Chapter 25 Chapter 25 The Rose of Death

true or false?I was also on fire.The fireball from the parachute bomb flew over the barricade, through the snowy air, and into the crowd.I was about to turn around when a ball of fire hit me, licking my back and turning me into a whole new person.A creature whose rage is as unquenchable as the rays of the sun. A mutant born of fire has only one feeling: anger.There is no image, no sound, no emotion, only the ruthless flame burning her flesh.She may lose consciousness, but even unconsciousness cannot escape.I'm Sienna's bird.The burning bird flew up angrily to avoid the impossible disaster.Flaming feathers grew from my body, and flapping my wings only made the flames hotter.I burn myself, but there is no end to it.

Finally, my wings start to waver, I lose my center of gravity, and gravity pulls me toward a sea of ​​froth the color of Finnick's eyes.I was floating on my back, my back still burning underwater, but the great pain turned into pain.They appeared when I was floating on the sea and lost my bearings.those who died. The people I love are flying in the sky above me, they are flying high, they are circling in the sky, calling me to come to them.How I wanted to be with them, but the sea water soaked my wings and I couldn't lift them.People I hate float in the water, hideous scaled creatures tearing at my salt-soaked flesh with their razor-sharp teeth.Over and over, without stopping.Finally dragged me underwater.

A pale pink bird swoops down and digs its claws into my chest, trying to float me. "No, Katniss! No! You can't go!" But the ones I hate are stronger, and if she doesn't let me go, she'll die underwater too. "Prime, let me go!" Finally, she had to let me go. Under the dark water, I am alone.Only the sound of my breathing sounded in my ears, but it took a lot of effort to suck in the water, and it took a lot of effort to squeeze the water out of my lungs.I want to stop, I'm not breathing, but the water is still coming out of my lungs and going in again, I can't control it. "Let me die, let me go with the others." But there was silence all around.

I was imprisoned in the sea for days, years, maybe centuries.Dead, but not really dead.To be alive is tantamount to death.I'm so alone, anyone, anything.No matter how obnoxious they are, as long as they show up, it's good.But when I finally had a client, it was tender indeed.morphine.It flows through my veins, banishing my pain, making my body feel like a fairy, and I am about to fly again, but finally I am back in the foam. Foam.I literally float on foam.I can feel it with my fingertips, it nourishes my naked body.I still ache, but something feels real again.My throat is as dry as sandpaper.I smelled burn ointment for the first time in the arena.I heard my mother's voice.All this frightened me, and I tried to reach the depths of my consciousness to feel it all.However, I can never go back.Gradually, I had to accept who I am now.A badly burned girl without wings.There is no fire, no sister.

In the ward of the gleaming white Capitol Hospital, the doctor performed superb medical skills and planted new skin on my burnt area, which restored the nearly necrotic cells to life.At the same time, the doctor helped me do rehabilitation training, bending my waist and stretching my limbs to achieve good medical results.Someone keeps telling me over and over how lucky I am.My eyes are fine, most of my face is not burned, my lungs are recovering, and I will be fully recovered eventually. As my new skin grew and was able to withstand the pressure of the quilt, more people came to visit me.Morphine opened doors for both the living and the dead.Haymitch, sallow and unsmiling, Cinna sewing her wedding gown, Delly, always praising people innocently, would appear before my eyes.Dad sang four verses of "The Hanging Tree" and reminded me not to let my mom, who always sleeps in the same chair between shifts, know about it.

When I woke up one day, I realized that people still expect a lot from me, and I won't let me always indulge in dreams all day long.I have to eat with my mouth, exercise my muscles, and go to the bathroom to wash myself.I caught a glimpse of President Snow by accident that day, and my heart skipped a beat. "Don't worry, I saved him for you," said the doctor. She was surprised to see that I didn't speak.I was tested right away and my vocal cords were damaged, but that wasn't why I couldn't speak.In the end, the head of the department, Dr. Aurelius, came up with the theory that I had become a spiritual Avax and that my loss of voice was due to trauma.All he said was to leave me alone, despite the hundreds of remedies people suggested.So, although I said nothing and asked nothing, people kept bringing me all kinds of news.About the war: The Capitol fell the day the parachute exploded.Now Panem is under the administration of President Cohen.Armies were dispatched to various jurisdictions to suppress small groups of Capitol resistance.President Snow: He's been arrested, awaiting trial.Our squad: Cressida and Boros are sent to various jurisdictions to report on the devastation after the war.Gail is sweeping up the remaining forces in the second district.Peeta is still in the burns ward.It turned out that he had arrived at the central square of the city.My family: My mother put her head down at work to deal with the pain in her heart.

