As soon as we pulled into District Twelve, I raced off the train, ignoring the calls of my name and towards the mines where Gale would be. I push past the other miners until I found Gale at the end of the group.
"When did you . . .?" I hugged him then started to tug him away from the mines. "Cal?"
"I need to talk to you, now." I whispered to him, hurriedly. We ran to the woods, checking over our shoulders to make sure no one saw us.
"Cal, what's going on?" Gale asked me. I looked around before turning to him.
"I need you to promise me that you'll protect our families, if anything bad happens." Gale looked at me confused.
"Of course, Cal." I shake my head.
"Peeta's too, Gale. You have to get them out of here if things go south." He took me by the shoulders.
"Cal, what's going on? What did you see?" He questioned me.
"Snow isn't happy with me, Gale. He threaten to kill everyone I loved." I told him with a sad smile. "There are Districts rebelling and I was suppose to stop them, but I didn't." He looked me in shock then a bit of pride.
"It's happening. It's finally happening." He said. I look at him confused before dropping to the ground as vehicles approach. We watch them, we shared a look then follow after them. A gunshot echoes, we stopped for a moment before running to the fence. We ran to the hob coming to a stop at the sight of the fire. I ran over Ripper, who was covering her bleeding eye.
"Ripper!" I called to her.
"My eye!" She cried.
"I'm going to get you out of here." I told her and walked her away from the chaos. I got a cloth and ran water over it from the pump. "Here." I place it on her eye. I turned when I heard groans in the distance and people shouting. "Hold that on there." I turned again when the groans became clearer. They sounded like they're coming from Gale. I run to the town square. His groans getting louder and louder as I got closer. I could hear the sound of a whip hitting him. I pushed through the crowd that was watching as the whipping and groaning continues. "No!" I ran to the Peacekeeper whipping Gale. "Stop!" I yelled at him, placing myself between him and Gale. The man punches me in the face, causing me to fall to the ground. I slowly turn around in pain to get back up. I hid my face to miss the whip.
"Cal!" I whimper in pain as I look to Gale. "It's okay. Just go. It's okay." He moaned out. I stare at his back in horror before standing up between him and the Peacekeeper again. The man scoffs.
"Move." I stay where I am. He lifts the whip. "You want another?"
"Do it." I told him. He takes out his gun and points it at me, I stare at it with a blank face even though on the inside I'm terrified.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" We both turn as Haymitch came running in.
"Get out of my way!" The man yelled.
"No, you don't want to shoot her." Haymitch told him.
"How about I shoot both of you?" He asked.
"Look, Commander, you're new here. Trust me, I'm trying to help you. I'm Haymitch." He points to me. "You recognize her? Calla Lily Everdeen. Darling of the Capitol." I'm breathing heavily as I watch on.
"She interfered with a Peacekeeper." The man said as he lowered his gun.
"I never said she was smart." Haymitch chuckles. I glared at his back. "Look, you already got a couple of lashes in, right?"
"That's not good enough. She's an agitator." He lifts the gun again. Then turns it to the right where Peeta came running in.
"Peeta!" I yelled.
"Easy, easy." He told the Peacekeeper before Haymitch pulled him back and towards me.
"Look. You're sure Snow wants three dead Victors here? Because that's what we're looking at." Haymitch said. "It's bad enough that you marked up her face on the eve of the big wedding. Let it go. And we will, too."
"All right." He put the gun down. "Okay." He got into Haymitch's space. "But next time, it's the firing squad."
"Excellent idea." Haymitch agreed.
"I don't care who she is. Clear the square!" He yells right into Haymitch's face. "You're all under curfew. Anyone out after dark will be shot on sight! Get'em outta here." We quickly got to work of getting Gale out of the thing and to my house.
"It's Gale." Peeta called to my mom and sisters.
"Get him here!" They begin to clear the the table off and get him onto the table. Kat comes running down the stairs.
"Gale!" She cried. I move over to her and drag her away. "No! Let go!" She yells at me before hitting me in the face. Everyone freezes and watches us for a moment.
"Kat, go to the living room." She makes to hit me again. I grab ahold of her wrist tight, "Now, Katniss!" I yelled at her. I fling her hand away and went to the kitchen to help them with Gale. They move him off the board and onto the table. He let's out a heart wrenching sob.
"Okay. Thanks." Peeta tells the men helping us.
