XXI

…

Twenty-four hours.

Those were Snow's exact words; that was my time limit.

Twenty-four hours.

That's how much time I had left, left to be free.

Twenty-four hours.

That's how much time I had to save the ones I had left.

Only twenty-four hours.

It wasn't enough time -

There would never be enough time; these games never seemed to end.

My heart beating out of control, my brain functioning at full speed, my spin straight, and muscles relaxed I didn't think before turning around and running for it. I only had twenty-four hours. And so racing out of the garden, the heels Cinna had dressed me in fall off in the process. I don't slow down either as I run, not even when I fall into the crowd of Capitol citizens that are consumed by the party that surrounds them. Instead, I move even faster, pushing through them without a care of how badly I appear to be behaving in the public or how much Effie is throwing a hissy fit.

I only had twenty-four hours.

I continue through the party, moving faster and faster with each step till I am unexpectedly pulled to the side when a hand catches my bicep swinging me into the shadows on the outskirts of the celebration.

"What's going on?"

And looking up it isn't Haymitch as I had suspected, had hoped in a way, but Cato.

Cato.

He looked different. He was the boy, the man that won his Games. He wasn't the man that came back to 12 to care and worry or whatever one would like to call it about my well-being. No, he was the Cato Battenberg I had seen before, the real one. He was tall and strong and silent and angry and independent. He was the being he was supposed to me, the one I needed from the start.

"I need to get back to 12."

He looks at me funny, not so surprised of a sorts yet surprised. Maybe it's the fact that we haven't talked since my whipping or that I'm running around like a mad woman, but the look on his face tells me it's something else.

"We're leaving in the morning, Katniss."

I look to his in all seriousness. "I need to get back to 12 now."

"What's going on, Katniss?"

"I need to get back to 12 now, Cato. Right now."

"Yes," he tells me, "But why? What's going on, Katniss?"

I look down at my hands that are now knotted together knowing I can't tell him now, maybe never, but I can't tell him now. I have too much to lose if I let anybody know and as much as I trust him, Cato, I can't risk the price, I can't risk Hazel and Posy or Vick and Rory or even Gale no matter how much things maybe if-y between us. My freedom, my life is limited now. One wrong step and hell will rain down not on me directly, but on those I care for.

"Do you trust me?"

He looks me up and down before nodding his head.

"Then trust me that I have to get back to 12 now."

He nods. "I'll call in a favor."

…

He was looking at me. He had been looking at me since the moment he pulled me from the party. I think he has been looking at me since before then maybe. I don't know really, he was a Career. He knew, he was taught how to watch, how to observe.

"Are you going to tell me what this rush to get to 12 is all about?" He asks after hours had gone by.

I look down the hovercraft wishing there was a window I could look out instead of endless metal. I wish there was something, anything that could act as a distraction to help me, keep me from avoiding his question at all cost, let me escape somewhere far, far away.

He doesn't give in, he presses. He's a Career. Stubborn shit.

"What's going on, Katniss?"

I look down at my hands that are knotted together in a disastrous mess in my lap wishing maybe he would just stop asking questions, that he would see that I couldn't give him the answers I wanted.

"Does it - what did Snow say to you?"

I knot my fingers together tighter, my knuckles turning white.

"Katniss!?" He presses.

"I can't tell you," I snap. I look glance down at my hands, my voice falling. "I can't."

He shakes his head, looking disappointed and angry and a million other emotions mixed together that I can't describe.

"Why are we going back to 12?"

I don't answer.

"Give me something here, Katniss."

Again I don't answer.

"Why!?" He yells at me in anger and frustration jolting up out of his seat onto his feet, his fist clenched to his sides, his veins pooping out from under his skin, and his forehead scrunched together in resentment.

"Because I have to make sure they're safe." I nearly scream back.

"They're? Whose they're," he ask this time not so stubbornly nor angrily, but softly spoken.

"The Hawthorne's."

He doesn't answer this time maybe not knowing what to say or how he is supposed to take such a situation, but just nods his head understanding.

I look up from my hands, my knuckles returning back to their normal shade. "I'm going to need you to do something for me." I say softly.

"What?"

"I'm going to need you to watch over them, the Hawthorne's, make sure they're okay, that everything is okay, that everything continued to go as normal… At least till Haymitch comes back and then you can hand the responsibility over to him."

"Why can't you be the one to watch over them, why do you need Haymitch and I?"

I look down at my hands that are back to their normal shade, a light olive tone. They still feel white though, stressed and consumed and angry and much more. I shake my head. I can't tell him. I can't and so all I can do is shake my head.

…

"This is not about you, Gale!"

"No it's about you, Catnip!" He shoots back. "Everything has been about you since you won the damn Games!"

