The uproar that follows is chaotic. It starts with immediate shouting but evolves into something worse - violence, riots, I can feel the anger from the people outside. The tension has been building for a while, and any little thing could have set it off, we're tired of being poor, tired of being overworked, tired of being at a disadvantage. At first the people had grudges against the richer districts but the hatred had been expanded to the better-off merchants of the same district. Peeta's family included. I'm not sure whether he did it out of hate for her, hate for the poor or if he's mental, from the way he spoke it sounded like the last one. I just can't believe she's gone. She was always the stronger one.

Gale abruptly stands up and joins the mob outside. My mother has already gone upstairs, so I sit alone in silence.

Buttercup runs in at full speed and startles me, I settle down once I realise it's him. He winds his soft body around my legs and in the process, gets cat hair all over my pants, but I don't mind, right now, he is all that can comfort me, he is all that's normal, everything else is falling apart. I bend over to stoke his head when I see thick, red liquid on his face. Blood. What's happened to him? Is he alright? I frantically start looking for a cut, but there isn't one. Buttercup starts walking away, so I follow, becoming more and more worried. He leads me out if the back door, I glance to my left at Lady, my goat, and thank God that she's fine and it wasn't her blood Buttercup had found.

I scream in horror when I see her. It's Hazelle Hawthorne, Gale's mother. She lies, slumped on the ground with blood pouring out of her stomach.

"Gale!" I shout, even though he can't hear me. I run round to the front of the house, "Gale!" I bellow, and keep sprinting, trying to find him. "Gale!" I shout for the third time. I'm consumed in the large crowd of angry citizens, but still see his dark-haired head whip round on hearing his name. He swiftly spots me and rushes against the current of the throng towards me. He guides me out of the march and to the side of the road so we can talk. I see the tears in his eyes and truly don't want to upset him further but I have to.

"Behind my house," I say, trying to hold back the tears and be strong like she was.

"What Prim?" Gale asks with urgency.

"The blood..." Is all I can get out before the tears come, fast and many, rolling down my cheeks and dripping off my sodden chin.

He sprints to the house, dragging me behind him like a rag doll. When he sees the scene he simply sits with his back against the wall, curls into a ball, and cries. I wonder how this feels, losing two people in one day. I think I have it bad, losing her, but Gale has lost her, who I know he loved as more than a friend, and his mother. His mother, who brought him up. His mother who got him through his father's death. Gale's an orphan, something I hope I will never be. He inherited a bucketload of responsibility when his father died, but now he has to provide for his whole family - his two young brothers and his tiny sister.

I go to sit inside again to give him some space, but as I'm walking away he speaks up,

"We bury her now, then I get my siblings and we leave, go into the woods. It's not safe anymore."