The Hunger Games – From Peeta Mellark's point of view.

Chapter 1

(So I first started this fanfiction four years ago when I was still in school and then after I left and started working for the summer I got too busy to write is and let it fall away. I found it recently in a folder and decided to continue it and add to what I had already written, taking into account what people had said to me before when it was uploaded. I'll keep the first 6 chapters up but I will be uploading them again as I edit them and add to them to make them longer and better. I hope that you like it and any comments and things that need changing would be welcome. Thank you for reading and enjoy )


Some nightmares don't end upon waking. At least that's what I think and have come to believe. Some nightmares follow us even when we are awake and continue when we fall asleep. Leaving us in a never ending loop of what we fear the most.

It's just beginning to get bright outside when I wake. A small trickle of light falls across the floor in front of me, outlining the dust patterns that float when the air is still.

I had that dream again. Why that dream again I wonder. It's always the same no matter what I do, no matter the mood I'm in or the food that I eat before falling asleep for the night. I'm always losing someone, not just anyone, I'm always losing her. Stilling up I look around the room I see that I am the only one awake, both my brothers are still asleep, dead to the world. Looking around at the sparsely furnished but sturdy room, covered with the lives of me and my brothers, I realize why today the nightmare won't go away. Why on this particular day it will haunt me, invade every thought and action that I take. Today is the reaping. Today is the day two children die. I don't fear for myself though, I never have I don't value my life enough, I only fear for her. For the only girl that I love.

Katniss Everdeen.

Pulling back the covers that lie over me I put my feet on the ground, feeling the dry hard wood of the floor and the slight chill of the early morning and stand up. "Might as well get up seeing as your awake I tell myself." It's no good though, there is no where I could go and even if I did, I can't do anything.

I pull on my clothes, dark shirt and trousers and worn sturdy boots and walk quietly out room and down the small dark staircase that smells of bread and yeast into the bakery that is my families. I think about what could happen today, how she could get reaped and all the ways that she could die in that arena. The thought fills me with such sadness that I push it from my mind, trying desperately to think of something else. It's no good though. I can't, the idea that she could be the one to be reaped today is overwhelming. Opening the door to the back yard I take a deep breath of air, smelling the scent of apples from the tree and the thick dust that hangs in the air from the coal mines, making the crisp morning air feel heavy in my lungs.

District 12 – where I live – is the coal mining District. The 12 districts of Panem ruled by The Capitol all have some purpose that they fulfill, something that they must do for The Capitol. I am not sure what the others do as we are never told at school, and maybe the teachers don't know themselves anyway. We only get taught about coal.

I take another breath, trying to calm the emotions that are going crazy inside my head. Spinning around and round like they are having a race, to see which will drive me crazy first. "Relax" I tell myself "she will be fine, nothing will happen she won't get picked". Though I know this is not strictly speaking true. She has a higher chance than anyone of being picked.

Walking out the back yard I turn and head to the meadow, the one lovely place left in District 12. It borders both the 'Town' and the 'Seam', the poorer area of District 12. Not that those who live in town fare much better. I don't know why I head there, maybe to get away from the thick air that surrounds me, though I know this is basically impossible. I am just placing my feet on the edge of the meadow when I see her. Katniss. Coming out of her home, a small dark dirty looking place that doesn't look like it houses one person let alone three, but I only see her, looking around and then heading in my direction. She hasn't seen me through, she is heading for the woods this I know without question, everyone does. I turn around and head home anyway, despite her not seeing me as I get the feeling like I am somehow intruding on her space and don't have the right to be in the meadow at this time.

Just as I am about to turn away, my mind still reeling from Katniss I spot another figure entering the woods. From this distance I can only make out the shape of the man, tall and thin carrying something in his hands. I don't have to look any harder than a glace to know that it will be Gale, going to meet her. I'm jealous of him not because he can hunt, but because he gets to spend time with her. See her laugh and smile and happy. It's crazy, jealous of someone I don't know. Stupid Peeta I think. Grow up. I shake my head and carry on walking trying once again to rid it of emotions that are running about, but no matter what I do they won't go away. They never go away.

