Author's Note: It feels like forever since I last uploaded this story and for that I am terribly sorry! Between classes and clubs I've barely had any time to breathe but I have cleared my schedule a bit and I'm thinking I could maybe post a chapter a week. I hope you like this! Thank you so much for your patience and support, you are the best!
"So, who's left?" Danny asks the next morning as we have breakfast. It was hard to sleep after the big news we received, sleeping without Peeta's arms around me was much harder now that I knew I had the chance of doing so again. My heart raced each time I thought of Prim and Gale and I did my best to stop tossing and turning and actually getting some sleep. Now that the rules had changed I did get my second chance, but so did many others. It's important that I stay alert.
"Well, there's Cato and Clove of course," I begin eating what was left of the squirrels we hunted yesterday. Only now I'm regretting not having stolen anything from the careers, but I doubt I could have been able to make Foxface's skipping dance and not set off any mines. Maybe it was better like that, I like being in one piece. "Foxface, and Thresh."
"Where's Thresh? You didn't see him when you went to the Career's camp?"
I shake my head. "I think that if he had been nearby we would have seen them back when we were staying there. I don't think I've even heard of him since the games started, Rue didn't seem to have much idea of his whereabouts either." Danny winces at the mention of our friend and I shiver. I don't know if he had time to mourn her the way I did, but I'm not in the mood of talking about her. "And I think there's one more team left."
"District seven." Danny says, finishing his breakfast. "On the blood bath they both took a backpack and ran away to different directions, they didn't seem to have an alliance."
"Until now."
"Probably." Danny purses his lips and leans back into the sleeping bag. "What are we going to do? I mean… now we can't just wait until Cato and Clove kill each other." Listening to him say things like that still gets to me, and I hope that we aren't being filmed right now. That kind of words from Danny's mouth will most probably break Peeta and Prim. It's my turn to purse my lips as I think over his question. He is right, of course.
And now that the rules have changed, I know that the gamemakers will want things to run more quickly, for every day to be fully packed with action and excitement for the audience. Staying in the cave to have nice calm days won't be an option soon enough.
"We can just wait, until they find district 7. I'm sure Cato and Clove have been up and about for hours now." Until the gamemakers kick us out, I think we should enjoy as much peace as we can. "Meanwhile we can plan. Thresh is too big for us to win on a fight, and Foxface is too smart to get into one."
"You think in the end, it will only be us and District Two?"
That's exactly what I'm afraid of, kid.
The day before we only hunted to have enough for dinner and a small breakfast, so we go back outside to hunt some more. The animals are scarce and I begin fearing a gamemaker trick to get us closer to the rest of the tributes. But when a thunder echoes through the Arena I am reassured with the sounds of animals quickly making their way to their homes. A storm is coming, and the animals are taking shelter, which is exactly what we should do.
I shoot down a few more birds before I nudge Danny towards our cave. "Seems like it's going to be a slow day, boss. Gather some berries while you walk. We don't know when we'll be able to go out again." He nods at my instructions and we start our walk back to the only place where I've felt safe in the arena.
Once he is inside I make sure the vines are concealing the small entrance to the cave and I find him skinning the squirrels I managed to shoot. I try to picture the boy that I used to take camping for his birthday, the one that covered his eyes every time he shoot an arrow just to not watch it hitting its target. He has changed so much in too little time.
And me? Have I changed? Once again my conversation with Gale pops into my mind. I remember what it was like to be a girl from the Seam that kept quiet because she didn't know how to say out loud that she wouldn't ever kill someone else. But I had never stopped to think what I would do to defend Prim, or Danny. I had fully taken the moral weight on my shoulders to keep Danny from killing anyone or being killed in the Arena. And even if I don't regret it, it is hard to picture the old me doing it.
But I don't feel any different. And maybe that is even worse, because maybe I had it inside me all of this time. Maybe I've always been a killer.
The rain pulls me out of my thoughts and I look back at Danny, sitting down beside him to work on the fire.
"What do you think it will be like?" He asks after a while, when the fire starts and I place the squirrels on top of it to cook them. "Going home, I mean."
My stomach turns, but I put a strong face for him and I smile. "Well, lots of hugs and lots of tears. Some nightmares, I think, but nothing we can't handle." I bump my shoulder to his and lean back against the cold wall of the cave, he musters a small smile. "And we will move to the Victor's Village, which means more space than we'll know what to do with. And Haymitch will be our favorite neighbor."
Danny giggles. "We'll have tea parties with him, and invite him to our school recitals."
"Ah, of course." I chuckle, picturing his grumbling when he sees we've been mocking him. "And soccer matches, and to bake cookies, but only if he wears the flower apron." Danny laughs again, delighted and I relish on the sound.
His laughter echoes across the cave sweetly and I let it linger, stopping my teasing as I turn over the squirrels to prevent them from getting burnt.
"And you and Peeta will get married." He says, my heart falls at my stomach and I have to clear my throat before speaking.
"And Peeta and I will get married."
It's not that I changed my mind, at all. But until that moment I hadn't stopped to think about it for real. When he proposed we were both sure we would never see each other again, at least not if we wanted Danny alive and we both wanted that more than anything. I still wanted that more than anything. I never thought about marriage, not even when Peeta and I became serious. I was never secretive when it came to my reluctance to bring children into this twisted world, and he never asked any questions.
But he had obviously been thinking about it, as he had everything planned for his proposal. I looked down to my ring and sighed. Am I even ready to get married? Does Peeta still want to get married with me after everything I've done?"
Danny picks up the heaviness in the air and does what he does best: making me smile. "And they will bring food for all the District! Every month because of us everyone will have enough to eat, and there will be a feast…."
Well that is a reason to be happy.
"Then we better win," I say handing him the squirrel and he eats happily. I keep the smile plastered on my face as the questions continue to haunt me.
It rains for three nights before it stops suddenly. I know that it must be a gamemaker thing because it doesn't slow down, it just stop raining out of the blue and the Arena falls into an absolute silence. Danny and I stay still as we wait for something, anything, to happen. And then it does: my stomach grumbles.
Danny giggles and I roll my eyes at him, grabbing my bow and arrows. "Let's get out of here, I'm starving." And with that being said we ready ourselves to leave the cave and go hunting, but a sharp cry makes us freeze in the spot. A girl screams in terror and a canon follows the sound. A moment later another canon is heard.
"District seven," Danny chokes out and I nod. But that's not what terrifies me the most.
"They are close."