What if Peeta unknowingly ate the poisonous nightlock berries? Would Katniss still win the Games?
Imagine if a little change had been made in the story of the 74th Hunger Games. Would Katniss and Peeta still win the Games?Or would an unlikely tribute be triumphant? Let's find out!
Peeta's P.O.V.
Katniss, my stubborn but beautiful comrade. I want to tell her exactly how much I love her, but I can't. Not here, not now. The type of love I have for her is not the kind we can use to woo the capitol. The real love I have for her is less intense than the one that is shown to the audience. Anyways, my current state is too weak and petty to give an impression. I am not even sure if she really loves me. Maybe it is all an act. A way to charm sponsors. And everyone knows that sponsors equals food and water. Is that all I am to this fiery girl? Some bread rolls and a cup of water? Am I just using her, too? Deep inside, I know that one of the main reasons we put on the romance act real thick is that it means more sponsors. I don't have time to think right now, though. I must stay alert.
Katniss sent me off into the woods with strict instructions to find roots and bring them back to our campsite. As I trudge through the dense bed of ferns along the riverbank, I begin to get angry. What nerve that girl has to treat me like a child. While she's off hunting real animals, here I am, looking for parsley to flavor our stew! Despite my leg injury, I can still operate fine!
I reach inside my jacket and pull out one of three knives I had stolen from a sleeping Cove while I was still working with the Careers. Even Katniss doesn't know about them. I thought she wouldn't trust me if she saw me carrying the weapons of one of our dead enemies. These knives are clearly designed to kill more than small woodland animals. I flick the blade around in my hand and sigh. Would I ever get the chance to use the knives? We still have two extremely deadly enemies to face. That sneaky girl with flaming red hair is one of them. What was her name? I can't seem to remember, but Katniss called her "Foxface," which suits her well. There is something unnerving about her, the way she creeps around without making a sound. I spotted her once, while I was camouflaged beside the riverbank. She ran right past me, waded into the river, and disappeared into the trees on the far riverbank.
The second tribute we most likely will have to face is Cato, from District Two. I was in an alliance with him and the other Careers earlier in the Games. I have seen him kill. He is skilled, but half his power comes from the confidence he has. Watching him walking purposefully toward his next victim, raising his sword in a battle stance makes every tribute's will crumble. And he finds the most cruel ways to kill his prey. He cut the stomach of one girl in a criss-cross pattern, causing all her intestines to spill out. He broke both legs on one boy before decapitating him. Everyone he targeted he killed. Everyone except me. I know that he has an especially painful death planned out for me. I grip Clove's knife tighter.
Suddenly, I hear a stick snap in a nearby bush. I grip my knife like I had seen Cato do many times before and charge into the bush. I run straight through it and end up in a clearing beside the river. I calm down and turn around in time to see a rabbit run out of the previously mentioned bush and race off into the dark forest. I laugh in relief that I didn't need to face another tribute and lean against a tree.
My hand hangs wrist-deep in a berry bush beside the tree. I examine the berries. They are dark blue and round hanging in clusters. My mood brightens. I can collect these and bring them back to Katniss. I feel ashamed of thinking I was being hunted by Cato, and, even though she didn't see it happen, I still want to prove to her that I wasn't a fool. I taste-test one berry to see if they were sweet, and I was delighted by their sweet flavor. They left a fizzy feeling in my throat. Only a couple minutes after I start collecting berries do I start to realize something is wrong.
A sharp pain in my chest causes me to fall to the ground, coughing. I yell out, "Katniss! Katniss! Help!" I start to see red.
In a few moments, Katniss is by my side. She looks at the berries spilling out of my hand and cries out in anguish. Then she looks up at the sky.
"Please, send us the antidote for nightlock!" she yells. I know she is talking to our sponsors. "Please hurry if you want Peeta to live!" She looks down at me, tears in her eyes. "Peeta, what were you thinking? You should have told me before you ate any strange berries."
I feel myself getting weaker by the second. I feebly reach over and touch her hand. "I'm sorry, Katniss. I was foolish. Just in case I don't make it, I want to know that I love you."
Tears stream down her face, landing on my jacket. "Of course. I always knew you loved me. Don't worry. The antidote will get here in time." Her eyes tell a different story. I could take up to ten minutes for that little parachute to land here. I don't have that much time. I felt tired, so tired. I started to close my eyes.
"No, don't go, Peeta," wailed Katniss. "Stay with me!" She gripped my jacket and shook me. I tried to keep my eyes open, but I couldn't. I was slipping away from her, and I couldn't do anything about it.
Sudden movement behind Katniss made my eyes snap wide open again. It was Foxface! She walks slowly towards Katniss, knife in hand. I open my mouth to warn my beautiful comrade, but I seem to have lost my voice. My alarmed expression warns her of an attacker, but a few seconds too late. As Katniss's head turns, Foxface slices her throat. Katniss gasps and collapses on the ground, a halo of blood forming around her head. She turns to me and mouths the words: Goodbye, boy with the bread. Foxface makes one final stab in the center of Katniss's chest. Katniss's eyes roll back up into her head. Her cannon fires.
Foxface looks at me and laughs heartily, like killing us was a joke. Then she stops and leans in close to me.
"Thanks to you, I am still alive," she says, looking me straight in the eyes. "I would have eaten those poison berries if I hadn't seen what they did to you. Your pretty little girlfriend would still be alive." Tears well up in my eyes. "And you had a good chance of winning, too! You two made a perfect couple." She pretends to sob, drying imaginary tears. "I'm sure that somebody somewhere is crying for the would-haves, could-haves, and should-have of this dreadful situation, but it's a simple fact that romance doesn't last in this arena."
Just now, a silver parachute attached to a small white box lands on the ground a couple feet away. Foxface snatches it up, and examines it greedily. "Ooohhh! A package for me?" she says as she pops it open. She pulls out a glass vial with a red liquid inside. She stares at it for a few moments before a grin spreads across her face. "Oh, the antidote for that dreadful berry's poison!" She starts to get angry. "For you, of course! I have never gotten a package from a sponsor, not one! You and that archery whiz must have gotten dozens of packages, huh? You must have had it pretty good, getting baked ham right out of the oven for the past couple days. I have been starving, having a handful of dried fruit a day! Probably nobody, including my own mother and father is rooting for me! Do you know what it's like to be called a freak by your own parents? To not have anything to live for? You know what, I think I'm going to keep this pretty little bottle for myself." She stands up, putting the vial, my only hope for survival, back in the box, and puts the box in her backpack.
"Ta-ta, lover boy. I've got a Hunger Games to win!" she calls to me as she strides off into the woods.
The last thing I ever see is a flash of red hair disappear into the forest.