When I have nothing else to do, sorrow and pain engulf me.The only thing keeping me going is Cohen's commitment.As long as this thing is done, there is nothing to worry about. Finally, the doctor allowed me to leave the hospital.I was allocated a room in the presidential palace with my mother.She is almost never at home, eating and sleeping in the hospital.So it became Haymitch's job to take care of me. He had to make sure that I ate and took my medicine normally every day.This is not an easy task.I made another old habit of wandering around the mansion without permission when I was in the thirteenth district.Going to the office and bedroom for a while, going to the ballroom and bathroom for a while, looking for strange little hiding places.I finally found a wardrobe full of furs, a cubicle in the study, and a long-disused bathtub in a room full of discarded furniture.The places I've been looking for are dark and quiet, and no one can find them.I shrunk, made myself smaller, tried to disappear completely from people's eyes.In this quiet place, I kept turning the bracelet on my wrist, which read: mentally handicapped patients.

My name is Katniss Everdeen.I am seventeen years old.My home is in District 12.District 12 no longer exists.I'm a mockingjay.I caused the Capitol to collapse.President Snow hates me.He killed my sister.Now I'm going to kill him.And with that, the Hunger Games are over... I found myself returning to my room periodically, either from my morphine addiction or Haymitch searching me out.I eat, take medicine, and bathe as required.I don't care about the water, but I don't want to see the burned body in the mirror.The places where the skin grafts were placed were still pink like baby skin, and the places that had been burned but not beyond repair were red and warm, and some places seemed to have melted.The unburned skin was white and bloodless.My skin was like a patched, grotesquely torn quilt.Pieces of hair had also been singed, and the rest had been cut in varying lengths, like a dog gnawing on it.This is Katniss Everdeen, the burning girl.If it's just ugly, that's fine. The key is that my embarrassment reminds me of the pain I suffered, the root cause of the pain, and everything that happened before.It reminds me of how I watched my own sister turn into a ball of fire.

Closing your eyes doesn't help either, the flames are more dazzling in the darkness. Aurelius sometimes visits me.I have a good impression of him, he doesn't say stupid things like, I'm safe now, I'll be happy someday, or even things will be fine in Panem.He just asked me if I felt like talking, and if I didn't answer, he just fell asleep in a chair.I guess he came to see me mainly to take a nap.This arrangement works for both of us. Although I can't say the exact time, the time for President Snow's execution is getting closer and closer.He was tried and sentenced to death, Haymitch told me.I also heard the soldiers talking in the corridor.My mockingjay costume shows up in my room, along with my bow.This bow is quite impressive when hung on the body, but it has no arrows.It may have been destroyed long ago, and it is more likely that I am not allowed to bear weapons.I wondered if I should make some preparations for the occasion, but nothing came to my mind.

One evening, hiding behind a handsome screen, I sat for a long time in an upholstered chair by the windowsill.After that, I came out of there and turned left instead of right.I found myself in a strange place and immediately lost my sense of direction.This place is different from the place where I live, and there seems to be no one to ask for directions.But I like this place very much, and I think I will find my way soon.It was quiet here, the thick carpets and tapestries absorbing the sound.The lighting is also very soft, the colors are light and elegant, and everything looks so peaceful and peaceful.But I smell roses.I hurriedly hid behind the curtain, shaking so badly that I couldn't run at all, and I waited for the mutant animal to appear.In the end, I realized there were no mutants at all.So, what am I smelling?Is it a real rose?Am I near the garden where the evil creature grows?

