The only thing I have to say about this chapter is that I am sorry and I hope you dont hate me for it... Here it goes...
Chapter 6 - Blood, Tears and Gold.
For the next month, life goes on as it had done before. Me and Peeta learn to forget. The memory is still there but we are learning to forget about the awkwardness. We have still been able to keep it a secret from everyone, even Prim who nearly always knows when something has happened. I've been getting the hang of working at the Bakery which is helping. Peeta has been teaching me to bake but I'm still not very good at it. The other day we started getting in a flour fight and when Masan walked in we got shouted at which was actually pretty funny because I have never heard Masan shout before.
Holly still lives with Peeta in the Victors Village and she loves it there. Peeta is spoiling her rotten which nobody in this district gets and she is really happy about that. He has built up her room, with Rye's help sometimes. I went to see it the other day and it was amazing. He has given her the second biggest room which is next to his and the wall's are all pink other than one on the left side which is painted with a picture from the meadow. You can see the forest in the background and the sky up above. Holly always loved going to the meadow. Me and Rye took her once and she couldnt stop smiling.
Now that Holly's room is free, Leaven and Brooke moved back in. At the butchers they had to share a room with Bailie but there was still more room in there than there always was here. Now though, they have their own room. It means that I no longer have to work that much anymore but its getting kind of fun so I'm over there a lot of the time. Atleast when I'm not working, I can talk to Brooke, who by the way is taking this whole Pregnant thing really lightly. She seems to be having a great time other than the cravings. Sometimes she has cravings of food that she cant eat. The Mellarks are doing their best though to help her and when I have a break, I have to get her things. She tries to tell me not to because she 'isnt Ill' or 'theres nothing wrong with her' but I do it anyway.
They wont be here for much longer anyway. The Mayor came around the other day to let them know that now that Brooke is pregnant it is possible for them to move out early. They dont have to be married and they dont have to be 20 either. So they are only here for another week. Me, Rye, Bailie and Peeta have been helping them move out and into one of the houses further into town. They are really thrilled about it and cant wait for it to happen. Apparently they have been wanting their own place for a while which I can understand.
Also, the district has changed a lot too. The Capitol sent us new peackeepers. The new head is called Romulus Thread. He has worked quick. Whipping posts up in the square and around the clock peackeepers just about everywhere. He has already started whipping criminals even if they didnt do much to become criminals. Everyone is under curfew, we all have to be inside when it goes dark, anyone found outside will be whipped in the town square. Peeta and Uncle Haymitch think it has something to do with Gale and Delly. Gale is not doing very well at making the Capitol believe that he is inlove with Delly and he is apparently defying them at the moment with everything he is doing. Uncle Haymitch says that he isnt meant to work in the mines and the Capitol are seeing it as some kind of rebellion against them. Peeta is worried about everything, particularly me. He hasnt told me but I can see it in his eyes that I am in trouble for some reason.
A week after Peeta's birthday, My little Primrose, turned 13. She's now a teenager. 4 years away from being allowed to get married and it pains me that she is growing up too fast. She has become a young woman in no time at all and I can now have full conversations with her about serious things instead of what colour bow she wants next time I trade for one. She has actually stopped wearing bows in her hair and is now normally just wearing her hair in one braid instead of two like I did when I started growing up. I hate how fast she is growing up.
"Katniss, could you get the bread out of the kitchen for me please?" Masan asks me, pulling me out of my thoughts.
"Yeh sure." I reply and stand up from my place at the register. Masan is restocking the cabinets and Leaven, Rye and Peeta have gone to pick up their usual haul of ingredients from the train station. They should be back soon but until then its just me and him. Brooke is here but she isnt allowed to help out unless we absolutely need it.
When I get to the kitchen, Brooke is there, making herself a brew. "Hey." I say as I pick up the tray of bread from the side.
"Hey, hows it going out there?" She asks.
"Hectic as usual." I reply with a small laugh which she returns easily, pouring the hot water from the battered kettle into the cup.
"Would you like one?" She asks, motioning to the cup on the side. I nod with a smile in reply as I start walking out the door. "I'll bring it out to you. Tell Masan I'll make him one too."
"Thanks." I say and leave. Everybody in the house has made me enough brews to already know what I have without even asking me.
