Okay. You're going to hate it, though I warned you. ALTERNATE ENDING: ʗɧɑǷƮɛƦ 26 - ǷɛɛƮɑ ოɛƖƖɑƦĸ "PEETA!" I screamed collapsing on the Cornucopia roof next to him. He groaned as he placed his hands over his bleeding stomach where the spear was still sticking out from. I grabbed his hands and interlocked them with mine. "No. No, no, no, no, no." I said. "Unfortunately yes." He said breathily giving a weak smirk. "Even when you're lying here with a spear in your gut, you still find a way to make a joke," I said meeting him with the same weak smirk. I brushed my thumbs over his hands in an attempt to comfort him. Peeta groaned from the pain in his stomach. My trousers were beginning to get soaked in his blood. My face turned to stone. "You can't be dying, Peeta. No. You can't. You jumped in front of me, you're taking my death, Peeta. This can't be happening." I said. Tears struck me as I spoke and I made no effort to hide them. "Oops." He said, laughing a little. He looked up at me with his beautiful blue eyes. I was going to miss those eyes. He lifted his hand weakly to my face and wiped away one of my tears. "Prim-" "No!" I shouted. My sobs were getting uncontrollable now. "You're not going to say your goodbye. No. You can't. You're going to get better, Peeta, I swear. We'll get some bandages from sponsors and medicine and you'll be okay, I swear-" "Prim." He repeated, interrupting my garble of lies. "I'm not going to be ok." He began to cry a little, and moan at the same time from the pain of the spear. I knew that any normal person suffering from this injury would be dead by now, but I knew Peeta was hanging on for me, so he could say goodbye. I decided to let him. "Primrose, you're the best friend I've ever had. Better than any of those stupid merchant kids I hung around with at school. Thank you so much for being so amazing. Never forget it." he said, taking a moment to stop and moan again. "Keep going." I said, gripping his hands tightly and trying to choke back tears, hoping he could just hang on a little longer. I couldn't say bye yet. "And… and…" he coughed, spitting a little blood out. "Tell her. Tell her I love her. Make sure she knows how much I love her, and always will." I put my head on his chest and cried harder. He lifted my head up with finger and placed his hand on my cheek. "Hey, Prim. You're the victor now. You get to see her again." He coughed again, spitting more blood onto my face. He tried to say sorry, but his coughing got worse. He leaned over to cough to make sure it didn't get in my face this time, but his head didn't rise again after his last cough. I looked over to him, and saw that his bright eyes had lost their sparkle, and he was unblinking. "Peeta?" I said, my voice quivering. "Peeta? Peeta. Peeta. Peeta. Peeta. Peeta." I said repeatedly, trying to make him respond, but there was no response. He was dead. Two cannons then went off. One for Cato, one for Peeta. Then the announcement came that I was the victor of the 74th annual Hunger Games. But I didn't care. I was screaming and screaming and screaming his name, begging him to wake up and give me that cheeky smile, but of course it didn't come. "NO, PEETA! NO!" I shook his limp dead body until I realised it was no use. I knew the Gamemakers were going to collect me and the dead bodies of Cato and Peeta within a minute, so I lay next to Peeta's dead body and wrapped his arms around me. I shoved my face into his neck and cried more tears than I ever knew was possible. I held tightly onto Peeta, blocking all thoughts of being the victor out of my head because I couldn't care less right now. All I wanted at this minute was Peeta to wake. I wanted him to wake and come home with me and tell Katniss of his love himself. I wanted him to wake up and be my friend back in District 12. I wanted him to wake up and teach me how to bake cakes with berries we'd collected together. I just wanted him to wake up. But Peeta wasn't going to wake up. And then, a hovercraft appeared in the sky. It was the first time I'd ever seen one, but I took no notice towards what it looked like. Instead I looked at Peeta. I took in every inch of him. His blonde messy hair. His closed blue eyes that had such lovely long eyelashes. His jaw and cheekbones which were so defined. And then my entire world went black as the hovercraft collected us. ʗɧɑǷƮɛƦ 27 - ɛǷɪƖօցʊɛ After the hovercraft took me and Cato and Peeta's dead bodies, I was taken to one of the Capitols finest hospitals. I wasn't there for long as I had no infections or cuts or broken bones. They took a good look at my ankle, but it had healed by now. The doctors told me they were impressed by my healing work, but I didn't even speak to them. On the last day of my hospital stay, the doctors gave me a massive course of pills to take every morning, noon and night. They were called anti-depressants. I'd never heard of them before, but my doctor told me that they were to "boost my mood". He told me that I had a mild form of