to England?" he eventually asked in a whisper.
She shrugged. "I don't know."
She was considering it.
She would have entrusted her sister to Gale's family without a moment of hesitation but England… England was really far away and she didn't know the people Haymitch wanted to send her to. She wasn't sure. She supposed it would be one thing if they sent Effie and Peeta along – not only because once they were better, they would take care of Prim but also because Prim might kick less of a fuss about leaving if they spun it in a way that implied she was leaving to take care of them.
Sending Effie and Peeta away though…
She chased those thoughts away for now, it was a problem for later consideration.
And the decision wasn't really hers and Haymitch's to make. If Effie woke up, they could ask her what she wanted to do. Unlike Peeta, she should have her wits about her right away. In theory.
"The evil witch… It was Trinket's mother?" Gale insisted.
There was so much he didn't know…
To be fair, he had jumped into danger without a single hesitation.
"Yeah." she sighed. "She killed Cinna's girlfriend and took her powers or something… She's a dark witch. Don't try to take her out, she's powerful. You see her, run. I think we'll leave her to Cinna."
Gale nodded his understanding. "But she's a dark witch and you think her daughter's gonna stay good?"
He looked too smug, as if he had found the flaw in her reasoning.
"My mom's in a clinic cause she couldn't bear taking care of us after my dad died." she retorted. "Do you see me or Prim curled up in a ball crying all day long? Parents are overrated."
"Not always." Gale argued, a bit defensively.
She supposed he was talking about his own mother.
She had envied him Hazelle for years.
But now… Well, she kind of had Haymitch, didn't she? And she did have Effie too, in a way.
Family wasn't always blood related.
"What about the weird guy?" he whispered. "He popped into Heavensbee's car in a puff of smoke, you know. I was barely controlling the car when the earthquake hit, he almost gave me a heart attack. Next thing I know, the car's steady again and we're speeding away. I thought he was okay, though, for a wizard. And now he's the child of a demon? How does that even work?"
He made a disgusted face as if he was contemplating the logistic.
And probably imagining very scaly ugly demons.
"Some demons look human enough." she explained. "And not all demons are bad." She spared a thought for Paylor. It had been so many hours since they left… They would be months ahead in the hellish dimension now. She hoped they had rebuilt their society and that they were alright. Then, she got distracted by the blinking lights in the distance. "Quiet now."
Gale nodded once, his shoulders tensed.
They crept closer to the police's flashing lights. The night had completely fallen now and the cops seemed nervous. They were in a hurry, Katniss saw once they were close enough to the meadow. They were charging small body bags in the refrigerated trucks and they were being quick about it. Quite a few of them had their weapons at the ready…
"Is it me or do they look like they know there are monsters bumping in the night?" Gale murmured, low enough that it wouldn't carry.
"Not surprised." she answered. "Snow used to control the town and half the state. People forgot or invented rational explanations for themselves but… Authorities must know." It seemed too much of a stretch that the Mayor would marry the twin of a Slayer and not know about what was really going on in dark alleys... Never mind the high mortality rate and all the animal attacks. "That's a good thing. It means they won't be easy prey. Let's circle around the meadow."
They did just that, keeping to the shadows of the woods.
Katniss tried to keep her Slayer senses wide open in case she felt a vampire hiding close by but there was no prickling at the base of her neck. The woods looked as dead as the lightning tree in the meadow.
Which was deceptive…
By the time they had circled around the meadow, the last of the bodies was in the refrigerated trucks and the cops were hurrying to their cars. They were gone within two minutes.
Katniss and Gale both froze where they were and stared at the Capitol for what felt like ages.
She kept expecting the vampire army – or at least the Careers – to saunter out to admire their handiwork. It was hard to tell in the night but Katniss could see the darkest splotches in the dead grass where it was covered with blood. And there were the flies.
Lots and lots of flies.
Nobody came out of the hotel though.
They sat there for almost an hour and nothing changed.
There were lights at the windows, cars in the parking lots, presumably guests and staff were moving around inside…
It all looked far too quiet though.
"I want to check inside." she decided.
"Okay." Gale immediately approved. "Maybe we can see if we can get the prisoners out."
"No." She shook her head. "We're not sneaking to the basement or anything like that. If Haymitch and Cinna say it's suicide, I believe them. But the hotel itself… Doesn't it look weird to you? Look, there are cars in the lot… Why is no one coming or going?"
Her friend hesitated and then made a face. "Maybe 'cause a lot of kids were murdered in what's basically their front yard and they're grossed out?"
That was actually a valid explanation but she had a bad feeling about this.
"I need to find a back door or an open window or something…" she muttered. "Come on."
They carefully rounded the hotel, sticking to the shades of the biggest trees.
Maybe she should have waited for daylight to do that but… That feeling in her chest, her Slayer's instinct, it told her something was wrong.
They eventually located the staff door on the far side of the building.
They watched it for a while but nothing happened there either so Katniss made a split decision. She was torn between the knowledge she would be quicker and safer by herself and the fact leaving Gale alone in the woods might result in a vampire making a snack of him.
"If I take you in with me, you have to do what I say." she warned him.
"Yeah, okay." he agreed but he wasn't meeting her eyes.
She grabbed his arm, hard enough to bruise. "I'm serious, Gale. You can't push me out of the way, you can't put yourself between me and my target, you can't do anything you think is for my own good. If you do any of this, I'm never talking to you again. After the last time, I barely trust you right now. The only reason I called you earlier is because Rory was in danger. You follow my lead or you never talk to me again. Are we clear?"
He didn't look happy but, this time, he met her eyes. "Crystal."
She nodded back at him, ignored the fact his gaze was lingering when hers had already turned away and she took a deep breath.
"Alright then. Let's break and enter."
It had been a while since she had done something that might get her arrested, after all. She was overdue.
WHAT COULD GO WRONG? XD Well, they behaved up until the end, didn't they? Who wants to hit Gale? We'll organise a very nice line and take turns like with a piñata... I promise someone will wake up next week. Will it be Snow? Peeta? Effie? Maybe just Haymitch? XD Let me know your thoughts!