Chapter 3: Easing the Pain

~Gale~

"Why are you doing this?" Delly whispers.

"Why do you think?" I ask.

"Because you're crazy," she answers with a smile and almost a giggle.

"Because I'm in serious pain right now and I'm so desperately lonely I can't stand it…and well…it seems that I'm losing my mind," I expect her to start laughing because I'm pretty sure its in her character to do that, but she stays quiet for a minute.

She takes my hand and says "I'm lonely too." And this time she kisses me first.

I'm really surprised how easy it is for us to do this. I mean after all, we don't' really know each other, and definitely don't love each other.

But she's desperate and I'm desperate, so who cares? What do I possibly have to lose? Katniss hates me, Peeta hates me, I hate myself. So why not?

I tried to enjoy it. I tried to be happy. I tried to make the pain go away. It worked at first. It really did. But the longer it went on the more I thought about Katniss and how I wished it was her instead of Delly.

"Don't think about Katniss," I tell myself. "Think about right here, right now."

Then I hear a scream.

~Autumn~ (Delly's little sister)

I am shocked. I am terrified. I feel numb down to my toes. Somehow I manage to scream. Delly jerks her head up to look at me. I think I'm going to be sick. This makes no sense. My older sister is kissing a delusional man she found in the woods almost a week ago. My stomach starts to churn and I randomly start screaming again. Delly slowly eases herself way from Gale. I start shaking, unsure of what to do.

"It's ok Autumn. It's ok, don't be scared." Delly says as she walks over to me.

"Don't be scared? DON'T BE SCARED? What the? What the heck are you doing?" my voices rises in anger.

"Shh…you don't need to shout at me, " Delly puts a hand on my shoulder and guides me to the far side of the cabin.

"Autumn…I can explain,"

"Please do."

"Well…you see…the uh…the morphling wasn't working," her voice is hushed, like she only wanted me to hear her.

I gape at her wide eyed. I can't believe her. She's gone crazy too. I start shouting again.

"So drugging him wasn't enough for you? You had to start kissing him, too?"

"Autumn, this isn't about me. He is in serious pain right now-"

I cut her off. "So what Delly? So what? I could go stab him right now and he'd be in a whole lot more pain then any break-up could ever cause him!"

"Autumn how dare you! You have no idea-"

"No, how dare you! You've all gone crazy!" I scream.

I spin around and run as fast as I can out of the cabin. Away from Delly, away from the creeper who has serious issues. I have to go somewhere. I can't just wander in the woods.

Where, where, where….

Then it hits me. The Victors village. I'll stay in one of the empty houses, till' the creep leaves. And maybe I can sort some of this mess out with the Mellarks' while I'm at it…

~Delly~

I watch Autumn run out the door.

"Autumn wait," I say

I'm about to go after her, when I look over and see Gale. He's curled up in a ball, rocking back and forth on the cot. It looks like he's figting the urge to scream.

I run over to him and kneel down so we're eye level.

"Gale? Gale it's ok. I'm here. You're ok." I stroke his arm lovingly, urging him to talk to me. "Can you stay here for a minute? I'll be right back."

He grabs my wrist and holds it in his iron grip.

"Gale , I have to go get Autumn. Before…before she does something stupid."

He looks up at me. His eyes panicky and pleading. "Delly, I…"

I lay my hand on his shoulder. "you're fine. You're gonna be fine, I promise."

"No I mean, I just…" his voice trails off but he doesn't take his eyes off me.

"What?"

"I just…can't do it."

"Of course you can. I'll be back before you know it" I tell him, eager to get to my sister.

"No, Delly. I mean I can't…live like this."

I stare at him. I don't know what to say. But now it's my turn to be angry.

"Gale, you do anything while I'm gone, so help me!" I shout. I start to stand up and Gale stands up with me.

His fingers trace my face again and his voice is very quiet compared to mine.

"Shh…relax, Katniss."

Anger overwhelms me. "JUST SHUT UP Gale! SHUT UP!"

I shove him down and run after Autumn. Tears sting at my eyes. I'm an idiot. Of course he thought I was Katniss. Even though he said otherwise…of course he thought I was her. He's crazy. But the way he kissed me…well I had a glimmer of hope. But not now. Not ever. He doesn't love me. I probably don't love him. Do I? it was so nice kissing him. But maybe that was just because I've never really been kissed like that. Who knows? The world has gone crazy.

"Autumn? Autumn are you there?" I call for her, through my tears. I run and run through every clearing, every path screaming for my sister.

"Leave me alone." She says from far away. I can tell that she's been crying too.

"Autumn? Autumn where are you? Please come here!"

"No. I'm going to the Victors Village."

"Why? Please come here. Autumn I'm sorry."

"No you aren't. Just leave me alone. Her voice is a little closer and I can tell she is hiding.

"Autumn…how much…how much did you see?"

She sniffs. "All of it. I was never asleep."

Wow. Just wow. Epic fail, Delly. Epic fail. My little sister saw me kissing Gale. What a great example I'm setting.

"Autumn I-"

"Just forget it, Delly. I'm going to stay in one of the Victors houses until he leaves. He seriously freaks me out."

I hear the rustle of leaves and see her take off toward the village.

I'm too wiped out to follow her. I haven't slept all night. It has to be one or two in the morning. I turn around and decided it would be best to face Gale. I can't really blame him. He is practically dying inside…dying? Dying! I have a mental break down and frantically run to the cabin. I can't believe I left him alone. I actually left him alone.