depression, which as he told me himself was being "very very sad". We both knew that it had developed because of everything in the arena, but neither of us said that. All Capitol people took a blind eye to the aftermath effects of being a victor. They just saw it as the riches and glory and fame. But I didn't care for that at all. When I was let out of hospital with my course of anti-depressants, I was shoved into interviews and stylist meetings and back to the penthouse in the Capitol. It was such an empty process knowing that Peeta wasn't with me. He wasn't going to be there in the middle of the night at the penthouse when I had a bad dream. He wasn't going to be sitting at the dinner table, beckoning me to sit with him. No, he wasn't going to do any of these things. He wasn't here anymore. Peeta wasn't here. At my interview with Caesar Flickerman, I was given a higher dosage than normal of anti-depressants just so I could find a will to talk about Peeta and Rue's death with someone else other than myself. Talking to Caesar was the only talking I'd done since I'd said my goodbyes to Peeta, and even then, I was sure it was because of the drugs. I didn't want to talk to any of these Capitol snobs. I hated them for everything they'd done. They'd killed Peeta and Rue, not the Career tributes, they had. If it wasn't for these god damn Games, Peeta and Rue would still be here. All of the tributes would still be here. I wouldn't be on these drugs. Sure enough, without the Games, I'd of never talked to Peeta or even met Rue – but the Capitol took them away from me. They took away my lovely rays of happiness, and now I only had one. My family. When I returned back to District 12 at long last, I was greeted by the entire population, cheering epically for their newest victor. My family, including Gale, were standing at the back of the crowds, waving at me and blowing kisses. I could see the look on Katniss' face that day. I still remember how proud she looked. It was an emotion I'd rarely seen in her, but that day of my arrival back home, it was painted all over her face. Mother, Katniss and I (including my beautiful cat Buttercup who didn't leave my side for weeks after I came back and my goat Lady) moved into the Victors Village around a week after me being home. A couple of Peacekeepers helped us move what little belongings we had over there, even though the houses made especially for victors were already furnished. It turned out, while I was gone, Katniss and Gale had become an official item. Gale, like I had told him to the day in the justice building, had told Katniss of his love for her. It took her a while to tell him the same back, as she was too focused on the Games and seeing of my welfare to be focused on Gale. But, over time, they got closer. Physically, that is. They were pretty much as close as they could get before. Gale had sympathised her throughout the Games, as well as bringing her and mother food regularly so they didn't turn into bags of bones mourning for me while I was stuck in the arena. I kept taking my course of anti-depressants as when I didn't, I didn't even get up out of bed in the mornings. I would lay there looking emotionless, but suffering an entire messed up war inside my head. The first four weeks that I got back from the Games, I stayed in bed anyway even with the drugs. I was mourning over Rue and Peeta. It took three weeks and constant night terrors for Katniss to talk to me about it. She'd been holding it off for a while because she felt so uncomfortable talking about Peeta after he tossed her the bread a few years back, but especially now after he had proclaimed his endless love for her live on national television and sacrificed his life for her sister and her happiness. When Katniss eventually began to talk to me about Rue and Peeta's deaths, she was incredibly comforting. Katniss hadn't changed from the tough exterior sister with the gentle core for her close loved ones inside at all. She listened to me with great detail as I told her about Rue and her life and what I liked about her, and the same for Peeta. She even stuck it out when I told her about how much he loved her and what he said about her off screen to me, like I had promised him I would do before he died. "Well, baby, Prim… He was a lovely man. Not just for saying those things, but for everything he's done for us." She had said after I told her about his love. "And we will make sure his funeral is unforgettable." And it was those four words that forced me out my bed mourning lumber. Peeta's funeral. It's date was planned for just before the Victors Tour. I invested a lot of my victors winnings to make Peeta's funeral unforgettable like Katniss had said. I couldn't let Peeta's death be forgotten as easily as other tributes over the years. Peeta did something amazing in those Games, and there was no way I would dare let anybody forget that. The day of his funeral was a dark, cold day. The clouds were threating rain upon us as a