Katniss Everdeen Quotes

Katniss Everdeen

Quote 52

I fall into a doorway, tears stinging my eyes. Shoot me. That's what he was mouthing. I was supposed to shoot him! That was my job. That was our unspoken promise, all of us, to one another. And I didn't do it and now the Capitol will kill him or torture him or hijack him or – the cracks begin opening inside me, threatening to break me into pieces. (24.70)

Katniss is so overcome with emotion that she feels "cracks begin [to] open" within herself, just as they opened on the street mere moments ago. Her sense of self is being ravaged by the war just as the Capitol city is. Here, she fears she's sacrificed Gale unknowingly – that she didn't protect him (by killing him) the last time she had a chance to do so.