𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐒 ❦ The Hunger Games Third Book

t w e n t y - o n e

CHAPTER sixty-eight|SIXTH SENSE

Owl city~ fireflies
❝Cause they fill the open air, and leave teardrops everywhere❞

➳➳

THE SMELL WAS the first thing that changed, even if nobody was able to really take note of it.

In the chaos it seemed so mild- there was a kaleidoscope of scenes that seemed to work simultaneously around the corners that each Victor fought against- and yet it was the only thing that really mattered. With each sense having to work against the others for dominance it was hard to pick exactly why smell was the only thing that needed attention, depending on the body that was fighting for their life the priorities changed like the colour of the sky during a sunset, but there was no denying the importance of it. Because unlike everything else, the smell wasnt changing with each body that piled up or with each stain in the soldier's hair.

When the smell changed, so did the outcome of the war- the rebellion. If only the Victor's knew that.

If only they could look past a fire so hot it felt like it had been made from the anger that built the rebellion itself, or the water cold enough to leave their feet numb after planting them for balance. If they were aware how little it mattered when their hand's felt the flares that warded away sharp claws they might not of focused all their energy on the orange inferno that died down from a whole fire to the smallest flame, and they might of ignored how little they could feel their legs.

The Victors might've even been able to spot the rotten meat each mutt's breath produced if they had looked past the sound of gunfire and the water chilled from the purest of melted frost.

Within the feelings that ricochet off of the surroundings alone, an entire new sense could have been created.

The kind of sense that could capture the screams of the camera crew as they ran from the tunnel they had been in for no more than 12 hours. The kind of sense that flinched every time the thud of death was hauled out from between the flesh and bones that had been ripped apart in combat; a sense so astute it would make Lorna Titan cry before her heart had even been prepared to be cut from her blanched white chest.

Or maybe a sense that would've told the girl that something had changed; a sense that was smart enough to pick up how the mud enfused rotting had been turned putrid, and fresh copper had been added to the aroma of their battle. Maybe then something would of been different when Katniss Everdeen's gut began to understand what her five senses could not- but her contaminated grey eyes were trained on the arrows she sent flying through the pandemonium.

Peeta didn't see Katniss take her last shot before she had to run towards the epicenter of the tsunami, or Finnick as he stabbed one of the rabid green dogs with heads that seemed to be taken from the shape of the Peacekeeper's oval helmets. Remy barely even heard her feet wade through the knee high water as he snapped off one of the mutt's heads with nothing but his torn up hands, or Lorna when she caught a glimpse of Mercy as she was pulled under the water.