A/N: Hooray! I'm back. Amid writer's block, a busy schedule and increasing disinterest in finishing this book, I have decided that the only right thing I can do right now is finish this. I'm fairly certain that I will be updating this story within the next week. You can expect that the novel will be over within the next few weeks. There are probably only three or four chapters left. I do hope that you haven't lost interest in this book as much as I have. I apologize for not updating. Please read and review, but most of all, enjoy.
(24)
"Level One: Control Center," the female voice says in a chipper tone. I want to strangle whoever recorded these announcements. The doors whoosh open and Finnick hops out first. Gale and I exchange glances before following him.
Stepping off the elevator, I see that this level is different from all the others. Every level I've been on has had clear glass, while Level One is entirely black. I am immediately drawn to it for some reason and I examine the glass closely. It appears to have precious stones inside. There are, in fact, tiny specks of jewels inside the glass. They remind me of the ones the people in District One make for the Capitol.
"Katniss," Finnick whispers. Gale has already disappeared beyond a door and only Finnick's head is poking out.
"Yes?" I say, looking up at him. My voice sounds like I'm waking from a dream.
"Let's go," he says, not impatiently, nodding towards the other side of the door.
"Hold on," I say dreamily, turning my head back to the stones. They twinkle like stars in the night. "Finnick," I say to him without turning around. He doesn't reply. I go on, "they're so pretty…"
Suddenly, a hand clasps over my shoulder. The impact takes me by surprise, so I turn around and find Finnick gripping me, moving my body away from the jewels. Jewels. My reaction is uncontrollable. I'm angry at Finnick for making me stop looking at them. An unidentifiable force pulls my shoulder away from him and brings me back to the jewels. I continue to stare at them.
All of a sudden, I hear a whisper. "Go home, Katniss. Return to the ashes of District 12 and you will find what you have lost. The tricky death of one who you thought was gone forever was never true. The Capitol works in deceiving ways, for death does not bring them what they want. Go, Katniss. Go!"
"Katniss!" Finnick yells. My head is all woozy and I feel the ground come fast to me. The pull of the jewels is gone. I lay on the ground, collapsed in an awkward position that should bother me, but doesn't. Finnick is wrapping his arms around me. He is sitting me up, but I don't feel it. I'm concentrating on what I just heard. Return to the ashes of District 12 and you will find what you have lost. The tricky death of one who you thought was gone forever was never true. What does that mean? Did I imagine it all?
"Katniss," he snaps his fingers in front of my face. My eyes focus towards his hands. One is in front of me, waving, snapping, whooshing back and forth in an attempt to break me of the trance I've fallen into. The other is holding my waist very tightly, the pressure causing me to gasp for air.
"Finnick," I say wearily.
"YES!" he yells, excited that I'm addressing him.
"You're… you're hurting my side," I stammer.
Finnick looks down to his hand and sees the tight grip he has on it. "Sorry," he mumbles gruffly and releases me, moving his hand. I fall back through the air. For a moment I feel weightless. It's as if I am falling in slow motion. Gradually I feel the air rush from underneath me, the glass floors coming fast towards my head. Somewhere, deep inside of me, I recognize the panic and use all of my energy to break the fall by forcing myself up. Light-headed, my attempt fails.
The ground crashes into me and I feel the blood rushing in my face. A drip of red falls down from the top of my forehead, the place of impact. How am I still conscious? I wonder to myself. Finnick breathes in sharply and looks down at me. "Katniss?" he asks, shaking my side. "Katniss, are you alright?"
My eyes close, but I manage to talk to him, to say one thing, "No." I feel him sit me up again. He brushes the hair out of my face and wipes off some blood from my forehead with his shirt.
"Can you stand?" he asks me.
I shake my head.
Finnick is probably panicking. If the situation was reversed, I have no idea what I would do. I hear him call for Gale. He rushes over to where I have fallen and asks Finnick to step aside. I hear Gale's heavy breathing. I smell his sweat and feel his arms rush around me. He must have noticed the blood by now, because I sense his thumb gently rub across it. And then I feel his lips. They touch my forehead for no more than three seconds and then he breaks away, withdrawing from the warmth of being so close. My eyes flutter open and I see him there, worried and stunned.
