WHO: Katniss and Gale WHEN: after this WHERE: Room 15 WHAT: a reunion RATINGS/WARNINGS: will update STATUS: Complete
The last time it had seemed to take forever to travel down a staircase like she was now was when she had been heading to kill President Snow. Traveling through the throngs of people, all there to watch the ending of one nation and the birth of something new. But the changes that had been laid out before her had been nothing but a twist on all that was before, simply with new people in power and all she had been able to see was a continuation of the old and everything that had been sacrificed would have been for nothing.
Now though she was simply heading to where an old friend was supposed to be staying inside of this Haunted Mansion. She wasn’t certain how many emotions she had gone through when she’d finally checked the device and seen the post with Gale’s name on it. Denial had won out for as long as it could, but the confirmation that he was the one she knew had brought about the rest--a mixture of sadness, hope, fury, and confusion that always seemed to permeate everything since she’d returned home from that first round of the Games.
She shifted the cot tied to her back, situated the kitten more securely in the makeshift satchel she’d created from pieces of the tablecloth in the dining room, and forced herself to keep walking toward room 15. She didn’t want Gale here and yet, it was comforting to know someone else in this place. Which seemed like a betrayal in itself. There should be nothing good about having a familiar face around and knowing another who had to endure whatever this would become.
Pushing open the door, she stopped when she saw him; happy that he looked alright with a lingering sense of anger that she couldn’t quite shake in regards to him. It wasn’t fair, but nothing about their lives had ever been fair.