User blog:ArleneLove'sTHG/Forever:5th book of The Hunger Games

FOREVR: 5th book of The Hunger Games

Chapter 1: Part 1
I'm in the water teaching Prim how to swim.

"Just keep kicking, okay? I won't let go of you until you have the hang of it." This is the way my father taught me. He alway told me to never stop kicking and to fight my way through things.

Things have been very well, dispite the fact that not even a year ago I lost so many people in my life. I'm glad that is behind me and that I have something else to focus on now. I've heard of news about Annie, Finnick's wife until he died, and her son. Both are doing very well. From what I was told, her son looks very much like Finnick.

I can't help but think back to them all while teacking Prim to swim. Prim soon gets the hang of kicking and I find her swimming away from me to the other side of the lake. I swim past her to the opposite side in a matter of seconds and catch her as she reaches me.

"Did you see me mommy?! I swam all the way across!" Even though the lake is small, I still have joy that she did indeed swim across.

"I did, dear. Want to try again?" In return I get an egar nod from her and she is off again. She learns quick and I can't wait to teach her to hunt when she is ready. "Hunt or paint." Peeta always tells me when I bring up huntingwith her. He believes she's a painter but we will find out in a few years when she is older. Or not, whatever I think is best for her.

I swim alongside Prim as she swims back and forth, backand forth. It's not long until she gets tired and we both walk up the muddy shore of the lake. Peeta walks outside and Prim runs to him and insticntively hugs him before walking inside.

"How was the lesson, love?" He gives me a small kiss. The kiss would have lasted longer if I kept myself from smiling at him. He has paint dotted on his arms and face.

"Perfect." I reply and take his hand in mine. Peeta has desided that the walls in the house are far too plane and anounced that he'll be painting a mural on the walls. He is staring in the one new room he and Hyamitch finished. I refused to let him paint the walls of the small cement room Silver made into a home. The first few days of him painting, he has me sit infront of him as he painted claiming that I was his 'muse'. After a while I caught ont hat he just wanted me at his side as he painted. I didn't mind much but I still rolled my eyes and set out to teach Prim to swim.

The Primroses, pictures, Silver's clock necklace, and my Mockingjay pin still rest in the same place on the window sill. Prim and Peeta have been gardening and planting more Primroses to be picked and put in the vase every so often to keep the old ones from dying.

Cina is entertaining himself with a dog I found while hunting. He was perfectly harmless and the kids just loved him so I agreed on them keeping him. Peeta was, of course, hesitent, but I said it would be perfectly fine. He was probably a housedog that wandered away from a district or got lost in the aftermath of all the bombings from when Snow formed his own little rebelion. Prim is at the baby's crib, playing with Silver.

"When are you killing dinner?" Peeta asks and looks out the window. I follow his gaze and see a squirl. I grab my bow from there and aim. Perfect shot, right in the eye.

It's after dinner now and Peeta is inside putting Prim and Cina to sleep in the new room of the house. I walk into the medow with my bow in hand, just in case something wrong happens. I hate to admit it but, I'm still paranoid around the games and even Snow and Coin. Still, it never hurt to be prepared for danger.

It's not a long walk until I meet my mother's grave and Silver's. I first go to my mother's gravestone and hold in a fe tears and I whisper to the grave. I whisper thinngs such as Prim learning to swim and how me and Peeta are doing well. How Silver is now making little gurgling noises when I talk to her like she understands. I whisper how I wish she was here to see her grandchildren grow up. "But everything must come to an end though, right?" I smile a little at my stupid pun. I sniffle and let loose a few tears. "Love you, mom."

I stand up and walk to Silver's grave. I kneel over that and do the same. I tell Silver about how I noticed a red strand of hair reflect off baby Silver's headand how I blieve and hope she has the same hair color as her. I always loved SIlver's hair color. Dark with a few red and dark gray strands that reflected from the sunlight at an angle. "Forever, Silver." Is what I had her gravestone read. It was the last thing she said to me. I stand and whisper, "Always." to her, the last thing I said to her. The wind answers me as I hold out my three fingers at both graves.

This was the routine every night after dinner for me. Peeta putting the kids to sleep, me leaving to talk to their never-leaving spirts.

