Welcome to the beginning of the end! I'm happy to announce this is the first chapter to the trilogy I've been writing: A Capital's Game! So please read and review! Enjoy!
Two figures sit side by side leaning against the wall. Both bodies are beaten and abused to the point of pure cruelty. The man leans over towards the girl and whispers in her ear, she comes out of the ball she was in to reveal the small month old baby in her arms. The baby is a beautiful boy, completely resembling his true father, Finnick Odair. With a sigh the beaten girl hands the baby to the man, who is only slightly older than she is. The man raises weakly to his feet, the baby in his arms, and crosses to the other side of the cell. Then the two begin to play the game that the man had devised for her.
"Finnick" he says simply and gently, no harshness in his raspy voice at all. Just the name makes the girl tremble violently; her breathing pace rapidly picks up its pace and her heart matches it. She digs her fingers into her legs, trying to calm herself down. She knows the rules to this simple game: the man will keep saying the name until she doesn't react, then she gets her baby back. She has greatly improved in this game during the past month, at first she tried to kill the man when he spoke the name. Ten minutes later, her trembling slows.
"Again" she murmurs, all she wants is her son.
"Finnick" the man repeats. Shaking overtakes the young teenager's body again for the second time. Five minutes pass and she relaxes a bit. "Finnick" she trembles more, driving her fingers into her already battered skin, causing cuts and her legs start to bleed. She doesn't even care; this little pain is nothing to what the Capital guards do to her during questioning. This, this sharp pain she's causing herself, she welcomes it, not because it hurts, but because it doesn't feel like it will kill her. This pain is nothing for someone who has survived the Hunger Games, twice.
Rachel's POV:
"Finnick" Skitt repeats the mutt's name again to me, I can't that I start to tremble in fear, in anger, in agony at the name. But it's not as much, only a little. I look up at Skitt, the battered, bruised, and bloody man who is now my best friend, my ally, my prison partner. He grins at me and walks over, putting Kevser, my month old baby, back in my arms. Kevser smiles up at me, his blue eyes twinkling, when he sees my face. My bruised, cut up, battered face. But he knows it's his mother, and that's all that matters to him. "You did better this time." Skitt smiles as he sits next to me on the cold cement floor. I stiffen.
"I don't understand why we have to do it."
"Because I told you Fi-, he, isn't bad." Skitt stops himself from saying the name, he knows I'll launch at him if he did since he's so close by. We've been playing his little game for a month now, ever since our interview with Caesar when I said Peeta Mellark was the father of my child. Because that mostly makes sense; Kevser's bronze hair could be a combination of my dark hair and Peeta's light, the baby's eyes are the same color as Peeta's, and his broad shoulders and jawline are the same Peeta had. Only one thing doesn't fit, Peeta's dead. He's been dead for two years, ever since that rabid mutt killed him. That mutt killed everyone I love, he hurt me, he used me, he made me go into the Games twice. My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of the door opening. A peacekeeper walks in and I stiffen, Skitt's arm goes around me, between the peacekeepers and me and Kevser.
"Come on, time to go." A peacekeeper uncoils a wipe for us to see.
"You're not taking them." Skitt snarls at the man, but lets out a cry as the wipe comes and slashes him across the face.
"Not your choice, get up now!" the man demands, I stand with Kevser in my arms. They don't hurt Kevser, as long as I say everything they ask, as long as I comply, they don't hurt him. While I'm being punished they feed him and take care of him. I give Skitt a glance and he looks up at me with pleading eyes while his hand covers the now bloody half of his face.
"I'll be fine Skitt" I lie; we both know I'll be coming back with more bruises, more cuts, more pain. But he nods as I walk out with the peacekeepers. My baby is taken from me and I'm forced to continue walking with the peacekeepers until we reach a small room, my torture chamber as I like to call it. I enter and take my usual seat, moments later a large, strong man walks in. He gets right to the point.
"We detected hovercraft leaving Thirteen and coming this way, what are they doing?" he asks, of course, I don't know. I never know, they never believe that I don't know either. So I do what I always do, I lie.
"Going to Two" I've become a great liar.
"Why?" he demands at me again. I don't even have to think about it.
"Weaponry." I say simply, apparently this is the wrong answer. I'm slapped across the face and I topple to the ground.
"There's nothing they don't have already in Two, they captured Two last week!" The man yells enraged. "You just never learn you little prick do ya? You always lie to us! Well, Snow gave us orders to show you a little tape, so just come on." I try to get up slowly, but I'm kicking in the gut and sent sprawling to the floor again. I try and get up again and the man takes my arm and heaves me up quickly and shoves me in the chair. A screen appears and it turns on. What I see makes my blood pulse. Mutt. I think instantly as I see the man on screen, only this time it's even more terrifying. This time I don't have that needle hidden somewhere to stab me, this time, what I'm seeing is one hundred percent real.
I watch in utter horror, in utter disgust, as I watch the bronze haired mutt throw a net over a young girl and impale her with his trident. I watch him kill not one, not two, not even three, but seven different kids this way. I watch him kill animals. I watch him hunt in the dark, take out kids who don't even stand the slightest chance. I watch him take away people's lives without batting an eye. Without caring.
"See, that's Finnick Odair." The man grins at me, at the name I begin the tremble violently and there's nothing to stop me from lashing out at the speaker. He catches my wrist and twists my whole arm; I let out a sharp cry of pain. "Stupid, stupid girl" he mutters before shoving me to the floor, my face smacks into the cement and I feel the blood run from my nose down my face.
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That night I sit with Skitt by my side with Kevser in my arms. He's already fed and asleep in my arms, I rest my head on Skitt's shoulder.
"If it weren't for him I'd rather be dead now." I murmur.
"Don't say that, things will get better, we'll get outta here."
"We'll die first." I retort.
"No, they won't let us die; they won't give us the pleasure of dying." I know he's right. They won't let us die, because life is worse than death, in death, there is no pain, in life, there's endless, searing pain. Soon I drift to sleep with Skitt's arms around me.
I wake up to hear urgent voices coming from far down the hallway past the door. They're different voices drawing closer, different isn't good here.
"Commander they should be past here, we need to hurry we're losing time!" I listen to a voice; I shake Skitt who's asleep by my side.
"What?" he asks irritated, sleep is when we get no pain, being roused from it sucks.
"Voices." I tell him, he rises what's left of his eyebrows and listens. We can hear the people debating on which door to take next to get to us. Then they burst into the room. I sulk back farther into the corner along with Skitt; even he doesn't trust these new people. A wait, barely breathing, and freeze when I see a young man stop in front of our cell. He raises his hand and presses a button, a light comes on and he scans it around our cell, he stops on Skitt and I. His eyes widen in horror as he sees how battered we are.
"Found them!" he yells to the rest of his crew and they rush over. They bust in the door and rush in, I instantly draw away and pull Kevser closer to my chest, he's awake now and staring, eyes wide, at the men who just broke in.
"Rachel, Skitt, we're getting you out, we're from Thirteen." I don't react to this, Skitt's eyes brighten and he jumps up. He puts his hands on my shoulders.
"This is it Rach, we can leave, get outta here, not be beaten." And I trust him, slowly I stand up.
"We need to hurry, there's a hovercraft on the roof." Another man instructs. We race through the hallways, which are dark and surprisingly empty. Skitt seems to have found his old energy and easily keeps up with the soldiers, but I stagger, but the soldiers stay in a formation around me. My world in spinning and hazy by the time we eventually reach the roof. A hovercraft materializes from thin air and we're rushed inside. Once inside I sit beside Skitt and hand him Kevser, just in time for me to slouch over and black out.