Chapter 37
(Madge POV)
"Madge, hold on, just let me explain. I can explain." He pleads taking another step towards me.
I hold up my palm. "Stay away from me."
He stops moving towards me but doesn't stop trying to talk to me. "Listen, please just listen."
"Did you do what I think you did? Please tell me you didn't do what I'm thinking right now. Tell me you didn't do that!" I beg as tears keep falling.
"Can we just sit? Let's sit down and I can explain everything." He asks as he sits on the far edge of the bed. I don't sit. I stay backed up to the wall, wanting distance between us.
"Did you do what I think you did?" I repeat quietly.
"That depends on what you're thinking."
"Okay, let's do it this way. Start with explaining how you knew I had a perfect match score with Martin? I didn't even know that."
"I hacked into the database and peeked at the list."
"What did you mean when you wrote that you didn't prepare well enough and needed to fix it?" I push, needing every detail.
He takes a really deep breath in before he starts talking. "I have had a crush on you since the very first time I met you. I told you that. I knew all the way back then that I wanted us to be matched. From that day on, I spent a lot of time trying to find out as much about you as I could. That's why I wrote all that random stuff in the journal, it was like research. I wanted to know everything about you so that when we got matched, I'd know how to get you to like me as much as I like you."
"And how were you so sure we'd be matched?" I interrupt, needing him to get to the story about what he did. About what I am almost certain he did.
"I altered our scores. I hacked into the system beforehand and gave us a highly matching score. I thought that was going to be enough to match us. No one ever scores high on the whole matching thing. I didn't expect you to match higher with anyone."
I stare at him. He wasn't even a real match for me. He made it all up. He gave us fake scores. I shake my head in disbelief. I have no words.
"And then when they finalized the list, something in my gut told me that I should check the list again. When I did, I saw that you and Martin had somehow gotten a perfect score. He was your match and I was with Ellison." He continues.
"And then what?" I ask, my voice barely above a whisper because I already know what he did next.
He closes his eyes and inhales deeply again. Then he tells me exactly what I didn't want to hear but knew I would. "And then I had to fix it. I couldn't let him have you. I just couldn't. So I took him out of the equation. It was the only thing I could do at that point. I tried to change the scores but they were already finalized so the system wouldn't let me."
"You took him out of the equation?" I echo.
"You don't understand. I had no choice. He was about to be matched with you, the girl I've had my heart set on matching with for almost my whole life. I couldn't let everything just fall apart." His voice is desperate and he has tears in his eyes now.
"You turned him in? You turned your friend in just to be matched with me?"
He gives me a pleading look and then a horrible new thought comes to my mind. "Did he even do it? Or did you make it all up? Oh my God, please tell me you didn't make it all up!"
He just looks at me, same pleading look as before wanting me to see it his way. And I know. I know he made it all up. Martin never broke any rules at all. Drew set him up. He set it all up! I feel bile rise in my throat and I try to stop it but I can't. I throw up right there on the floor of the guest room. He comes over while I'm retching and puts his hand on my back. I push him away as I wipe my mouth.
"I did it for us. Please understand! I had to do it, it was the only way we could be together! I am in love with you!"
"You need to leave. You need to get your things and leave on the train home tonight."
"Come on, we can fix this." He says trying to pretend I didn't just tell him to leave.
"Fix this? You think we can fix this?" I spit out at him. "Drew, you had an innocent boy's tongue cut out just so you could be with me! That's not fixable and I don't want anything to do with you!"
He covers his face with his hands and drops to his knees. "I'm sorry, you have to forgive me. Don't you understand? I love you so much that I couldn't stand the thought of not being with you, I just couldn't. Please, we can work this out!" He begs.
"You need to leave on the train today and you need to let the committee know that you've chosen Ellison. And if you try to pick me, if you try to force me to stay with you, I will turn you in for what you did and then you will get to see what it's like to have your tongue cut out, except you'll actually be guilty so maybe it won't hurt quite the same way as it did for Martin." I tell him through a clenched jaw as I slip his journal into my dress pocket. I'll be keeping it just in case I do have to turn him in for all of this. I push past him and leave the room. I don't even look back.
In my room I lock my door and then go in my bathroom where I get sick again. I cannot believe what a creep he is! I cannot believe he did that to Martin. I look at the clock and see that I've only got minutes until the viewing is gong to start. Shit. I wash my face and rinse my mouth out. I don't have time to change dresses so I'll have to explain things to Gale later. Right now I just have to go get checked in before I get in trouble for being late. I hurry down the stairs, noticing Drew's suitcase sitting at the front door. Good. He's leaving. Good riddance.
(Gale POV)
Something feels wrong. She's never this late to the viewings, especially now that she has to sit up on the stage. The guy isn't here either. I keep my eyes on the entrance and she comes darting in just as the anthem starts to play. She's still wearing the same green dress she had on earlier today and she doesn't have any makeup on. She did earlier though. Her eyes are red too. She makes her way to the steps of the stage and then sits in her chair, all by herself up on the stage. The guy never shows. She glances over at me and we make eye contact. She gives her head a single nod and then looks back to the screen. I take it as she means she's found some sort of information. MUst have been caught up doing all that and not had time to get ready for the viewing.
