Katniss POV
I lean against my front door, taking slow deep breathes and slide down to the floor. With my knees tucked into my chest, I rest my elbows on my knees and hold my head. To my surprise, I let out a laugh, and smile. He loves me, he still loves me. I don't know how long I sit there, leaning against the door, repeating those words to myself, because I still don't believe them. How could he still love me, let alone like me after what I did to him, after everything he's gone through. Peeta has gone through a literal and mental hell and back and has still manage to come back to me. I am awoken out of my trance when I hear the sound of metal on metal from the kitchen. I stand and rush in to find Greasy Sae kneeling over a pan and tonight's stew.
"Sae, what hap-" I try to ask, but she interrupts me.
"Don't worry about it, dear. Leave me be." Sae said as she went to pick up the pot, only to drop it again. I rushed to her side and helped her up, and brought her to my rocker.
"Sae, what's wrong?" I ask her while staring sternly into her eyes. She looks back at me for a while, but breaks eye contact before she speaks.
"It just arthritis, dear, nothing to be worried about. Not stop obsessing over me and let me clean up my mess." She said and began to stand. I put my hands on her shoulders and pushed her softly back into the chair.
"No Sae, I'll clean it up and make dinner for a change." I said confidently, but the most I'll probably be able to cook is pasta. I walk into the kitchen and start making the pasta to the best of my ability. Arthritis, wouldn't I've known if she had arthritis? There must be something more going on here, but I don't question her further. I put the pot of water on the stove and turn on the heat. I walk I to the living room and find Sae starting a fire.
"Sae, come on let me do it." I push.
"It's almost done," she pauses while stoking the fire, "There, see dear I can do things myse-" Her words were halted by a withdrawal of her body. Her arms came to her chest, her face scrunched, and she fell to her knees with a gasp. As I run the few yards to her side, she breaths heavily. I hold her under her elbows, and help her to the couch. I don't know what to do or where to bring her. There is no hospital in District 12, and my mother is in District 4, wait. I know, I'll call my mother.
"I need to get you some help, somehow." I say to Sae, but she only nods.
I rush to my phone, which is barely ever used, and hesitate. I haven't seen let alone talked to my mother in weeks. But I quickly get over myself because this is what Sae needs. I pick up the phone and disk my mother's number. After the eighth ring, right before I decide to hang up, my mother answers, "Hello?" I take a deep breath and answer her with,
"Hello, mom, its Katniss," I'm holding my breath, waiting for her to answer, but she doesn't for a few seconds.
"Oh my God, Katniss, baby girl, how are you?" She asks, with her voice cracking at girl.
"I'm fine, mom, really, but I need to talk to you about something."
"Of course dear, but really, Katniss how are you?" She asks in a hushed voice. I've had enough, Sae is more important than how I'm feeling.
"Mother!" I yell into the phone, and it's is quiet that I think she halted her breath. "I didn't call to chit-chat, Sae is sick, I don't know what's wrong with her. She's been having tremors and no more than five minutes ago she... she had some sort of pain that made her body pull itself inward and she fell." I say this quickly, hoping to get every word out before I got interrupted.
"Oh dear, no, are you sure? Any other symptoms? Fever, cold sweats, vomiting?" My mother asks anxiously.
"Let me check," I put the phone on the counter and make my way to Sae. She's laying on my couch, with her eyes closed. I walk over and feel her forehead, she's burning up, and has suddenly acquired a horrendous cough. I go to pick up the phone again.
"Mom, Sae's burning up and she sounds as if she's coughing up a lung." My mom doesn't reply for what seems like hours, but finally I hear her voice again.
"Katniss, I'm sending one of our doctors there by hover craft but still the fastest that he'll get there is around four in the morning, but by train he wouldn't get there till about six tomorrow evening, so it is much faster."
"Wait, why aren't you coming in?"
"You know why I can't, Katniss. Just try to freeze out the fever until, the doctor gets there. His names Dr. Fritz, and don't worry about going to get him from the train station, I've handled that." I am disappointed she isn't coming herself, and I know it's hard for her, but doesn't she realize I'd hard for me too? That I need her now more than ever?
