Our own personal Horror
By Gale Hawthorne
Johanna and Stormy were off visiting Annie again, I got bored so I thought I'd do some more writing. Shortly after we started living together, and before we got married, Jo and I used to wake each other up on a regular basis with our nightmares. The visions going through our minds of things we had seen or experienced were still very vivid in our subconscious memories. Both of us agreed this couldn't go on, we had to do something, finally Johanna hit upon what she thought might be a partial solution. "Back in District 7 they used to have a sort of festival in the fall, October I think, anyway people used to paint faces on squash, pumpkins things like that I even think there used to be dances, Hell! It was so long ago, way before the peacekeepers got to be such bastards and pretty much put an end to everything." Sometimes Johanna got a little long winded but I sat patiently and listened, "Anyway, one of the things they did was tell scary stories to their children and others if they would listen." "What?" I said in amazement, "Wasn't Reaping day, the Peacekeepers, or even the games themselves horror enough for anyone?"
"Apparently not, my mother told me once that the stories people made up were far worse than the everyday horrors of real life, and that the stories were an attempt to remove or at least ease the nightmares their kids would have of brothers and sisters heading off to die horribly for the pleasure of the Capitol." I shrugged, "so you think that by telling each other our own personal horror stories we might not suffer from them as much?" Johanna shrugged and furrowed her brow, "It's worth a try, couldn't hurt," "All right, I'm game, you start." "Uhh, I was kinda thinking that you go first, mine deals with my time in the games, maybe if you go first, I'll be more in the mood." "Oh all right!" I poured myself a drink, got comfortable and began.
"My nightmare always begins when Katniss and I are making our way up a tiled street, when suddenly the whole street opens with both sides dropping down like flaps both of us fall down into this pit filled with rotting corpses. There are literally thousands of them all in various forms of decay; I cannot breathe for the stench. I'm trying to stand up and search for Katniss but I realize I'm standing on decomposing bodies, that burst open as I try to walk, I begin to vomit, the stench is clinging in my throat, It's very dark I can hear something moving, but can't tell what it is, it's very near. Suddenly I hear terrible screaming, I try and move to the source, but keep sinking into putrid flesh, by now it's all over me, I cannot breathe, I can't stop vomiting. Suddenly, I see all these black forms in front of me, they scatter as I approach, I look down, it's Katniss, or what's left of her, she's been literally gnawed to the bone, her feet and legs, clear up to her stomach are gone, but she's still alive, she is just lying there her eyes staring up at me her mouth moving but making so sound. I stand there frozen, staring in horror as these mutts or whatever they are return and tunnel into her insides eating her alive. It's at that point, I can now hear her, but the only sound coming from her mouth is "You killed Primm! You killed my sister! Then a swarm of these mutt things swarm up to my face and I feel this agonizing, searing pain as they burrow into my face and mouth, then that's when I wake up screaming."
Johanna just sat there and stared at me, then she sighs, and begins her story, I'm lying naked on a cold steel table, my legs are spread, my hands and arms are strapped tightly down on the table, so I'm guessing it's after they captured me. The next thing I know is Snow suddenly appears at my side, his eyes are just solid black orbs, he begins to talk to me, but while he does, he plays with my privates with his hand and fingers, which are absolutely freezing, I struggle but there's nothing I can do, I start to scream, but he places a rubber ball in my mouth, so I can't talk. He bends down close to my face, he reeks of death and decay, he then says, "This is what we do to those that backslide and plot against me." He continues to probe my private place with his fingers as the far wall becomes a giant screen, suddenly I see a camera view of a small white room , inside are my younger brother and sister Jergen and Greta, they're naked huddled together in a corner. In the other corner is my mother and grandmother, also naked, I don't know how they're doing this both my mother and grandmother have been dead for years.