rising from the ashes || a hunger games story

chapter ten

willow's pov

i stumble towards her with tears in my eyes. she was thrown back and was currently unconscious. finn speeds ahead of me and starts doing cpr.

he goes down to check her heartbeat and he shakes his head. "she's gone," he says. i hear the cannonball. he looks at me with tears streaming down his face. i gasp and my hand goes to cover my mouth as i cry.

"come on," he says as he puts arm around my shoulder and turns me the other way. "hold on," i say, turning back around.

i walk towards her body and grab her backpack. i cant use her axe. i don't know how and it would cause me too much pain. i rub my thumb on her cheek. "i'm sorry," i say as i walk away from her and back to finn.

we start walking away and that's when i hear the aircraft. it's here to pick up her body. i don't turn around. i don't want to look at the view of her body being carried up.

tears block my vision so i trip on a branch that i didn't see. i hear a small click under me but i don't think anything of it. i start picking myself up when i see something gold on the ground along with a paper.

i pick up both items as i sit on my knees. the paper is small and folded up. i open it up and i start reading out loud.

you have to be brave and rise from the ashes, willow. like a phoenix.
-mom

that's when i look at the pin. it's a gold phoenix pin. it looks just like my mother's besides the fact that her's is a mockingjay. i smile at the pin. the phoenix, along with other birds, were technologically made when i was a baby so the populations of birds could increase in the districts and the capitol. the phoenix has been my favorite bird ever since i was 5.

my mother knew that. before dahlia was born, we would all walk around district 12 together and i would point out every phoenix i would see. i remember finding a baby phoenix on the ground one day.

he was so small that he couldn't fly yet and he couldn't care for himself. i couldn't find the mother anywhere. there was absolutely no sign of her anywhere. my parents allowed me to nurse the baby until we could release him.

i go up to touch my necklace and figure out that it was a locket. it had opened when i fell and that's when the pin and paper fell out. i put the paper back in the locket and the pin on my jacket. i play with the necklace for a few seconds when i realize the pearl is gone.

it must've flown off when i fell. i start patting the snow, panicking. "woah, what's wrong?" finn asks as he kneels down. "my mother's pearl. it fell. i need that pearl, finn!" i say as i look at him, my breathing heavy.

that's when i see the pearl roll in front of me from the corner of my eye. i turn to the pearl and grab it. i look towards where it came from as i open the locket and place the pearl in. i find a young girl peering around a tree.

she has brown curly hair. i recognize the girl as district 11's female tribute. she's the youngest tribute out of us all. "you're june right?" i say as i stand up. she steps back, covering more of her face with the tree.

"it's okay, i'm not going to hurt you," i say as i approach the girl. she comes out of hiding and walks towards me slowly. i kneel down to her height. "thank you for giving me the pearl. if you want, we could use another ally," i say, smiling at her.

i didn't want to forget about ivy and what had just happened. i wanted to just cry but i couldn't just leave june. she's the youngest and smallest tribute. i don't know how long she's going to last out here.

she smiles at me and nods. "okay, come on," i say as i take her hand. i bring her back over to finn. he's smiling and looking at me with emotion i haven't seen before. love? i shake it off and i turn his head the other way. "stop looking at me like that, you dork."