XXII

….

She was gone… and I was on babysitting duty.

It was different, being around people that weren't either Mitch or Katniss. It was uncomfortable in away, especially with the children whose name I learned to be Posy and Vick. The children unlike the adults had no boundaries. They weren't afraid or mean or judgmental or anything really… they were just children, happy little children.

I envied them. They didn't know what was truly happening around them. They knew there were bad things like the Hunger Games, but I don't think they truly knew its effects, those that it had on the Capitol, on the districts, and one people like Katniss.

I think the other three did too, envied the children. The mother, Hazel, was quiet and paid me little attention watching the little ones. The boy, Rory, was the same as his mother. He was neutral. He didn't look to me with ambition, but he didn't look at me with carelessness. He was somewhere in-between.

Gale, the older one, was the problem. I could say we had a buff for reasons- because- we had a buff… well because we did. It just was, one of those natural happenings that just were.

There was first our meeting in the Seam where he had questioned my being, my angle and I had told him he was a coward for not telling Katniss how he truly felt. The second time was no better than the first; he took every chance at that dinner Katniss had asked me to go along with her to to take a stab at me. The whipping though, the third time we had meet, was the worst; it was through his actions which Katniss was strapped to the post and torn apart.

Looking to him now across the room his expression is solid, unease and hatred. Yet when he catches that I am watching him it changes. It softens the slightest bit that an untrained eye wouldn't catch.

His eyes dart from me to the door.

I nod understanding what he is silently telling me.

Then up and out of our seats we slip out of the house, only going seen by the boy, Rory, who lets us slip by without a care what is occurring.

"She's in the Capitol," he asks when outside.

I nod.

"Why?"

I give him the simplest and utmost fulfilling answer that I can think of. "Snow."

He grunts. "What does Snow want with her?"

"I don't know."

He shakes his head. "Liar."

And I am. I am a lair. That's the truth. I may not know exactly what Snow wants with her, but I have my ideas. Gale, himself, must have had a hundred reasons reeling through his mind why Katniss had been suddenly "asked" to leave for the Capitol. Every victor has ideas what Snow could do with them, it's one of the many fears we face coming out of the Games. And of course with Katniss there is one cause that stands more promptly out from all the others which Snow would have in mind for her, an unfavorable thought upon victors, to make her the next Finnick Odair.

"Tell me." Gale presses, looking me in the eyes.

"I don't know," I repeat.

"Liar." He presses. "What does he want with her?"

"I don't know," I repeat.

"What?" He presses. "What does Snow want with her?"

"I don't know," I repeat, gritting my teeth.

"Wh-" But I don't let him finish.

"There are some things that you don't question because those things will get you killed. And there is some information that you shouldn't know, information victors shouldn't even know because when it comes to information and secrets meddling in the Capitol, under Snow's nose people get killed." I tell him through my gritted teeth, my mind wandering back to what Katniss had said hours ago before boarding the hovercraft.

"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 and if anyone that can be connected to me 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 and rolls his eyes, refusing to believe her.

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

He doesn't respond. He no doubt knows there isn't anybody, but he doesn't know the reason why there isn't a soul.

"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. He doesn't know about her family, all he knows is that she is the Bitch from District 7 like I am the Brute from District 2.

"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. The most he knows like any common person in the districts know is that Finnick Odiar is the sex symbol of the Capitol going from one person to the next, nothing, but a sinner in their eyes.

"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 Gale does go to respond, opening his mouth, but she cuts 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 her with pleading eyes not to tell him because unlike the other Mrs. Everdeen, like Prim, is someone he knows, someone her has a personal connection with on some level, cares for on some level. But she does anyway, she tells him to make her point.

"She was shot. Thread shot her supposedly and rid of the body, really great right? Kill my sister and then my mother, but don't make it known so they can torture me, make me think that she abandoned me again."

"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."

She shakes her head, her voice faltering and falling as he pleads. "Please Gale."

"I don't like this, Catnip." He tells her.

"You don't have to."

Gale shakes his head. "That won't happen."

"What," I ask, cocking my head to the side.

"Death, killing. No one will die."

I snort at his stupidity and stubbornness. "But it will."

"It won't."

"Were you not listening, Hawthorne," I say, "Snow kills. There's a list: Haymitch's family, Johanna Mason's family, Finnick Odair's girl, Katniss's mother and sister."

"I won't let it," he tells me.

I snort, shaking my head. "You and what army?"

He opens his mouth and then closes it.

"You are the scum on the bottom of Snow's shoes. You are nothing and have nothing to stop him from doing anything. You are powerless just like every other person in this district, in the other districts. Before you can even raise against Snow, the Capitol you will be dead.

So, to make her life easier, you play by their rules. You play by her rules and you don't die. You play by their rules and your family doesn't die. You play by their rules and then they won't have anything to torture her with, make her life a living hell."

He looks in through a window toward his family. He watches them carefully, the two little ones on the ground playing and the older one placing a piece of wood into the fire and his mother prepares a kettle of water to make mint tea.

"She's my family too."

He pulls his attention away from the window and back at me.

"What does Snow want with her?" He asks this time in a small, pleading tone.

I tell him the truth, what I had told him before. "I don't know."

His shoulder slump. "When is she coming back?"

"Soon."

He looks to me suspiciously. "Soon?"

I nod.

He looks me up and down, taking in every inch of me, examining my stature and expression, watching me like I am his prey. "When are you leaving for her?"

"Depends when Haymitch gets back here."

…

Note:

These next few chapters may start to become shorter than the usual length of my chapters.

I'm sorry if this upsets you or bothers you in some sort of way.

I hope you're enjoying the story.