Pregnant in the Games

Chapter 18: Luke

The next month of our lives passed very smoothly for being in the Hunger Games.


14 more people have died, leaving 8 people left in the Games. There's three Tributes still alive that aren't in our alliance. Out of the 14 that have died, I estimate that my alliance has killed about 10. I try not to count.


My pregnancy is moving along. The nausea finally stopped. I'm a little less moody than I was before. Sometimes I get really tired out of nowhere, or I'll have weird leg cramps.


"Your moving a bit slowly there, Willow," Titus said to me one day. We were all going out to hunt together.


"I am not," I replied.


"It's because she's less aerodynamic now," Gale said to Titus. The two of them have become best friends. Both of them started to laugh.


"What's that supposed to be mean?" I snapped.


Tetrick slipped his arm around me. "It doesn't mean anything."


Talon stepped into the conversation. "It's just that you're showing now."


"I am not showing yet!" I replied, putting my hand on my stomach. Yet, as I did so, I realized that they were right. I do have a stomach. A lot more than I realized, in fact. I actually look pregnant. "How long has this been here?" I gestured to my stomach.


"Well it's growing, obviously. But I noticed it three weeks ago," Tetrick said.


I frowned. "Apparently I haven't been paying much attention."


"Well why do you think parachutes have been raining on us?" Titus asked. "It's because the baby is visual to them now. They're noticing the difference in your body and their excited about it."


"What are you going to name her?" Gale asked.


I shrugged. "I haven't even thought about it."


"Well you might want to get to your thinking. She'll be here before you know it," Titus said.


I scoffed. "Yeah, I doubt that."


Finally, we came across the chasm. This chasm acts as a line for us. It's kind of like the end of our territory. I looked across the chasm, to the tree where Tetrick and I first kissed. We haven't kissed much in a while. I glanced over at him. He was looking at the same tree.


I don't know where Tetrick and I stand. I've been in these games for two months now, spending every moment with him. We're really close now. We've been dipping our toes into the waters of a relationship. Over a month ago, Tetrick just wanted to jump straight into the water. I told him I wasn't ready for that. But over a month has passed since then! Am I ready for it now?


I'm just not sure. I feel like I would just be repeating history. I don't want to make those same mistakes that I made with Luke. Luke was the only person I had ever been with. Sure, our relationship was succesful, up until the last moments, but does that really make it good? He turned out to be a murderous freak that somehow landed a job as head Gamemaker. I doubt that Tetrick's murderous. That's how I felt about Luke, though. Just because it's what my head is telling me, it doesn't mean that it's correct.


I trust Tetrick. I trust him with my life! I would step in front of a bullet for him. He would never hurt me. Yet that's how I felt with Luke and look what he did to me. I can't put myself in another position to get hurt. I won't do it.


Suddenly, I felt Titus and Gale put their arms around me. They were walking on either side of me. Tetrick was walking in front of me. Talon walked on the other side of Gale. Titus has become like a little brother this past month. I hate that I let myself get so attached to him, since in the end, one of us is going to be hurting over the other's death. I just couldn't resist. He's such a nice guy! Gale, too, although I already thought of him as a little brother before we went into these games. Talon, who's actually the same age as Gale and Titus, doesn't feel younger to me. He put himself in a protective position early on. I think of him more as an older brother, who will protect me at all costs.


And Tetrick... Well, he's a different story. I definitely don't think of him as a brother.


"Too much testosterone in such a small space," I said to Gale and Titus. They didn't unravel their arms. Since we've lost Chris and Jessica, I've been the only one girl in the group. I'm surprised I've managed to keep my sanity.


Gale shrugged. "You like it."


Not really, I thought to myself. Then I realized that we were walking around the chasm. "Tetrick, where are we going?"


"Past the chasm. Is that okay?" He replied.


"Well aren't we going to return to the tree house tonight? If we go all the way around the chasm, then we'll won't be able to get back before sun-down."


Tetrick turned around and looked at me. He opened his mouth to speak to me, but a scream escaped instead. The ground on which he was standing on collapsed and he fell into the chasm.


"Tetrick!" I screamed, running after him. Gale and Titus did the same. Before I could reach Tetrick, Talon stepped in front of me.


"Stay back, Willow," He said to me.


"No!" I screamed. When I took another step toward the open chasm, Talon wrapped his arms tightly around me, pinning my arms to my sides.


"LET GO OF ME!" I screamed at Talon. He didn't listen.


"No, Willow! You'll just jump in after him! It's not safe and you have an extra life to think about!"


"But it's Tetrick..." I murmured. I stopped resisting Talon. I just rested my head against his chest and waited. Talon turned his body so that I couldn't see the chasm. I didn't struggle to see. Maybe it's a good thing that Talon's turning me away. Maybe I don't want to see whatever's going on.


If Talon doesn't want me to look, then what's going on? Did Tetrick die? All I can hear is my own ears ringing. The world around me is blurring. For a moment, I think that something's happening to me. Then I realize that it's only my own tears surfacing. Tetrick couldn't survive that fall. Even if he did, we would never be able to pull him out. The chasm is seemingly endless.
?.
Tetrick's gone.


I collapsed to my knees. He's gone. He's really gone. I closed my eyes tightly, willing the rest of the world to fall away. I don't want to be here. I don't want to be alive. Everyone I love is dropping like flies. I lost Luke. I lost Chris. I haven't seen my family in two months. Even Jessica's death hurt a little, although it may have been more of the betrayal. I can't stand losing Tetrick too! I don't care if I'm accountable for two lives. I'll jump in that chasm right here right now. Winning the Games isn't worth it. None of this is worth all the trouble.


