peeta wakes up one morning with his fist stuck in his mouth (he's a fitful sleeper, and sometimes running from his nightmares can end in him waking up in interesting positions). all katniss can do is laugh at him because she had a dream that they were back on the cornucopia, where cato had wrapped his arm around peeta's neck and peeta was slowly turning a deep shade of purple. except in the dream, she was out of arrows, so she could only watch as peeta was thrown to the mutts and burst like a berry on the ground.
as he looks at her with woeful eyes, she thinks that it could be worse.
it could be so much worse.