𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐒 ❦ The Hunger Games Third Book

S e v e n t e e n

CHAPTER sixty-four|TRUST

Woodkid~ run boy run
❝Run boy run! The sun will be guiding you, run boy run! They're dying to stop you.❞

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IF BEING UNCOMFORTABLE around Peeta was the problem, then close proximity was the one and only solution.

It was Finnick's idea; in the midst of our walking and propaganda he thought it would be best if I helped the boy along, if not for him then to show me that he wasn't the same shell he had been a few weeks ago. It was supposed to remind me of what he had been like before, just the same Peeta Mellark that had asked for peace and who I tried to save from the water at the start of the Hunger Games.

And there were similarities, some that were so close that for a second as we went through the lines of his next speech, I thought that the old version of him had fought back- that he had once again understood the importance of the person he loved the most. And then, within an instant the glow in his eyes would return, and the delirium settled into his body that made him grip his empty gun tighter in his whitening hands.

That would be when I took a cautious step back, and Finnick would lock eyes with me so intently that I forgot that he was really right there.

But we carried on, all the way until we were stopped in another square that was filled with upright standing buildings and the same grey rumble that once offset the colourful people that lived in it. This time Peeta would give his speech; ironical enough it would be me that offset his part in the video instead of Katniss, just like the buildings around us.

He was the colourful people, each one different from the last with a new agenda and gradient of the rainbow that blended into something beautiful, or something completely strange and new. And I was the buildings that stood around them, that funneled them into a place they were supposed to go and who housed both the best and worst parts of the city's world inside of it. Part of it was still standing, but some was crumbled to the ground in an unremarkable mess.

And yet, as the soldiers of 451 checked the area for hazards around us, it was impossible to see any drop of the people's colour anymore.

"Gotta pod." Boggs called as we tiptoed through the tallest buildings I had seen. "Split, take cover."

I had a choice again, one that was made for me when Finnick ever so gently lead me towards his side of the wall so that I was behind him as he held onto Peeta's shoulder for dear life. It was easy to remember how gentle he could be then, as he cowered into the stone with Finnick's hand on top of him.