I SAW THE MIDNIGHT PREMIERE OF THE HUNGER GAMES AND OMG I LOVED IT! Sure it was a bit different but it was still great! It defiantly helps if you've read the book though! I do have emotions but I didn't cry when Rue died…I almost balled my eyes out when Cato did though! I'm thinking as a "minor team" I'm gunna have to be Team Cato. Thus the idea for me writing a Cato story sometime! I'm thinking of something else…but I can't tell you yet hehehe. Anyways I've decided there will be one more chapter after this, it will be an epilogue. So without further ado, the ending.
Set you on the counter, oh at least a time or two. ~She Wouldn't be Gone, Blake Shelton
Denver's POV:
"Denver?" I hear Lucas ask me from the rocking chair that I've been sitting in the past two days, staring endlessly into the flames of my fireplace. Lucas doesn't give up though, he comes over and puts his hands on my knees and crouches down so he's lower than me. Like someone talks to a scared three-year-old, which is what I feel like anyways. I don't look at him though, I'm not really looking at anything, I'm lost, in my head really. "Hey, Denver? You there?" he asks me again, shaking my leg slightly. I don't focus on him though, and he knows it. He's been taking care of me, him, Dalton, and Andrew, he won't leave until he gets a response. "Denver, common I have some good news for you." At this I blink a few times and focus on Lucas's face, he smiles at me. "There you are." He grins, I just nod slowly.
"Gale?" I say. It's the only word I've said for the past fifty hours or so. Even when I fell asleep, I'd wake up screaming his name, screaming for him to run. Whenever someone comes to see me, I ask for him, trying to convince myself that he's not gone, that he's alive. But I always get the same answer, the same reaction, now is no different. Lucas comes and wraps his arms around me and I lean into him as more sobs rack my body and I cry on his shoulder.
"No Denver, not Gale" he soothes in my ear. He strokes up and down my back. "Shh it's okay, it's okay Denver." He tries to calm me down. I heard him talking to Dalton the other night, as I sat dazed staring into the flames. They didn't know I loved him this much. They didn't know we loved each other so much. Eventually I do calm down and lean back in my chair and wait for the 'good news'. Lucas looks me strait in the eyes, the eyes that are lifeless, no spark, and even now, no flame. That died with Gale. "Denver, they got Snow, the war is over." He tells me. Instantly there's a flare of pride that runs through me, I even almost fully smile. Almost. The tips of my lips go up a little. Lucas sighs and pats my leg. "They want you to do a speech, this afternoon, they specifically requested you do it, they as in Coin and District Thirteen, they know you're good with words."
Good with words. I guess I am. I guess I could give a speech, about freedom, about new life. Then I can just go sit in a hole and die. Yes, that's a splendid plan. Slowly I nod. "Okay"
;;;::::;;;
I sigh and straiten my uniform one more time. I'm not even nervous, I don't even have anything planned to say. I never plan, the words just come. I look out over the crowd as I stand off to the side and wait for the mayor of Seven to present me.
"And now, Commander Rowsell! Leader of District Seven!" he says gaily as he turns and smiles at me. I manage a small grin and make my way up to the podium. I look out over the people; men, women, children, civilians, soldiers. I straiten myself and hold my chin high and take a deep breath before I begin my speech.
"Thank you mayor." I nod my head in his direction. "I am very pleased to announce the capture of Snow and thus, the end of the war. The rebellion has been a success." The crowd erupts into cheers, whoops, and applause and I wait for them to quiet down again. Then I downcast my eyes. "But this was not possible without sacrifice, without dedication, without you. Everyone has suffered, no one has gone unchanged by this war. Lives forever changed, never again to be the same. Some more than others. But, all was not done in vain. We have overthrown the most powerful and cruel government this world has ever known. There will be no more suffering, no more starving, no more unfair punishments, no more avoxes, and, above all, no more Hunger Games. Never again will we watch our friends, our neighbors, and our children go off to fight to the death for, so called, entertainment.
Now, now we can make a new life for ourselves. A fair and just government will soon be put in place. We will have the freedom to say what we think, to practice our beliefs, to travel. This is just the beginning, of something new, of something big, of something world changing." I pause briefly and make one quick decision in my head. "I would like to tell you all a story, my story." I look to the mayor and he nods to me.
"I was born in District Twelve, to a family in the Seam, which is the lowest class in Twelve. I had my mother, my father, and my brother Kline. My father worked in the mines, my mother stayed home, she would wash clothes for people who needed it. When I was three, I met my best friend, Gale. You all know him, Commander Hawthorne. We grew inseparable. We did everything together." I look back to the screen behind me that was set up, on it, I see the picture I had given Lucas and told him to put up if I made this speech. The one from my house, with Gale laughing and me tucked into his chest. The one after they had joked of us getting married; I swallow the lump in my throat. "During the winter when I was five, my mother got a fever. We were so poor, we couldn't afford medication for her. One night, she died. I never got to know my mother, but my family helped me through it, so did Gale. Life went on though, barely scrapping by. People would joke around with Gale and I, say one day, we'll be married. Years later, when I was fourteen, there was a mining accident. Gale's father was killed in it. He became the man of his household; which included his mother, who was due with his sister Posy any day, and his two brothers, Vick and Rory. From after that day, I never spent time with Gale anymore, we only said good morning to each other. He hunted for his family in the woods. He got his family to survive. Four years later, and I had lost my best friend. During that time, I protected him. I would stand up for him at school, even if he never knew I did. But then, one day, there was another accident in the mines. My father was killed. We lay him to rest next to my mother. Kline was only seventeen, almost eighteen. He wasn't old enough to work in the mines. We started to starve. There were nights when I would just sit on my porch and cry. Because I felt like I was going to die. Gale saw this, but he did nothing. Just before we were going to starve, Kline got work in the mines. We got food again, firewood again. We came back to life. For the next two years we would get by. He would go to work the same time as Gale, I would walk Vick and Rory to school and help Gale's mother.
