A/N: Sorry for the delay! I've actually finished this chapter a while ago but I couldn't find the right time to publish it, but here it is! Despite any errors I might or might not have made in this chapter, I hope you'll enjoy the chap anyway.

Oh and shoutout to my classmate, Rininta, who reviewed the last chapter! HAHAHA. Your review cracked me up:P

Disclaimer: If you're asking me if I owned The Hunger Games series, the answer is no.

I shot for the sky
I'm stuck on the ground
So why do I try?
I know I'm gonna fall down

"Down" - Jason Walker

My mouth hangs agape, but no voice comes out. Not even a rattled sound of gasps. My eyes are wide open, staring at the unbelievable scene in front of me. My chest feels tight like the whole oxygen has been sucked out of me. And of course, my body is frozen in shock. But soon it begins to tremble.

I choke out. "Peeta."

"Hello, Katniss," he smiles even wider and stands straighter. He takes a step forward. I desperately want to back away because I'm scared, but my feet won't move.

No. No way. How is this even possible? Peeta Mellark is standing in front of me and is talking to me. Flashes of events that occurred in the past few weeks reappear before my eyes. I shot an arrow right to his chest. I heard his cannon that signaled that his heart had stopped beating for good. He shouldn't be here, but shipped back to District 12 in a coffin, dead. Because I, Katniss Everdeen, killed him in the 74th Hunger Games arena.

Is he a ghost? Is he going to kill me? Put his hands on my neck and strangle me to death? Shove me on the wall and bang my head on the wall until it cracks open? Grab a knife and stab it to my heart? Can he, if he's dead already? Is he dead at all?

He chuckles. "Close your mouth and relax, Katniss. I'm not gonna do anything to hurt you. I can't anyway."

I bet my cheeks are blushing deep red, despite the fact that I'm seeing a dead person who might or might not try to end my life right now—if it's possible for ghosts to actually kill a living person—because he starts to grin. "Wh—how?" I manage to say. And then I shake my head. I must be crazy—Haymitch should get me checked out in a mental hospital because I'm losing my sanity.

"You're not crazy," he says. Did he just read my mind? Or was I thinking that loud?

"What… what are you doing here?"

A sad smile slowly replaces his grin. "Checking up on you."

"Why?"

"You know why," he says matter-of-factly. "I know it's hard for you, Katniss. You must be so stressed up. You know, with the whole interview angles and stuff—" yeah, and the fact that he's dead because of me and now I'm seeing his ghost—"but trust me, it'll all be okay."

I just nod, not knowing what else to say. I don't even know how or what to think! But he must've caught something in my eye because he furrows his eyebrows.

"What's wrong, Katniss?"

Is he kidding me? "What's wrong? You're asking me what is wrong?"

"Wh—"

"I killed you, Peeta! You're dead now, and you didn't deserve to be! Everything is wrong! I—"

My words are cut off by the knocking of Effie's knuckle against the door. "Katniss? Are you in there? Are you talking to someone?"

I glance at the door and then whip my head back toward Peeta, who's now smiling at me as if nothing has happened before. "Good luck, Katniss."

Before I could answer, the door swings open and I turn around to face Effie. "There you are, Katniss. Come on, let's go. We're behind the schedule!"

"But—" I start, whipping my head once again toward Peeta, but he's not there. Not anymore.

I blink and swallow hard, but Effie's already dragging me by my arm.

I force a small smile as I take a step onto the stage with my beautiful dress, which makes the whole audience go crazy. They all scream and cheer for me, calling my name again and again. Caesar Flickerman stands up and takes my hand, slowly lifting it up to his lips.

"Finally, the lovely Miss Everdeen has come with us tonight," he says. "We've all been so excited to see you again, Katniss."

"Me too," I lie.

"But before we go on the recap and everything, oh my goodness, this dress! How can you not love this dress, and the girl inside it? Folks, let's give Cinna a round of applause for this amazing dress, shall we?"

Cinna stands up from his seat and takes a bow, and then he sits back. Caesar turns to look at me, my hand still in his, and then he motions me to twirl for him. I twirl, and the crowd gives another round of applause, this time for me. Just as I expected, the lower part of the dress flows beautifully, and I look like I'm on fire again. Finally, we both take our seats.

"It really took a lot of time for you to recover, did it not?" he asks, still with his wide grin, but somehow his tone softens.

I nod. "Yes," I say. "It's just that… that I couldn't believe what was happening. It felt surreal, you know Caesar? I thought everything was just a dream, wasn't real, but then I realize that everything actually did happen, and I…" I take a deep breath. Talk as if he's your friend. "I guess I just had to deal with it; to get the reality sink in, that I've just won the games, that I would be back home soon, that… that…," I gulp. You will be the grieving lover, Katniss. "That I've just lost someone… who was important to me," I add quietly.

