𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬 ☘︎ 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐇𝐚𝐰𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞

𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄 ☘︎ 18

I lie in the jungle, just regaining consciousness from the blow out of the forcefield. That's when a hovercraft appears above me.

I don't care who it is, I just need rescued. And rescue me they do. They fly in a claw like the one that lifts the dead tributes, except I am not dead. Well, I don't think I'm dead.

They lift me up into the hovercraft, and the doors swing shut as we leave the arena.

☘︎☘︎☘︎

I wake up in a room with a little plastic breathing mask on my face. I take it off immediately. I don't know what has happened to me, but I know a Capitol hovercraft when I see one.

I take off the binds that hold me to the bed and turn. From there, I see Beetee, with the same mask on. No one else is present.

"Austin," I breathe, fumbling around. I take a string from a nearby tub, something to inject him with if the torture gets too bad-

Then I hear voices from a nearby room.

"She's gonna lose it when she finds out about the boy." What is Haymitch doing here?

"She'll still cooperate, though?" Plutarch Heavensbee? What in the name of Panem-

"Without Austin? There's no garuntee."

The automatic door opens to reveal Finnick, looking ragged and disheveled, Haymitch, looking (for once in his life) serious, and Plutarch Heavensbee, who I stare at in disbelief.

"Morning sweetheart," Haymitch says. I lunge at him but he holds my hands up, pinning me up against the wall and taking the syringe from my hands.

"What are you doing with them?" I say with my rasp of a voice.

"It's you and a syringe against the Capitol, see, this is why no one lets you make the plans." Haymitch says.

"What the fuck are you doing in here?" I exclaim in outrage.

"Stop, stop, just listen," Finnick holds a hand out.

"We couldn't tell you with Snow watching, it was too risky," Haymitch, who's still holding me back, says. "Better for you to know nothing."

I throw Haymitch's hands off me. "Where's Austin?"

"Now, Willow," Plutarch says, "I'm going to tell you what happened, but do not interrupt until the very end, do you understand?"

I nod, and they tell me.

There was a plan to break us out of the arena from the moment the Quell was announced. The victor tributes from Three, Four, Six, Seven, Eight and Eleven had a varying degree of knowledge about it. Plutarch Heavensbee has been, for several years, part of an undercover group aiming to overthrow the Capitol. He made sure the wire was among the weapons whilst Beetee was in charge of blowing a hole in the force field. The hovercraft belongs to District Thirteen, which Bonnie and Twill were right about, and right now, we are on a journey to Thirteen, whilst most of the districts in Panem are in full scale rebellion.

I digest this as the three of them look at me. "You didn't tell me," I turn to Finnick.

"Neither you nor Austin were told," Haymitch shakes his head.

"And why not?"

"Because once the forcefield blew, you'd be the first people they'd try to capture."

"The first- why?" This just goes on and on.

"For the same reason the rest of us agreed to die to keep you alive," Finnick looks sorrily at me.

"No, Johanna tried to kill me."

"Johanna knocked you out to cut the tracker out of your arm and lead Brutus and Enobaria away from you!"

My head aches. "What the f-"

"We had to save you because you're the mockingjay, Willow. Whilst you live, the revolution lives," Plutarch tells me.

So I am the symbol of the rebellion, the person who survived despite the Capitol's plans. The mockingjay for the revolution.

"Austin," I whisper, that pit in my stomach growing.

"The others kept Austin alive because if he died, they knew they couldn't keep you in the alliance," Haymitch explained.

"So where is he?"

They all look at each other sighing. "He's in the Capitol," Haymitch says after a long pause. "He was picked up an hour ago with Johanna and Enobaria."

I am supposedly unarmed. But with the power of the lunge and violent punch I throw at Haymitch, I could have had a thousand knives in my hand.

"You son of a BITCH! YOU SON OF A- YOU FUCKING PROMISED ME THAT YOU WOULD SAVE HIM OVER ME- YOU PROMISED ME- you're a liar... a liar..."

I lay on the ground, crying. Austin, the person that I now know I love, is in the Capitol, going through who knows what.

What am I going to do?

☘︎☘︎☘︎

We're still on the hovercraft when I wake up to Gale and Rory, sitting on either side of the bed. "Hey," they both say to me.

"You're okay," Gale tells me. "They sedated you and you've been asleep for a few days."

"Are we home?" I ask. They both look at me awkwardly. "Rory... Gale?"

I turn to my younger brother. "Where's Prim?"

"She's alive," Rory said.

"And mother, and Vick, Posy, Katniss, Mrs Everdeen, we got them all out alive," Gale says with pain in his voice.

"Got them out?" I repeat.

"After the games, they sent in hovercrafts," Rory's bottom lip trembles. "And they started dropping firebombs."

I nearly cry at this. "So they're not in Twelve?"

They shake their heads as Gale answers.

"There is no District Twelve. It's all gone."

My father. My love. My freedom. And now my home. I lay back on the bed and cry. There now is a District Thirteen.

But it's come at the price of Twelve.