"Prepare Him."
Chapter Two
Peeta's POV
No. This is not happening. I might be able to handle it. At least I'll get to do it with Katniss by my side. Katniss…. Katniss…. Katniss! She'll never survive this! In fact, I have to catch her as she falls to the ground in a faint no doubted caused by shock.
The Capitol…. It couldn't be this cruel? And it's forcing District Thirteen into the Games as well. Twenty-six tributes instead of twenty-four. I heard they will choose two random citizens to be mentors.
I shake Katniss gently and she wakes up, a little confused. Then she remembers the President's speech and crumples to the ground, weeping. People gather around us, whispering, some are compassionate, but mostly all I hear are rumors starting.
She's over-tired from all the partying she's been doing.
Someone shot her with a tranquilizer.
She has internal bleeding.
She's pregnant again.
This last one shocks me to a point where I pause, paralyzed. I did lie to the Capitol before. Everyone thinks she had a miscarriage during the Quarter Quell. It's been months. She could be pregnant.
Well, not really. At least, not with my baby. The truth is, Katniss and I have never slept together, although all of Panem thinks differently. Even her mother and Prim. They think we got married privately.
I hold Katniss until her sobs slow to a few tears and walk her back to her house in the Victor's Village.
I had known the Capitol would do something awful; something else to keep fear alive in the districts. I just didn't know how awful.
President Snow's POV
This is perfect. The reaction from the districts, especially the victors, is perfect. The Capitol adores me even more, now, and despises the districts at a new level as well, and it's perfect. I am going down in history. I am the president who won the second rebellion. I am the president who prevented another. I am the president everyone will learn about in school. This is all perfect.
I have a screen in my office that allows me to watch the districts' reactions. Katniss's, the main victim of this new law, was just as I was hoping for. She's a mess. Weeping, distressed, and possibly going a little bit mad. I have one more surprise for her. Something that, if everything goes as planned, is going to push Katniss Everdeen over the edge, right before she has to mentor the female tribute in the next Games. If everything goes as planned, District Twelve is sure not to have a victor this year.
I push a button and a microphone appears out of my desk. I speak into it in a soft, cool tone. "Prepare him."