At my attempt to imply Peeta and his death, the crowd goes crazier, but this time not in a good way. Lots of them started to cry and sob, most are gasping with a pained look on their faces as if Peeta was the half of their lives. But they don't know how that feels to me. They don't understand, the pain of losing someone who cared so much for you, and you cared for, in your own hands.

Caesar stares at me with an expression that I can't make out. And then he shakes his head and smiles rather politely. He starts to talk after the crowd quieted down.

"Ah, yes. It must have been very hard for you, Katniss." He then drops the topic and his bright grin spread out on his face as he turn to the crowd. "For now, though. Shall we watch the recap of this year's games?"

No. We shall not. But the crowd thinks otherwise, and they roar excitedly as the recap starts.

It was bad. So bad, worse than I had thought before. It hurts to realize that all of the tributes there are dead, no longer here. Their smiles as they rode their chariots, their confident smirks during their interviews, all gone. It's weird to see how full of life they were, but truth is they're all gone, and I'm the last one standing.

I feel like I'm thrown back into the arena, reliving every single pain that shot up through my body, every agonizing cries from the dying tributes, the horror and the fears that chilled me, sent me shivers down my spine. I got to see things that happened to other tributes. I got to see the deaths of every single person. Every fights, every heated arguments among the Careers, everything. I want to shut my eyes, but I can't. I'm forced to stare at these people fighting for their lives, who are now dead, whose death now I'm going to celebrate. The feeling is sickening.

I watch how Peeta survived the bloodbath, and then negotiated with the Careers, begging for them to take him as a part of their exclusive pack. Cato agreed right away after Peeta promised that he was helpful, that he was willing to help and lead them to me.

I watch how Peeta came back for the district 8 girl after his allies killed her. I was wrong, so wrong. Peeta didn't come back to "finish her off", he came back to soothe the poor girl, and calm her down, desperately trying to shush her cries. He was helping her while she faced her death. He was whispering things that the microphones couldn't pick up, making her give him an angelic smile that shined even with the dark surrounding them. The girl whispered a soft "thank you" that was loud enough for the entire audience to hear. As she begin to choke up blood and gasped painfully, Peeta placed a quick peck on her forehead and apologized over and over again. The girl then closed her eyes and Peeta ran back to his allies, and then we can hear the boom that signaled her last heartbeat.

I bite back a gasp as I see how Cato slashed his weapon to Peeta's leg, leaving him curled up on the ground, screaming in agony as the blood ran down from the nasty cut. Peeta managed to get up a few while later, and crawled to safety. He winced in pain as he hid behind the bushes, the trees, near the river, and finally, near the cave. He fought the effect from the tracker jackers' venom, crying between his hallucinations. He even called my name over and over again in his nightmares, so weakly. And then after he calmed down, he started to look around and then camouflaged himself.

The scenes were cut a lot, and mostly focused on Peeta and I's survival. Though, they showed a lot of the Career's arguments, and how Foxface stole their food. And then there was me, blowing up their camp. And then shortly after, they showed Rue's death, and I had to close my eyes as the stinging pain in my chest returned. More deaths, more deaths, more deaths, and then I saw myself looking out for Peeta after Claudius' announcement.

They showed our exchange in the cave. They picked up every words we said. They recorded every touches, every kisses, every little things that happened between us. They showed how I drugged Peeta with sleep syrup so I could go to Cornucopia and grab his medicine. They showed how I almost got killed but was saved by Thresh, who later killed Clove.

And it was us again, finding food in the woods. The cannon fired, and I ran back to Peeta, only to find Foxface lying lifelessly with nightlock berries in her grasp.

We ran to the Cornucopia after we saw Cato with the mutts. Cato died. Now we were waiting for the hovercraft to pick us, the supposedly victors of the 74th Annual Hunger Games. But of course, the Gamemakers decided to cancel the rule.

I hung my head down in shame as on-screen Katniss pointed the bow at Peeta's heart. They even showed almost the whole of our desperate conversation—though they cut out a few sentences about nightlock and some of the words that I said that might sound rebellious to the citizens' ears.

I try to concentrate on breathing when Peeta and I stood up, my weapon in my grasp.

"Do it, Katniss. I have nothing to lose," he said.

I see myself shaking my head furiously, "But I do, Peeta. If you die… then I have to lose you. I don't want to have to lose you."

The whole crowd gives another "ahhhs" and cries.

"You know I love you, Katniss," he kissed me.

"I love you too, Peeta," I hear myself said. Once again the crowd goes berserk, they are thrashing and crying and screaming their heads off. I just close my eyes and try to fight back the scream in my throat.

When I open them, Peeta is standing behind Caesar with a grim expression on his face. I blink and he's gone. I must've gone crazy again, so I shake my head and focuses back to the screen.