"Are you going to be ok?" he asks me.
I support my weight with my arms and sit up to face him. "Yeah," I say unconvincingly.
Finnick looks at me and then he looks at Gale. "We need to go," he whispers frantically.
Gale looks up over Finnick's shoulder and breathes in deeply. "We're too late."
I turn around and see soldiers march out of the glass doors. At that very second, I feel a very familiar feeling, a feeling of impending doom. The world seems to run in slow motion. Finnick swiftly runs towards the soldiers and swings his trident at a row of them. I begin to hear sounds of pain. My eardrums are ringing. Gale swoops down and picks me up in his arms. He runs for the elevator and just closes the door before I hear gunfire.
Gunfire. Finnick. Surely even he can't take down all those soldiers if any of them have guns. Gale places me down on the ground and I lean my back against the side of the elevator. He is looking out the glass door. He pushes a button, but then frantically pushes another, trying to open the doors. I hear the shots. They get louder and louder. Suddenly, there is a crash. Glass splatters everywhere. It lands in my legs and a few pieces hit my arms. I manage to tuck my head under my arms just in time to stop the glass from hitting my face. Gale is yelling at the elevator to move. The elevator ascends rapidly and I nearly throw up.
It takes me a moment to register how much pain I'm in. I look at my legs and pick out a particularly large piece of glass, blood spurting out of the cut. I must be in such a daze that I hardly recognize that Finnick is lying in front of me.
I look at him and say quietly, "Finnick?" almost as if I'm a child asking a question.
A very bloody Finnick rolls onto his back, howling in pain. Gale is breathing heavily and I watch as he drops to the ground. Finnick must have jumped through the glass. Of course, his trident made the initial impact, but the glass shards were all inside of his skin.
"Finnick, you idiot!" Gale screams at him.
"They… shot," he says feebly.
I take a look at his face. Finnick's beautiful face has a long cut down his right cheek. It starts at his eye level and continues down to the base of his chin. I shudder, knowing that will be a scar.
"Are you ok?" Gale asks. "Can you move your legs?"
Finnick makes an attempt to kick his foot and it moves slowly across the floor. "Yeah," he says with a moan.
A rush of cool air hits me as the elevator doors open on Level 24. The breeze makes me shiver and I start to feel faint as the blood continues to pour out of my skin. "Gale?" I look to him as he helps Finnick to his feet.
Finnick stands next to Gale with his arm around Gale's back for support. "Yes?" Gale answers.
"What are we going to do?" I bit my lip and try to refocus my energy from my injuries to what I need to do next.
"I'll take Finnick someplace safe. You should go…" he trails off.
"Go… what? Go… where? Gale, please!" I cry in desperation.
"Fight, Katniss. Go fight," he decides. Before I can answer, he ascends to the surface with Finnick.
I reach for an arrow and prepare to fight. Then I hear the first shot above ground. It rings for a few seconds. Then comes another. I take a deep breath and shoot up.
I'm hiding behind a bush as the shots become more frequent and louder. I just manage to see Gale and Finnick hobbling into a house. I watch carefully from my shelter for a few minutes. Gale comes running out of the house and locks it behind him. He has a new gun with him. I wonder if he can see me. He must be able to because he runs over and joins me behind the bush.
"Are you alright?" he asks me.
I can't tell him the truth. "Yeah," I say. "The better question is are you alright?"
"I'm perfectly fine," he responds swiftly.
"How are we going to get to Revelyn?" I ask the question that has been bothering me all along. I don't dare ask how do we still know she's alive?
Gale hesitates and looks away from me. "I think we need defeat the Capitol first. I mean, I know that you're concerned but let's think about this logically…"
"NO! I will NOT think about this logically!" I yell at him, cutting off his sentence.
"Katniss, keep your voice down!" Gale whispers sharply.
It's as if chills run up my spine. I realized I've stood up and the shots have abruptly stopped. Turning around, the blood still trickling from my legs, the horror of the moment explodes in my face. There is no one to be seen for miles, but just on the other side of the bush is a body, the body of Mayor Bauer, his skin white and his face covered in blood.
A/N: I won't lie. At the end of the second day I posted this, I cried that I had only gotten one review. So please, if you can, make my day and just drop a tiny note. Thank you.