I stand and walk beyond their graves, deeper in the forest. After a 15 minute walk, I meet Gale's grave. I look down at it from where I stand, three feet away. I have nothing to say to him. Nothing to say to his spirt--which also seems to never leave--or his body, 6 feet in the earth, maybe even deeper like where he belongs. He killed Silver and he killed my sister Prim. He hurt everyone I loved, he kidnapped my children, and he was apart of Snow and Coin's rebelion. What do I need to tell him, that he didn't already know when he died?

Instead I yell at his grave and fall to my knees, allowing my tear to come freely now. Not angry tears but sad tears. I'm sad that I lost one of my friends whom I have known since I was little. One of my friends who I would tell everything to, who I would hunt with, who took care of my family as I was fighting for my life. I lost a friend who I loved. And I lost him for reasons that I still don't understand.

Chapter 2
I stretch out in my bed. Last thing I remember from the night before was yelling in the forest the a distant memory of being carried home. I hate it when I fall asleep infront of Gale's grave. It feels wrong to even visit his grave, but I do miss him.

I walk down stairs relived that I had a rare, dreamless sleep. I smell eggs cooking and hear meat popping and sizzling on the stove downstairs. The aroma meets my nose and I smile because this food is the food I've grown up eatting. It's not the old capital food at all.

"Morning, love." Peeta smiles at me and wraps an arm around my waist before he plants a kiss on my forehead. I return the kiss and walk to the small table we wat at.Peeta follows and sets the food on the table for us. Prim and Cinna are outside the window with Haymitch and Effie.

"You know..." I poke the yolk and let it drain over my baccon. "I haven't seen Effie leave Haymitch's side for a while now."

Peeta smiles, "Yeah, I noticed the same thing." he says in a mouthfull of food. Being outside in the winderness has on fluenced him to loose a few mannors from his childhood.

We both look out the window and see the kids run infront of Haymitch. Effie looks up and smiles at Haymitch. She would normally be his height or taller with her old capitol heels, but nowadays she's been wearing the usual flats  which stilll look as vibrent as her heels. Haymitch puts an arm around Effie's small waist and pulls her a little closer.

I let out a small laugh and Haymitch's gaze breaks away from Effie to me and Peeta craning our necks to see better. Peeta smiles and nods and I wave and mouth 'hi'. Effie and Haymitch break away and look anywhere but at us or eachother. My laugh echos freely now.

"Busted!" I sing to no one in particular.

"Like two teens caught kissing..." Peeta smiles and looks at me remembering our kiss in the cave. We were caught kissing by all of Panem. I half hope that I wore my usual pajama's rather than Peeta's oversized shirt. He probably sliped anything on me so that I was comfortable in my sleep.

Haymitch and Effie follow the kids without being near each other like before. Effie's eyes are stuck to the floor, but Haymitch steals a few glaces at her. Who would have ever thought these two, of all people, would like each other? Hell, I sure didn't, esspecially from the first day Haymitch fell off the Reaping Stage and Effie looked at him like a pig! I supose anything is possible when you think about it. Silver begins to cry breaking me and Peeta out of our haze. I'm about to get up when Peeta tells me to sit down since he was going to get up anyway to get something. I sit down and eat my breakfast. Peeta's limp is gone for the most part. He still has a noticable limp when he runs but that is just about it. And he is still strong. He cares me from Gale's grave to our home every night. I don't know how, but he always manages too.

Peeta returns holding Silver and a box.

"Happy Anniversary, Katniss Everdeen."

"What?"

"Today was the day of the Reaping when we went into the games."

"God, those felt centurys ago..." I whisper holding the box in my hands.

"They will be soon enough." Peeta says, matter-of-factly. I look up and smile at him, not wanting to ruin the wrapping. "Open it."

I remove each fold slowly with out tearing the paper. I lay the paper carefully on the table and open the metal box, painted like the forest I love. I breath gets stuck in my throat as I look inside the box. There is a wooden mockingjay in the middle that is spining with The Hanging Tree playing. The walls on the music box are painted like miniature versions of the paintings Peeta did on the train ride back to the Captiol. One wall is me and his kissing, the other is of my on the floor with a bloody forehead. Another all is of my spining in my wedding dress with the bottem half in flames with a few mockingjay feather pecking through. The last wall is on us all as a family.

"It took a few year to make but, I think it's worth it." I'm speachless. I close my eyes and hear my father's voice sing this song to me. The song is over now and then I hear a small 'click'. I open my eyes and Peeta lifts the mockingjay. Inside is a small space, big enough to fit my fist. He pulls out a dreamcatcher made with Mockingjay feathers.