I walk back into the shop and place the tray on the floor next to Masan just as the front door opens and a 'ding' sound fills the air. "Masan, Brooke is making you a brew, she should bring it out." I direct at where he is crouched on thr floor next to my stool. I look towards the person who came in to see Gina Stratser standing there. "Hi Gina." I say. After that time when we where doing the project and she started to talk to me, she hasnt shown any interest in me at all. She might have smiled at me a couple of times but thats about it. The only time she talks to me is when she comes in here for food.
"Hey Katniss. Can I have 4 of them Cruffin things?" She asks me. I nod and collect them from the cabinet bellow. She takes the bag off me and hands me the money, dissapearing as quick as she came.
"Here you go." Brooke says, walking through the door behind me and placing 2 cups onto the the counter infront of me.
"Thanks Brooke." Me and Masan say at the same time and she smiles before walking back through the door.
A second later, I find myself yawning and my eyes hurting from the tiredness. For the past coupld of nights, I have found it hard to sleep. I've been feeling quite sick recently and I'm not sure why. I might have picked it up from school or something like that but I do know that it better go away soon as that I'm able to sleep. "When the boys get back, you can go on your break if you want. I'll just have Peet take over here. After that you only have 2 hours left of work so I'll have him teach you some stuff in the kitchen." Masan says to me and I nod. I know he isnt looking at me but he probably knows I'm nodding to him.
The boys dont get back untl hakf an hour later. They all have bags of flour slung over their shoulders when they come in the back entrance. I'm only in the back to take my cup back into the kitchen. Masan comes running in to help them with it and I dissapear back into the front to lock the register. The bell is on there almost 24/7 now so I dont have to put it away or pull it out.
I walk into the back and when I get there, the boys are already done and are taking a mini 5 minute break before they carry on working. They dont get much ingredients from the Capitol anymore. They are cutting down on everything that they are sending to the districts. Its ruining the shops in our districts. They hardly have anything to sell or customers coming in. "I'm taking my break now Masan." I say to him and he smiles slightly. "I'm just going to get something from the farmers market do you want anything?" I ask the room. I got my first pay check a week ago. I didnt get much but I got enough and I am proper craving some strawberries right now and I'm not sure why.
"Yeh what are you going for?" Masan asks me.
"Just some Strawberries." I reply.
"Actually yeh we need some milk if thats okay, I'll just go and get some money." He says and leaves the room.
"Would you be able to get me some chocolate?" Peeta asks, handing me a big pile of coins and I nod.
"I dont think chocolate is this much Peeta." I say, looking up at him.
"Yeh, I also want some strawberries and a bottle of milk." He says and I narrow my eyes at him. "I have more money than I know what to do with." I see what he's getting at.
"Fine but only this once." I say.
"Okay and could you also get Brooke a lot of chocolate, I know she has been craving it but Leaven wont let me buy her any." He whispers to me and I nod.
"Tell Masan than you gave me some money. Ill be back soon." I say.
"Wait do you want me to come with you?" Peeta asks.
"No, I'm sure I can cope, thanks anyway." I reply. I know he's still worried about me.
"Okay." He says and I walk away from him and out the door. As I walk the 5 minutes to the Farmers Market, I find myself looking for any changes. The square looks the same as it always does these days but I do notice the lack of people. Even with the changes, the square is still normally bustling with people. There is no-one around now though.
When I pass the shoe shop, I smile at Delly who is standing at the register. She smiles back and I carry on walkng. A couple seconds later, I turn off onto the road to the farmers market which I'm glad about because Romulus Thread was watching me and it was starting to make me uncomfortable.
Its not long before I am back at the Bakery with a bag in my hand. I all but ran back here. "Hey." Peeta says from the register. He is serving an oldish woman.
"Hi." I reply and walk into the back and into the kitchen, putting the bottle of milk into the fridge. The strawberries are already half gone and the chocolate, I'm sad to say that I actually ate a bar of that too. I bought 5 though so It shouldnt be a problem. I place the left over strawberries in the fridge with the milk and then walk out the kitchen and hand Brooke the chocolate, making sure she knows that some of it is Peeta's.
Only half an hour later, we have to close the Bakery. We have run out of the ingredients that we had for today. Every month, Masan shares the ingredients out so that we have fair amount for each day and today he went over slightly so we had to close down early.
Then the day desides to get a lot worse. We are sitting in the sitting room, knackered when it happens. The sound of an explosion can be heard from far off which shakes us all up slightly but the sirens dont go off so it cant be bad. But then the ground beneath us starts shaking and all the windows blast open, covering the entire room in coal dust. My heart seems to drop into my stomach as I pull myself up on shaky legs. I cant see a thing.