Last year, I was walking through the District when the sirens went off. The mining sirens. Another mining accident. I was filled with fear for both Gale and Kline as I sprinted off to the mines. I waited hours, I was filled with relief when Gale came up. I had waited hours later for my brother, when he came up, he was dying. I got a man to carry him home for me. He died in our house, in my arms." I take a breath, the square is completely silent as I talk, you could hear a pin drop. Eyes transfixed on me. "I went to the mines a week later, I got a job, I became a miner. That's when Gale decided to speak to me again, after six years. Over time, and many fights later, he explained why he didn't talk to me again. He thought I didn't want to be his friend, he thought I would be bothered, he thought I didn't deserve him anymore. Gale and I would walk to the mines everyday together, we were mining partners, we were best friends again. I don't know when it started, but I realized I loved him one day. He was my rock, he was my world, he was the reason I got up in the morning. The first time he actually kissed me, as in not being seven years old, was in the woods. After I was yelling, no, screaming, at him. He did it to shut me up. I hated him for it, but I got over it. He took care of me when I was hurt in the mines. One day I saw him being whipped, he was whipped unconscious. I went and demanded they stop, that he had gone through enough. I was whipped in his place." At this, I turn around and lift up my shirt, uncovering the jagged scars that cover my back. People gasp but I turn back around and finish my story. "The last night of the Games, Gale and I lead two hundred people out to safety from District Twelve, out to the woods. We were about to go back to the safety of the woods when we realized his brother and Katniss's sister were missing. I went back in to get them, demanding that Gale go with the people. He kissed me, he told me he loved me, he told me he cared about me, before I ran back into the District that was still being bombed. I found the kids, they were trapped in a burning building, I got them out. I burnt my leg on the flames, but I demanded them to run. Run they did, I staggered along behind them. I saw Gale, standing by the fence, yelling for me to run faster. I did. I told him to go, to just go back. The kids reached him and went under the fence. I urged Gale on, he went under and looked back. He screamed and pointed to something above me, I looked up and saw a bomb coming towards me. I looked back to Gale and saw his gray eyes pleading for me. That's when the bomb hit, I was thrown through the air. From the air I remember seeing Gale's face. Then the world went black and I remember his screams. That's the last time I saw him.
None of this would have happened if it weren't for the Capital. My mother, she would be alive, my father would be alive, my brother would be alive. Gale," I can't help as my voice catches in a quick cry, "Gale would be alive. You're family members, you're friends, would be alive. Now we have a new chance though, none of that will happen again. So, there is only one more thing I want you to remember, to ask yourself. Who are you now? Because you should be proud, don't become like me. I'm just, nothing. A girl good with words. A girl who's lost everything. Who am I? Whatever that is, I hope you don't have to go there. Make a life for yourself. Because the Capital burned us, and we made them burn right along with us." There's a few seconds of silence before the square erupts into cheers again. I stand there though, emotionless. After about five minutes, the mayor comes up from behind and tells me I can go. The applause has died down considerably, but it still goes on. I brag my feet on the ground as I make my way to go behind the screen, this way, I won't have to confront anyone.
"You're Denver Rowsell" I stop dead in my tracks at the voice. "You're a girl from the Seam. A strong girl. A miner from crew 287." The voice continues and I slowly turn around and scan the crowd for him. It's Gale's voice. "You're the girl I grew up with. You're strong, fierce, uptight, and fantastic." I'm making my way back to the podium now, just to get closer to look. I can't find him. "You're a sister, a daughter, a best friend, a trader, an ally, a Commander, a soldier." Then I see him as the crowd moves to give him a path. I feel my heart swell, my eyes fill with tears of joy at his face. He's, alive.
He's alive and beat up. He's limping as he walks forwards, a microphone clipped on his ear, his right arm in a brace. Before I can even think I run and jump off the stage that's five feet off the ground, I land at a dead run.
"You're mine" I hear and see the huge smile in Gale's voice and on his face. It doesn't take me long at all to reach his arms and be taken into him. I bury my head in his chest as he hugs me close to him. I breath in his scent, the same as it always was, the woods. I feel his warm breath on my neck.
"I love you" I murmur into his chest, I'm vaguely aware that the whole mass of people can hear us because of the microphone on Gale's ear, but I don't care. Gale pulls back so he can look me in the eyes, so I can look at his. Fiery silver. So much is there, it's who Gale is, his eyes tell a story of their own. There's so much there now; pride, fire, courage, relief, and love.
"I love you too Denver." He says softly, then pulls me close to him and puts his lips fiercely on mine. I put my arms around his neck and my hands go to his hair, he groans and pulls me closer. The people around us are all clapping and cheering for us. Gale apparently takes this and it builds his confidence and as I open my mouth for air slips his tongue in, I don't even try in the slightest to stop him. I'm just glad he's back. Eventually we do pull away though and his forehead rests on mine, our eyes gaze into each other's.
"Don't leave me" I whisper to him.
"I never will, only death will part us." He promises, I press my lips back to his, sealing our deal. Because Gale will be mine, I will be his. Forever.
Hurray! Hope you liked this story, now; I need to go write the epilogue so I can tell you my idea! Please please review! I got 10 reviews last chapter which is amazing! Let's see if we can beat that!
Mocking Verse!