Short chapter, but necessary. Longer chapters in the works!

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~TLD

Chapter Two: And Back Again

In retrospect, the smile had been rather short-lived.

Only moments later, Peeta heard the quick, light footfalls he would come to associate with the doctor, patter across the stone floor.

But even as he hardened his face into the deadened mask that could mean anything, Peeta felt the smile within, like a fire burning in his heart. She's safe! He let the mantra fill his chest, blocking the fear of President Snow's threat and anchoring him to the one thing he held dear. The only thing that mattered.

The doctor didn't speak, at first. With a series of instruments Peeta couldn't have placed even if he had seen them properly, the doctor appeared to be taking measurements – his heart rate, blood pressure, temperature… Peeta felt a wave of confusion breaking through his control, and with the tiniest of sidelong glances, Peeta stole a peek at the doctor. His face, or her face, Peeta thought wryly, was obscured by a facemask and overlarge spectacles, but somehow the doctor saw Peeta's glance.

"You appear to be in excellent health, despite the Games," a clear, feminine voice chimed.

Peeta raised an eyebrow at the ceiling, the question evident in his glare.

"We wouldn't want to have you slip away from us before we uncovered your secrets, now would we?" she continued, her sweet voice curling around the menacing words with a sickening caress.

And with that she laid a soft hand on Peeta's forehead, caressing his temple and trailing a line of goosebumps down his jawline. Peeta repressed a shudder.

"Sleep well, my dear Peeta," she murmured, "Tomorrow you will have a choice."

She leaned into him, pulling the surgical mask away from her lips. Out of the corner of his eye, Peeta saw they were a startling purple-red. Peeta held his breath and closed his eyes, fighting the sudden vision of teeth slicing into his flesh.

"I can give you anything you want," she whispered, "Fame, beauty, riches, pleasure…" her soft voice crooned in his ear.

Peeta locked his jaw to keep from wincing.

"Or," she continued, "I can give you pain unlike any you have ever imagined."

He felt her smile against his skin. "The choice is yours."

"You've seen some of my work already, you know?" she spoke, rising from Peeta's side and re-covering her mouth and nose with the mask. "The mutts, the trackerjacket venom, even the jabberjays…" she sighed, "But you, clever boy, you've survived them all." She giggled.

The sound turned Peeta's stomach.

Suddenly she sobered, "Well, with the help of, oh bother, what was her name? Ah yes, Katniss…" she let Katniss' name slide into a hiss. Her voice turned sinister, "We'll just have to see how you do on your own, without her."

Peeta grit his teeth. She was trying to goad him into speech, into anger. He felt his blood boiling, but he took a deep breath through his nose to try and calm himself.

"So sad, really," she continued, her voice pulling up in mock remorse, "After all you've been through, the two star-crossed lovers from District 12," she sneered at the term, "after all that, and you're still going to die alone." She smiled. "Because, believe me, Peeta, we will find Katniss. And she will beg for death, LONG before we ever give her that gift."

He couldn't help himself. Really, it'd all become too much. And with a growl he tried to force himself up from the table. AH! If only his hands were free! He'd wring the doctor's neck without even a moment's hesitation.

But as it was, he only managed a growl and a lunge before his head was back on the table, her right hand forcing him to lie still and her left pulling a syringe from somewhere on her person.

"Sleep well, Peeta," she whispered, bringing the syringe to the throbbing artery in his neck and stabbing it home with unnecessary force.

And as the plunger fell, Peeta felt an immediate sensation of dizziness spreading through him. As his eyesight swam and his consciousness failed, he heard her voice as if from a great distance.

"Tomorrow we begin, and, I promise you, by the time we're through, you'll wish you had never laid eyes on that mongrel Katniss and her pathetic rabble of a rebellion."

And then, darkness.