Greetings, loyal followers! I present to you chapter 2 of "The Whipping"! This chapter was inspired by Colbie Caillat's wonderful song, Brighter Than The Sun.
Thank you to: inchauster, firefoxxe, jessy0622, i am Fire-jay, fuzzysocksandwriting, i-love-peeta-and-katniss, Guest, and FullDarkNoLight for your WONDERFUL reviews!
CHAPTER 2
"No!" I scream, flinging myself between the Peacekeeper and Peeta. The whip comes down striking me on the side of my face. The agony radiating from my face causes me to fall to my knees. With me out of the way he focuses his attention back to Peeta and raises the whip again. I jump back to my feet ignoring the pain from the lash. "Stop it!" I shriek. "You're killing him!"
"Hold it!" Haymitch's voice booms across the square. Haymitch comes over and lifts my chin. "Oh, excellent. She's got a photo shoot next week modeling wedding dresses." Then he gestures to Peeta. "And what do you think you're doing to her fiancée?"
Recognition flickers in his eyes as he looks closer at me. "She interrupted a punishment of a confessed criminal. It's not my problem"
"Oh, well that makes everything better." Haymitch scoffs, sarcasm dripping off his voice. "Do you think this will be camera ready in a week?"
"That's not my problem." He sneers, but I can detect an edge of worry over whipping two victors.
"Well it's about to be. The first call I make when I home is to the Capitol." At this point I drown out the conversation and kneel next to Peeta. I quickly check his pulse, it's very faint. If we don't get him to my mother soon he'll die of blood loss.
At this point I tune back into the argument and hear the new Head Peacekeeper say, "Get him out of here. And tell him if he poaches again his girlfriend won't be able to stop me." He stalks away and I begin to untie Peeta's hands. Haymitch hands me his knife and I cut the ropes. Peeta collapses to the ground.
In place of a stretcher a lady sold us a board from her clothing shop. We quickly lay Peeta on top of it and go as fast as we can to Victor's Village. On our way one of Peeta's old friends, Delly, pieces the story together for us. Peeta was just walking to the bakery and the new Head Peacekeeper, who is apparently called Thread, stopped him and told him to show him what was in the bag, which had my turkey inside of it. He immediately arrested him and was brought to the square, where he was forced to confess his crimes. He was sentenced to a whipping to be carried out immediately. By the time I had got there he had been whipped at least forty times, but had passed out around thirty.
"I'm so glad you got there in time! I thought he was going to kill him." Delly says, practically in tears.
"Delly, why don't you go tell his family what happened," I tell her. She nods and runs off.
Soon it begins to snow and the Victor's Village is in our sights. My mother opens the door and a golden light falls on the scene. "New Head," Haymitch says and that's all the explanation she needs. She quickly clears the kitchen table and puts a sterile white cloth on it. We carefully set the board that holds Peeta on the table. She and Prim quickly prepare all sorts of different remedies and concoctions. I am told to put snow on my cheek and do so.
"Can you save him?" I ask my mother. She says nothing and begins to clean the torn up flesh on Peeta's back.
Haymitch pats me on the shoulder. "Don't worry. There was a lot of whipping before Cray. She's the one that saved them." I nod and sit in a stool next to the table and hold onto his hand. Feeling his pulse on my fingers is calming me down, reassuring me that he's alive. Wordlessly I watch my mother work on his back.
Once the last bandage is in place, a moan escapes his lips. I stroke his hair, not bothered by the dried blood in it, and whisper soothing words in his ear. My mother and Prim go through the meager supply of pain killers we have. They decide to give him some kind of herbal mix. "That wouldn't be enough." I say. They just stare at me. "That won't be enough. That will barely knock out a headache."
"We'll combine it with sleep syrup, Katniss. He'll manage it." My mother explains.
"Just give him the medicine! Give it to him! How do you know how much pain he's in?" I scream at her. Peeta stirs a little at the sound of my voice, which causes him to make some kind of agonized sound. I'm instantly at his side. I gently stroke his hand to calm him down. "Shh, it's alright, I'm right here."
The doorbell rings. I go to answer it and find Madge on the porch with a small box. "Use these for Peeta." I take the box and pry the lid off. Inside there are six vials of clear liquid. "They're my mother's. She said I could take them. Use them, please." Then she runs off before any of us can stop her.
"Thank you!" I call into the storm, hoping she'll hear me. I hurry back inside to the kitchen. I can see my mother gave Peeta the mix. I can also see that it didn't help with the pain at all. Peeta's teeth are gritted and his eyes are glazed with pain. It reminds me too much of when we were in the cave. I hand the box to my mother. "Madge just came by to give us these."
She takes one of the clear vials and shoots it into his arm. He immediately begins to relax.
"What is that stuff?" I ask.
"Morphling, it comes from the Capitol," she answers. After that everyone seems to tire out. After Prim makes us eat she and my mother go sleep and Haymitch goes home. Everyone must have realized that there was no point in trying to get me to go to bed and just left me sitting there next to Peeta.
I just sit there fiddling with his blonde curls. I go over to the sink and fill a bucket with water. I bring it over to him and start washing the blood out of his hair. While doing this I feel a surge of protectiveness for this boy, and some other feeling. Then I realize what that feeling is.
Love.
I love Peeta Mellark.
Now I realize that I've loved him for a long time and I just was too stupid to see it. While thinking of this, I'm reminded of a song that my father used to sing to me. When I ask him what it was about he told me that it was about realizing when you're in love. I start softly singing it.
Stop me on the corner
I swear you hit me like a vision
I, I, I wasn't expecting
But who am I to tell fate where it's supposed to go with it
Don't you blink you might miss it
See we got a right to just love it, or leave it,
You find it, and keep it
Cause it ain't every day you get the chance to say
Oh, this is how it starts, lightning strikes the heart
It goes off like a gun, brighter than the sun
Oh, we could be the stars, falling from the sky
Shining how we want, brighter than the sun
I've never seen it, I've found this love, I'm gonna feed it
You better believe I'm gonna treat it better than anything I've ever had cause you're so beautiful
Read it, it's signed and delivered lets seal it
Boy we go together like peanuts and payday and Marley and reggae
And everybody needs a get a chance to say
Oh, this is how it starts, lightning strikes the heart
It goes off like a gun, brighter than the sun
Oh, we could be the stars, falling from the sky
Shining how we want, brighter than the sun
"I was a goner from the start," Peeta murmurs. I brush the hair out of his face and look into those ice blue eyes. I get lost in them and realize that this is my fault. If I hadn't given him the turkey this wouldn't have happened.
"I'm so sorry," I whisper. I lean forward and kiss him. I break away and look into his loving blue eyes.
"Stay with me." I murmur.
"Always."
REVIEW! What should happen next? TELL ME!
RANDOM QUESTION: What District would you want to be from? Please be more creative and don't choose 12. I would probably be from District 7 or District 4. If you don't know what some of the Districts do then here is a handy list:
1- Luxury
2- Masonery (Weapons)
3- Electronics
4- Fishing
5- Power
6- Transportation
7- Lumber
8- Textiles
9- Grain
10- Livestock
11- Agriculture
12- Mining (Coal)
13- Graphite/Nuclear Materials
~shonti
