Percy’s POV

I had just set foot in the elevator that usually takes us to the world above when the temperature in the mines rose quickly. Too quickly for my liking. There were shouts and yells of…of pain. The sudden salty scent of blood and burned flesh mingles with the smoke. I turned around…to grab hold of Carrow before he went to the others. The boys from the orphanage usually mine in the deeper ones. In the dangerous, unstable one. Too late, though….

One of the older miners, Shrap pulled me into the elevator as soon as he saw me trying to make my way amongst the crowd of the panicked and burned miners. He held on to me, along with a couple other miners. I yelled, I kicked and screamed at them to let me go as the elevator doors shut.. To let me save my friends…

   “ It’s no use, kid,” Shrap said. “ Just let them go…it’s probably best for them than living in this world.” I crumpled on the floor of the elevator, which had begun to feel a little too warm, staring at the closed elevator doors, listening to the other miners screaming, pleading. “ Listen to me,” he gripped my shoulders tightly, “ as soon as we reach the surface, get out of here. Quickly. Do you understand me? Get away as far and fast as you can from here. Get your sister and the others out of the orphanage. Darius already told you that, right?” I nodded meekly.

Rays of light seem to flood some of the miners’ face. We had reached the surface and the floor was too hot now. A sign that any time the mines will explode. Shrap released me, patted my back and, to my surprise, hugged me. “ Give my wife my love, will you?” he said, his eyes full of sadness. He is seriously thinking he wouldn’t make it. “ Stay safe…” was his last world as he pushed me out of the elevator, just as the elevator exploded, sending me flying, woods and rubble along.

  I could feel blood trickling on my face. I think I might’ve broken some bones. I can’t feel my lower body though. And someone’s hand is to the left of my face; dead looking. The smell of blood and flesh is very strong around me. I wonder if I’ll make it out of this place…just as black spots started to dance in front of my eyes.

 “ Percy!” I hear someone yelling my name. Probably Darius, startled at the explosion. “ Percy!” I blacked out.

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I was in the Meadow…so beautiful. The flowers were just blooming in; it was spring. And the birds were singing in harmony. The sound of water rippling was clear in the air. I hear footsteps from behind me. Turned around…

…and my mother was standing right in front of me, smiling, her gray eyes twinkling with sadness. Sad that she didn’t get to see us growing up. Sad that she had left us virtually undefended from the cruelty of the world. 

“ Mom?” I said, my hands reaching out to touch her. She nodded, a sad smile on her face. “ We missed you,” I said hoarsely. She caressed my face lightly. But I didn’t feel a thing. Looking back at her hand, I saw that she was made of mist. And that she was already fading into a bright, white light. “ No, please!” I begged her. “ Please, don’t leave us again!” She just smiled that sad smile and was gone in a blink of an eye.

“ No…” I groaned quietly. “ Don’t leave us…”

“ Percy?” I heard someone call me from a distant. “ Percy, please. Wake up. You’ve got to wake up…” the voice pleaded with me. “ Percy, please! Wake up!” My eyes snapped open. There was a sharp intake of breath from the people surrounding me. “ Finally,” the voice, now I realized it to be Addy’s, breathed out in relief.

“ W-wh-where am I?” I managed to croak out. My throat feels painful and dry. And so does the rest of my body; aching and throbbing, though dully. “ What happened?”

“ The mines blew up,” a male’s voice said from my left. I tried to raise my head off of the pillow but it was too excruciating. There was a sound of a wooden chair being pushed back and the sound of footfalls on the floor. A second later, Darius’ face came into full view. He looked unscathed, but pale and there were dark circles under his eyes. He hasn’t slept in a while. “ As to where you are, you’re at the Everdeens’ residence. How do you feel?”

“ Terrible,” I groaned. “ Felt like my body was pounded into nothingness.” Addy didn’t say anything, she just held my hand tightly. “ What about the others?” I asked her. She exchanged a glance with Darius. “ Adrastea, what about the others?” I asked again, my voice hard.

“ You were the only one that made it out alive..” she said quietly. Of course I was! I remembered Shrap pulling me into the elevator, giving me last minute advice, telling me to give his love to his wife…and him pushing me out of the elevator just as it exploded.

“ No…no…no…this is my fault!” I said, covering my face with my hands. They were burnt but the tissues weren’t damaged much. “ This is all my fault…”

 “ No, it’s not,” Addy said in a soothing voice, hugging me. I made a whimpering sound; the sound that animals usually do when they’re in pain. “ You barely made it out yourself, Perce…how’d you expect to help the others?”

“ I …I shouldn’t have sent Carrow into the deeper mines…to get the others,” I whispered to her. “ I shouldn’t have!” By now, I’ve lost the cool I had tried to maintain. I felt something pierce my skin and my vision started to blur. “ I…I killed them…,” I said weakly as I succumbed to the darkness that swallowed me.

“ No. No, you didn’t, Perce,” another new, female voice said. “ Go to sleep…”

And I did as I was told.

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When I woke up again, daylight had just dissipated, inviting the horrors that night might bring. I tried to raise my arm. It didn’t hurt like it did this morning. Or yesterday…and so does my other limbs. Confident that I won’t crumple under the pain, I sit up and looked around. This isn’t the orphanage. I was in a bed in someone’s bedroom, in someone’s house. Okay, that’s a little bit confusing…

“ You’re up..,” a female voice said to my right. I turned around wildly, expecting Mrs. Woodlum. Only it turned out to be Katniss. Oh, right…Darius told me I was at the Everdeens’. “ About time, too. Addy was getting edgy.”

“ She’s here?” I croaked.

“ You two spent the night here. Your orphanage is being tore down as we speak..” Right on cue, a crashing sound came from outside.

“ Tore down? Why?”

“ Turns out that your caretaker, Mrs. Woodlum didn’t have any license to run the orphanage.” I raised my eyebrows. “ It means she was running the orphanage illegally,” she said impatiently.

“ But you hunt illegally,” I pointed out.

“ True…but do I send kids underage to go mining?” That shut me up. “ She was tried guilty. At first, they only wanted to do the spend-a-day-in-the-stocks. But then the mines exploded, killing all of the orphans except you. So, she’s going to the gallows..”

“ Seriously?” I asked, unable to believe my ears. She nodded. I wanted to feel joy, at finally being free from her. But all I felt was pity.

“ She took care of us, no matter how horrible she was. She took us in when others didn’t want,” I told Katniss. She merely sighed and , to my surprise, laid a hand on my forehead.

“ You’re a little warm. I’ll tell my mother to give you some pill for that fever,” she said quietly. I grabbed her hand before she could withdraw it.

“ Did you hear what I said? As evil as she was, she took us in and cared for us.” She stared at me pitifully.

“ She took you guys in…so that she could get the money you were paid from mining,” she said. “ She never loved you guys…she only viewed you as money-bringer.”

“ She took us in! She cared for us when nobody wanted to! She fed us! She gave us shelter!” I yelled. I’m raving like a lunatic now, I know. But I felt hollow when Katniss told me Mrs. Woodlum was going to the gallows. As evil as she was, she did care for us when nobody wanted. When everybody looked at us in disgust…

I felt something sharp pierce my veins and I blacked out again.

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