Pregnant in the Games

Chapter 27: Too Much

Author's Note: It's back to Willow's POV, the way it should be!

Do you guys really think that 3 years is really that big of a deal? I have friends dating guys three years older than them. No big deal. My parents are two years apart. Three years wouldn't make that much of a difference. So what if Willow is three years older? I've liked guys who are 2 years younger. No big deal. 

It was two weeks before we saw Gale or Rayne again.

After Titus died, it was announced that a new round of Tributes would be added to the arena next week. So, like always, we had a week in the arena all to ourselves. Usually this week is great, since we have no worries. However, none of us could enjoy the week of freedom. Not with Titus gone.

Titus was a light in all of our lives. He always managed to make us smile, even when there was nothing to smile about. Together, him and Gale acted as glue. They kept our spirits up. They helped us get through all of these months in this tree house. And now Titus is just...gone. 

None of us worried about Gale too much, when he left. He said that he just needed some time. He promised all of us that he would come. We let him go without much argument. For this week, nothing can kill us. We assumed that him and Rayne would be back at the tree house before the new wave of Tributes arrived.

We were wrong. The new tributes arrived. Gale and Rayne still didn't come back. Each time I heard a canon go off, I flinched. What if that canon was Gale? Or even Rayne? Gale couldn't handle it if Rayne died. Each day was Hell. I stared anxiously at the sky, waiting for the faces of fallen Tributes to get put up. Each day, I was relieved to see that neither Gale or Rayne had died. But the next day, the same process just repeated over again. 

Until finally, one week after the new tributes, Gale and Rayne came back. 

Gale explained that he had a lot of pent-up anger towards everything and everyone. He told us that three of the canons, of the 12 we've heard, were him. He said that the tree house harbored too many memories of Titus and that's why he waited so long to come back. The entire time he spoke, Rayne stared at the ground. 

"I feel awful, killing those people. It didn't make up for what I did to Titus," Gale said. 

"Hey, Gale, don't say that," I replied. "First of all, killing is part of the game. It's what you have to do to keep yourself alive sometimes. Nobody blames you for that. And Titus' death wasn't your fault. It was the Gamemakers and Luke." 

"He knew someone was going to die if we didn't make a move."

"It's not like you were going to go and kill Rayne," Talon replied. "The way I see it, somebody had to die. In reality, four of us are going to have to die. We're trying to prolong it as long as we can, but all of us have a clock. His clock ran out. This is an awful thought, but he was probably going to die at some point. This situation is better than the alternative, where you would be beating yourself up for killing your girlfriend."

"And let's be honest," Rayne stepped into the conversation. "You wouldn't have killed me anyways."

Gale looked over at Rayne. "You're right. I wouldn't have."

"So no more self-blame, okay?" I said. "We all miss Titus. But it's not your fault." Tears started to come to my eyes. 

Gale nodded, although I could still see that he was hurting. We all lost a friend two weeks ago, but Gale lost a best friend. That's something that's going to stay with him. It'll be a while before Gale is back to normal. 

The past two weeks have been the hardest of the entire time I've been here. Sponsors have ceased. We're forced to catch all of our own food now, which isn't working out super well. We've been eating about every other day or every two days. It could be a lot worse, but for a pregnant girl, it's pretty bad.