Disclaimer : Honestly, if you still can’t figure it, you’d better go and see a doctor. Or better yet, go and read the books.

Katniss’ POV

The sun is out, its rays glowing softly

The skies are as blue as ever with white puffs of cloud rolling lazily across it.

The wind is blowing ever so gently, cooling us all after the heated Games ended.

And this is so not the right day for it to be so beautiful.

Gale is standing next to me, his hands clenching and unclenching. I’m not sure why. My mother is holding Prim tightly to herself, the both of them sobbing as the Peacekeepers lowers the coffin next to the open hole. The man who usually conducts weddings is standing at the head of the hole, looking somber in his grey mining clothes.

                “ Are you waiting for more people?” he asks Gale. I blink hard, trying to force the tears to stay within the compounds of my eyes. Percy was a great friend. He should have more people attending his funeral. 

                “ N – “

                “ Wait! Wait!” a familiar voice cries out. “ Don’t start yet!”

                There’s some hurried footsteps and Peeta and Madge appears, the both of them panting. “ Sorry we’re late,” Peeta wheezes out. “ We didn’t know when and where the ceremony is going to be held.” And something inside me…sort of snapped.

                “ Why are you here?” I growl at him. “ What are you doing here?”

                “ To pay my respects to Percy,” he says calmly. “ Please let go of me.” I blink and then do I notice that I am holding him by the collar of his shirt. “ Look. I – “

                “ Shut. Up,” I hiss at him. “ Just shut the effing up!” My voice rises. “ Do you know why he’s in that box?” I ask him, my tone immediately went to snake-ish hissing again. “ Do. You. Know?”

                “ He died in the Games,” Peeta says nonchalantly. “ Oh.” He suddenly pales, as he realize what I am implying.

                “ Oh? That’s all you can say? Oh?  Oh?” To be honest, I think I’ve gone of my rockers at this point. “ Oh? No I regret for not having the balls to actually go to the Games instead of Percy? Oh?”

                “ Katniss,” Gale says quietly, gripping my arm. “ Katniss. Don’t.”

                And that is where I actually snap (refer to above : sort of snapped).  “ He literally took a knife for you!” I scream at him. “ It should have been you in that box! You killed him!”

                He cringes away from me. “ I’m sorry I didn’t have the guts to stop him from volunteering. I really am,” he says calmly, albeit the alarmed look in his eyes. “ I really am. But I did not kill him. It wasn’t me sticking the sword in him.”

                “ Katniss,” Madge says, edging towards me slowly. “ No one here is psychic. We couldn’t have possibly known he wouldn’t  survive. Everyone had high bets on him getting out of there alive on account of how brave, though foolish at times (I nearly strangled her) he is. Was,” she corrects herself.

                I open my mouth to snap at her but the Old Man in Grey clears his throat. “ It would be best if we could proceed now and argue later. I don’t think your friend would like it if he knew all of you are fighting over his grave,” he says in a gravelly voice. “ Shall we?”

                “ Yeah,” Gale says quickly. “ Go on.”

                “ Very well, then.” He clears his throat again. “What – or to phrase it correctly, who is death?” the Old Man in Grey suddenly asks. All of us stood still, staring at him. “ Death is someone you see very clearly with eyes in the center of your heart: eyes that see not by reacting to light, but by reacting to a kind of a chill from within the marrow of your own life.”

          “ What?” I blurt out, feeling anger rising yet again in me. Is this Old Man playing a game with us? Because frankly, I am done with games.

                “ Oh, it’s just a quote, my dear, from a man named Thomas Merton,” he says, crinkles appear  when a gentle smile surfaces on his lips. “ It’s a quote told to express what or whom Death is.”

                “ I don’t get it.”

                “ We all want to know what – or who - is death. Where would we go to after death? Why would someone have to die? How are we going to die? Haven’t you asked yourself the very same question, especially now that you’ve lost someone very dear to you?”

                I’d be lying if I haven’t thought about that. I never did have time to actually delve into the mysterious depths of the concept of death after my father died since I’m too busy trying to keep us from dying of hunger. Now that I have some free time….

                “ Is..is Percy going to a better place, mister?” Prim asks, silent tears trail down her angelic face.

                The Old Man in Grey smiles, his eyes twinkling with knowledge. “ I hope so because sooner or later, I will be joining him. We all will join him, right?”

