Destiny's Calling
Disclaimer – Susan Collins owns everything.
Chapter 2.
It was Gale.
Gale.
Gale?
Gale!
"Gale, what's wrong?" I asked, panic evident in my voice.
"It's Posy. She has been sick, and we just thought it was the flu but in the last hour she suddenly got much, much worse. We need your Mother! Or Prim! Just ANYBODY!"
Of course. It was just a sick child, needing my mother's healing skills. No, I thought, not just a sick child. It's Posy. Gale's little sister. It may as well be Gale who is the sick one.
"Right, let's hurry and get her to Mother's house." And with that we both sprinted back to the Hawthorne's home. Gale didn't bother correcting me when I said it was Mother's home. He knew that I couldn't bear to spend all my time there. He knew that I mostly lived at the old house.
But not only did he know, he understood.
He understood WHY I needed to be away from that place.
Or from anything that reminded me of the Capitol, really.
Because the Capitol reminded me of the Hunger Games.
The Hunger Games reminded me of Peeta. And Rue.
Gale understood ME. He understood me like nobody else did. More than Prim. More than Mother.
And more than Peeta.
Peeta.
I still didn't know where I stood with him. After we had returned from the Games, our friendship, our relationship, had deteriorated into a kind of cold uneasiness. Whenever we saw each other, or even when we were in the same room, we hardly acknowledged each other. We tended to avoid each other, just to avoid the awkward silences that would hang in the air.
I never had that problem with Gale.
He was my life-long friend. Always there. He always knew what to do. We never had serious fights. We were never awkward around one another.
I knew that before the games, everyone had expected Gale and I to get married. I always waved it off though, because I only ever saw him as a brother.
Lately, things had changed.
Since I came back, there had been some sort of tension between us. Nothing I had ever felt before. It was kind of like whenever we were close, I could feel this kind of low thrum of electricity between us.
Especially since that kiss.
The kiss.
I didn't know whether to say anything, because I didn't know if he felt it too. Sometimes I was almost certain he did, other times I had no clue.
Argh, this was all too confusing.
We were rapidly approaching the Hawthorne household, so I quickly left that morbid train of thought behind as Gale and I went in to retrieve Posy.
Gale carried her bridal style as we both ran up the long twisting path leading to Victors Village, the same path I had been walking down not ten minutes ago.
Posy looked terrible. I could see she was deathly pale under her olive skin, but her cheeks were flushed bright red. She was covered in a layer of cold sweat but was still shivering violently.
When Mother's house appeared in the distance, I ran ahead to warm mother of the patient. I opened the door with a loud slam, and shouted for mother or prim.
"MOTHER! PRIM! QUICKLY, WE HAVE A PATIENT"
Mother burst through the door as I said the last word, with Prim in quick pursuit.
"Who is it?" she asked, but before I could answer, Gale burst through the door with a deathly looking Posy.
"Oh dear" Mother said, as she frantically rushed her into her working room. The working room was where mother treated most of her patients; it held cupboards full of medicine and bandages to treat any ailment. When Posy was laid out on the table, she shooed Gale and I out and shut the door behind her, only prim and herself inside.
Gale slid down the door till he was sitting on the floor, his head rested on his knees, trying to catch his breath. I slid down beside him, knowing he was extremely worried for Posy.
Gale couldn't help but be fiercely protective of all his siblings, not just Posy, but his younger brothers, Rory and Vick too. And his mother. Gale would do anything to protect any of them. He refused to let any of his younger siblings take out Tesserae, instead choosing to take out more himself. Of course, this meant that he had had 40 entries into the Reaping Ball. That was many more than even most of the Seam kids. Now that he was 19, he wasn't eligible for the Reaping anymore. Instead, he spent his day working long hours in the deep mines; something that I'm not sure is better or worse. I don't know how he could handle it. I could hardly stand to be near the mines after both our father's had been killed in the mine explosion. Then again, it's not like he had a choice. District 12 was the mining district. Unless you came from a wealthy merchant family, like Peeta's, you had no choice but to work in the mines for your family to survive.
I once again felt that low thrum of electricity, but I ignored it, knowing that now was not the time to bring up such an issue, not with Posy laying just a few metres away. Quite possibly dying.
Gale still hadn't lifted his head
Just then, the door we were leaning against opened inwards, causing both Gale and I to lose our balance momentarily, but we quickly recovered.
I looked up to see Prim in the doorway looking down at us
"By the way Katniss, there is a visitor here for you; he's waiting in the lounge"
And with that she promptly shut the door again.
"A visitor?" I wondered out loud. Who would be visiting me? Let alone at this late hour. And anybody who knew me knew that I didn't usually spend my time here, so it can't be any close friends.
Apparently, hearing our brief conversation, the visitor decided to make himself known.
"Hello, Katniss...Gale."
We both looked up with surprise evident on our faces. Though I saw Gale's face quickly turn sour in annoyance. I didn't bother to think about what that could mean. Instead, I greeted the visitor, anxious to know why he was here.
"Hello, Peeta."
Chapter 2 is now up; if you have any suggestions, please contact me.
.B