There was no missing Rose as she walked into the Inn, her half shredded magenta scrubs, doing little to mask the stains of blood that cause the upper half of her top to stick to her skin. It stains her hands, is matted in her dark, wavy hair and splatters almost every inch of her that can be seen. Anyone who is present to witness her return would be forgiven for thinking she shouldn’t be up and moving around, but she does so with such purpose it’s hard to believe any of that blood is actually hers.
She moves through the Inn on autopilot without really seeing anyone inside, leaving explanations for the other three who had made it out alive. The cost of their victory was not one that Rose was fully prepared to discuss just yet. If anyone tries to speak to her, she doesn’t seem to register their words, disappearing from view without so much as a grunt and when she reappears, it's with a shovel in hand and silence that follows her out the door and into the dark of night.
She didn’t have a place in mind when she’d set out from the Inn, only knowing that she had to keep moving. Maybe she should have found out what his friends would have wanted but the horrible truth was? Rose didn’t know who his friends were. She didn’t know the first thing about Peeta, beyond what she’d learned tonight. He was brave, clever, suicidally stupid and he was dead. Anything else she could learn wasn’t going to alter the fact that he wasn’t coming back.
The smell of damp earth rose up to mingle with the metallic scent of blood, her shovel breaking the soil with surprising ease, thanks to the recent bout of rain. The adrenaline had given way to the numbness that masked the worst of her aches and pains, the skin on her side a mottled patchwork of purple and red, that would only darken in the hours to come. There would be time to clean up, to tend to her injuries but even if it took her till morning, she wasn’t leaving here until she’d finished digging Peeta’s grave. She hadn’t protected him. She couldn’t save him. The least she could do was this.
The night so black that the darkness hummed ][ Grave Digging
She moves through the Inn on autopilot without really seeing anyone inside, leaving explanations for the other three who had made it out alive. The cost of their victory was not one that Rose was fully prepared to discuss just yet. If anyone tries to speak to her, she doesn’t seem to register their words, disappearing from view without so much as a grunt and when she reappears, it's with a shovel in hand and silence that follows her out the door and into the dark of night.
She didn’t have a place in mind when she’d set out from the Inn, only knowing that she had to keep moving. Maybe she should have found out what his friends would have wanted but the horrible truth was? Rose didn’t know who his friends were. She didn’t know the first thing about Peeta, beyond what she’d learned tonight. He was brave, clever, suicidally stupid and he was dead. Anything else she could learn wasn’t going to alter the fact that he wasn’t coming back.
The smell of damp earth rose up to mingle with the metallic scent of blood, her shovel breaking the soil with surprising ease, thanks to the recent bout of rain. The adrenaline had given way to the numbness that masked the worst of her aches and pains, the skin on her side a mottled patchwork of purple and red, that would only darken in the hours to come. There would be time to clean up, to tend to her injuries but even if it took her till morning, she wasn’t leaving here until she’d finished digging Peeta’s grave. She hadn’t protected him. She couldn’t save him. The least she could do was this.