I sat in my compartment alone, playing with my fingers and the pearl, when Gale entered. "Still playing with that, huh?" He asked me.

I raised my eyebrows. "Yeah?"

"Willow..." He begins.

"What?" I cross my arms.

"It's fine," he shakes his head. "I just... I don't know why you-"

"Why I keep playing with it?" I ask, holding up the pearl. "It's alright for you! You have Katniss! And Rory has Prim! Whereas I'm here with a little pearl, clinging to it because it's the only thing I have left of him-"

"Okay, okay," Gale holds his hands up. "I just came to tell you the good news, that's all."

"Well, you've sort of ruined it," I say bluntly.

"Coin's agreed to let us hunt above ground."

I looked at him in glee.

☘︎☘︎☘︎

After a quick detour to fetch Katniss, they got bows, I got axes and we got taken outside.

"Be back in an hour," Boggs instructed us. He muttered something to Gale and gave him a watch. Well, I thought it was a watch, but apparently it'll beep whenever Gale needs to be somewhere.

We trek through the woods that are on the outskirts of Thirteen, trying to find some game. Whatever we catch has to go back to the kitchens, but it's still worth it.

We gasp as we come across a deer. A stag. The antlers are tall and majestic and its coat is glossy and beautiful. I raise my axe at it and go to shoot-

It turns its head towards me and doesn't run. I slowly put my axe down. "It's not even afraid of us."

"They've never been hunted before," Gale says by way of explanation. "It's almost cruel."

It is.

We leave the stag alone and gather. By the time fifty minutes is up, we have a selection of greens, some strawberries, a few fish and some game.

We sit by the river, me cleaning my axes and them their arrows. Katniss leans her head on Gale's shoulder and makes my heart ache like anything for Austin.

Katniss offers to take the game and greens up to the kitchens so Gale and I walk back to Thirteen in silence. We enter the empty dining hall and see the TV on.

And Austin on it with Ceasar Flickerman.

"She was arguably our favourite tribute," Ceasar rants on. "You know, what I find most astonishing is that this girl was adored in the Capitol. And I think for you, Austin, it must be particularly painful."

The camera goes to Austin. He's looking down, with a pained look on his face. There's a white rose in his hand, and he mutters under his breath just then. "I wish I could give this rose to you, Willow."

"He's changed so much already, what are they doing to him?" I ask my brother. He stays silent behind me.

"A sweet gesture for a girl who inspired so much violence," Ceasar rips me apart in a few sentences. "You must love her very much to be able to forgive her. I don't think that I could."

He pauses as I put my hand over my face at the sight of Austin. Ceasar goes on as if he's revealing a huge secret. "Unless of course, Austin, that you think she's being forced to say things that's she doesn't even understand."

Austin looks up at the camera. "Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly what I think."

"Even his voice sounds different," tears appear in my eyes. Gale stands behind me, his expression impassive.

"They're using her, to whip up the rebels," Austin looks down at the rose again. "I doubt she even knows what's happening or what's at stake."

"Now, Austin, I doubt the rebels will ever let her see this, but if they do, what would you say to her? To Willow Hawthorne, the one sweet Willow Hawthorne?" Ceasar begs for answers.

"I-I would tell her to think for herself," Austin says. He turns towards the camera, staring straight through me. "Don't be a fool, Willow, I know you never wanted the rebellion. The things that you did in the games, they never intended to start any of this. The rebels have made you into something that you're not, something that can destroy all of us. So if you have any power in what you say, what you do or how they use you, please. Please urge them to stop this war before it's too late."

I'm crying now. But the hits just keep on coming. "And you need to ask yourself. Can you trust the people you're working with? Do you know what they really want? And if you don't, find out."

Suddenly, Gale's watch starts to beep. "We need to respond."

I turn to him, my face a mask of horror and anger. "Did you not see what he looks like?"

He stares at me, his younger sister, as if he's fighting some big battle between head and heart. "I saw a coward."

