the world was on fire and no one could save me but you ➴ gale

[burnwithus]

Katniss wakes up screaming, sweat-drenched and shaking, eyes wide and staring up at the ceiling yet the only thing she can feel is the sticky blood on her skin and the feeling of being grabbed and dragged by dozens of hands. It takes her a moment to realize that she's still in the hut, in the same place where she went to sleep and that her hands are clean and the pain is gone.

It takes a long time for the adrenalin to stop pumping through her veins, triggering the fight reflex in her and her heart is pounding so fast and hard in her chest that she just wants to run away. It hurts to see District 12 and know that she's escaped her fate for now, but for how long? People disappear from the island all the time.

Gale didn't shoot her.

She can't forgive him for that. Even if Katniss knows that she had failed him similarly before, she can't.

Comments

[burnwithus.livejournal.com]

"I don't blame you," Katniss says automatically, but they both know that's a huge lie that falls flat and fake even to her own ears. The truth is that she does blame Gale. The truth is that she might never stop blaming him. What her brain knows and what it thinks are two entirely different things, and try and they might to get back the easy friendship they had before, Katniss doesn't know if it's possible.

Who are they kidding, really?

She's hurting him. She never wanted to hurt him, no matter what it is he's done and Katniss hates being in this position, with someone else's well-being in her hands.

"Gale," her voice drops low, breaking at the end and Katniss wants to cry again but there is no way that she'll let herself. "I'm trying. I'm trying so hard."

[worldisburning.livejournal.com]

They're hurting each other. He keeps his head bowed low for a long moment, dragging in a breath through his nose. He knows that she's trying; he can see that but, somehow, it just makes it worse.

"I know," he says, quietly, voice raw. "I ust...I wish I knew what I could do."