The door is still open when I get back, I must have forgotten to close it when I left. I walk in expecting to find my mother and for her to start shouting at me for disappearing, and leaving the back door to my family's livelihood open for anyone to walk into but instead only find my father. He's sitting at the small table in the back his head in his hands, facing towards the squirrel that sits upon it.

"Did Gale trade with you?" I ask, knowing it was him, having just seen him carrying something into the woods. My father nods and that is the end of the conversation, no words just silence and a slight nod of the head. Same as always. I start to pull out the bread that's in the oven taking care not to drop it in the fire below. "What did you give him" I ask, "Loaf of bread" my father replies, unusually as he's normally a quiet man "for him and the girl" I nod, my actions of automatic, my thoughts going haywire as I realize that he too cares for her. Putting more bread in the oven to bake I close the door behind me. Taking the still warm loafs I had just taken out I put them in another small room of to the side to cool completely before opening time. Then I walk to the table and pluck the squirrel off it "It will need skinned" is all I say as I go back outside carrying the dead animal with me.

Skinning the squirrel is easy, but it allows me to have some more peace before the day starts, before I'm forced to stand in line and wait as the names of the unfortunate are called. The ones who were reaped. Once the squirrel is skinned and cooked, the rest of my family is up. We eat stale bread from yesterday, we don't earn enough to eat the fresh bread, and share out the squirrel. Me and my father never say where it came from, there's no need we all know just to bring it up would be like inviting death in this house. Especially with my mother. We then busy ourselves with the bakery until it is time to go. Though for me there's not enough work to keep my mind of what is coming.

The reaping. What every child who turning twelve this year will be dreading and everyone else up to the age of eighteen will be trying to forget. One boy and one girl from the ages 12 to 18 will be picked today, may they be Seam or Town kids I can't say all I know is, is that they will be in what the Capitol calls The Hunger Games, our punishment for rebelling against them almost 80 years ago, and they will most likely never come home to those waiting for them, who watch the TV screens hoping that they make it one more day in the arena, hoping that they will come home.

The main square is filling up fast when we arrive. I peel away from my mother and father while me and my brother continue to where the Peacekeepers are waiting to register us, to make a note of who turned up and who didn't. After the small drop of blood is taken I am ushered into the area meant for sixteen year olds, while my brother is taken to the section for eighteen year olds. I envy him as after this year he is done, he never has to stand here again waiting with dread to hear if his name is called. The boys who stand beside me don't say anything and nobody tries to fix that. I glance around first at the stage where Effie Trinket, the one who reads the names, is talking to Mayor Undersee. I then glance around the other boys and girls waiting for the reaping to start, hoping to catch sight of Katniss before it all begins.

It is about to start. The music blares and the terrible video that they play every year appears on the screen. I don't watch but continue to search the crowd for Katniss. My heart beating in my ears.

Just before Effie gets up to start her speech I catch of sight of Katniss talking to her little sister Primrose. It's her first year and she looks terrified. Katniss is trying to sooth her and tell her it will be alright. I see them leave each other and go and stand in the designated areas for their age. Looking back towards the stage I see that Haymitch has arrived. He is the only living victor that District 12 has, and a huge embarrassment he is to District 12. I have only seen a couple of times in the market and then every year at the reaping of course but I don't pay much attention to him. He is drunk but that's no surprise he is always drunk and hollers and staggers about the stage – tries to give Effie a hug – and finally falling into the chair that is there for him.

Effie looks startled by Haymitch's drunken act and stands looking at him in horror before she regains her composure. She launches into her silly little speech about how happy she is to be here and how she is looking forward to the coming games and how lucky those chosen as tributes are. Even though we all know she hates it, hates being in charge of District 12 the worse District in the eyes of the Capitol, and heads to the girl's ball saying in her silly high accent, "Lady's first" like she does every year. Plunging her hand into the ball she grabs a slip of paper from it and heads back to the middle of the stage. The name that she calls is not Katniss. I am relieved until I realize, that although it wasn't her, she will go, she will be the girl tribute for District 12, because the name that was called was her sisters.

Primrose Everdeen.