May The Odds

Chapter 16

[Gale's pov]

Reaping Day.

I look back at the previous one, remember the echoes as Katniss walks onto stage.

"No!" It was all I could hear. "No Katniss, you can't go!" Prim's arms as they struggle to free her, her legs as they kick me in feverish hope that I'll let go. Say I had? Say I'd allowed her to run, had stopped Katniss from taking her sister's place? Would that have been so, so wrong? How would it have changed this time?

I knew the answer.

I'd have to live with the guilt until the day I died, knowing that I'd caused Prim's death. Katniss and her mother - neither would ever speak to me again. And yet something about the prospect was enticing, calling to me? It didn't make sense.

But, then again, I had to remember that these were the small hours and I'd just woken from a stupid nightmare. Whatever thoughts troubled me at this time, would not be making sense.

Nothing made sense.

[Katniss's pov]

I'd always wondered what it would feel like to die, and now I had an answer. Thank you, President Snow. Thank you for letting it stop. What reason did you even have, for keeping me here this long? I wish you hadn't...

It was like fading away... like the tide pulling back, licking the sand, leaving a line of foam behind. I could feel the life ebbing out of me, along with scarlet blood. I saw the trees that surrounded me through a black and white filter, but I was more present than I'd ever have expected.

A canon fires in the distance, signaling the end. But I'm still here?

A scream.

A bloodcurling scream.

"Katniss!"

"Katniss!" The voice is familiar-

"Katniss!" Gale! I want to call back, but I can't speak. I bite hard on my tongue, tasting blood and salt.

I wake up-

A/N

I love doing dream sequences! What's your favourite part in this chapter?