Victor by Night | Finnick Odair

Fire is Catching : 27

Chapter Twenty Seven

I give up. Stop speaking, responding, refuse food and water. They can pump whatever they want into my arm, but it takes more than that to keep a person going once she's lost the will to live. I even have a funny notion that if I do die, maybe Peeta and the others will be allowed to live. Not as a free person but as an Avox or something, waiting on the future tributes of the Districts. Then maybe they could find some way to escape. My death could, in fact, still save them.

If it can't, no matter. It's enough to die of spite. To punish Haymitch, who, of all the people in this rotting world, has turned Katniss, Peeta and I into pieces in his Games. We trusted him. We put what was precious in Haymitch's hands. And he has betrayed us.

"See, this is why no one lets you make the plans," he said.

That's true. No one in their right mind would let me make the plans. Because I obviously can't tell a friend from an enemy.

A lot of people come by to talk to me, but I make all their words sound like the clicking of the insects in the jungle. Meaningless and distant. Dangerous, but only if approached. Whenever the words start to become distinct, I moan until they give me more painkiller and that fixes things right up.

Until one time, I open my eyes and find someone I do not recognize looking down at me. He tells me his name is Gale, he's Katniss's boyfriend from District 12.

He tells me everything. Her District -- her home -- has been obliterated. Everything she once knew in District 12 is gone, along with two-thirds of their population. He tells me the secrets behind Katniss and Peeta's love story; that, in fact, they staged the whole thing to spite the Capitol. But it's grown into something more now, he tells me, something of actual purpose.

Despite the Games before, he believes they truly love one another. And because of this story, because of Gale and I being the only sort-of friends Katniss has left... I renounce my vow of silence and heal up.

For Katniss.

It's now, that I stand in her hospital room, do I realize why they call her the Girl on Fire.

"Gale," Katniss whispers. "Sage..."

"Hey, Catnip." He reaches down and pushes a strand of hair out of her eyes. One side of his face has been burned fairly recently. His arm is in a sling, and you can see bandages under his dirty shirt.

"Prim?" Katniss gasps.

"She's alive. So is your mother. I got them out in time," he says.

"They're not in District Twelve?" she asks.

"After the Games, they sent in planes. Dropped firebombs." He hesitates. "Well, you know what happened to the Hob."

She knows. Everyone does. Head Peacekeeper Thread made note to broadcast the destruction to all of Panem. A new kind of horror begins to rise up inside me as I imagine firebombs hitting District 12's Seam.

"They're not in District Twelve?" Katniss repeats. As if saying it will somehow fend off the truth.

"Katniss," Gale says softly.

I recognize that voice. It's the same one Finnick used to approach me before he told me about my death sentence from Vellichor Luthium. Katniss raises her hand to block his words but he catches it and holds on tightly.

"Don't," she whispers.

But Gale continues you anyway.

"Katniss, there is no District Twelve."

Relief: that her family is out.

Confusion: who could have done this?

Realization: President Snow, the monster of all monsters, of course.

Sadness: the innocent children who suffered and died when he killed them.

Anger: How could anyone put another human being through that?

Hatred: burning, fiery hatred that runs through her veins, probably more strong than I feel.

President Snow has just destroyed her home.

I speak the one thing that makes sense through my cloud of hatred.

"Fire is catching," I breath, and Katniss looks straight at me as I declare my thoughts. "And if we burn..."

My eyes come in contact with Katniss's as I speak...

"Snow burns with us."

T H E E N D