"No," I yell, "It's about Vick and Posy and Hazel and Rory! About you! It's about your family! My family!"

"My family is perfectly safe. We're fine or have you missed out on the last sixteen years of your life, Katniss! We've always been perfectly safe, fine. I have kept them safe and alive for the last eighteen years. We've gone up against hunger and horrible winters and sickness and all hell possible. They don't need him watching over us, I can do that perfectly fine on my own."

I clench my fist in anger. "This isn't something you can keep you family safe from, Gale."

He snorts, his head falling back. "Oh really?"

"Yes!" I snap. "It's a direct threat from Snow. Snow, the bane of your existence, the one that makes our life's a living hell. The Capitol is watching me, you, Gale. And if I screw up all hell will rain down on you and if you screw up all hell rains down in the same manner. And if anyone that can be connected to me steps out of line anything and everything wrong will happen to you and your family, my family. Your family, Gale, your family will be killed!"

He shakes his head, rolling his eyes like he doesn't believe me… and he doesn't.

"You know what happened to Haymitch's family?"

He doesn't respond.

"There was a house fire, an 'accidental' house fire all because Haymitch used their damn force field to his will, to win his Games, to live."

He doesn't respond.

"You know what happened to Johanna Mason's family?"

He doesn't respond.

"They were hung for stealing wood, but you know for stealing you're only supposed to get lashings. But when your sister refuses to obey one of Snow's commands you get hung."

He doesn't respond.

"Do you want to hear about Finnick Odiar's life?"

He doesn't respond.

"His girl was sent into the Games because he refused to play the Capitol toy. She went into the Games and went crazy. And Finnick, he does whatever the hell Snow says in fear of what he will do to her next."

And this time he goes to respond, opening his mouth, but I cut him off.

"You know what happened to Prim!? She was given thirty lashings for trading cheese. To make it reasonable, they wrote in the report that she was stealing. Why did they say she was stealing when she wasn't because they found out I use to illegally hunt! Because I use to illegally hunt, giving me some hand up in the Games she was killed! She was killed because I made the Capitol look like fools when the rat from 12 slaughtered fourteen people and their precious District 2 tribute, Ramsey, didn't win!"

"Kat-"

"You know what happened to Mom?"

He looks to me with pleading eyes not to tell him, but I do.

"She was shot. Thread supposedly shot her and rid of the body like they do with a shit load of people in the districts that just 'go missing.' Really great right? Kill my sister and then my mother, but don't make it known so they can torture me even more, make me think that she abandoned me again for the second time in my life when I needed her."

"Cat-"

"I don't care about your pride or whatever, Gale! He, Cato, is going to be watching over you, Hazel, Vick, Posy, and Rory till Haymitch comes back because I am not going to have you killed for me taking one too many steps to the right!"

"Catnip."

I shake my head, my voice falling. "Please Gale."

"I don't like this, Catnip." He tells me, giving in.

"You don't have to."

…

"When are you coming back?"

I look up at Gale as he comes out to the porch where I wait for the Capitol hovercraft to come get me, taking a seat beside me on the open bench.

"How do you know I'm leaving?" I ask.

He smiles, leaning back in the bench. "Because if you, Katniss Everdeen, were going to be hanging around you wouldn't be placing the Brute in charge of watching us."

"Gale-"

"You wouldn't have Cato watching us," he corrects himself.

I nod. "Please be nice, as nice as you can possibly be. He's good. He's not the Capitol, he's not after you. He one my side so please, play nice."

He nods. "I'll try." Then there's a long pause before he clears his throat, continuing. "So," he says, "Where are you going?"

"The Capitol."

"Obvious. For how long?"

I shrug.

"Why? For what reason? The Games aren't for another few months."

I can't tell you I want to say, but instead I shrug.

He nods and we fall into a still silence. We sit there in silence as the sun sets and the last hour of my twenty-four hours ticks away. And I don't know how much passes, but enough time does and then Cato is there in front of us.

I give Gale one last look and then I'm up and out, walking off the porch with Cato by my side headed for the meadow. And there waiting for me in the meadow is none less than a Capitol hovercraft like the one that dropped me off in the district less than a day's time ago.

"Keep them safe."

He nods. "Stay alive."

I smile, shaking my head at his remark.

"What," he asks.

"Haymitch told me that before the Games, 'Stay alive.'"

"Smart man," he tells me, "… What do you want me to tell Mitch when he comes back?"

I look to the hovercraft. "I think he'll know what's going on."

He nods again. "And what is going on?"

"I can't tell you, at least not now."

"What did Snow tell you?"

I shake my head, stepping back toward the hovercraft.

"Katniss." He presses.

I shake my head, turning around to face the hovercraft.

"Katniss!"

But it's too late.