The Mockingjay Returns

Part 2 : Woods

Since the war, I've been alone: Haymitch never visits; I never visit him.
Greasy Sae comes by to give me food but I don't accept it. I feel empty. I find myself sat by the fire for hours, unwilling for human contact.

One day, I gather the courage to go out hunting. The woods are the same as they always were: my quiet, my solitude, my only protection. The only difference now is that the bordering fence is no longer electric.

A few deer run past me, afraid. I watch their lean, long bodies spring into action. They are full of life and energy. I refrain from shooting them.
After the war, no one came back and they're not at all accustomed to people. Remembering something Gale said before the first games, I shake my head to clear that thought... "Animals, people, it's really not that different."

I carry on waking through the woods, taking in the peace and serenity.

This isn't like hunting with Gale: with him, I'd come back with four, maybe five bags of game. This time, I bring back nothing.

It wasn't that there was nothing to kill, but that I couldn't bring myself to shoot something so precious. After all these years of being forced into killing, now I can't let an arrow into the air without regret. I won't.

Then, I stumble across a site to which I haven't visited in years: The Meadow. Now, it looks ghostly. The trees are unseasonably bare; their branches spindle outwards like disfigured arms, reaching towards me. Turning away, I run back home.

Spring is normally my favourite season: a of rebirth and pureness. Now, I long for the icy chills of winter, forcing me to feel something, forcing me to hurt. I begin to crave the feeling of numbness to the outside world, so when I turn round and see Peeta bent-over weeding the path to Victors' Village, I am stopped in my tracks.
---------------------------------------
Hope you enjoyed that one! A bit short, I know, but it will get there!