Down the Primrose Path

Chapter Six

Darkness swirls around my vision like a border around a page. My eyes are shut tight, squeezed as much as I can close them. I am awake and my head is burning. But I don't want to wake up. I want to stay asleep until I dead. Then I hear something. A voice. Words. My name. "Prim? Prim?" The voice that called out to me is a woman's, broken from pain or crying. "Prim, please."

My eyes flutter open in a second and I gasp. I still in District Twelve. I haven't been transported to some Capitol mental institution. The room I'm in is very cosy and new-looking. The walls are a tree brown with stylish spirals of colours left, right and centre. I'm lying on a red, velvet couch, my head on something less uncomfortable. My mother's knees. Mum pulls me up immediately and starts to press me close to her. I have no air to breathe as she squeezing me. I think, but I'm not sure, I think she's hugging me. She could be trying to suffocate me. After all Katniss and I did...oh no, Katniss.

"Oh Prim! You're alive! My baby, you're okay!"She repeats over and over.

"Mum, you're hurting me!" I push her off of me. Her face is so depressing, tears running from her eyes, an expression so scary and sad I want to kill myself even more. Gale is quietly leaning on the front door. He's upset about my sister for sure. They've been best friends for ages and now everything is falling apart because of what happened. Mum and Gale's lives have started to crumble. Mine has already shattered.

"Where is Katniss?" I growl, fighting back tears.

The Peackeepers have her." Gale looks down shamefully. "I should have been quicker. I should have saved her."

"It doesn't matter now." I say hopelessly. "She's at peace." Mum grabs me again and hugs me. It's not for me this time. Mum trying to keep herself together. I hug her back.

"I think we should go home. Start mourning." I begin to get up but Mum doesn't let me go. "Mum? What's wrong?"

"You can't go home. This is your personal goodbyes."

"For the Hunger Games. And we have three minutes." Gale ends her sentence.

Wait. No, that's not how it works, is it? I can't go. I can't! My sister's dead, we created a scene! I can't go to the Hunger Games! I fall down onto the couch in shock. "But-but I can't." I croak to Mum.

"You can do it, sweetheart." Mum cups my face in her hands. She's lying though. I probably won't even make it to the final 15. I'll be dead five seconds into the Hunger Games. I can't fight. Or hunt. I can't even set up a good trap. The other tributes will aim for an easy target. I'm dead already. I nod at Mum and try to keep her hopes up then she lets Gale squeeze in on the couch. We don't speak. We don't need to really. He grips my hand in his large, warm hands. That's all I need from him and he's the most comforting person so far. When it's time for them to leave, Gale and Mum give me a hug and kiss me goodbye. Mum is escorted out and then as Gale is taken out he calls "Don't be afraid to kill, Prim!" The door slams and I'm left alone again.

About after five minutes, I have 22 or so more minutes until I leave my home in District 12 and I'm shipped away to the outrageous Capitol with Effie and Peeta. The door opens again and I sit up. The man is in a blue shirt and black pants covered in spots from spilt flour and an apron on top covering his chest and middle section. He looks middle aged and has a thick moustache. I'm not too sure who he is and he seems to feel awkward, like he doesn't know me either.

"Hello, Primrose," he mutters in a quiet voice.

"Who are you?" I asked curiously. "Are you from some sort of a...bakery?"

"I'm Peeta's father. I run the bakery not too far from the Hob." Oh my god. Peeta Mellark's dad is visiting me? Shouldn't he be visiting his own son, weeping about his future death with his crazy wife? I look down at my feet in embarrassment and start to twiddle my fingers at the awkwardness. "I know I should be with my son," he speaks up. "I haven't seen him yet. His mother is talking to him but I thought I could come here first to give you this."