"It's for your nightmares. I thought of it after you woke me up yelling bloody murder." He gives a small laugh.

I hold it out infront of me. It twirls on it's own, allowing me to see it at all angels. Twigs are bent around a ring and the web is clearly made from the katniss roots that grow alongside the pond outside. I can recognize them any where, even when formed into a web on a dreamcatcher. Old, threading, twine dangles from the hoop, keeping the wooden beads and mockingjay feathers from leaving the web of nightmares.

I find it fiting in many ways. 1) I was the mockingjay. 2) I am still apart of a few nightmares, like the twine holding the feathers. And 3) I am and will alwas be intwined in nightmares like the katniss roots.

"So... how do you like it?" Peeta brings me out of my state of wonder. He looks almost frightened. He might think I hate it or that I want to kill something right now. Without hesitation I push the box seperating us and hug him around his neck. He nuzzles my neck and his arms wrap around my waist. I breath in his familiar sent and pull him closer.

Nothing can take this moment away from me, ever.

I remember thinking this same thought when I was with Gale. Then the 74th Hunger Games arrived... then the Quater Quell... then the rebelion... and then the fight. This time I am positive of this. Nothing will take this away.

Peeta kisses my neck, slowly making his way to my ear, and back down to my shoulder. His lips slowly meets my jaw line then our lips brush against each other. It's hard to imagine that I used to want to kill him back in The Hunger Games and how I attempted to choke him when he claimed his love for me after his interveiw.

He pulls back a little and looks in my eyes. He looks behind me and cranes his neck to look out the window. I don't care to look behind me. I just stare into his eyes. After a few seconds he looks back into my eyes and smiles. I smile back and he pulls my braid loose.

Chapter 3
I lay down on the floor eatting the rest of my food as Peeta returns with two bags in tow.

"Umm... are we going somewhere?" I could almost laugh at this. There is no where to go here! I roll over in my stomache and pull my hair to the side to rebraid it as I chew the last of my food.

"We are actully." He looks behind me at the door. I has a faint, but familiar sound of wind and engine. I stand up imediatly and open the door to find Haymitch and Effie trying to hold Prim back. I run outside and cover her's and Cinna's faces from the flying dirt and twigs every where. My half finished braid comes loose with the wind and I have the strange sense of deja` vu` from when Gale and I had ran into a hovercraft that was capturing two esacpes, the red head girl I has as a servent and a guy around her age, who was probably her brother. She was captured in a net and brought up to the sky while he was stabed and hauled up.

My hair pokes my eyes, but I leave it be. It's too difficult protecting my children from breathing in dirt when I try to move my hair from my eyes to see. It's useless because of the dirt anyway. Peeta comes with a jacket and covers us all.

The hovercraft door opens just before it lands. I hear it before I see it, so I lift up my head and squint to get a better look at who has come to see us. I'm still terified of everything the capitol once owned.

There are two figures there. One is a hunched over woman holding the hand of someone else. I can't tell who he is but his features look strong. I can see the slight curve of muscle from under his shirt and his stance shows that he is ready for anything.

Small ripples of water bounce the reflection of the sun onto the man. I stand up and tuck my hair behind my ear. I slowly make my way to him, still not believeing my eyes.

"Finnick?" My legs, hands, and face has small sratches and cuts, leaving a slight stinging all over my body. Peeta's shirt did no good to cover me from everything that was flying in the wind.

The hovercraft lands and I know for sure that it's him. It's Finnick. His messy blond hair and his sea blue-green eyes can be seen from where I stand.

"Finnick!" I yell more sure of myself. I see him head turn towards me. He stumbles back a few steps with confusion in his eyes. I run tohim and throw my arms around him. "I can't bielieve your alive!" I practicly holdmy breath as the memories flood in my mind. ''Our ambush by those lizard muts in the sewer. Finnick's scream as we locked him in there with a few others. Us going back to District 13 to tell Annie. The pain in my heart on loosing a friend.'' I know that pain far too well.

The memory of Annie brings me to look at the lady next to Finnick.

"Annie?" I stumble back and look at Finnick. Something is different in his facial features. He has different shapped eyes and his nose is different. His face looks morphaed with Annies...

"Wait... wha-" Bam! His fist meets my face and as i hold it, fully exposing my stomache, he throws another hit to my gut. Peeta comes in a hits him squarein the jaw, sending Finnick stumbling backafew steps. Only, it's not Finnick. It's not him.