The viewing is brutal, as expected. The guy from 5, the one that let Katniss off without killing her, gets mauled to death by those mutts the gamemakers created. They almost get Katniss, the bakery kid and the guy from 2 as well. The three of them end up on top of the cornucopia and now they're in a sort of face off. The kid from 2 has Peeta in a headlock and could kill him in an instant. Katniss has her bow drawn and I think she's trying to figure out if she can shoot the kid without him taking the bakery guy down too. She should just shoot him. I know she wants to save him since they made that special rule about tributes in the same district being able to win together and all but come on, she's got people waiting here for her to come home. Ultimately she ends up shooting the guy from 2 and the bakery kid pulls away just as he falls off the cornucopia. The mutts below bite and chew at him, his screams filling the air and Katniss does another thing she shouldn't. She leans over and gives him a mercy shot, putting him out of the slow death misery that the mutts were creating for him. But his cannon sounds in the arena and a cheer erupts from all around me. Thhey did it! Katniss and the bakery kid actually just won the damn games! I'm so stunned I can't even clap, I just smile like a fool at the screen. I'm waiting for the announcement that they've won but it doesn't come. Katniss notices it too. The cheers around me turn to murmurs of confusion and I can tell we are all waiting for the same thing. I glance up at Madge and she gives her shoulders a little shrug. Suddenly the head gamemaker comes over the speakers in the arena and announces that the special ruling about letting 2 tributes win together has been changed and only one winner will be allowed now. I stare at the screen. She's gonna have to kill him and I'm not sure she can do it. She's grown too fond of him and already risked her life to save him once so I don't think she can do it. He tells her to go ahead, to take him out but she says no. It's like there at a stalemate or something. He won't kill her and she won't kill him and I know if they don't do something soon that the gamemakers are going to intervene. I'm practically screaming at her in my head to just kill him when she does something completely unthinkable. She pulls out a handful of those nightlock berries and holds them out to the bakery kid. She tells him they can go together and not let the Capitol win. More gasps from all around me and I can't pull my eyes from the screen. What is she doing? Has she lost her mind completely? Has she forgotten about those of us here at home waiting for her safe return? They count to 3 and they take eat the berries. They actually eat them. Both of them fall dead as screams now ring out all around me and I feel like I can't breathe. What the hell did she just do? Is this real? Did she really just kill herself? The screen flickers off without any sort of announcement and peacekeepers blow whistles, barking orders and telling us to all go home.
Madge comes rushing down the stage steps and towards me.
"What just happened?" She tells me, her face pale. I can tell she's freaking out and I can't blame her.
"Let me get my family home, then I'll come to you and we can figure this out. I promise!" I tell her as whistles blow all around us and there's chaos as people make a mad dash for their homes.
She nods and turns, hurrying to her house. I call after her and she turns back to look at me. "Be ready. Just in case, okay?"
She nods and bites her lip. I know she knows what I mean. And what I mean is be ready to grab her survival bag and hightail it out of here if trouble starts. What Katniss and Peeta just did is going to have consequences. I don't know exactly what but I know some sort of bad is going to come from what just took place and I need Madge to be ready to run.
I get my family home and I tell my mother and Rory to be ready if we hear things happening. I have my mother fill our other canteens with water just in case we need them. I give Rory the backpack, taking time to show him the map and tell him where to go if anything happens before I get back home. I honestly should've just brought Madge here with us, I just wasn't thinking clearly in that moment. So as soon as I'm done here, I'm going to get her and bring her back.I'd rather all of us be together in case something does happen. I'm in the middle of telling my mom to keep shoes on the kids when I hear something. I go to the front door and throw it open, looking up at the sky. I don't see anything but I definetly hear aircraft heading our way and that is not a good sign. And it sounds like a lot of them. I run down the path a little ways to look towards town but can't see any lights on. Usually as it gets dark we can see lights in the distance from the streets and buildings. And it's silent too. Other than the approaching aircrafts, I don't hear anything. No whistles blowing anymore. No announcements. Nothing. If there's no lights, on the power to the District has probably been cut. If there's no whistles blowing or announcements happening, the peacekeepers are probably on the train leaving town. We need to go and we need to go now. I run back to the house and yell for my mother to come on. Rory comes out first, the backpack on his back, Vic right behind and my mother carrying Posey. I take Posey who is already starting to cry and put her on my back.
"Where do we go?" My mother asks, her voice panicking a little.
"The fence, we have to get to the woods, come on!" I yell, adrenaline shooting through me.
As we run for the fence, a few others in the Seam start running with us, not even knowing where we're going, just knowing something is happening and taking a gamble on running with us. Others stand outside their houses staring up at the sky trying to figure out what the sound is. I yell for them to run as we pass them. Most don't though. They're too confused about what's happening. And I hate that I can't stop and explain it to them, to tell them to grab their kids and come with us. But I can't stop. We have to get as far outside the district boundaries as possible.
I was right about the electricity being turned off because as we reach the fence, it's off and we climb right through. A couple guys hold the wires apart so the women and children can climb through more easily. As we do, the first few bombs start dropping in town. The ground shakes and we see giant fireballs shoot up into the sky. We keep running towards the trees and even still after we reach them, putting as much distance as we can between us and 12. The bombs keep falling as we run and I can tell they're trying to completely obliterate the district. And all I can do is pray that Madge got out in time too. Pray that she is still safe.