Coming Home

Alright, here´s the final chapter. I really hope you liked the story. Everyone who has gotten this far, thanks for reading:) Especially, thanks to all of you who reviewed, followed or favorited the story.:)

HungerGamesOwl

After the ceremony I get back to the apartment where I stayed before the Games. As I see everything memories from the Arena come up again and I begin to think that maybe that´s just another plot of Snow to punish me. I shake my head to forget these thoughts. I should look forward, tomorrow I´ll get back home, I´ll get to see my family again. This brings a smile to my face as I remember District 4 with the sunny beach, the grand ocean and my family and friends. Now, as I´m getting close to getting back to them, I notice how much I miss them. My parents, my big brother Simon, my little brother Otto who I volunteered for and of course my little sister Leslie who made my bracelet, which was my token. And of course my best friends Sean and David, Sean, the funny guy to hang out with you with whom you can always have fun and David, the more sensitive one to whom you always can go when you have a problem and he´ll find a way to make you feel better.

But will they accept me?

What I´ve done is awful, I killed people, innocent children. When even I can´t forgive myself how can I expect them to forgive me?

I sigh heavily but before I can continue to worry Mags comes in and smiles at me. I return the smile slightly.

"Hey. Is everything alright?", I ask her.

She nods. "Listen, Finnick", she begins, "We have something to talk about. Remember what I said: Games not over yet"

"What do you mean by that?", I ask her and hope that I´ll get an answer this time.

"Snow still controls you. Do everything he asks you to"

"Why?", I begin to get confused. I´ve won the Games,what should I worry now?

"He´ll kill someone you love when you don´t", is her response.

"What?!", I exclaim shocked.

"You know Haymitch?", she asks. I nod. Haymitch is the only victor from District 12 who is drunk the whole time.

"Snow wanted to sell body, Haymitch refused, now everyone he loves dead", Mags explained.

"Sell his body?", I ask shocked. "Is he going to make me do this? He can´t, I´m only fourteen!"

Mags looks at me with pity in her eyes. "You´ll only have to do this, when you sixteen"

"But that´s in not even 2 years!", I exclaim, "I´m not even an adult by then"

"I know", Mags responses sadly, "But you have to. Think about your family, your friends"

I´m shocked and I feel like vomiting. I´ve never thought that the life of a victor would be like this but I notice that it makes sense. On the TV you often see Cashmere or other good looking victors kissing people from the Capitol, but I always thought they wanted that.

But I can´t imagine how this has to feel, it must be awful and I dread the idea that I´ll have my first kiss with a stranger or even lose my virginity with one of them.

"Don´t think about it too much now. Tomorrow home", Mags says and my face lights up a bit.

"Now, sleep", Mags continues and brings me to bed where I fall asleep easily. But it doesn´t stay like that a long time.

I awake screaming and sweating. A couple of seconds later Mags comes into my room.

"Shh, everything alright, just nightmare", she soothes me and strokes my head. She continues this until I calm down and my breathing goes slower again.

"Thanks, Mags", I say and hug her. It feels pretty good to have someone here with me.

"No problem, my boy. Want to talk about it?", she asks me. The nightmare was horrible but I don´t really want to think about it right now, so I shake my head.

"Alright. Try to get some more sleep", she says quietly and then stands up and leaves. Soon after, I fall asleep again, this time without any dream. Thank God.

The next morning I awake by Twiksi´s shrill voice. "Morning, my victory boy, let´s get up, the train leaves in two hours."

I groan. "Two hours and you wake me up now?"

"Finnick! How rude, what´s up with you?"

What is up with me? Besides the fact that I just survived the Arena of which I have horrible nightmares, the fact that I killed innocent children and that in the near future I´ll have to sell my body to people from the Capitol, everything´s just peachy. But I don´t say this aloud.

"Alright, alright, I´ll get up", I say instead. Twiksi smiles satisfied and then leaves.

After showering and dressing I get to eat some breakfast but there´s not really much time to do so as my prep team is already coming in and preparing me for the train ride and getting home. I really don´t understand why I have to look good boarding the train and leaving it but Mags tells me there will be cameras and therefore I´ll have to dress up again. I don´t really care, I just want to see my family as soon as possible and therefore I just let them work. At the end I´m wearing a green t-shirt, which obviously matches my eyes, a black blazer and usual jeans. As Mags predicted, there are many cameras and reporters on my way to the train and I smile and wink at the crowd. When the train leaves I´m really grateful for the silence.

Then it´s time. We´re arriving in District 4. I´m about to see my family and my friends again. Nervously I begin to play with my bracelet and Mags shows up and tells me to calm down. When I step of the train I´m greeted by a big crowd of people who clap and cheer when they see me. But I couldn´t care less when I notice my family and my friends standing at the left of me. "Finny!", Leslie shouts and I run towards her and hug her. "I missed you so much", I murmur into her ear. "I missed you, too. But you did it, Finny, you won the Games". I smile at her but I have to think about all the children that had to die because of me. Next, my mother hugs me crying. "Oh thank god, my baby is back". I calm her down a bit and then hug my brothers and my father. At the end my friends come to greet me and everyone just seems grateful that I´m back. Nobody is blaming me for what I did and I´m kind of relieved.

After everybody calmed down, I see that Mags is about to leave the train station. "Mags!", I shout and she looks at me. "Could you come here for a second?", I ask her.

She nods and makes her way over to me.

When she arrives I turn to my family and friends. "Guys, this is Mags, she´s my mentor and helped me a lot. Without her I wouldn´t be alive right now. Mags, these are my friends and my family"

After everybody greeted her, my mother thanks her about a thousand time for saving "her baby" and asks her if she wants to eat dinner with us which she agrees to.

So we go home and prepare dinner and as we´re all sitting around the table, I´m so happy to be back, so happy to see my family and my friends again. For once, everything seems to be alright. Although I know it isn´t going to stay this way. Not as long as Snow is alive. But one day, I´ll make sure my family can be completely happy, one day I´ll make sure that Snow´s going to die.

And nothing and nobody can stop me.