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Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games or any of its characters.
Chapter 7
We are two weeks into the Games and they are drawing to a close. There are only two tributes left. Galen is one of them. For the past fourteen days, I have been by Merrick's side, watching the Games. Sometimes we watch at his house when it's empty and other times, we watch in the square. Regardless of where we are, his hand is always entwined with mine. Every time he gets nervous for his friend, I feel he hand grip mine even tighter. We are currently in the square sitting with our backs against the wall of the fountain, watching as the Gamemakers send mutts after the other tribute. It looks like they are trying to drive him closer to Galen. We have maybe an hour left. I'm nervous for Galen at the moment. The male tribute from District 1 is the other remaining tribute and he looks fierce. It's a toss up between who could win.
I watch as the boy from 1 runs towards Galen. As soon as he crosses a certain point a tall metal ring raises from the ground, trapping them. This is it, a fight to the death. I look up at Merrick. He lips are pressed firmly together as he tries to keep composed. What follows isn't pretty. The two break out in fighting. Galen has a sword and his opponent has a spear. I'm not sure who has the advantage. I've seen both of them skillfully use the weapons in the previous weeks. Each boy gets wounded by the other. Galen is about to deliver a fatal blow when the other boy crouches down and uses the spear to knock him from his feet. Galen loses his grip of his sword in the process. The District 1 boy pins him down with his foot while raising the spear over his head. This next part is horrifying. I watch as the boy pierces Galen abdomen over and over again with the spear. He even continues a few times after the cannon fires. At this point, Merrick has pulled me close to him while his head is buried in my hair. As soon as Claudius Templesmith announces the winner, I stand up and drag him to an alleyway. The last thing he needs is to see his best friend's bloody body lifted by the crane. He kicks and punches the stone wall before collapsing to the ground. I kneel in front of him and he pulls me close so that our bodies are against each other's. He cries into my neck, while I smooth the hair on the back of his head. I don't know what to say. I really didn't think the Games would end this way.
We stay in the alleyway for a solid hour as I comfort him as best I can. I don't use words, since I know I'm not good with them. I just sit there and hold him as I hum a lullaby I used to sing to Prim. It seems to calm him down a little bit. When it seems that he has run out of tears to cry, I help him up and lead him to his home. We reach his backyard, and I'm unsure what I should do next. I can't go inside with him. His parents might be there. He must see my despair over the situation because he takes my hand and leads me to the tent he set up a week ago in his backyard. He lies down on the padded ground and closes his eyes. He looks drained both physically and emotionally. I sit beside him as I watch him sleep. He sleeps for hours. When he finally wakes up, the sun is starting to set.
"You should probably get inside. I'm sure your parents are worrying about you." I coo to him. He sit up and nods his head. He crawls out of the tent with me behind him. I walk him to the stairs. I start to leave but he wraps his arms around my shoulders and pulls me close.
"Come inside." he whispers in my ear. It's the first words he's spoken since the Games ended.
"You know I can't." I tell him. His parents would never approve of my being there.
"Katniss, I need you more than anything right now. Please." he begs me. I want nothing more than to be there for him. My heart wrenches with pain when I think about what he must be going through. I make a deal with him. We both eat dinner with our families and then I will meet him in the tent and stay with him for the night. I wait until he is inside before I set off for my own home. As I am walking the district is silent. It's always like this on the day the Games end. There is no celebrating; people are mourning for the loss of 23 children.
After dinner, I travel back to Merrick's back yard and wait for him in the tent. I wait for hours for him to join me but he never comes. I can feel myself fighting off sleep as I try to stay awake until he arrives. As midnight approaches, I can no longer hold on. I lay down on his sleeping bag. He can wake me up when he decides to join me.
I wake up the next morning expecting to find Merrick beside me but I am alone. When I figure out that he is not coming, I leave to hunt with Gale. Once we have finished hunting and trading, I go home to wash myself and eat dinner. Then, I go back to Merrick's tent but find it empty once again. I sit there until midnight before making my way back to my own home. I repeat this routine for the next week, expecting for him to show up, but he never does. I feel so useless. I want to be there for him but I cannot just show up on his doorstep, asking his parents if I can see him. On the eighth day, I finally get the audacity to go to him. I walk up the stairs and hope that the back door is unlocked. It is. I take off my shoes and tiptoe inside, carefully making my way inside the house. I can hear his mother in the dining room laughing with a group of ladies. I quietly creep up the stairs until I reach his door. My hand takes hold of the knob, turning it without a sound. I walk into a sea of darkness. Even though the sun is shining brightly outside, the room is pitch black. I close the door with the knob turned before slowly releasing it.