"What the hell was that?" I hear Peeta ask through the darkness.
"The mines." I answer quietly.
"Oh god... not again..." Masan says.
I'm not really listening to anyone else though because there is only one person that my mind is on right now, "Gale." I say and start moving towards where I know the door to be. I can hear the footsteps of them as they follow on behind me. As soon as I make it out the door, I set off running, bumping into a distressed looking Delly on the way there. She grabs my hand and drags me along with her. I've never seen her run so fast before.
The mines are in uproar. Everyone is here, Seam people and Townies alike. "Katniss!" I hear my mother shout and a second later, I'm engulfed in arms from her, Prim and Uncle Haymitch. I know that mum is thinking about Dad.
"Mum! Has Gale come out yet?" I ask her, holding her at arms length. The tears falling from my eyes now.
"No..." She says. "But I'm sure they will find him Katniss."
I push away from her and walk away. The last thing I need right now is false hope. I see The Mellarks enter the square in a big group of people, Leaven holding onto Brooke and Masan carrying Holly. Rye locks eyes with me but I look away and walk over to Delly. She is standing there by herself, with he face in her hands. I pull her into a hug and we both just cry on eachothers shoulders.
We all spend the rest of the day, sitting outside the mines, watching to see if Gale will come out. I'm starting to loose hope as everyone has come out except 3 people, including Gale. "I brought you both a drink." Peeta says, handing me and Delly a drink each. I dont even look at it though, I just place it on the floor next to me and focus all my attentiong back on the mine opening. Everybody has cleared out now and its just Me, Delly, Leaven, Brooke, Masan, Mum, Prim , The Hawthornes and Uncle Haymitch and a couple of people still coming in and out of the mines. Rye took Holly back to Peeta's because she needed to sleep. Masan told Peeta to take her back but he said he couldnt leave until Gale was out which I was very thankful about and since then he has hardly left my side. We've been here for 6 hours altogether and its around 10pm. If I wasnt so worried, I would be knackered.
"Hey! We found someone!" Somebody shouts and I'm on my feet and running towards the mines before anyone can stop me. The miners place them on the floor and I drop down next to him only to find out that its not Gale. "Its Kolton." The man says from the left of me.
My mother comes running over and Delly shows up a second later with Peeta behind her. Mum starts to check him over and his eye open. "Kolton?" My mother asks. "Can you tell us what has happened to Gale?" She asks. None of us are sure about the other guy that was down there and I feel sorry for his family who arent here.
"Im sorry... The w-wall Collapsed... Crushed him... He's dead." He gets out and then his eyes close. My stomach twists and the bile rises up in my throat. I spin away from him and throw up everything in my stomach.
PEETA POV-
I watch as Delly collapses to the floor infront of me and the sound of her sobs fill my ears. My hands find my hair and I stumble back slightly. I cant believe he's dead. President Snow did this, I know that he did. Gale was always rebellious towards him and this is how he is repayed.
Katniss pulls herself away and onto her feet and I glance at her. She locks eyes with me and shakes her head, 'I cant deal with this.' Is what she's trying to say. I reach out for her but she pulls away from me and starts running back the way we came. I turn around and start to run after her, just as she pushes past Leaven, knocking him backwards slightly. "KATNISS WAIT!" I shout but she doesnt stop. I stop running when I reach my family and they all look at me in confusion. Haymitch is now standing with them.
"Whats wrong with Katniss?" Leaven asks. I think he knows deep down whats happened but he doesnt want to believe it. "I saw her throw up and then she ran past me?"
"Gale's dead." Is all I say and Brooke bursts into tears. I can tell by the look on Haymitch's face that he knows it was Snow.
"How's Delly." Haymitch asks.
"Not good." I reply and he nods in understanding.
"I'm gonna go and see her." He replies and walks past me, giving me a pat on the shoulder as he does so. I can now feel the tears falling down my cheeks and the tiredness of the day finally catching up on me.
"How are you Peet?" Dad asks me and I look at him and I cant even control myself, I just fall to peices. Everything about today is just one big giant mess. "Hey, Its gonna be alright." He puts his arms around me and starts to pat me on the back as I cry.
"No its not." I say and pull away from him. I cant tell him about Snow, not here, Its not safe. I know that If I told anyone about any of this then I would be signing my own death warrant. "I need to go and find Katniss. I'll see you tomorrow." I pat him on the shoulder and start to run in the direction that Katniss ran. I cant think of anywhere she could have gone other than the woods but I cant go into the woods and if she had gone into there then she will come back, I know she will.
