𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬 ☘︎ 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐇𝐚𝐰𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞

𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄 ☘︎ 6

I get back to the Hob just in time to see that somebody's set it on fire. The new peacekeepers. I look around in shock as I hear somebody yelling my name. "Willow!"

I ignore them, some things are more important. "Ripper!" I say, seeing the old woman who sells liquor.

"My eye!" She cries, and looking at it, I see it's burned pretty badly. I purse my lips and try to think of some sort of solution.

Grabbing a cloth from a part of the hob that wasn't up in flames, I ran up to a tap, Ripper following behind me. I soak the cloth then hold it to Ripper's eye.

That's when I hear a yell coming from the direction of the square. "Here, hold this on," I tell Ripper, and she lifts a shaking hand up to do it. "I'll be right back," I say. But I know I won't. And she knows too.

I look round to see who yelled my name and see Austin, who looks at me and says. "You need to come to the square."

I don't want to listen to him, but just looking at the severity on his face, I know I must.

By the time we get to the square, a crowd has gathered, but as we push our way through it, I see the unimaginable.

A person that I do not know is wearing the head peacekeeper's outfit. But that's not what I'm looking at.

I'm looking at Gale, tied to a post by the wrists whilst this peacekeeper, unknown but still hated, is lashing whip stroke after whip stroke at him.

"No!" I yell instinctively, running at the whipping post and posing myself in front of Gale. The peacekeeper, however, has other ideas, and as he tries bring the whip down and I stop it, he grunts and forcefully gets the top of my cheek with the whip.

The pain instantly rips through me but I force myself to get up and stand between the whip and Gale again. "Willow... go," he tries to tell me. I don't listen.

"Move," the new head peacekeeper tells me. I don't. "You want another?" He asks me, raising the whip threateningly.

I stand my ground. "Go ahead."

But instead of the whip, he pulls out a gun.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," Haymitch suddenly comes running in, Katniss at his side. She stands behind me whilst my mentor tries to convince him.

"Get out of my way!" He now trains the gun on Haymitch.

"No, you don't wanna shoot her!"

"How about I shoot all three of you?"

"Look, Commander, you're new here," Haymitch struggles to find the words. "Trust me, I'm trying to help you. I'm Haymitch. You recognise her? Willow Hawthorne, darling of the Capitol?"

The 'Commander' puts the gun down slowly. "She interfered with a peacekeeper."

"I never said she was smart," Haymitch laughs. "Look, you already got a couple of lashes in, right?"

"That's not good enough, she's an agitator!" He shouts. "And what's he to her, anyway?"

"He's her brother," suddenly Austin has shoved his way through to join us here. The gun is now at him. "And I'm her fiancé."

Haymitch shoves Austin behind him and continues to talk. "Look, you sure Snow wants three dead Victors here? Cause that's what we're looking at. It's bad enough that you marked up her face on the eve of the big wedding. Let it go, let it go and we will, too."

The gun is lowered once again as he steps forward, snarling into Haymitch's face. "Alright, okay, but next time, it's the firing squad."

"Excellent idea," Haymitch doesn't move a muscle.