Next, I make my way to a window and roll the blind up a few inches. I find Merrick lying on his side, staring off into space. His eyes are missing that sparkle that I'm used to. He doesn't move or acknowledge me. He just lies there. I join him in bed, lying on my side so that I'm facing toward him.
"Merrick." I whisper in a hushed voice as I gently caress his cheek with my thumb. I repeat the movement, hoping to slowly melt away his numbness. He closes his eyes and I'm not sure what it means. Maybe he's ignoring me. Maybe he wants me to go away. It's when he elicits a soft moan that I know he wants me here. I then feel his hand slide under the fabric of my shirt. He stops at my ribcage, gently stroking my skin with his fingertips. His eyes open and are now glazed over with tears.
"You're too thin Katniss." he murmurs. He pauses and I remain silent. I'm not sure what he wants me to say. "I want to help you…I don't know why you won't let me help you. I don' t want to lose you too." he says as then tears escape his eyes. I move closer to him and wrap him in my arms. He pulls me closer and let's out a few sniffles as he tries to hold back his remaining tears.
From that day forward, I never deny any food that he offers me. I swallow my pride and allow him to help. On some days, he sends me home with full meals. I'm not sure how he manages to do it without his parents noticing. Or maybe he uses his own money to do so. I try to pay him back for it by doing little things. I teach him how to shoot an arrow with the smaller bow my father made me when I was younger. I also tend to any of his clothes that need mending. It will never add up to all that he has done for me, but I feel like I need to do something.
I also spend time with him and help him grieve the loss of Galen. I know it must be hard to be away from his friends during this time. They could offer him the kind of support that I could never give him.
It isn't until mid-July until he starts to act like his usual self. He finally is able to venture out of the house and we spend every evening in his tent, making up for lost time. It isn't until one morning when I wake up next to him that I see his smile return to the same luster as before.
"I never thought I could miss a smile so much." I say as I brush my fingers across his facial muscles.
"I didn't think you'd still be here." he says.
"I fell asleep." I admit. I take hold of his wrist to check the time. His watch informs me that I have 10 minutes to get to the woods to meet Gale. "I have to go." I tell Merrick as I start to get up.
"But you just woke up." he pouted.
"I have to hunt." I explain. I told him about the hunting when I first taught him to shoot an arrow. He would hardly believe that I got that good at archery just from shooting at a stationery object. I must admit it was quite a relief to get that secret off my chest.
"Bring me back something good." he says to me before I leave through the side of the tent. I run all the way to my meeting place with Gale and find him already waiting.
"Late again?" he said with an arched brow.
"I overslept." I tell him. I have been late quite a bit, now that I'm spending my nights with Merrick. I usually don't get home until after midnight.
"What am I going to do with you?" he says with a smile before he starts walking in into the woods. I follow behind him as we check the snare line. We make off pretty good, with 5 rabbits. We then go down to the river so Gale can fish and I can gather some strawberries for Merrick. I remove the netting to gain access to the now ripened fruit. I gather about a dozen of the red berries into a small basket that I place in my hunting bag. I fasten the netting and walk along the riverbank, back towards Gale. Near the edge of the bank, I see arrow shaped leaves emerging from the shallows. It's the plant I was named after. I dig a few roots out from the muddy soil and clean them in the river. I then place them on top of the strawberries. When I reach Gale, I find that he's been unsuccessful in his attempts to catch any fish.
"You're not casting the line out far enough." I tell him as I grab the pole from his hands.
"Or they just aren't biting today." he says. I cast a line further into the river and wait, tugging on the line ever so often. Within a few minutes, there is a fish on my line. I reel it in and bring it over to him with a smirk on my face. I dangle it in front of him, waiting for him to unhook it but instead he is giving me a quizzical look. He then stands up and circles me quietly. When he is facing in front of me, he finally speaks.
"You look different." he tell me. I'm not sure in what way he means. I haven't changed anything. I'm wearing the same old clothes and the same old braid falls down my back.
"How?" I finally ask.
"You look…healthy." he says. I look down and can now see what he means. The clothes that I had trouble filling out a few months ago now hug my body perfectly, thanks to Merrick and the extra food he is supplying. I quickly try to think of something to say.
"I always gain weight in the summer…we all do." I tell him. With more game to hunt and more time to do so, our families always seem to do a little better.
"Yeah but never this much. You're starting to look like the merchant girls." he says playfully as he grabs my hips.
"Yeah, you would know." I tease back at him as I remove his hands from my sides.