I whisperthis to myself, as if I can't wrap it around my mind. Annie and Haymitch hold him back as I hold Peeta back from hitting him again. Effie hides the kids behind her, away from harm. Peeta wraps an arm around my waist and trys not to hurt the bruse that is forming on my cheek bone.

"He's not Finnick." I whisper again. "He's not him. It can't be..."

"What? Katniss, what is it? Is he apart of Snow's side?"

"No! No, Peeta. No he;s not.."

"Then who is he? Katniss?"

"It's his son."

"So letme get this stright: you hit my wife because she left your father with those mutts?" Peeta isn't letting Triton, Finnick and Annie's son, down easy for hitting me. We're in he kitchen with ice on my cheek and tea and cookies in front of us. Triton leans againt the counter and picks at the crumbes off the cookie and tosses them on the floor.

"She left my dad there. She left him behind!"

"You weren't even alive, son!" Haymitch joins in now. Effie puts her hand over his and it seems to calm him down a notch. He's breathing heavy but not yelling anymore.

"Look you guys. Jus-just let him be." I can't look at him without thinkingof Finnick. I wonder how Annie survived this long without breaking down at the sight of her son. I look over at Annie and she hardly looks like she's holding up well. Her mouth is set in a frown and hereyes don;t settle on anything longer than a second, especially on Triton.

I build up the courage to look at Triton to see his eyes settles on Annie. His eyebrows are knit together in worry. Unlike Annie, he's calm and put together like his father. For the breifest second, he looks into my eyes. I imediatly drop my gaze but not quick enough.

''We're all on the beach in the Quarter Quell. Someone sent us cream to treat the burns from the toxic fog. Finnick screams at how hideous we look andhow he would never put it on. In the end we all look the same.''

The memory seemed funny back then. Right now it just pulls at my heart. I pull it together and sit up strighter with my chin up higher. I look over to Effie and she nodds in aproval. I turn around to Triton to find him staring dagers into my soul.

"So what did happen down there?" His voice is barely a whisper but it feels like he punched me in the face again. Even his voice sounds like Finnick's.

I squeeze my eyes shut and take slow, steady breaths. "We were running away from them. The lizard-human mutations. They got a few of us but some made it out in time." I wrap both hands around the small cup and feel it's warmth on my fingers, reminding me that I'm alive. "I tried to help but-but they wouldn't allow me. I did what I could to end his screaming...his pain." I pick up the cup sending droplets of tea raining down my hand. Peeta sits next to meand pulls me close. We almost lost him too.

"So you did kill him?" The truth brings a dam of tears to his eyes. Annie seems lost in her own reality.

"I blew them all up. Everything and everyone down there. I said 'Nightlock, nightlock, nightlock.' And that did it." Triton's dam of tears break, sending them down his face. He looks away and wips the tearswith the back of his hand.

"I'm sorry." Is all I'm able to get out through the golfball lump in my throat. Annie looks at us confused and asks, "What happened?"

Triton wips off every trace of tears off his face, leaving his face red. He kneels next to her and takes her hand and just stays there taking in the confort of his mother. She still doesn't understand.

Chapter 4
"What are they doing here, Peeta? I know that he just didn't come here to ask about Finnick." Triton is outside skipping rocks with Prim and Annie and Cinna are picking wildflowers from the edge of the forest.

"We're going to visit District 13. I thought that it would be nice to check on Gale's family." He looks at me, waiting for a reaction. I keep my eyes down and my hand busy.

"Why would you think that?"

"Katniss-"

"No, Peeta. Why would you think that? Tell me."

"You know that you still wonder about them. I know you do."

"H-"

"You forget that you talk in your sleep, sometimes." answers Peeta. I didn't need to finish my 'how?" question. We've been together long enough forhim to predict my sentences. Thoughtout this whole converation, he hasn't removed his eyes from my face.

"Katniss..." Peeta sings my name. I keep my head down by bring my eyes up to him. "Don't you dare make me sing to cheer you u-up!?"

"Oh God.." I say undermy breath and shake my head. Peeta stands and starts singing an up beat version of The Valley Song. He begins dancing and snapping his fingers. I get up, shaking my head and trying not to laugh. He grabs my hand and spins me until I'm so dizy, I can't tell the difference between the window and the kitchen cabnets. He brings my down in dip and rests his forehead on mine.