Chapter 5

Once we're in the Justice Building, some peacekeepers lead me to a room so visitors can visit me before they take me away and bring me to the Capitol. They give you three minutes. Not much time when you have a whole life's-worth goodbye.

I stand there, silent. I can feel water building up in my eyes. I can't cry now, no. Not when I'm about to see my family for the last time.

I try to hold my tears in, but as soon as the door opens and I see my mom and Caleb, I run towards them and start a laugh that turns into a sob. I hold onto them for a minute, feeling their soft skin on my rough knife-throwing hands.

I let go of them and wipe away the tears on my face. But as soon as I wipe them away, new ones form in my eyes and race down my cheeks.

My mom comes towards me and puts my head to her chest. I can hear her heartbeat. Steady, but racing. She tries to calm me down. "Sh, it's okay."

"I'm so scared." I choke.

I feel a small pair of arms hugging my stomach and look down to see Caleb. He starts sniffling, and starts crying. I can feel the wetness of his tears on my dress. I hold him to close to me. "Hey, it's okay."

I let go of my mother and kneel down to me height-wise with Caleb. He doesn't look at me, and instead looks straight down to the wooden floor. "Look at me." He shakes his head and continues crying. "Look at me." He doesn't budge.

I finally give in to my impatience, put his chin in between my thumb and forefinger, and lift his chin up myself. "Listen to me. Everything's going to be okay. Take care of mom for me, okay? Don't sign up for tesserae and train hard. Choose your weapon wisely. Choose one that makes you comfortable and train as hard as you can. You still have a long ways to go, kiddo." I poke him in the stomach, which makes him giggle softly.

He stops crying, and holds me at my shoulders. "You have to come back. You have to. You need to." He starts crying again.

"I will. I promise," I kiss him on the forehead, in between his eyebrows.

We hug, and hug for a long time. I pull away, stand up, and walk towards to my mother. When I stand before her, I see she has a look of grief on her face. "I'm going to miss you, mom." I hug her.

Since I'm probably never going to see her again, I start to apologize. "I'm sorry. For everything wrong I've done. I'm sorry if I ever hurt you. I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry," I say while hugging her.

We both pull away and we look in each other's eyes. "I forgive you," she says. "I love you, so, so much." She takes my hand and squeezes it. I look at her from top to bottom. The dress she's wearing hugs her curves daintily, and she looks beautiful. I trail my eyes back up to her face, but I stop at her neck. I see her necklace, a clover leaf. A clover leaf; the plant I was named after. She notices me staring at it, and takes it off, turns me around, and clips the necklace onto my neck. "Here. For your token." she says.

I turn back around to face her and put a hand on my collarbone, looking for the necklace. I find it, curl my fingers around the clover charm, and rub the hard silver metal in my hand. "Thank you," I whisper.

I look back and gesture Caleb to stand with us. I hold both of them in each of my arms, clinging to them for dear life. All three of us come closer together, to stand in an embrace. I haven't felt this much love ever since my dad told me he loves me.

I hear the door creak open, but I ignore it. "Okay, time's up. Let's go." the dark-skinned peacekeeper says.

I oblige—I have to—and let go of them. Both of them shed tears as I look at their faces once more. "I'm going to miss you guys." I kiss mom on the cheek, and then kiss my brother on the forehead. "I love you."

"I love you too." They both say, almost in unison.

"Okay, let's go!" the peacekeeper shouts.

Both of them leave, walking backwards, so they can look at me. They try to give me a smile, but I can see the pain in their eyes—especially Caleb.

Once the door closes, I let out a sigh. I'm going to miss them so much.

I walk towards the door and stay a feet away. I hear commotion from the outside—a little boy's high-pitched screech combined with a man's dark, low one. Is that little boy's screech Caleb? What are they doing to him? What happened to mom? Are the peacekeepers hurting them?

The door swings open and I see Caleb running towards me. He throws his arms over me and starts sobbing loudly. "Don't go, Clove! You can't go!"

I grab his tiny little arms, and slide my hands down to his. I kneel down to have eye contact with him. He lets go of my hand and throws his arms around my neck. "You just can't go. You just can't. You're my sister." he whispers.

A peacekeeper from outside comes in. "Hey! Your time was up!" I hear him, but ignore him.

I position Caleb's head in front of mine so we can be face to face. "It's okay, Caleb. I'm going to win this thing, and come back. Just like—" I snap my finger,"—that. I promise. I'm going to come home."

"Okay, that's it!" the peacekeeper says. He takes Caleb from the collar of his shirt and yanks him out of my arms. Caleb winces, and I get worried. "Don't you dare hurt him!" I shout.

My mom is behind the peacekeeper, yelling at him to let go of her son. The peacekeeper looks at her, then back at me, and shoves Caleb to her. "Fine. Take that stupid little mutt with you and go back home."

Before I start to yell at him for calling my brother a mutt, he slams the door in my face.