"What does that mean?" he asked completely baffled by my last statement.
"Oh come on Gale, I know what you do at the slagheap on Saturday nights." I say with a laugh.
"How do you know about that?" he asked shocked.
"Girls talk about it, Gale. They brag to their friends about the things you do to them." He looks almost embarrassed like he doesn't want me to know about the things he does when I'm not around. "It's fine with me, you can do whatever you want, but I just don't understand why you mess around with the merchant girls when I know you can't stand anyone from their side of town."
"Doesn't mean I can't have a little fun." he says, his smirk now returning. I roll my eyes at him. I then grab my things and head back towards the fence. Within a few seconds, Gale is beside me as we return back to District 12. Once we are on the path to the Seam, Gale gives me a rabbit and tells me that he'll trade at the Hob. I don't argue with him. I'm not in the mood to go there anyway.
Instead, I make my way home. I unpack the rabbit and katniss before I start to boil a pot of water. I place a tuber in the pot for it to cook before I go to visit Merrick. I clean myself up and change my clothes before I grab the katniss and my hunting bag. As I walk towards Peacekeeper's Village, I can only hope that he's still in the tent. When I get there, I find in empty. It is rather hot outside today and the tent does trap heat.
I start to walk back when I hear the sound of footsteps pounding the ground. I turn to find Merrick running towards me.
"You're just in time." he says grinning from ear to ear.
"What?" I ask, clearly confused. He leads me inside his house where I am blasted with the cool air hitting my skin. It feels good. He leads me up to his room and waiting for me in the corner in a blanket fort.
"I thought you were too old for these." I say with a hand on my hip.
"I made it for you." he says as he pulls me inside. We lay down on the same sides as we did when we were young.
"So this is what you did today?" I ask.
"Not the whole day. It did take a while though. Forgot how much work goes into it and I did need to expand it a little. Do you like it?"
"I do. It reminds me of us…when we were younger."
"So what did you bring me?" he asks with eagerness. I hand him the Katniss, which I wrapped in a small towel.
"What is this?" he asks me.
"It's the root from the plant I was named after." I then pull out an arrow shaped leaf and twirl it between my fingers.
"Shaped just like an arrow." he says taking the leaf by the stem and inspects it. He smiles as he then tucks it behind my ear. He then draws his attention back to the root before taking a bite from it. "Mmm, you taste good." he says somewhat suggestively. I take my hand and push him backwards.
"Be nice or you won't get your other surprise." I tell him.
"I was just kidding." he says with a laugh. "So what else is there?" I reach into my bag and uncover the basket of strawberries. "Oh, what do we have here?" he asks as he takes a berry from the basket.
"Strawberries." I am surprised that he doesn't know what they are. I understand him not knowing about the katniss, but strawberries? I thought everyone knew what those were. He begins to take the whole strawberry and plop it in mouth.
"No stop, you don't eat it that way." I say with a laugh as I take the berry out of his hands. I push back the small green leaves and grasp onto them as I hold the berry up by his face. "You only eat the red part." I'm surprised when he moves closer and wraps his mouth around the berry, his lips lightly grazing my fingertips before he bites down. He lets out an approving moan as his chews the berry. Once he swallows it, he licks the juice that is running down my hand. My heart jumps and I quickly pull my hand away from his mouth.
"We have more, you know." I say as I pick another one of the basket. His mouth advances towards my hand again. I stick the tip of the berry between his lips before letting go. "What am I suppose to feed you now?" I say with a joking tone because I have no idea what he is doing. He finishes the berry before he speaks.
"I like it." he says. I give him a look and he laughs. "You've never had anyone feed you before?"
"Not since I was a baby." I tell him. He laughs again as he reaches for a berry.
"Try it." he says moving the strawberry towards me until it's lightly pressed against my lips. I slowly open my mouth and take the red fruit between my teeth as I gently bite down. He discards the base of the strawberry and then brings his thumb to my chin to wipe away the stream of juice that is running from my mouth. I can feel my heartbeat start to accelerate when he takes his thumb to his mouth to remove the juice. "So what did you think?"
"I don't know." I say.
"How can you not know? You either like it or you don't."
"I hardly think it's practical for adults to be feeding each other." I say as I roll my eyes.
"Practicality has nothing to do with it." he tells me. He then smirks as if he is keeping something from me.
"What?" I ask curiously.
"Nothing. You'll figure it out eventually." he says before eating another berry.
I'm not going to lie, I really enjoyed writing that last scene ;) Let me know what you thought about this chapter.