                “ Don’t talk in riddles,” I say harshly. He laughs softly.

              “ I am terribly sorry, miss. I am quite used to talking in riddles. It creates a more mysterious atmosphere, I suppose,” he chuckles. We all stare at him blankly. “ Sorry, I do have a tendency to get carried away. So,” he says, clapping his hands. “ Do any of you have anything to say before we say goodbye to our friend forever?”

                Silence.

                “ No one?”

                “ I’ll go first,” Peeta suddenly says. “ It’s the least I can do.”

                “ The least? The least? Volunteering to go first to say goodbye to Percy is nothing compared to volunteering for your sorry ass for the Games!” I snarl at him. “ It’s not even the least that you could do!” Gale puts his hands on my shoulders, squeezing hard.

                “ Easy, Catnip,” he says gently. “ Don’t take all of your anger out on him. I’m partly to blame, too. For not volunteering in the first place. If I had volunteered, Percy wouldn’t be in that box.”

                “ But then it would be you!”

                “ The same thing goes for me, too actually,” Peeta mutters under her breath. I shot him an angry glance and he shuts up.

                “ The point is now, Katniss,” Old Man in Grey interrupts, just in time as I open my mouth to say..um..something to Peeta, “ is that Peeta here wants to honor his friend and it would be an utmost pleasure for him if you would please be quiet and listen.” I scowl at him, crossing my arms across my chest. “ Proceed please, Peeta.”

                Peeta steps forward and clears his throat. “ I hadn’t really known you that well, Percy. I mean, we might have hanged out a couple of times but I guess nothing more. Nothing that actually made us connect as friends. Yet you volunteered for me. You sacrificed everything you had – a home, a family – just to protect me.” Prim begins to sob yet again and Mother held her tightly, tears falling down on to Prim’s head. “ And now you’ve sacrificed your life.” My eyes felt hot and I blink furiously to stop the goddamn tears from falling. I will not cry. “ It’s supposed to be me in there and you out here, comforting my family. Yet…,” his voice cracks, “ yet it’s reversed. I regret for not stopping you from volunteering for me. If I had…” he trails off. “ I think that’s all. I don’t have more to say.” He ducks his face but I could see the tears falling fast.

                “ Katniss? Do you want to go next?” the Old Man asks me. I stood rooted to my spot, tongue-tied. I’m not good at this. I’m not good at this at all. “ You can just say what you have always wanted to say to him,” he says, gently taking my hand and steering me forward. “ Trust me,” he says, stopping next to the coffin, “ you will regret it if you don’t do it.”

                I stand still next to the box. I can’t do it. I can’t. “ Percy,” I blurt out. “ I’m sorry for not being a better protector that night. You just lost your leg at that time. I shouldn’t have been so careless. If I had been more alert, Cato couldn’t have…couldn’t have done it.” The next sentence got stuck in my throat. I can’t say it in front of Gale. Never.

                “ Gale? Prim? Madge? Evelyn?” he gestures to my mother. My mother sniffles slightly before she starts.

                “ I just want to say that it was a pleasure to have you in the house. I just hope you had been comfortable during your stay.” Then she breaks down again.

                Prim couldn’t say anything except for calling him. Again. And again. And again. As though calling him would reawaken him from the dead. As though calling him would let Death return Percy to the realm of the living.

                “ I’m glad you kept your promise, Percy,” Madge says. “ Even though your leg got torn off, I guess you could say you’re still in one piece. And I’m glad.”

                “ Jackson,” Gale starts and then stops, chewing his tongue. “ I…I’m not sure what to say, though.” The Old Man smiles encouragingly at Gale and he takes a deep breath before going on. “ You were like a brother to me. Yeah, I know I already have my own brothers but…just take the compliment,” he says.

                “ If that is all,” the Old Man says after a long silence, “ then it is best to send our friend off.” He gestures at some of the miners who were there to help lower the box into the hole. “ Death is but the next great adventure, Percy Jackson. I hope you would have an exciting one. Just as exciting as when you were alive.”

                The next day, a tombstone was erected upon his grave.

“ Let no one weep for me, or celebrate my funeral with mourning. For I still live, as I pass to and from the mouths of men.

~ Quintus Ennius ~ “