sign to the Capitol that Peeta's death shouldn't of happened. It was a mistake. It should never of happened. There was a ground turnout for the funeral. Almost everybody in the district arrived, apart from those who had no care for anything at all and those who were on their deathbeds themselves. Peeta's family all gave short speeches about how they were going to miss him and how proud they were of him for getting to the final three, but my speech was a little different. "Peeta Mellark's death was a mistake. It should never of happened. He was the courageous boy I have ever met and he always will be. I will never forget about how he sacrificed his life to save mine. I will never forgive him for it either. I should of died in the arena, and Peeta should of come home. But he didn't. I have never known a bigger act of selflessness. Peeta will live on forever inside my heart. I will never forget him. He will be with me everywhere I go. He is the brother and the best friend that I've never actually had. Rest in peace, Peeta Mellark. You shouldn't of died. I miss you already." I had to be carried off the stage at his funeral that day by Gale, as I had collapsed onto the floor in a fit of uncontrolled tears half way through my speech. But my speech did leave an impact to the citizens of District 12, as everybody kissed their three middle fingers and held them up in the air, the old District 12 way. I did the same as Gale carried me off stage. I stayed in bed after that until I was forced to go onto the Victors Tour. I was put through the torture of being styled again. My stylists were in disgrace with my tatty hair, unwashed skin, dirty fingernails and a list of god knows what else. They seemed to find fault in everything on me that day, but after a couple hours of straight work on me, they had me suited up for the public again. My family hugged me and kissed me as I was taken away by the Capitol madmen for the tour. District 1 and 2 were pretty hard to visit. I had to look into the face of Cato's family, knowing I'd killed him. Same for the boy from District 2, who's name turned out to be Marvel. It was also so horrible seeing Glimmer and Clove's families knowing I'd played a huge role in their deaths. I had watched them die, and now I had to see their families mourn. Effie Trinket, my old escort to the Games, gave me a pre-written Capitol approved speech for each district after my doctor got into contact with her telling her my depression was probably going to affect what I would say in my speeches and it would be best to control what I said in any way possible – which of course, was to give me a ready to say speech. The speeches were always so cheesy and cliché, and you could see on the district citizens faces that they were bored listening to me, even though their hands and voices were force clapping and cheering for the new victor. District 11 was by far the hardest district to visit. I saw Rue's family in the flesh. I saw the sister she had told me about – her name, Gabriele. I remembered how she had told me about she and Gabriele would sing to the mockingjays. I felt guilty immediately. Rue and Gabriele reminded me of myself and Katniss. I felt so awful knowing that I had gotten back my lovely sister, while Gabriele never would ever again. I saw Rue's brother, too. His name was Freshen. I felt so awful from him also. He hadn't just lost his sister, but his best friend, Tresh, too. Tresh's family looked crestfallen also. My heart broken over ten million times that day in District 11. District 12 was the last on the Victory Tour because it was the District I was from. I saw Peeta's family for the first time that day after the funeral. They looked slightly broken, but still the same family. It was awful for me to see them looking so slightly normal. It appeared as if Peeta was correct when he told me his family wouldn't even be that affected by the Games and it's why I should go home. It seemed as if his death affected me more than it had them – but I didn't know what was going through their minds at all. Who knows what goes on behind the closed doors of the bakery when it closes at night? Effie took me over the details of my upcoming mentoring in the next Games for years to come before she left District 12. I didn't know how to deal with the fact I had to be a mentor in the Games. I had to mentor children to their deaths. I had seen what mentoring and the Games had done to Haymitch, and I didn't want that to happen to me. But, it had to happen. The first year of mentoring was the worst. It was a Quarter Quell and so everything in the Games that year was even more exciting for all the Capitol citizens. The Quarter Quell always has a 'special' twist to it, and this year's one was that there were two separate arena's. One for boys and one for girls. Twenty four girls and boys were chosen at random and shoved into different arena's and once there were only one of each left in the arena's, they were put into a whole new arena to