CHAPTER TWELVE!

OLD NIGHTMARES.

THE GROUP OF TRIBUTES SIT UP ON THE BEACH, Emori leaning up against one of the trees as she listens to them.

"So besides Brutus, who's left?" Katniss asks.

"Maybe Chaff. I'm not sure," Peeta responds and the group nod in response. Emori cannot help but feel a little fear at that, she doesn't want Brutus to die. However, she also doesn't want Finnick or Reed, and to an extent Peeta, to die. The idea of losing all those people and being the one alive at the end terrifies her. How do you bounce back from that?"

"So what do we do? Do we hunt them down?" Johanna asks the group when they're suddenly interrupted by multiple screeches.

Katniss' head snaps up and Emori's follows suit when a male voice can also be heard. She sucks in a deep breath as it gets louder and before Finnick can reach out to grab her, the young girl sprints into the trees with Katniss hot on her heels — both wanting to reach their siblings. In reality, Emori knows that Cato cannot physically be here but she desperately holds onto the hope that he is.

"Please! Please!" She hears Cato pleading and she manages to move even faster if it's actually possible. The screams of Katniss' little sister are completely blocked from her mind, only caring about her older brother who sounds like he's in an immense amount of pain. "Kill me,"

"Cato! Cato! I'm coming," Emori yells as she moves closer to the excruciating sound that she's hearing. As she pushes through to the clearing, she's surprised but also not, that there's nobody there. His yells can still be heard and her eyes move to the birds in the trees, each of them screeching in the same tone. Anger overcomes her and she grabs a knife, launching it straight into the bird.

The noise stops and she sighs in relief, the fact that it's stopped bringing her great sense of peace. However, the sound echoes in her ears, much like it has for the past year when she's been sleeping. Those were recorded — they'd actually used the audio of his death against her to hurt her, to wound her beyond repair and she's unsure whether or not they've actually been successful in doing so.

"Emori!" A voice calls and she looks over to Finnick who has Katniss with him. "You're ok," he sounds relieved with the second part of his statement and she offers him a small nod in response.

"Finnick!"

Emori instantly recognises the voice as Annie Cresta and watches helplessly as Finnick runs straight for it. The two younger victors share a glance before following after him so that they can help him calm down. They know that it will hit him hard as well, Annie is probably the person he cares for the most in the word.

"Finnick! It's not her!" Katniss calls to the man who simply continues on.

"Finn!" Emori yells and she watches as he comes to a stop.

"It's not her. It's just a jabberjay!" Katniss tries to explain desperately to Finnick who shakes his head.

"How do you think they got that sound? They're Jabberjays, they copy!" Finnick speaks back with a hint of fear in his voice.

As the two of them continue to go back and forth, a flock of Jabberjays fly over their heads. Emori cringes as her brother can be heard once again along with Annie, Prim and another male voice which Katniss seems to recognise. The three of them run back to the others, trying to escape the noises that are causing them all so much pain. However, when they get back, they cannot physically get to them. Instead, the Jabberjays continue to circle them and Emori falls to her knees, letting out a painful cry.

Reed sits on the other side of the force field, watching the girl and trying to calm her down as she rocks back and forth — desperately trying to block out her brother's final moments. She's seen it enough in her nightmares, every night for the past three hundred and sixty five days. Over and over as if it's on a loop and this is not helping in the slightest. By the time the force field is gone, both Katniss and Emori are still in tears.

The blonde is swept up into Reed's arms the minute he can actually hold her. He tries to soothe her cries as she clutches him tightly, scared that if she lets go, that he'll disappear much like her brother did.

"I-I heard him, Reed. I-it was like he was here," she sobs and he closes his eyes tightly, not knowing how to respond to her. "It was like he was dying all over again,"

"It's not real, Mori," Reed responds.

"But it is! He's dead Reed and now I've had to hear it all over again!"

Reed leans against the tree as he watches the blonde lay on the sand and stare up at the sky. Finnick can be seen sitting in the water to her right, seemingly just as traumatised and sad as Emori is. He doesn't know how to help her and it tears him apart.

"She ok?" Peeta asks as he moves to stand beside the boy from Ten who looks at him and shakes his head. "It was Cato?"

"Yeah," Reed mumbles. "She's pretty shaken about it and I can't blame her. I tried to speak with her but she doesn't want to talk,"

Peeta looks at her and then back at Katniss who is conversing with Johanna as they look at Finnick. Peeta spares Reed one last glance before making his way over to Emori who doesn't even seem to acknowledge his presence when he sits down beside her. Instead, she continues to look up at the clouds in the sky, smiling softly when they form small animal like shapes. It's probably the most child-like Peeta has ever seen her — it's hard to forget that in reality, she's still a child. Only eighteen years of age, her life torn apart.

"They're nice, aren't they?" Peeta comments softly. "I used to love doing this back home,"

"Hmm," Emori hums quietly as she tries to concentrate on the shapes in order to eliminate the earlier events out of her minds.

"What do you see?" Peeta asks as he moves to lay down beside her, the girl turning her head slightly to look at him. "I see a giraffe,"

"A giraffe?" Emori says softly, a small laugh falling from her lips as she looks to where he's pointing in the sky. "I'd see it looks more like a tree,"

"It's always more fun to imagine them as something different," Peeta responds and she nods in agreement.

The two of them lay there a while in silence, simply enjoying the movement in the sky. Emori finally finds her voice when she poses him a question.

"Was I stupid?" She asks and when she sees his confused expression, she decides to elaborate. "To think that he was actually here?"

"No. You heard him and all those screams sounded pretty real. Katniss and Finnick both thought people were here too," Peeta speaks.

"Yeah but they're alive. C-Cato has been dead for a whole year and still I hold onto some stupid hope that he's coming back," Emori says quietly.

"You're still grieving. It's ok to do that. Grief effects everybody differently,"

"Perhaps but thinking he would come back is just stupid. You can't bring back somebody who's dead. I don't think the Capitol would even have the ability to do that,"

Peeta has no idea what to say to her in response. He hasn't had to experience such grief yet, his family is alive. He still has a family. Emori has lost everything — her parents and then her big brother who she obviously admired.

"Guys. They want to speak to us," Finnick says and Emori sits up, looking at the boy beside him.

"Nice talk, Mellark," Emori says genuinely with a soft smile before walking towards the rest of the group — her heart still full of grief but her mind a little more at ease.

NOTE!

Double update! Hope you enjoyed!