As I tiptoed forward, the smell became stronger and stronger, and it was almost unbearable.This smell may not be as strong as that of the mutant animal, but it is purer, perhaps because it has not mixed with sewers and gunpowder.I turned a corner and was confronted by two startled guards.They are certainly not vigilantes, which no longer exist.But it wasn't the thirteenth district soldiers in neat gray uniforms either.Two men, a man and a woman, dressed in tattered Rebel uniforms, with stretched legs and haggard faces, were guarding the gate to the garden.When I was about to go in, they crossed the guns into an X.I am not allowed to enter. "Miss, you can't go in." The man said. "Soldier," the woman corrected him, "Soldier Everdeen, you cannot go in. This is an order from the President." I waited patiently for them to put down their guns. I didn't say anything, so that they could slowly understand that there was something I needed behind that door.Just a rose, a flower.I'm going to put it in Snow's coat pocket before I kill him.My sudden appearance seemed to worry the two soldiers.They were discussing whether to call Haymitch when a woman behind me said, "Let her in." The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't tell who it was at the moment.Not a Seam accent, not a District 13 accent, and certainly not a Capitol accent.I turned my head and found Pera, the commander of the eighth district, standing behind me.She looked more emaciated than when she was seen at the hospital.But who isn't? "It was my order, and she has the right to know everything behind that door." These were her soldiers, not Cohn's.Immediately they dropped their weapons and let me in. At the end of the corridor, I pushed open the glass door and walked in.There was such a strong smell that I felt like my nose was no longer working.The moist, mild air here feels good on my burning skin.Those roses were so beautiful, rows of flowers bursting into gorgeous colors, from delicate pinks to sunset oranges and even baby blues.I walked among the carefully manicured rose bushes, just looking, not touching, because I knew these beautiful flowers could be dangerous.I know this better when I see the white flowers about to open in a bush.I pulled the left cuff down so that the skin wouldn't touch it, and I picked up a pair of scissors and was about to cut off the branch when I heard his voice. "That flower is nice." With a shake of my hand, the scissors closed and cut off the flower. "That color is lovely, nothing could be more perfect than white." I still couldn't see him, and the voice seemed to come from across the bed of red roses.I carefully put the flower branch through the fabric of the cuff, and don't put it there.Then he walked slowly around the corner and saw him sitting on a stool against the wall.He was dressed as neatly as usual, but with shackles on his wrists and ankles and a tracker.In the bright light, his complexion was pale, even sickly leaden.He held a white handkerchief in his hand, which was stained with blood.Even in this embarrassing situation, his snake-like eyes still shone with a sharp cold light. "I was thinking you might find where I live." where he lives.I have stepped into his house, just as he quietly broke into my house last year, with his bloody, rose scent, quietly threatening me.This conservatory is one of his rooms, perhaps his favorite; he might even tend the plants himself in his spare time.But now this is where he is imprisoned, that's why the soldiers stopped me.It was for the same reason that Perla let me in. I'd have expected him to be locked up in the Capitol's deepest dungeon, not in a luxurious room.But Cohen put him here.It really sets a precedent, I guess.That way, if she loses her old status later, it will be assumed that the president - even the most despicable guy - will get special treatment.Anyway, who knows when she'll lose ground? "I think we have a lot to discuss, but I have a feeling you won't be here long, so let's get to the main thing." He started coughing, and when he took the handkerchief away, it was redder "I want to tell you how sorry I am for what happened to your sister." Even though I've been sedated now, I still feel a sting from his words, reminding me that there is no limit to his cruelty, and that he must still hurt me before he goes to his grave. "Too bad, so unnecessary. Anyone could tell it was game over by then. In fact, I was about to sign the official surrender when they lowered their parachutes." He fixed his eyes on me, eyes I didn't even blink, for fear of missing every subtle reaction on my face.But he didn't make sense.When they dropped their parachutes? "Oh, you don't think I gave the order, do you? You're forgetting the remarkable fact that if I had a helicopter, I'd use it to get away. What else could it do? We all know that, I Not that I won't kill children, but I won't waste them. I take lives for a specific reason. I have no reason to kill a circle of Capitol children. Not at all." I wondered if he was coughing again, to give me a moment to think about what he had said.He is lying.Of course he was lying.But his words also seemed intriguing. "However, I must admit that Cohen did a great job blowing up our children and dispelling the last vestiges of loyalty the citizens of the Capitol had to me. After that, there was little resistance. You know that scene has been Is it live broadcast? That’s Plutarch’s credit. He’s also responsible for the parachute. Oh, you know the way of thinking of the Chairman of the Hunger Games Organizing Committee, don’t you?” Speaking of this, Snow rubbed him The corner of the mouth, "I'm sure he didn't target your sister, but it just happened." My thoughts had left Snow and returned to the Special Ordnance Department in District Thirteen, where Gale and Bit were working on a new weapon based on Gale's snare principle.They exploit human compassion, the first bomb kills the victim and the second bomb kills the man trying to save them.I still remember what Gail said. "Bit and I design weapons by the same rules that Snow hijacked Peeta." "My failure was my failure to grasp Cohen's plan in time," Snow went on, "to have the Capitol and the various jurisdictions kill each other, and finally the Thirteenth District can seize power without any injuries. If I'm not wrong, From the beginning she planned to take my place. I'm not surprised. Anyway, it was the rebellion instigated by the thirteenth district that led to the dark times, and then abandoned the other districts when it was over. But I The attention is not on Cohen, but on you Mockingjay. And your attention is on me. I'm afraid we're both being played." I refuse to admit that this is true.Some things are bound to happen to you, even to me.I said the first words since my sister died, "I don't believe you." Snow shook his head in disappointment, and said in a sarcastic tone: "Oh, my dear Miss Everdeen. I think we have already reached an agreement not to lie to each other."