"New head Peacekeeper." Haymitch tells them. "Not entirely peaceful." Prim reaches for my face but I brush her off.
"I'm fine." I told her, "Make a snow coat. Peeta, get the snow." I tell Peeta. Peeta left the room and went outside to get the snow.
"I'll grind the herbs." Prim said. Mom begins to pour alcohol on to Gale's back causing him to groan loudly.
"Shit." I muttered, pausing to take the alcohol away from Haymitch and went to the cabinet. "Morphling." I got the bottle out and filled the syringe. I went back over to Gale and stuck the needle into his neck, pushing the pain killer into him. "That's better." I whispered after Gale quieted, I went to the living room to get Kat. She looked up at me with tearful eyes. I nodded my head for her to go.
"Thank you." She whispered to me as she passed. I walk over to the couch and plop down, my head in my hands. I lifted my head when I felt the couch dip down beside me. Peeta was looking at me with a frustrated look.
"Callie, what were you thinking?" He asked me. I stared at him, incredulous.
"I was thinking about how my friend was being whipped, Peeta." I told him. He scoffs and looks away. "What's that suppose to mean?" I glared at him
"If he's such a friend, why did you run to him first thing?" He raised an eyebrow at me.
"I needed to talk to him about something important." I bite out.
"Yeah, sure." He stood up from the couch to walk off. I sprung from the couch and turned him around to face me. We ignored our onlookers as we glared at each other.
"I don't know what kind of rose tinted glasses you're seeing out of, Peeta but the Districts are in chaos and they're looking towards me to help them." I pointed to our friends and families. "I was asking Gale to protect our families if things went south. To get them out of here if Snow came after them because of me." Peeta eyes widen in shock.
"Callie." I shook my head for him to stop.
"I know our relationship has been on the rocks lately, Peeta. But I would never ever cheat on you and to know that you think I would do that, hurts me." I felt my eyes water but I wouldn't let them fall and give them that satisfaction. "I'm going to my room, now. I'll check on Gale later." I whispered and left the room. I went to the bathroom and stood under the water, clothes and all. Just thinking on how wrong my life went so quickly. I let out a scream before sliding down the wall and sat on the shower floor, the tears I held back flowing down my cheeks with the rain of the shower. The door to my bathroom slammed open, Peeta and Haymitch rushing into the room. I watched them with dazed eyes, their lips moving but I don't hear a single thing their saying. Peeta turned the water off while Haymitch dragged me off the floor and into my room. Mom rushed into my room, shooing the boys out and got me into dry clothes then tuck me into bed. She left and shut the door behind her. I stared at the ceiling for a while before turning onto my side to stare out the window, tears still rolling down my cheeks.
"All the ways you think you know me
All the limits that you figured out, limits that you figured out
Had to learn to keep it all below me
Just to keep from being thrown around, just to keep from being thrown around." I sang quietly to myself. I stay like that for the rest of the night until the sunrises. I get out of bed and head downstairs to the kitchen to check on Gale. I found Kat sitting in one of the chairs asleep.
"Kat." I whispered to her, lightly shaking her shoulder. She looked at me sleepily. "I'll look after him, now. Why don't you go up to bed?" She nodded and shuffled off to her room. I sat down in her chair and watched Gale for a moment before glancing back over my shoulder when the backdoor opened.
"Hey." Peeta said softly.
"Hi." I returned and went back to looking at Gale. I lifted up the blanket on his back, the snow had melted away. "He needs more snow."
"I can look after him." Peeta said. I smiled at him, gratefully.
"Thank you." I got up and put my boots on. Taking a bowel, I went outside and began to pile snow into it. I looked up when Prim knelt beside me. "Hey."
"How's your eye?" She asked me.
"It's not my eye that's bothering me." I told her. "How can we live like this? How could anyone live like this?" I finally started to say what I've been thinking about.
"It's not living, but . . ." I looked up from the snow to look at Prim. "Since the last Games, something is different. I can see it."
"What can you see?" I asked her, wondering if she's seeing the same thing I was, which was hope.
"Hope." I gave her a small smile.
"You understand that whatever I do comes back to you three. I don't want you to get hurt." She looks at me with a mature look, one that she didn't have before.
"You don't have to protect us. We're with you." I pull her into a hug. She's matured so much and because of me.
"I love you." I told her.
"I love you, too." She repeated back to me.