ʗɧɑǷƮɛƦ 21 - Ǥօօɖßყɛ, Ʀʊɛ I practically fell to the floor and crawled towards Rue, who was now lying in a pool of crimson red blood as she pulled the spear from her gut. "No, no, no, no, no," I said, my hands clasping hers as her eyes flickered, staring up at me. "You're ok. You're ok. You are, Rue, you are." I lied, desperately wishing it was true, but I knew that nothing could save her, no amount of sponsors in the world could possibly save her. Rue shook her head up at me, shaking my lies away. "Thank you," she croaked. "For what?" I asked. "For everything you've done since we've met," she said, barely getting the words out. I had no idea how much effort it was taking her to say these last words to me, but it meant so much. I began to cry. I didn't even make an attempt to stop the tears from flowing. I bent down and kissed our interlocked hands. "You have to win." She said. "You're the best friend I've ever met, Rue." I said. "You're so strong and so-" "Can you sing?" she asked, interrupting me. I nodded, remembering about how she had told me of her love for music and singing. I decided to sing an old song that my father would sing to Katniss and I when we couldn't sleep at night. I would sing Rue to sleep. "Deep in the meadow, Under the willow. A bed of grass, A soft green pillow. Lay down your head, And close your eyes. And when they open, The sun will rise." I sung croakily between sobs and sniffles. The mockingjays had begun to copy the sweet melody coming from lips, and as I finished the verse, Rue's eyes closed as she let go of life. I felt her wrist and there was no pulse. She was gone. Two cannons then went off and I was reminded of the person I'd killed who was just laying a few metres away. I looked back, still holding Rue's hands firmly, and saw that it was a Career. It was the District 1 boy with brown hair. I'd killed a Career. And not only that, I had killed. I'd actually murdered someone. He was my first kill. I'd killed someone with a family and friends and most liking a girlfriend. But he'd killed Rue. Rue, the innocent twelve year old, who deserved to go home. I looked back at Rue's lifeless body and let go of her hands, shaking. My sobbing was uncontrollable now. I didn't know what to do. I knew I had to leave because soon a hovercraft cold come to collect both dead bodies, but I couldn't leave her. Peeta stood up and began to walk away. "Where the hell are you going?" I asked fiercely. How could he just leave Rue like that? I thought. But Peeta didn't reply as he walked towards a small cluster of flowers and bent down to pick them up. He walked over slowly back to Rue and I and placed the flowers in her hands over her wound in her stomach. I looked up at him, still crying, realising what he was doing. It was so lovely and thoughtful. Of course. Peeta would never leave Rue like that. He would come up the sweetest and loveliest way to leave her body, and leave the citizens of Panem to know how much we loved and respected Rue and also to let them know her death was an awful thing. I began to walk to other nearby clusters of flowers, picking them all and walking back to place them around Rue and covering her in pretty, colourful flowers. When we finished covering her in flowers, she looked so pretty. Her wound was covered by hundreds of colourful petals. Her hair was perfectly placed around her face, and she looked so peaceful. As if she was just sleeping. I lent down and kissed her forehead. Peeta copied. "I love you, Rue." I said as Peeta and I joined hands in condolences and we walked away from Rue. I tried to remain calm as we walked in no particular direction and not to scream curses to the Capitol for doing this. All of this. For making the Games. For reaping Rue. For reaping me. For reaping Peeta. For reaping all of the innocent children who have died in the past 74 years that the Games have been on. Peeta picked me up after a little while of walking, it was getting dark and my ankle was throbbing violently and I needed to let it rest. It would never heal properly if I kept walking on it and putting too much weight on it. He carried my limp body in his arms as he struggled to climb a tree. It took a couple of minutes, but he managed to get us up there using some old tips that Rue had told us about climbing trees. My heart gave a pang. Rue. We settled on a thick branch, big enough and strong enough for the both of us. We pulled out a sleeping bag from the pack that Rue had fetched so bravely from the Cornucopia. We shoved both of our bodies in the sleeping bag and both cried. The sky was getting pretty dark now and I knew that the Capitol seal would appear soon showing the faces of the deaths today. I began to wonder whether the Careers would be upset for the District 1 boy's death, but I soon realised that they probably wouldn't care at all. They were just killing machines. One more death was nothing to them, it was just something that helped them get closer to winning. We both stayed awake, crying silently, until the seal shone in the sky. The anthem played out. The boy from District 1's face lit up and I remembered how he was my first kill. I had to kill him because he would of killed me, but I felt like a murderer. I had actually killed someone. My actions had caused a life to disappear. I felt sick with myself. How could the Careers do this? Kill so easily? When I felt so bad killing someone who himself was so evil? I began to cry a little more and Peeta put him arm around me to comfort me. Rue's face then came up in the sky. The Capitol had chosen a photo of her that displayed her weak and young side, even though I knew that that weakness they were trying to show wasn't actually real. My heart ached for her when she disappeared out of the sky. It hit me that I would never get to talk to her again. Never get to see her smile again. I would never get to know her properly outside of the Games, or meet her family. Her family. They must be so devastated. Her brother and her sister she had told me about must be going out of their minds. I began to cry even harder. "It will be ok, Prim." Peeta said. I could hear in his voice he was trying to stop his tears from resurfacing. "You will win this. You'll win it for her, for me, for Katniss, for District 12." I shook my head as I sobbed more. "You will. You have to. Rue said so herself." "If I win, that means you have to die," I said. He nodded. "I know." He said. "But that's what I want. You know that. Now go to sleep, I'll watch for a few hours then I'll have to wake you. I need sleep too." He said, laughing a breath, trying to make the situation a little lighter. It didn't work though. I began to cry a little less hard and I put my head into Peeta's chest. I felt much safer when I was with him. He was so protective over me. He was like a brother. I cried myself to sleep and the nightmare of Rue's death played over and over in my head as I slept. I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but I dread it anyway. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Only 6 more chapters