Katniss' POV:
Luckily for mine and Madge's family District 12 is too poor to have a giant tv in the town square like I've glimpsed in the reapings of other, more wealthy districts. The Undersee's get to mourn in peace and no one has to watch poor Prim sob. We must watch the Blood bath, which could last a while depending on the arena and how far the tributes go into the Cornucopia for supplies. Mother, Prim, and I sit huddled around our little black and white tv as they show the tributes coming up in their tubes for launch. The Cornucopia has a lake on one side and a forest on the other. The tributes will rise in a circle around the cornucopia. I see Madge ascend along with Rory and the others they will have to kill.
I felt dread pool in my stomach; in less than seconds, Madge could be brutally murdered. The gong sounds and my eyes follow the girl with the Mockingjay pin. She sprints to the forest after grabbing a sack from the ground. Rue, the little girl from 11, is right behind her. Rue is fast, but she grabbed a pack closer to the horn of plenty. Madge turns to make sure Rue is still coming and slows her pace so the child can catch up. I want to scream at her to get out of there and to tell her that I'm desperate for her to make it back alive. Rue joins her in seconds, which is just long enough for the girl from district 2 to throw a knife right at Madge's back. Her reflexes must be lightening fast, because the blade lodges itself in her pack at the last second. I let out a gasp. She and Rue sped into the trees and out of the camera's sight. For now, they have managed to escape death. They should be safe for the rest of the day thanks to all the action going on right now.
The girl from district 7 gets disemboweled by the district 2 tribute and his sword. He now has his sights set on Rory. We watched, horrified as Rory is decapitated right before our eyes as Cato laughs. My best friend's brother killed on national television while the girl he had always tormented leaves the killing spree unscathed. I wonder how much he knows about Rory? If he hasn't seen anyone but his family, he might not even know he was sent to the games. Tears stream down my face like a river. I am utterly overwhelmed by this year's reaping and watching Rory Hawthorne meet the death normally only reserved for half-dead chickens in our district. Prim is sobbing as well and we hold each other. We want to stop watching, but we are probably being watched ourselves. They have ways of knowing if you didn't watch the games. It didn't matter if you had the tv on and were asleep on the couch, like a man from the seam a couple of years ago. They knew. The Capitol made a spectacle of him and fried him on a special mandatory report for the whole country to see.
Thankfully, there isn't much more to watch. The next time the tv will work will be 10pm tonight when we will get a recap of what happened in the Games today and the faces of the dead will flash in the sky. Rory's face will light up the sky. I start to weep again while Mother has gone in the other room to escape from this all and Prim will be clinging to Buttercup in a corner like she does when she's upset.
I almost jump out of my skin when I hear a knock at the door. I realize it's been a half hour since the tv shut off and I rush to the door. I open it, not knowing who to expect because the only people that ever come to our house are members of the Hawthorne clan. There is a golden haired boy looking down at me like I'm a wounded animal. His eyes overflow with empathy. He asks if he can come in. I'm figuring since he has been helping Prim with Lady and making her laugh, I can't be as cold to him as I want to be.
I find myself saying that I would go get Prim. I leave him in the threshold, hoping he feels as uncomfortable and awkward as I do. I yell for Prim and tell her that Peeta is here. She bounces up like a bunny and runs to give him a big hug. She starts sobbing into his shirt, and he holds her. He has even brought her cookies to make her feel a little better. The cat hisses at me like he knows I'm the one that let this stranger in, the stranger that is stealing all of her attention from him. She's almost impossible to understand, but I hear her muffled cry. The words make my blood run cold: That should've been me.
Peeta whispers something in her ear and she calms down a little. She then says that she's going to make a memorial for him. I know it won't be much, but it'll make us all feel better. She grabs the cat and runs off into the next room, leaving us alone again. He says he's terribly sorry about Rory and even though this happened, Madge is still alive. He has a slight grin on his face when he says, "Oh and I hear she has a knife and a wonderful ally."
Against my better judgment, I almost smirk. He must realize that I'm certainly not my sister, so I won't fling my arms around him. He's also smart enough to know that after watching your neighbor literally lose his head, you need someone. Hell, maybe he even needed someone. He wrapped his arms around me. I didn't start crying like before, but a tear slid down my cheek. We stood there for a moment and the tear remained friendless until I heard him whisper that he'd always owe his life to Gale and Rory. If not for them, he might be dead. I feel anger boiling in me. It overflows just as I pull away from him. "Peeta, you know as well as I do that you would NOT be dead by now. You're strong! The careers would have taken you in without a second thought!" Then I breathe, "You could've won."
He counters with the ever productive argument of my bow and arrow skills. I reply that there are NEVER bow and arrows in the arena. No one in the Capitol wants to watch Careers pick off weaklings from up in a tree. It's boring to them. We could have argued longer, but he tells me that he has to go back to the bakery and he'll be back at 10. I try to protest, but he replies that if the larger districts can watch on a large screen in the square, he can certainly watch in a different location other than his house. That is, as long as he's actually watching.
When Peeta leaves, it makes me wonder. Could I have won? What would Peeta and I do if we were in the arena together? Is Rue still alive? For the first time I think about Madge running to the forest. Wait, was she wearing my standard braid? What's going to happen to her? Would I have volunteered for her at the reaping?