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The smell of smoke is thick in Katniss’ nose, and it feels like the whole of Panem is burning around her. ’If we burn, you burn with us.’ Her very words are coming back to haunt her. People’s screams ring in her ear. Fire, isn’t a good way to die. It’s slow, painful, and she can hear them all begging her to end their misery. Kato, Rue, Prim, she can’t get to any of them, she can’t even see him in the fog.
The only clear thing she can see in the distance, is the Presidential Palace, lit up in all it’s awful glory. It mocks her. For all that she has done, she’s done nothing but bring misery and pain to those around her, to innocent people. Peeta’s screams cut through to her left, and she whizzes looking for him. What she finds is a mutt with his face. Blood dripping from his jaws. Her blood she realises is she brings her hand up towards her face.
She wakes from her dream, pressing a hand to her mouth to silence the scream. Her wide eyes stare unseeingly for a second. Her chest rises rapidly and falls. Her mantra, to keep her sane is repeated over and over, until the horrors slide from her vision.
She is alive. Finnick is dead. She killed him before he could suffer. It should have brought her comfort but it didn’t. She is numb, unable to process his death. She is already responsible for so many pointless deaths. All she can think about is Snow, and ending this, once and for all, before she loses anymore people.
Finally, her vision clears, and she expects to see a mountain of furs surrounding her. What she sees is a metal corridor. The hairs on the back of her neck stand up and Katniss springs to her feet. They’ve been found. Betrayed to the Capitol.
She reaches behind and finds she still has her bow and arrows. An arrow is notched in seconds, and Katniss looks around her like a caged animal. Does Snow mean to make a mockery of her death, in some last mini arena? Is Peeta already dead? A wordless cry escapes her lists. It can’t end like this.
But it should, a voice whispers in her head. This is how you were meant to die, alone, friendless, in the first Arena.
No.
“Snow, where are you?” Her eyes dart around, looking for a camera, or a screen.
The only clear thing she can see in the distance, is the Presidential Palace, lit up in all it’s awful glory. It mocks her. For all that she has done, she’s done nothing but bring misery and pain to those around her, to innocent people. Peeta’s screams cut through to her left, and she whizzes looking for him. What she finds is a mutt with his face. Blood dripping from his jaws. Her blood she realises is she brings her hand up towards her face.
She wakes from her dream, pressing a hand to her mouth to silence the scream. Her wide eyes stare unseeingly for a second. Her chest rises rapidly and falls. Her mantra, to keep her sane is repeated over and over, until the horrors slide from her vision.
She is alive. Finnick is dead. She killed him before he could suffer. It should have brought her comfort but it didn’t. She is numb, unable to process his death. She is already responsible for so many pointless deaths. All she can think about is Snow, and ending this, once and for all, before she loses anymore people.
Finally, her vision clears, and she expects to see a mountain of furs surrounding her. What she sees is a metal corridor. The hairs on the back of her neck stand up and Katniss springs to her feet. They’ve been found. Betrayed to the Capitol.
She reaches behind and finds she still has her bow and arrows. An arrow is notched in seconds, and Katniss looks around her like a caged animal. Does Snow mean to make a mockery of her death, in some last mini arena? Is Peeta already dead? A wordless cry escapes her lists. It can’t end like this.
But it should, a voice whispers in her head. This is how you were meant to die, alone, friendless, in the first Arena.
No.
“Snow, where are you?” Her eyes dart around, looking for a camera, or a screen.