a/n: alright, this may seem VERY confusing, but the a/n at the bottom explains all.
disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games.
"Madge, you're okay," soothed Gale. It was useless. I was a mess. First Annie, then Madge.
"But how could he do that?" Madge cried. "I've never seen anyone do that, even if we are all different!" she sputtered.
"I'm really sorry," I mumbled, looking at my toes in self-pity.
"Oh Peeta!" she shrieked. She jumped up and stumbled over to me, holding my face in her hands. "You're precious!" she screamed. I tried freeing myself from her grasp but she held on to me tighter.
"Madge!" Katniss scolded. "Release!" she ordered. At once, Madge recoiled from me and back to Gale's side. She looked sheepish, but she was beaming.
"I'm sorry Peeta," apologized Madge. "You're just so cool!" she exclaimed. My eyebrows furrow.
Me? Cool?
"Yeah right," I scoff. Madge shook her head profusely and started to protest.
"No, you are!" she protested. I shook my head in disbelief, but went along with her theory.
"Alright Madge," I sighed. "I'm cool, okay! Yay for cool Peeta Mellark!" I exclaimed, clapping my hands together for added drama. She looked me over once with doubting eyes but padded over into the trees.
"C'mon Peety," Katniss whispered, the yellow field seemingly forgotten.
We walked away, the bright yellow flowers drooping back into a pale purple.
We walked for a little while until we reached a beautiful, gleaming lake. It was surrounded with wildlife, birds were singing and leaves rustling with the sounds of scampering squirrels. I immediately noticed Katniss, Gale and Haymitch's wide grins.
"They're the mischief makers around here," Madge whispered. I chuckled and nodded. It definitely didn't surprise me. Katniss merely touched the surface of the water of the lake, and instead of rippling water, frost started to gather around the lake. After a matter of seconds, the lake was frozen over. I didn't even notice the snow that started to creep from the lake and further out into the grass. And after a moment, there was at least a foot of snow we were buried in. But surprisingly, it didn't feel cold at all.
Katniss grabbed a handful of snow and formed into a snowball. She tossed it up into the air and caught it with her hand again.
"See this Peety boy?" she asked. "regular snowball right?" she asked. I nodded furiously and she all but laughed. Katniss shook her head ruefully and smirked.
"wrong answer," she whispered. She blew over the snowball, and I immediately noticed a bluey tinge starting to form. It took me a second to realize what she was going to do, but a second too late; because an overly hard snowball hit me dead in the face. I immediately spit out all the extremely cold snow out of my mouth and noticed Haymitch snickering uncontrollably. He then crouched down and grabbed a handful of snow.
"Oh hell no!" I exclaimed, running and moving to hide behind Finnick.
"Relax Peety," Haymitch laughed. "I'm not throwing it at you, I'm throwing it at-" Haymitch was cut off by another snowball towards him. He immediately ducked and shook his head shamefully.
"Gale, my boy," he swooned. "you gotta be on target!"
"You mean like this?" Katniss threw another snowball at Gale's face, which landed right on target.
The rest of us stood there dumbly, watching the three interact.
The sight of Gale's shocked face had Katniss cracking up.
"Oh, so you think this is funny?" he sputtered, still brushing snow out of his scruffy black hair. Katniss nodded, still smiling like an idiot.
"You little rascal!" he growled half-heartedly and reached for Katniss.
She exclaimed in surprise and Gale rubbed his fist against the top of her head and they shuffled forward onto the lake, still laughing.
"Be carefu-" I started to yell but Finnick stopped me.
"They're fine," he reassured me. I noticed them shuffle onto the lake, but their bare feet remained as steady as it would on land. I walked forward dragging some snow along with my feet as I went. I finally reached the icy lake and tentatively poked my foot onto the ice.
It felt a little cold, but assuming that if this was to happen in real life, it would be much colder. Real life. Could it be possible this was all a dream?
I looked all around me, and the trees and the ground and heard all the very realistic sounds of laughter ringing in my ear.
I think I remember reading somewhere that humans only ever dream in black and white. Judging by the vibrant and pretty colours that I saw, it looked quite real.
Johanna bounded forward onto the lake, laughing slightly when she slipped a little. Gale was still chasing Katniss atop the lake, trying to get her with snowballs, but she jumped and dodged over each one. Her lithe and agile feet never stumbled or slipped on the ice and I wondered how she could ever do that without slipping.
"So, what do you call this place?" I shouted to no-one in particular.
"Panem!" replied Finnick. I nodded and noticed the familiar taste of the word on my tongue.
"Panem," I whispered. It sounded so familiar, like I had lived in a world called Panem in another life. I wondered how this was all happening, how my family was doing. My family!
"What about my family!" I exclaimed, only just remembering them. Finnick shared a worried glance with Johanna. Katniss and Gale immediately stopped their endeavors and stared at me strangely.
"That's something we'll explain later," said Gale. My eyes darted towards his form still balanced on the ice while I stood on the snow. I racked my brain for any distinct memories that was linked to my family. All I could come up with, were names. Rye and Cole. That was all I remembered, along with the thought they were my brothers.
"Look, we'll explain everything thoroughly later, okay Peeta?" prodded Johanna, still atop the ice. I nodded dumbly.
"Okay," I mumbled.
"Let's get to summer," whispered Annie, grabbing my arm and dragging me along.
We walked for a few minutes until we reached a beach. It was serene and quiet, the only sounds would be the crashing of the waves. I noticed immediately, that it was hot. As soon as I walked onto the sand, I started to sweat. I glanced at Katniss, wondering if she was okay with the heat, when I realized that winter was not as cold as it could have been.
