Epilogue

Fire beats roses.

That's how it will always be.

A rose, no matter how much a person tries to sustain it, will wilt.

A fire will keep raging as long as the fuel's there to ignite it.

And Peeta is that fuel. He's always there to keep me going.

I found something in him – I call it home.

Home is where the heart is, and my heart belongs to him. It always will and it always has. I may not have known it then but I knew it now. The boy with the bread always had a special place in my heart.

Prim went with my mother to District Four, she was offered an internship as a nurse at the local hospital that was built. Apart from that, she was also employed as Finnick and Annie's child's nurse. Peeta and I visit once in a while. We like to look at the ocean.

I remember that whenever we would look out into the blue sea, he would always tell me that it stretches out for miles, and that life isn't over for us, not yet, because new journeys lie beyond the horizon.

Johanna found closure in Four as well, she takes care of Finnick and Annie's son once in a while when she's not busy working. She calls it her home.

I guess we all found a home.

Mine however, will always be in District Twelve. With Peeta. Even with Haymitch.

Peeta's family stayed in Twelve as well, he funds them now, and he's also opened up his own art shop. Once in a while, he has an art gallery displaying his work.

Effie Trinket turned out to be in Thirteen all that time, but Coin made her go under another name so she wouldn't be questioned as to why a Capitol citizen was let into the premises. She lives in the Capitol now, but she visits once in a while on Peeta, Haymitch's or mine's birthdays, and during the holidays as well.

Gale moved to District Two with his family, he was offered an amazing job to help plan out the new laws of Panem as well as appropriate wages and costs. It looks like he got what he wanted after all – to make a change.

But I suppose that we've all made a change.

As well as changes in ourselves.

Boggs became the leader of the new government under the leadership of President Paylor.

And for once, everybody lives.

They told me that President Coin was shot when she entered the President's mansion during the war, they said that she wanted to kill him herself.

The Capitol's system was delicate; the city was fragile in itself. They needed the Districts to help them function, and without our help they'd break. But they abused their power to the extent that they brought their own destruction upon themselves.

Their fragile structure lasted seventy-five years, until the pressure finally made the glass crack – and it shattered to pieces.

The days after the war were hard, but as the years went on by, life gradually became clearer.

But that hurt was always there. It never went away, we just learned to deal with it and move on, because life goes on. Because life is meant to be enjoyed, not endured.

Nevertheless, we were the dice that was rolled time and time again, that is, until we became the masters of the game that played us…and we won.

But at a cost.

There are things that we can never be free of; scars that are burnt onto to us too deeply to fade away with time. There's those nights in the Games, and the Capitol with the approach of the unknown and that terrible fear that they drugged me with. I can never be fixed, or truly free, none of us can, because a pawn taken off a chess board is still a pawn, and we're always going to be puppets, just with severed strings.

We'll be their broken playthings forever, but our children are so beautiful. My family brings a warm hope to my heart, like the first dandelion of the spring.

I once told Peeta how I felt like I wasted the time that we could've been together. He told me that it was okay, because we had the rest of our lives.

And when he said that I was sure of one thing.

It will be good again.

-THE END-