She might have gone to the meadow though. She always liked it there and always told me that it calmed her down when something had happened. I start in that direction and get knocked back off my feet by someone running in the opposite direction. I dont stop to see who it is, I just carry on running mumbling a 'sorry' to the air behind me, hoping that the person will hear me. "Katniss!" I shout through cupped hands but I get no reply.
I quickly take a break, placing my hands on my knees and taking a breath. When I am finally able to breath again, I carry on towards the Meadow, this time walking instead of running. The amount of people kind of thins out when I get closer. I finally make it to the meadow but its that dark, I can hardly see anything. "Katniss! Are you here!" I listen for a reply, or any type of noise but I dont get one. "Please talk to me!" I shout but still get no reply. But I cant stop there, I know Katniss and I was there when her father died. She ran away and his in the meadow. When I called her, she didnt answer but when I started looking she was hiding in the trees along the side. So I begin to look for her.
Every Bush, Every tree, Every little inch of the field in the middle. I cant seem to find her anywhere. It gets to about 2am before I finally give up. She wouldnt do anything stupid. She has Prim to look after. She is going to come back no matter what has happened. She always comes back. With that in mind, I set off back towards the Victors Village with tears still in my eyes. My legs are hurting from all the running and my eyes are hurting because of how tired I am.
When I get back to mine, the front door is unlocked. I walk straight in and collapse onto the sofa, watching the fire in the fireplace die down. Rye must have only recently gone to bed. Oh no, he doesnt have any idea whats happened to anyone. He doesnt know that Gale is dead and he doesnt know that Katniss is missing. The phone rings.
I get up and walk over to it. "Hello?" I ask, rubbing my eyes slightly.
"Peet! Finally, I've been trying to get hold of you or Rye for ages now." I hear my dad say. "Did you find Katniss?"
"No. I'm sure she'll come back though." I say.
"Yeh, I'm sure she will." He replies. "They have taken Gale's remains that they found to the Justice Building to be Buried and The Hawthornes have gone with him. Posy is staying at the Everdeen's house for the night because she isnt allowed to see anything. How's Holly, is she sleeping?" I was even aware that they found any remains.
"Yeh, I think so, I only just got in." I say to him. "I didnt know that they found any remains?"
"Yeh, just after you left, someone came out with a couple of bones. Apparently, the wall crushed him and broke his legs off, the fire from the furness' burnt all his skin off. The coudltn find the rest of him because of the second explosion that happened just after you left, it must have blasted the rest of him further off into the mines but they are sure that it was Gale condidering that everyone else got out of the mines."
"Okay. Will you ring my bedroom phone if you happen to see Katniss?" I ask him. He obviously agrees to do so, I know he cares about her too.
"Okay well maybe you should get some sleep. Work is cancelled tomorrow after everything that has happened and plus, I need to clean the place, its covered in coal dust so I'll see you on Monday." He says and I agree. I hang up the phone and set off up the stairs. I doubt I'll be able to find sleep tonight but I have to try.
I'm standing in the Town Square. Except that its not me, its 8 year old me. I'm just watching overhead as if I'm flying. Suddenly a girl comes into view. Katniss Everdeen. She flies right over to younger me, knocking me to the ground, where we both end up laughing. "Hey Peet." She finally says and Younger me replies with a smile. "You wanna race?" She asks and they both stand up to set off running. "Wait one sec." Katniss says as Younger me gets ready to run. She looks forward and then back at me and then runs away. I follow her and she carries on running as I run after her.
We run through the town square and then into the Seam, past all the kids and down onto one of the streets that leads to the poorest part of the District. "Katniss wait!" Younger me says and she glances back at me but doesnt stop.
"I dont think so Peeta. Not until I've won." She replies and we carry on running. I actually remember this. This actually happened about 9 years ago. It was my birthday and she was meeting me in the Town Square so that I can have my birthday party because I wasnt going to have it without my best friend there. But it went wrong and we ended up in the Meadow until it got dark. By the time we got back, Rye and Leaven had ended up eating most of my birthday cake but I didnt care because I had a good day anyway.
When we finally stop, we are on the lush green grass that makes up most of the meadow. I had finally caught up with Katniss but when she saw me she pushed me to the side to knock me over but we both end up toppling over and laughing again.