Suddenly, I was very aware of two hands on either side of my face. I opened my eyes. As I did this, my hearing seemed to have returned. Talon had his hands on either side of my face. He was mid-sentence, as if he had already been talking before I heard him.


"What?" I asked.


He sighed deeply then looked off in the distance. "She's fine. I think her brain just chose not to hear me for a second there."


The tears fell to my cheeks. I shook my head. "Talon..."


"Everything's fine! Quit it with tears, would you? It's depressing when you cry."


"None of this is fine!" I yelled. Just after I did this, I felt two warm, caring hands touching my shoulders.


"No, it really is fine," Tetrick said.


I stood up and turned around. He was alive! I wrapped my arms tightly around him and sobbed into his shoulder. I had been so positive that he was gone. Talon wouldn't let me look! Everything was taking so long.


"You're alive... You're alive..." I kept on murmuring.


"Yes, I am alive. My hands are bit cut up from the rocks that I was holding on to, but I'm alive. Gale and Titus got me out, no problem."


I pulled away from him and put both of my hands on his face. "Don't you ever scare me like that again."


Tetrick smiled. "I won't."


Then I kissed him. I think it's the first time that I've leaned into the kiss myself. This is the first time that I've really yearned for it, as if I needed the subtle touch of our lips. This kiss wasn't so subtle, though. It was pure passion. It was hot. My heart pounded in my chest. When I finally pulled away, Tetrick looked baffled.


"Well," was all he had to say.


"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for all of this," I said. "I was dumb. I want to be with you. I don't care what happened between Luke and I. You're not Luke! You're Tetrick! You have a beautiful heart. You're kind. You've cared for me." I kissed him again. "I will not lose you."


"You won't lost me, Willow. I'm not going anywhere," Tetrick replied. He put his hand over my own and entangled our fingers.


"Good. Because I'm sure of how I feel now."


Tetrick smiled at me and I smiled back. There was a long moment where we did nothing but stare into each other's eyes. The moment was broken by Talon. "We should head back to the tree house. We can catch food on the way."


We didn't actually need to catch food. The Capitol seems to approve of Tetrick and I's relationship. We got some soup for dinner, along with some bread and extra water. The sponsors have been very considerate to us.






In the middle of the night, as I was sleeping, I heard a noise. I opened my eyes. The noise happened again. It sounded like a small rock hit the side of the tree house. I carefully unraveled Tetrick's arms from around me and went to the window. Down on the ground, Luke was throwing rocks at the side of the tree. What is he doing here?


"Luke?" I called out in a low voice.


"Willow..." Luke smiled. "Will you come down here, please?"


I did as he said, wondering if any of this was real. Why would Luke be here? What does he want?


"I've missed you so much, baby." Luke started to reach his arms around me to hug me. I stepped away.


"Are you really still mad at me?"


"Of course I am!" I replied. "You killed Talon's mother."


"That looks a lot worse than it actually is. I just wanted payback! I saw him kiss you! He can't lay hands on my fiance like that!"


"That doesn't justify it, Luke. I can't believe you would do something like that. And what about earlier today, huh? Are you just going to tell me that the ground fell from beneath Tetrick? I'm not that stupid. You tried to kill him," I replied.


"I only did those things for us, Willow." He grabbed both of my hands. "I did all of that for us. So that no one can stand between us."


I let go of my hands. "You're the one who put a wrench in the relationship. What happened with Talon was innocent. I didn't ask for any of that. And what's happening with Tetrick is happening long after I broke up with you. I thought I made that pretty clear when I threw the engagement ring into the lake."


"I had a team retrieve that, you know," Luke replied to me. He pulled a knife out of his belt. For a moment, I thought that he might use it to stab me. Then he started to carve lines into the tree's trunk, making lines in it's side. "The only reason I did any of this was to get us back together. I even secured my mark as Head Gamemaker. You can't lose if I'm in charge of the Games."


"How did you get that job, anyways? You're just some guy from District 12."


"I was very good friends with Atos, you know. So when he died, I seemed like the right person to fill the job."


I frowned. "That can't be all."


Luke turned and looked at me. He had carved three straight, vertical lines into the tree with the knife. "I've been in contact with the Capitol for much longer than you've known, Willow. I kept secrets from you. I'm sorry for that. I've always had a place of power in the Capitol. I have connections. I have ties. People respect me."


"What sort of ties?" I asked.


"I'm related to President Snow. I'm the son of his nephew. One of the only family members that President Snow has left. So he cherishes me. If I do a little bit of name dropping here and there, people listen to me. It wasn't too hard to get Atos to listen to me. The rest of the Gamemakers were pretty easy to sway, too. That's why I have all of these connections." Luke put his knife in his belt and walked over to me. He dropped his voice, too quiet for any of the microphones surrounding us to catch his words. "I killed Atos to get this position. I killed him so that I could have control over whether you live or die."


I gasped.


"You know, right after you dumped me, I was heartbroken." His voice remained very quiet. "I was very mad. So I rigged the Games. I made it so that Gale and Titus got Reaped. I'm realizing now that maybe that was a bit mean."


I was too tired and dazed to answer.


The last thing I remember is Luke kissing me.






When I opened my eyes, it was light outside. It must've all been a dream. Birds were chirping. Titus and Gale were still sleeping. I could hear Tetrick and Talon talking just outside of the tree house. I climbed down from the tree house. I was about to greet Tetrick and Talon when I noticed marks on the tree. They were the same marks Luke had made with his knife.


"What's that?" I asked. "Was that there last night?"


Tetrick looked at the three marks. "Hmm. No, I don't believe they were. That's a little strange."


I put my fingers to my lips. None of this had been a dream.


***


HOLY COW! I'm so tired you guys. It's midnight where I am and I'm not a night owl at all. I'm a morning person. So this chapter might suck. I won't know until I read over it in the morning.


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