"Katniss," I said.
"Hmm?" she asked in reply, absentmindedly watching the waves.
"How come winter wasn't cold?" I asked, still walking along the beach. She shrugged.
"It's not winter," she replied. "it's summer, so naturally, it's hot." she finished.
"But it was winter when I came here," I said confusedly. Katniss stopped in her tracks. She stared at me in wonder.
"You've been sleeping for years," she said, her gray eyes wide. "it hasn't been cold here for a while Peeta," she mumbled.
"So, I've been asleep for how many years exactly?" I asked, trying to get further details.
"You've been asleep for a good nine years."
the gap was astounding. I only expected to be asleep for a few years, not nearly ten.
"What did I do when I slept?" I asked. Katniss laughed and joked around.
"Well, you were making us a nice dinner!" she exclaimed, her pretty laugh resounding in my mind. I didn't know what was happening, or why I was here, but I knew one thing.
I was glad I was here.
"Hey, toss the frisbee would ya?" Johanna snapped. I laughed and snapped my wrist to let it fly. We were here for a good few hours. It had turned to night and a bonfire was going, the flames flying high.
"I'm gonna take a break!" I yelled. Johanna nodded in acknowledgement, and I made my way over to Gale where he sat next to the fire. I think Johanna was just happy to see me go. I glanced at Gale to see him watching Madge and Katniss play catch with a baseball.
"KATNISS!" Madge screamed. "GO LONG!"
Katniss sped past us as Madge threw the baseball impossibly far. And Katniss being Katniss, she caught the ball no problem and threw it back to Madge. The ball flew out of her hand and it sped towards Madge at a lightning speed.
"She'll catch it," Gale said, not even glancing at me.
It was true. She caught it no problem.
I watched everyone, they all looked perfect and happy. I could tell that my start in life was not a particulary nice one. I was just a boy, no-one special, I didn't even look attractive. All of them were perfect, flawless.
"I know what you're thinking," said Gale. "you think that we're all so perfect." he sighed.
"Peeta, we're just like you. We all had a bad start." he mumbled, his usually deep and self-assured voice, tiny and weak. "Madge had a bad start. She had a loving boyfriend before me, and they slept together one night, no protection, no nothing. She got pregnant." Gale said. "And she gave birth at sixteen years old. A healthy little baby girl. Gabriel, her boyfriend at the time, named her Iris. Madge never got to meet her." Gale finished.
"Why?" I asked.
"The labour was too gruesome for her, and she passed away after she gave birth. She never even got to touch her."
"Why does this involve me?" I asked. It was an honor to know Madge's story, but I couldn't find any sense as to why I was involved in any of this.
"All I'm saying Peeta, is that we all had a life before this one. We were all broken."
"Does the fire bother you?" I asked curiously. Gale shrugs.
"Not too much, our body temperature is lower than yours is." Gale explained.
"Oh."
A moment of silence passed peacefully over us before I broke it.
"So are you and Madge," I made a motion with my hands. "you know, together?" I asked timidly. Gale nodded, smiling and chuckling.
"Yeah, and are you smitten with Katniss?" he asked, turning to me with knowing eyes.
"Wh-what?" I sputtered. "No, no, I, erm, well, no, no!" I stuttered. Gale didn't look convinced.
"Alright lover-boy," he laughed. I blushed profusely and turned back to watch Katniss and Madge. I felt Gale's gaze piercing into my soul, but I ignored it and I watched Katniss smile.
By now, it was midnight and the only light came from the blazing fire in front of us. Gale had a guitar in hand, and the frisbees and baseballs were all put away, all of us huddled in front of the fire; save for Haymitch.
Gale strummed a gentle melody and Madge hummed along to the tune.
"Katniss," Finnick said softly. "you should sing," he said quietly. Murmurs of agreement went around the circle and Katniss shook her head softly.
"I can't sing," she mumbled.
"Can't sing my ass," Johanna snorted. "I bet lover-boy over here would like to hear that lullaby of yours," at the word 'lullaby', I perked up. Over the hours I could remember that angelic voice that would sing me to sleep before. I couldn't remember the words, but I could never forget the voice that saved me.
Katniss blushed, and I thought the rosy pink that bloomed on her cheeks looked lovely. Gale handed her the guitar gingerly and she strummed a gentle tune. When she opened her mouth, my heart stopped.
Deep in the meadow,
Under the willow,
A bed of grass,
A soft green pillow,
Lay down your head,
And close your eyes,
And when again they open,
The sun will rise,
Here it's safe,
And here it's warm,
Here the daisies guard you from all harm,
Here your dreams are sweet,
And tomorrow brings them true,
Here is the place where I love you.
The last verse was barely audible, a whisper and a rasp.
I could feel all eyes on me, and I could tell they knew what I was.
I was a seventeen year old boy.I was nothing special, before I came here.
Her voice was pure, clear, melodic, soothing. Everything that I felt when she was around.
She was the voice that lulled me to sleep, the voice that saved me from all that would hurt.
She was with me even before the start.
ok, so confused about Madge ? Here's the lowdown:
basically, this story was told by Gale, yeah? He's telling it from HIS point of view. Madge was obviously still on Earth at the time, NOT ON PANEM. so, Madge died in labour and just woke up in Panem like Peeta did. Does that explain things slightly? Gale talks about Madge and tells her story because he actually watched it happen. He watched Madge grow up, get her heart broken etc. So he's telling her story from BEFORE she got to Panem.