*Authors note- I have decided to join together chapters 1-3 so it's all here just combined! No worries! I'll post more later! PEACE 3!
My New Life
Back in District 12. Alone. No, not alone, I have Haymitch and Greasy Sae and, sometimes, I have Peeta. Haymitch is usually drunk and Greasy Sae is almost always busy at her Kitchen. That leaves Peeta. The boy with the bread. Who I almost lost to the Capital. To Snow.
There are still times when hijacked, shiny, visions surface. He just tightens his grip and grits his teeth until it passes. I thought that I had lost him, but slowly he returned to me.
When I slept, my dreams where torture. I would wake up screaming for Prim to run from the fiery explosions. I would see myself burning, still feeling the heat of the fire. I would see Peeta being tortured. Every time I closed my eyes I saw terrible things.
One night a nightmare of Peeta being burned, beaten, and drowned crept into my mind. I screamed his name but no one helped. They just stood by and watched. When I woke, he was laying beside me, his arms wrapped around my body. I guess when I dreamed I screamed his name It escaped my mouth for real.
A few months after I started returning to my old self, I couldn't take the nightmares anymore. I broke the windows in my house, letting in freezing cold air and rain. I broke bottles and threw them everywhere. I burned stuff in my small fire place.
Eventually, the noise woke Peeta and he came to see what was wrong. He found me sitting in the corner, trying to cut my arm with broken glass. He asked me what happened and I told him I couldn't take it anymore.
He tries to calm me down but after five minutes of failed attempts, he kisses me. It was that same kind of kiss like on the beach in the second arena. The kind that makes me want-no makes meneed more. "Katniss! Listen to me! They're just nightmares. They can't hurt you."
After Peeta calms me down, I tell him about the nightmares. I tell him about how I see these terrible things, him being tortured and what not. He puts his arms around me and makes soft, soothing sounds until I stop crying. "I know. I know. I have the nightmares too." He says softly. He instructs me to lie down and he wraps me up tightly in a blanket. He gives me a light kiss then leaves the room. I lay there, looking out the window at the stars in the sky. I think of Prim, who always said that our dad was the brightest star in the night sky. I somehow find sleep.
When I wake, my head rests on Peeta's arm. His other arm is wrapped around my body. I roll over and find myself staring into his cool blue eyes. Where am I? I think. I faintly remember that I smashed the windows out of my house. I sit up but my head is swimming so I lay back down. "Good morning." Peeta says. "Good morning." I say. He sits up. "Are you okay? You rolled off into the floor like three times before I finally decided to just stay up here." He says as he brushes my hair out of my face. "Yeah, just nightmares" I say.
He helps me sit up and I notice my arms are wrapped in white bandages. He must have seen me looking at them because he says, "You were cutting them." I look into his eyes. For the first time since he was hijacked, they look clear. They look normal, whatever that is. "I broke my house last night. Real or Not Real?" I say. "Real." He answers, "But we're going to fix it. Last night I called some of the people from town who were building new houses. They said they would come fix it up for us." He says. I nod in agreement.
He gets up and offers me a hand. I rise slowly, because my head is aching. He helps me downstairs and makes me sit at the table in his kitchen. I look around and notice that his house is set up basically in the same way mine is. Three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room, a living room, and a kitchen downstairs. Peeta comes and sits a loaf of bread on the table. I take a piece and nibble on it. "Thanks" I say as he sits a cup of water on the table next to me. That's when we hear it. A scream. A scream that is familiar, but I can't place. But Peeta recognizes is immediately. His face drains of color and before I can say anything, he's running out the door.
"Peeta?" I call after him but I'm sure he can't hear me. I stand up, and my head starts spinning. I put one hand on the table and steady myself. When my head stops spinning, I go as fast as I can to the door. He has left footprints in the freshly fallen snow. At first, it seems, he was trying to run with his bad leg, but eventually he just started dragging it behind him. When I finally catch up to him, he's just gotten into the woods. "Peeta!" I hear a voice scream. It sounds like a girl, probably our age. "Brook!" Peeta screams as he pushes through the mass of leafless bushes. I run after him. Just as he's clearing the patch of bushes, I catch his sleeve in my hand. "Peeta! What is happing?" I demand. "She's out there! She's hurt!" he cries. "Who?" "Brook!"
Brook. That name is familiar. The clouds in my mind clear and I know who he is talking about. "Brook Taylor?" I ask. "Yes!" he cries as he runs through the woods. "Help!" Brook cries. The voice is coming from the west, and I can tell she isn't that far away. I run for her and about three yards away, I find her. Her blonde curls muddy and ratty, her clothes torn. Yes I remember seeing her in District 13. She didn't come back with the rest of us because her parents for bided it. She must have come on foot. I notice that her left ankle is twisted in an awkward position. "Peeta!" I call, "I found her!" In a few minutes he has joined me. "Oh my gosh!" he exclaims as he takes in her appearance. He picks her up and carries her back to the fence.
Once we're back at his house, he puts her down on the couch. I look at her ankle and decide it's broken. "Uh… Can you fix it?" Brook asks. "Uhm. I think so." I answer. Peeta makes her some tea and puts sleep syrup in it. When she's asleep, I look at her twisted ankle. "I don't think it's broken. It just looks dislocated. I can twist it back into place." I decide. Peeta nods, then walks out of the room. I lift Brook's right foot up on the couch. It looks fine. I probe he left ankle with my fingers and discover that the bones are all intact. Just twisted. I carefully twist it back into place. She winces in her sleep.
I wrap her foot up in a white bandage that I found in Peeta's first-aid box. I walk outside and get two sturdy branches. I secure them to either side of Brooke's left ankle and then lay it down gently on the couch. I walk over to the table where Peeta and I ate breakfast. I sit down and try to figure out what connection Brook and Peeta share. I think back to when we were kids. Nothing. I think of when we were teenagers. I vaguely remember seeing them together. Wait, I remember seeing them together a lot. And then all of a sudden, they were never together.
They sat together at lunch, they stood together during break time, they were always with each other during class. Then I realize it. Brook is Peeta's ex-girlfriend.