Chapter 1

I place the last card down, forming a card house. Then, I violently destroy the house, just like the Capitol destroyed my home. My district. My family. My old life. It's all gone. I'm a prisoner of the Capitol, now.

I won the seventy-fifth Hunger Games with a girl, Katniss Everdeen. I loved her. She pretended to love me to win the Games. It wasn't until the Victory Tour that we started talking again. Then they placed us in the Quarter Quell, a special Hunger Games, where other victors had to compete as tributes. Things didn't go the President's way. Some rebels rescued Katniss, and some other tributes from the arena. But not me.

The Capitol captured some tributes before the rebels could. One second I was killing Brutus, the male from District Two, thinking I'd lost Katniss. And then the explosions started, and I really did lose her. She's far away with the rebels, who want to use her to win the war.

I don't get to leave this room, unless I'm being questioned. But I didn't even know about the rebellion until the Capitol officials told me. My old mentor, Haymitch Abernathy knew. But he didn't tell me. If I would have know, I never would have let them separate us in the arena. Haymitch betrayed me.

Yesterday, I had a meeting with the President. Today I'll be interviewed by Caesar Flickerman, and I have to convince the rebels to stop fighting. I only agreed to do it once President Snow promised me he wouldn't hold anything against Katniss. Although I don't trust he'll actually do this if Katniss was captured.

My old prep team from the Games, start to prepare me for the interview. My prep team and stylist, Portia are prisoners, too. Just because they were involved with District Twelve.

Portia comes in and helps me get dressed.

"So, did they rescue Cinna for Katniss?" I ask. Cinna was Katniss's stylist.

Portia gives me a look. "No." she says. "They killed him for creating that mockingjay dress."

Then the Peacekeepers drag me to the interview stage. And then the interview starts. "So... Peeta... Welcome back." says Caesar.

"I bet you thought you'd done your last interview with me, Caesar." I say with a fake smile.

"I confess, I did," says Caesar. "The night before the Quarter Quell... Well, who ever thought we'd see you again?"

I frown. "It wasn't part of my plan, that's for sure," I say.

"I think it was clear to all of us what your plan was. To sacrifice yourself in the arena so that Katniss Everdeen and your child could survive." he says.

My child, my last effort to have the Quarter Quell canceled. My child was a lie, of course.

"That was it. Clear and simple." I say. "But other people had plans as well."

"Why don't you tell us about the last night in the arena? Help us sort a few things out." says Caesar.

"That last night... to tell you about that last night... well, first of all, you have to imagine how it felt in the arena. It was like being an insect trapped under a bowl filled with steaming air. And all around you, jungle... green and alive and ticking. The giant clock ticking away your life. Every hour promising some new horror. You have to imagine that in the past two days, sixteen people have died- some defending you. At the rate things are going, the last eight will be dead by morning. Save one. The victor. And your plan is that it won't be you." I say.

"Once you're in the arena, the rest of the world becomes very distant. All the people you loved or cared about almost cease to exist. The pink sky and the monsters in the jungle and the tributes who want your blood become your final reality, the only one that ever mattered. As bad as it makes you feel, you're going to have to do some killing, because in the arena, you only get one wish. And it's very costly." I say.

"It costs your life," says Caesar.

I shake my head. "Oh, no. It costs a lot more than your life. To murder innocent people? It costs everything you are." I say remembering.

"Everything you are." Caesar repeats.

"So you hold onto your wish. And that last night, yes, my wish was to save Katniss. But even without knowing about the rebels, it didn't feel right. Everything was too complicated. I found myself regretting I hadn't run off with her earlier in the day, as she had suggested. But there was no getting out of it at that point." I say.

"You were too caught up in Beetee's plan to electrify the salt lake," says Caesar.

I run my fingers through my hair. "Too busy playing allies with each other. I should have never let them separate us!" I say suddenly. "That's when I lost her."

"When you stayed at the lightning tree, and she and Johanna Mason took the coil of wire down to the water," he says.

"I didn't want to!" I say. "But I couldn't argue with Beetee without indicating we were about to break away from the alliance. When that wire was cut, everything went insane. I can only remember bits and pieces. Trying to find her. Watching Brutus kill Chaff. Killing Brutus myself. I know she was calling my name. Then the lightning bolt hit the tree, and the force field around the arena... blew out."

Caesar gives me a look. "Katniss blew it out, Peeta. You've seen the footage."

Yes, Katniss technically blew the force field out, and everyone thinks Katniss was always part of the rebellion. But I know Katniss. She didn't know.

"She didn't know what she was doing." I say. "None of us could follow Beetee's plan. You can see her trying to figure out what to do with that wire,"

Caesar puts his hands up. "All right. It just looks suspicious. As if she was part of the rebel's plan all along." he says.

I stand up, and lean towards Caesar. "Really? And was it part of her plan for Johanna to nearly kill her? For that electric shock to paralyze her? To trigger the bombing?" I yell. Katniss wouldn't do what she did if she would've known that District Twelve would be bombed shortly after. She wouldn't have blown out the force field if she'd know that a lot of people wouldn't survive. That my family would be killed. "She didn't know Caesar! Neither of us knew anything except that we were trying to keep each other alive!"

"Okay." says Caesar. And I run my fingers through my hair and sit back down. Caesar studies me carefully. "What about your mentor, Haymitch Abernathy?" he asks.

"I don't know what Haymitch knew." I say.

Caesar tilts his head. "Could he be part of the conspiracy?" he asks.

"He never mentioned it," I say.

"What does your heart tell you?" he asks.

"That I shouldn't have trusted him," I say. Caesar gestures for me to continue. "That's all." I say.

Caesar pats my shoulder. "We can stop now if you want." he says.

I frown. "Was there more to discuss?" I ask.

"I was going to ask your thoughts on the war, but if you're too upset..." says Caesar.

President Snow told me have to encourage the rebels to give up. Meaning I have to continue this interview. "Oh, I'm not too upset to answer that." I say.

I take a deep breath and consider my words. Then, I look straight into the camera. "I want to tell everyone watching- whether you're on the Capitol or rebel side- to stop for just a moment and think about what this war could mean. For human beings. We almost went extinct fighting each other before. Now our numbers are even fewer. Our conditions more tenuous. Is this really what we want to do? Kill ourselves off completely? In the hopes that- what? Some decent species will inherit the remains of the earth?" I say thinking about what this rebellion has already done to my district.

"I don't really... I'm not sure I'm following..." says Caesar.

I nod. "We can't fight one another, Caesar," I say. "There won't be enough of us left to keep going. If everybody doesn't lay down their weapons- and I mean, as in very soon- it's all over anyway."

"So... you're calling for a cease-fire?" asks Caesar.

I nod. "Yes. I'm calling for a cease-fire," I say. "Now why don't we ask the guards to take me back to my quarters so I can build another hundred card houses?"

"All right." says Caesar. "I think that wraps it up. So back to our regularly scheduled programming."