I see my own arrow made its way to stick into Peeta's heart. Both of us fell down to the ground. He was lying and staring up at the sky while I was curling into a ball. The camera took a close shot at Peeta, showing how he grimaced at the pain I caused him, and then he smiled. The same angelic smile that the district 8 girl gave him, the same smile that Rue gave me before she died. Slowly, Peeta closed his eyes, taking one last breath, and the cannon went off.

The screen goes blank.

I take a deep, shaky breath as Caesar turns to look at me.

"Now, Katniss. I know you don't want to talk about this, but I have to ask you."

I nod. And then I turn around to find Cinna among the crowd. He gives me a reassuring smile.

Caesar speaks in a soft tone, "All of us know that you were in love with the boy. And it must have been hard for you to do what you had to do in the arena, yes?"

"Yes," I nod, "it was."

"How did you feel after you… do that?" he says, avoiding to say you killed him. "Did it make you feel like you were a desperate tribute, or a hopeless lover?"

Both, I think to myself. I was desperate and hopeless. I swallow and look around at the crowd once again. Cinna mouths to me, tell me.

"I didn't know," I say. "As a tribute, I had been so desperate to go home, and I felt relieved because I finally could. I wanted to win, so I could go back to my family again. But as a… lover," I look down at my lap. "I guess you were right. I was hopeless—I didn't know what else to do. And I hated myself for doing that. I still do, actually."

People starts crying again.

"Sometimes I wish I didn't have to make that choice... I wish there weren't any Hunger Games at all. I wish he'd just let me kill myself, but I realize that it wasn't gonna make things any easier for him. It would only put him on my place right now, feeling the same hatred that I feel toward myself. And Peeta… he is…" I gulp, and correct myself, "he was too good for that. I didn't want to make things harder for him, and I eventually knew I had made the right choice. The best choice, for both of us, especially for… him."

I take a deep breath and continue, "I'm going to miss him, I know that. But I also know that he's in a better place now, safe and sound, and nobody can hurt him anymore. I'm sure he wouldn't want to see me broken. So I'm going to try to move forward… and…" I sigh. "And I'll make sure that he won't be forgotten."

As I stopped talking, I realize that I've said so much, even too much. Maybe I shouldn't have said those things. Maybe opening up myself to Caesar and all of the crowd and the rest of Panem is a bad idea. Maybe I've accidentally revealed some things that shouldn't have been said.

After a few moments of silence, Caesar claps, and the rest of the audience follows him. They even shed a few tears.

"And we will not let him be forgotten, either," he says. Then he looks at the crowd and gives them another grin. "But at the bright side, Katniss, as yourself have said, you are finally going back home! How do you feel of that?"

I hide my grimace. Truth is I don't feel like I wanna go home anymore, other than to see Prim and Gale that is. I'm sure that I'm hated by all the people in the district. I'm not bringing joy, I'm only bringing a monster of myself, a product of the Capitol. They have changed me to be something I have sworn to myself I would never be, and I don't think I can afford coming back to home when all I can see of myself is a murderer. And I am indeed a murderer.

But of course, I can't say that to Caesar. Instead, I give him a smile. "Well, Caesar, of course I'm thrilled to finally be out of the arena. It's been tough in there, and I can't wait to see my family again, and bring joy and glory to my district," I lie through my teeth. "That is something to be proud of." More disgusting lies, and I force a grin for the crowd's sake.

He then says a few words that I couldn't really care less about, and then President Snow appears. I quickly stand on my feet as he makes his way to me.

"Congratulations, Miss Everdeen," he says. He then slowly lifts up the crown and puts it on my head.

"Thank you," I whisper back. I swear I can smell the sickening scent of blood and roses as he leans forward to me, very very strong, even stronger than the smell of Haymitch's liquor, and it makes me feel nauseous. The President smiles at me, somewhat intimidatingly. His makes a move to kiss my cheek, but instead he places his mouth near my ear and whispers.

"You are indeed a girl on fire, Miss Everdeen," he says. "But I shall make sure that the fire you've caught is not going to burn the rest of us."

The plot thickens! Peeta's back and so is Snow, and there might or might not be rebellion coming. Some of you might be confused with Peeta; what is he? Why is he here? What is he doing now? Well, I don't have the answers for those yet, but yer all gonna find out later in the next chaps (sorry for being so suspenseful)! I probably won't be able to update sooner than you'd expect me to, maybe in two or more weeks, because of the final exam that's coming in a week (yeah I know my school system is weird), but I don't know; if I'm getting enough reviews, like 15 or 20 reviews or more for this chapter, then maybe I will update waaay sooner :)

P.S! Go check out The Silver Panda's SYOT fanfic, The 124th Hunger Games: A Lost Cause, and go put some reviews and vote for my tribute, Katelynn from District 12!

For now though, reviews?