fight to the death with each other for the victors crown. It was a truly awful year to begin to mentor with. Haymitch was surprisingly supportive of me, however. He stopped drinking for the entire time of the Games, which lasted almost four weeks that year, and that's a lot of sober for Haymitch. But while the Games were on, Haymitch made sure I took all my anti-depressants and he even began to talk to me about what advice I should give the tributes over the next years I would be mentoring. And one day in the Capitol when I was very homesick and I hadn't taken my medication, Haymitch really talked to me. Like, a heart to heart sort of thing. I saw a side to him that I'd never seen when he said to me: "Look, sweetheart. You have a better life than thousands out there. You got a roof over your head, you got food on the table. Winning the Games has given you and your precious family all of that. Sure, the Games may of fucked your head up a lot – but who doesn't it mess up? That's the price of the Games. That's the price you pay to see your family. But, hey, sweetheart – at least you have your family. Just remember that. Just remember what's good, and you'll get by okay." In the Quarter Quell that year, all four of the District 12 tributes died. Both the boys and one girl were killed in the bloodbath at the Cornucopia. The other girl, whose name was Tamara Gums, survived until the final five in her group of girls. She had gotten by from just staying in a tree near stream the whole time, only ever coming down to catch a fish and drink water. She ended up dying of food poisoning from a nasty fish the Gamemakers set into the water to test her. It was so horrible to see all of my tributes die, and it was even worse seeing their families mourn for them at their funerals back in 12, knowing that I should of helped them better in the Games. Mentoring was always hard every single year that I was forced to do it, but what Haymitch has said to me in the Quarter Quell had really stuck in my brain and I had become to be more naturally happy, without the constant need of my anti-depressants. My family kept me going. Katniss brought me into the forest after a couple of years of coming back from the Games. It took me months and months to even touch her bow and arrow again, but the confidence to use it came back to me over time. She'd taught me tricks and skills with it, and I could see from the sparkle in her eyes that she enjoyed sharing a hobby with me. I began to teach her a little bit about healing too, and some days she stayed with me long enough to not throw up at patients injuries. I remember laughing for the first time since the Games and Peeta's death on the first day that I showed Katniss how to fix a dislocated bone like I had in the arena when a miner came in to our house get some help with it. Over a lot of years, I got fully back into healing, and whenever I wasn't mentoring or being sent to the Capitol for some special victors show or something or other that they wanted me for, I trained to become a real healer like my mother. We set up a bigger apothecary shop, also, and it made me truly happy. I was still taking my anti-depressants, but at a much lower dosage. And even though my life seemed to be getting on track, nightmares still haunted my sleep. The deaths of Peeta and Rue played constantly in my minds most nights, while on others I saw the people I'd kill try and kill the people I loved, or mutts would come and get me. A thousand different Game related nightmares every night. Katniss would always comfort me whenever I awoke in a pool of sweat from my nightmares until the day she moved out of the Victors Village and back into our old home with Gale to start their own lives. They got married. It shocked me, but made me feel happy too. I was happy Katniss was happy and that she found someone. The girl who seemed to hate any romantic relationships with people was now settling down with a lovely, handsome man in their own home. They never had children, however. Katniss was never ready for that. She told me she didn't want to bring children into a world where they could be so easily taken away from her and forced in the Games, and I didn't blame her for feeling that way. I would of felt the same if I had found someone to settle down with. Instead, mother and I lived together in the Victors Village for many, many years. Due to our riches lasting us a long time, we bought another cat. It came from the Capitol, and seemed like such a squeaky clean cat compared to old Buttercup. We also got another goat, so Lady wouldn't feel as lonely in her old age. It felt much less lonely with more animals in the house. But I had never been more lonely in my life since Peeta died. I knew he was in Heaven, watching over me and my family. But what he didn't know is that I was going to avenge his death. This is only the end...of the beginning.
I am not a peeta fan. I am a superdupermegaultra peeta stalker. ...how do you stalk a fictional character?