As I wait to be sure the coast is clear, I soak up the loveliness of Lenore Dove. She spins around, head back, arms lifted to the sky. It must have been hell for her being locked up. She can't stand for anything to be confined. Especially wild things, which, of course, she is. The geese run around, chewing her out for being gone. She just sweet-talks them and strokes their necks. She's about to roost on her favorite rock when she gives an exclamation of surprise and scoops something up.
It's my bag of gumdrops. The ones I had Sid deliver to her after the reaping. I guess she left them here before she went to perform that night. She presses the candy to her heart and twirls around, grinning, then breaks into the little white bag. I can't wait another second. As I take off across the Meadow, she catches sight of me, cries out my name, and runs to meet me. I sweep her into my arms and spin her around and we're both laughing and kissing like crazy.
"Oh, Lenore Dove. Oh, my love," I say.
"You came back," she says, tears streaming, but happy tears. "You came back to me. In this world!"
"And you managed not to get hung!" I crow back.
We hold each other so tight it's like we're one person. Which we are, for real.
Her hands run over my face. "Are you okay? Are you really all right?'
"As right as rain," I promise her. I don't care, I can't leave her. She'll want to run away with me, and I'll let her. We'll figure out a way to live. Because I don't think either of us can live without the other.
We sink into the Meadow grass, hands clasped. I reached for the bag of gumdrops that she dropped in our reunion*.
Clumsily, I grabbed the bag upside down, and a river of blood-red gumdrops spilled onto the grass, scattered like blood. A chill ran down my back as I looked at Lenore Dove in terror. He would never leave her alive; he would erase her existence like he had done with the other girl. My death wouldn't save her.
"What's going on, Haymitch?"
"Go away! You have to run!" I shouted, pushing her away.
"What are you saying?! I don't understand, where am I supposed to go?"
"To where he won't find you." I gripped her face and kissed her fiercely before taking her arm and dragging her across the meadow. I had to get her out of there. The geese followed us, pecking at my feet in protest.
"Lenore Dove!" I heard Clerk Carmine shout.
"Where do you think you're going?" Tam Amber was heading in our direction. I didn't stop.
"Haymitch!" Lenore Dove called back to me, glancing over her shoulder. "We can't just run away like this!"
A gunshot rang out in the distance, and instinctively we both ducked.
"Don't shoot!" Clerk Carmine shouted in anguish.
A group of peacekeepers was advancing toward us, ready to fire. "Run!" I yelled. Finally, she obeyed me. Another shot was fired, and Lenore fell to the ground. "NO!" Tam Amber rushed toward her niece. I charged at the shooter with all my fury. It didn't matter how many blows struck my face or the threat of dying right there; if it meant she could live, I would fight.
The geese flung themselves at the peacekeepers, attacking anyone who got in their way.
"Get them!" ordered another peacekeeper. Two more caught me, and as I struggled to break free, I saw that Lenore and Tam had vanished from the meadow. They had escaped.
Birds flew over the forest, fleeing from those who disturbed their tranquility. More shots echoed in the distance.
On the ground, handcuffed and with a gun to our heads, Clerk Carmine and I were held in the meadow. The beheaded geese lying in their own blood accompanied us in our horrible fate. Not long after, two peacekeepers dragged the lifeless body of Tam Amber, part of my beloved's dress clutched in her hands, a column of smoke rising in the distance from the woods.
He sobbed, and in that instant, I felt my soul die. What had I done?
"Hang him in the main square and electrify the fence."
"And the girl?"
"I've made sure there's nothing left of her." He threw the remnant of her dress in my face. "Lock him up in his house and take this one to prison." A kick from his boot landed on my face.
It didn't matter; I felt nothing anymore.
**original text from SOTR