rising from the ashes || a hunger games story

chapter twenty-three

willow's pov

i can feel tears in my eyes as i'm left there breathless. "what?" i hear finn say. i turn to him. he's shocked and has his hands behind his head as he turns around in frustration, "this has to be a joke, i'm done with people i saw dead actually being alive."

"what's going on?" i ask. "her heart started on the aircraft. they don't know why or how but it did," i hear my dad say behind me. i feel more tears start to stream down my face and i hug ivy tightly and sob into her shoulder.

"aww she loves me!" i hear her say. i pull away laughing. "you're so stupid," i say as i wipe my tears and finn hugs ivy.

we eventually all separate and start talking. my dad, adler, finn, haymitch, and rye are in the kitchen. i'm sure adler and my dad are working on our lunch. adler is a really good cook. he owns his own restaurant back in district 7.

he and my dad love making meals together. they're constantly creating new meals and recipes. while the boys are in the kitchen, all the girls are in the living room.

our living room consists of a glass coffee table, a television, a couch in front of the table and television, and two chairs to the left and right of it. the tv remains off. my sister is on the chair that is to the right of the coffee table, johanna is on the other chair and my mom, annie, and effie are on the couch.

ivy and i voluntarily sit on the floor in between where johanna and the couch sit. ivy is sitting with her legs crossed and my head lays in her lap. she plays with my hair and braids it.

i can hear johanna happily say, "i have news!" i look up to ivy whos smiling. she probably knows what it is already. i sit up and put my body weight on my hands, which are on the floor. i look over to johanna.

i hear my mother say, "are you pregnant?" johanna laughs, "no but adler and i are adopting another child!" everybody smiles and cheers. "when we found out we couldn't have another child after ivy, we were devastated because we always wanted another child so we finally decided to adopt," she says as my mother hugs her.

my mother was the last one to hug johanna so everyone is back in their original positions. "what's the gender? and the age?" my sister asks eagerly. "it's a boy and he's 7. his name is james," she says smiling.

"i never understood how parents could ever put their children into that system," effie says. i look over at her, "unfortunately, not everybody has the money to take care of a child."

we end up moving on to another topic. i'm holding one of my knees up to my chest while my bad leg remains laid on the floor and i'm looking down to the floor. i wouldn't normally be sitting this way with a dress on but i put on a pair of black tight pants a few minutes after i got here. my name is soon addressed and i look up to johanna, who called my name.

"so whats going on between you and finn?" johanna says with a smile on her face. i hide my face in my hands as i feel heat rise up to my cheeks and i know i'm blushing.

i uncover my face and get into the position i was originally in so i don't have to look at anybody. "i don't really know. i don't know if you can consider us dating because nothing has been set to say it's official so i don't know what to tell you guys."

that's when i hear finn's voice from the doorway that connects our dining room and the living room. "lunch is ready so you can come eat," he says. we all nod and get up to walk to the dining room.

the dining table is large enough for all of us to sit at the table. rye sits at one edge of the table and annie sits at the other. if you look at the table from behind rye, on the left side, next to annie, is finn, me, my parents, and dahlia. on the right side, next to finn, is haymitch and effie, johanna and adler, and ivy.

in each plate is lamb chops with rice served with mashed potatoes. everybody has a glass of juice. for dessert, dad made chocolate cake. nobody goes hunting for this. we always get our food from the hob. sometimes it even ends up being the animals i hunted and traded in the hob.

after eating one slice of chocolate cake, i'm full and feel like i'm about to explode. i limp on my leg to take my plates to the kitchen without my crutches. i wash them quickly and i limp back to the table and sit back into my chair. after a few minutes, i look over to finn and ivy, "pineapple?" they both nod at me.

"16 years and i still haven't figured out what that means," adler says. everyone laughs. i look over to my dad who's sitting next to me, "may i be excused?" he sighs and nods.

i get up from my chair, grab my crutches and push the chair back into the table. instead of leaving through the front door like i usually would, i sneak out the back door because of all the cameras.

i walk down victor's village behind the houses and eventually get to the last one. i sneak around to the front door and go inside before i can be spotted. victor's village houses are available to other people in 12 but most people don't have the money for it so most of the houses are empty.

only 4, now 6, are occupied and can't be bought. it's my parent's house, haymitch and effie's house, annie and finn's house, and then the house that was originally my mom's house. it's only used for storage now. my mom said it holds too many old memories which is the reason we never lived there. the new houses are finn and i's houses but i don't think we'll be living in there anytime soon.

once i'm inside the house, i walk down to the cellar. the whole cellar is decorated. there's white chairs with fluffy pink pillows on top on the right side of the cellar and the walls are decorated with decorative string lights. on the left side, different colored fluffy pillows and white fluffy blankets are laid on the floor.

the word pineapple has been code to come here for as long as i can remember. we used the house this far down because since it's so far down, it means it's going to be the last to be bought.

i remember setting this up when we were little. it was only blankets, pillows, and lights for a long time. i stole the blankets and pillows from our closet and i convinced haymitch to get me the lights at the hob one day.

when we were 12, we were able to get together and buy the chairs and more pillows to make it more decorative. i turn on the string lights and the whole cellar lights up.

i sit down in the corner on the floor where there are no chairs. after about 30 seconds of just sitting there looking around, finn and ivy come in. ivy lets out a sigh, "finally, time alone!"

ivy sits down to my left and finn sits down to my right. "the cameras didn't follow you guys right?" i ask. they both shake their heads. we spend the rest of the day in there, talking about random things and snacking on fruits i had in a small cooler.

once we feel like it's late, we turn off the lights and walk out of the cellar. through the window, i check my house and see the front of the house empty. if the cameras are gone, that must mean it's really late.

we walk back to my house. it's super quiet inside. i walk around the first floor. i stand in front of the door to the guest bedroom and through the crack of the door, i can see johanna and adler sleeping on one of the two beds inside. ivy walks in front of me and walks into the room quietly.

she puts her face through the crack and whispers a goodnight. we walk away from the room and to the living room. i can see that they pulled out the couch into a bed and annie is laying there asleep. she's holding her and finnick's wedding picture.

i look over to finn and whisper, "do you wanna sleep in my room?" he nods. he helps me up the stairs and we walk into my room. we lay on my bed in silence, holding each other the way we did in the cave.

"we've been through hell these past few weeks," i hear him whisper. i nod, "but we're safe now. we're okay."