I instantly lunge and slap my big brother across the cheek. He probably would've seen it coming a dodged, but he wasn't prepared. The blow leaves his cheek red and irritated, but I only shout louder. "You don't have any idea what he's gone through-!"

"I don't care! I would never say what he just said, not if they tortured me, not with a gun to my head," he bites back instantly.

"That is the same Austin that defended you at the whipping post-" I start.

"No, it's not. Now he's only protecting himself," Gale's wrist beeps again. "Coin's called a meeting, we need to respond. We'll get Katniss on the way."

"Since when did 'we' become, you, Katniss and Coin?" I ask scathingly.

"Everyone has a choice," Gale's voice rises. I know I have about one minute to diffuse him before he goes full rage on me. "How can he sit there in the Capitol and defend the people who destroyed his home and murdered his family?"

"You know you always play that as your trump card, Gale! That Twelve was bombed! Other people went through that too!"

"I'm not saying-"

"Gale, nobody else in Panem except for Thirteen and and the remnants of us actually know that Twelve was firebombed!"

"Well maybe you should show them, Willow! Show them what happened!"

I give him one last spiteful look before leaving the room. And going to Coin about doing a propo in the rubble of Twelve.

☘︎☘︎☘︎

The hovercraft drops Cressida, Messala, Castor, Pollux, Katniss, Gale and me in the heart of Twelve. The square.

"So I wanna start with you in front of the Justice Building, okay?" Cressida orders. I nod as we walk there.

Castor and Pollux wear their filming helmets as Cressida instructs. "Willow, tell us what happened here."

But I don't know. I don't know what happened and I wasn't there. I can't tell the cameras.

"We were all standing right here," Gale says, stepping up. I turn round to him as he looks into the distance, a pained look on his face. "Watching the games when you threw that axe. The screens just went dark, no body had any idea what happened. Peacekeepers forced us back into our homes and... for maybe and hour the town was just dead quiet. Little past nine, we heard their trucks pulling out. All of them, every single peacekeeper. And I knew what that meant."

I part my lips in a gasp as I realise how hard I was about it before. He's grieving. And I'm not making it any better. I'm grieving over a person. He's grieving over a place. But really, they're no different.

"Me and a couple of guys from town we started pulling people out their houses, heading towards the woods. But people were scared of the forest, and they decided to go up onto the road, and make a break for it that way," he points to where most of the bodies are. On the road.

"Stay with Gale," Cressida whispers to Pollux, who nods. We move locations swiftly.

"Nine hundred and fifteen of us made it to the fence," Gale says as we walk. "And we watched as the bombers circled back to the road. They firebombed them as they ran away."

He kneels down, touching the rubble with one hand, his face contorted in pain and sadness. No anger. This pushes me further to realise how insensitive I've been. He's nearly crying when he speaks again.

"Nine hundred and fifteen outta ten thousand."

Then comes the guilt. Guilt like I've felt a hundred times over with Austin.

Gale continues. "I should've grabbed people, I should've dragged them with me. Some of the kids I could've carried."

"You saved so many people, Gale," Cressida says in a low voice. "Without you there'd be no District Twelve, not even a memory of it."

Gale looks around in guilt and pain. Me in pure guilt. Gale's been through so much, and I guess I should've been a bit more understanding.

But none of that excuses what he's said about Austin.

☘︎☘︎☘︎

I sit in my house in the Victor's Village. Gale and Katniss talk in the room next door. Suddenly, I see notice a picture on the wall. That was new. One that had been added since I left for the games.

As I walked over, I saw me. I saw me. And I saw Austin. I remember this being taken after we got home from the games.

Tears started to stream down my face as I saw him. He's staring at me with an expression on his face I'm afraid I'll never see again. It conveys such love and affection towards me that I can't not look at it.

Me, on the other hand? I'm staring at some point in the distance, completely unaware of how he's looking at me. I've never been very good at love.

"Willow? We're ready to go."

Gale and Katniss come out of the other room and I sigh, giving up and following them out the door.