"I won! See I told you I was faster!" Younger me shouts as Katniss pulls herself up off the floor.
"No I won!" She argues back.
"No I did!" Our childhood was always like this.
"Well lets call it a draw then." She says, putting her hand out for me to shake. I look at it and then back at her and what I say next still embarrases me.
"Well if its a draw and we both win then does that mean that I still get that kiss?" I'm not sure why I said that but I did and it was a stupid idea because why would she actually kiss me?
"You can keep your kiss for yourself." She says to me and then we set off running through the meadow until we get to the fence where we drop onto the floor and tell jokes to eachother like we used to do.
"Peeta?" Someone asks and I open my eyes. "You awake?"
"I am now." I say in reply, recognising the voice as Holly. "Come here!" I say quite loudly and she runs over with Sammy trailing on the floor behind her and climbs up into my high bed where I bury her in the covers.
"What happened yesterday?" She asks, facing me.
"I cant tell you Holly but I can tell you that everything will be alright." I say in reply and she nods slightly.
"I'm hungry." She says and I smile.
"Well what do you say, I make you some pancakes?" She nods exciteadly and jumps out of my bed. "Okay well you go downstairs and sit at the table whilst I get dressed." She dissapears out the room and I climb out of nbed, throwing my legs over the edge and rubbing the sleep from my eyes. Thats when the phone rings, scaring me to death. "Hello?" I ask through the reciever.
"Hey Peet, Its Lev." I hear back. "I thought you'd be in bed so I rang this phone."
"Well you where right. I was just getting up to make Holly breakfast." I say back.
"Well dad told me to ring you. Katniss showed up about half an hour ago thinking she was at work today." He says.
"How was she?" I ask.
"Not good at all. She looks horrible and I dont think she had any idea what she was doing at all. Plus when she left, I'm pretty sure that I could hear her throwing up outside the back door. I think she might be ill aswell." He says and I can hear the worry in his voice.
"Ok I'll let Rye know and then I'll go round to see her later on." I say.
"Okay well dad wants you to come round to the Bakery later so that he can see you and Holly." He says. Dad always wants me to go to the Bakery.
"Okay, I'll see you all soon then, I'll come round after breakfast so that Holly has somewhere to stay whilst I find Katniss." I reply to him. Its better than dragging Holly around after me when she would probably very much rather do something else.
"Okay well I'm gonna go, we have tidying up to do. I'll see you later." He says and hangs up the phone. I decide to get dressed so that I can do Holly's breakfast.
When I get downstairs, Rye and Holly are both sitting at the table laughing about something. "Hey." I say and they both look at me.
"Hey Peet." Rye replies, standing up and walking over to me. "What happened last night?" He asks, with a worried look on his face. "I tried to ring dad last night to ask him but he didnt answer."
"Erm... Gale died." I say, running my fingers through my blonde hair.
"Oh god... How's Katniss?" He asks me. He looks as if he's going to cry.
"I dont know..."
"What do you mean you dont know?"
"She ran away last night... Nobody saw her this morning. Lev rang me to say that she showed up for work when she didnt need to be and that she was weird. She apparently looked horrible and looked as if she didnt know what she was doing and then she threw up outside so I dont think she is doing very well." I confess.
"Okay, well I need to go out. I'll see you later." He says and runs to the door, pulling on his shoes and leaving. I walk to the kitchen and start to make pancakes for me and my baby sister.
I just spend the rest of the day worrying about Katniss. I wonder what she is doing? Is she okay? Has she gone over to see the Hawthornes? Has she gone to the woods? Did Rye find her? Is he helping her through this? I hope he is.
I find myself at the Bakery until it gets dark and I'm unable to leave the house because of curfew. It looks like I'm staying here tonight. The one thing I do realise is that Rye isnt here. I wonder where he got too. He's been gone for almost 10 hours and he didnt tell me if he went to Katniss' or not. I hope he did and he didnt dissapear again at a time like this.
He really needs to realise that whatever he does now will come back to haunt him. Katniss will act on her temper soon and Rye wont be happy when she does. I'm pretty sure there is something wrong with Katniss these days. She has been ill quite a lot recently and she seems to be crying a lot. She has also been finding it hard to sleep, she hasnt told me but I can see the tiredness in her face when she is at work. I just hope that soon, this will all go away and she can be like the Katniss that I know.
I hope you liked it! Please drop a review to let me know what you think.