Madge's POV

I stare at the wall. It's white and clean and smells of disinfectant. I look down at my white hospital clothes. I'm cold but I don't care. I just stare at the wall. Outside the sky is dark but the stars are shining. I wonder which ones are Finnick and Johanna. My mind fights reality. It won't sink in. but my subconscious knows. It takes me there every time my eyes close. I see the blood, their faces, and the fear in their eyes; I feel the pain in their hearts. I never understood quite what was meant when people said the Games change you. I do now.

The doctor tries to joke with me saying I'm famous for the shortest ever Games. For not having to kill anyone. I don't want fame. I just want Gale. They won't let me out until they know I'm perfect. The wound in my side has stopped bleeding.

The doctor says I'm lucky. Lucky that Finnick died when he did. Otherwise I would have lost too much blood to survive. I don't feel lucky. I don't feel anything. I'm numb once again.

The wall is plain yet somehow it fascinates me. Doctors come in and go out trying to coax me into talking but nothing works. I just continue to stare at the wall.

They think I'm mad. They say there's no hope for me. It's been a week since the games ended and physically I'm fine but they say mentally I'll never be the same again. I have not spoken since I left the arena. I have not eaten. My stomach pains me but I can't eat. My mouth won't open.

Maybe the doctors are right. Maybe there is no hope for me. Maybe I should just stay the way I am for another while and then I'll die. But then I think of Gale. I think how happy he'd have been when I won. To know I was coming home alive and not in a box. And how could I leave him now? When we were so close to being reunited. But somehow even thinking that I can't force myself to eat.

They think I don't hear them talking about me. They think I've deafened myself as well. But I hear them. They say they've tried everything. That only I can save myself. But I don't know how. I'm a lost cause.

Gale's POV

The doctors say she's gone. That she's lost. Lost in her own mind. I don't believe it. Madge survived. She lived through the Hunger Games. She can't leave me now.

They say she's mad. Trapped inside herself. They say the only sound she's made since she left the arena is the screams she makes in the middle of the night.

They won't let me see her. To rescue her. I know if I could speak to her I'd free her. But they say it's too dangerous. Dangerous for me. And for her. They let the Mayor in to see her and when he returns he says she isn't Madge anymore. He says she's an empty shell. Locked inside herself. Her eyes are dead he says. She's gone.

She won't eat. She can't sleep. She isn't talking. They have no idea what to do. Eventually they agree to let me see her. One doctor warns me she's not the same Madge I used to know. Then I see her.

I enter behind her. She's watching the wall. I knew the doctors were serious but this is worse than I could ever have imagined.

The mayor was right. Her eyes seem dead, her body has wasted away. I walk slowly in front of her. At first there is no sign of recognition in her eyes and my heart breaks but then her lips open. I hear doctors cheer. It's the most she's done in a week.

"Gale?" She says. Her voice is barely a whisper. I nod. Suddenly she jumps up and wraps her arms around my neck, her bony legs around my waist. I hold her tight, afraid that if I let go she'd sink back into her hole, never to return. Her body is pure bone. I can feel every bone in her body. I hold tight but I'm afraid if I hold too tight I'll break her. We stay like that for a while. I can feel tears running down my back. Slowly she pulls away from me. "I didn't think you'd come for me." she says her eyes sad but at least it's emotion.

"I'll always come for you." I tell her.

That was ten years ago. Today she is worse. She gets worse every day. The doctors define it as mentally unstable but the town's people say she's lost her mind. The doctors had hope after that first day when we were reunited. But besides me she speaks only to herself. She mutters away and I often here words like "my fault" and "should be dead".

It pains me to see her that way. She used to be so happy. So full of joy. We used to dance, laugh and sing. When she smiled her eyes used to light up. Now though she rarely smiles, when she does her eyes stay dead. She never dances; I haven't heard her laugh in ten years.

The only improvement is she eats.

Every night I lie awake, waiting. Waiting for the tossing and turning before it turns to screams and tears. I hold her close as she sobs into my chest.

The doctors insisted she has a carer if she was to return to District 12. They hired a young woman called Kelly but she upset Madge too much. Next was Maria. But she was too sensitive and when she met Madge she broke down. Now there's Lisa. Madge likes Lisa though she doesn't talk to her.

Her memory was affected too. She often forgets simple things like people's names and where she left something. But she never forgets what happened in the arena. Doctors said there could be a breakthrough if they could get her to talk to someone about what happened but she won't.

One day Lisa had just put Madge in front of the TV when she sat beside me.

"Why didn't you give up? You know… let her go when she went mad?" she asks.

"She's not mad!" I growl.

"I know but it must take a lot." She says. "How do you cope? She's not the same Madge you first fell for."

"No but I can't give up. She needs me. I'm not going to let her down." I told her before returning to Madge. But what Lisa said stayed on my mind. She wasn't the same Madge I fell in love with but there were days when I could see the old Madge in her eyes. She was in there somewhere.

I promised her I would always come back for her. I never broke that promise.

The End

Please review! Thanks to all who have already reviewed! Keep it up! Hope you enjoyed this story! I know it was a very sad ending but its how I always imagined someone could be after seeing what Madge saw. Anyway… review! Thanks!