"Yeah, okay mom, whatever's easiest. Thanks for your help, love you."
"You too." And she hung up. Our first conversation in forever is over. But before I dwell to much on it, I go to the kitchen and get a pitcher of water it kill the fire. I open all the windows and turn the thermos stat down. I wet a wash cloth with cold water and place it on Sae's head. And wet a few more cloths and put them in a bowl of ice.
I'm doing my best to keep Sae's fever as low as possible, and it's working somewhat. As I wait I just sit in my richer next to her and look out the windows. Occasionally changing out her cloth and the ice.
I start to nod off around what I think is two a.m., and eventually I drift into a dream...
I'm alone in my front lawn. The sky is a dark grey, as if there's a storm coming. The winds blows past me and I get a whiff of what I believe to be the most toxicating smell. Roses. Blood. Pure roses with blood all around. There us so much of it that I start to gag.
The smell consumes me and I feel the need to vomit. And I do, but at the same time I don't. I seem to not have anything in my stomach to upchuck.
But through the gagging, I can place this smell perfectly. It is associated with one of the people I hate most in this damned world. Snow. President Cornelius Snow. I look up and there he is, in the flesh.
And behind him are all of the people I love, dead and alive. Peeta, Prim, my father, Finnick, my mother, Haymitch, Gale. Snow walks behind Gale first, and says,
"This one will kill himself, because you drove him away." And as he said this Gale's eyes slid to the back of his head and Snow slight pushed him forward, dead.
"No! No, no, no, no, no! I didn't drive him out, he killed Prim I could never forgive him for that!"
But Snow pays me know mind and moves behind Haymitch, lays a hand on his shoulder and says,
"And this one will drink himself to death because of the horrible person you are." And Haymitch's body does the same as Gale's. This is excruciatingly painful. It's as if Snow is literally ripping my heart out.
Snow moves to my mother, "This next one here will overdose because the daughter she loved didn't make it." And down goes my mother. His words cut deep, the daughter she loved. On to Finnick.
"Now, this one's fun. Finnick here died for you, when you were on a fake mission. Because of your selfishness, His wife will grow old alone and his son will grow up fatherless." Finnick's body hits the ground with a klunk. This really hurts. Every word is like razors on my skin, and the worst part is I can't move to save any of the remaining three.
"Three. Your father had to work himself to the bone to make sure you would eat. Then one day," snow paused and a mine exploded behind them and my father fell to his knees, but Snow, Prim and Peeta hadn't moved and I had been blown backwards. "Two. Now, Miss. Everdeen, your young, innocent little sister died, yet again because of you. Because you couldn't save her." Another explosion and Prim laid face down on the ground.
"One. And finally, lovely Peeta, be minding his own business, but unfortunately with you around, and his beautiful mind will be ripped from him and replaced with a monster. He will turn to you," As Snow said this Peeta's head turned to look at me and I looked into his eyes. They were a dark, foggy blue. "He will walk towards you, muttering to himself about the mutt you really are.". It was as if Snow was narrating Peeta's movements.
"He will come at you with hands outstretched, and you will be too shocked to do anything about it. And he'll choke you." As Peeta does so, Snow continues. "When you finally die, Peeta will return, look at his work. He will be heartbroken, and hate himself so much, that he will kill himself, in the most self-harming way possible." As Snow says his last words, black spots crowd my vision. I claw at Peeta's hands but his grip doesn't falter.
I am awoken from violent shaking.
Peeta's POV
I'm facing my window, with a sketchpad in my lap and a pencil in my hand, spacing out. Thinking, mainly about Katniss and what she had asked me earlier this evening. It's almost three a.m., and I can't sleep. Normally, when I was in the capital, if I hadn't fallen asleep by midnight they would give me some sleeping pill. Which would knock me out for a while. Personally I think that they were afraid I would think too much and finally resolve to kill myself. Not that I would've, I needed to at least try to get back to Katniss.
I jump when I hear the sound of my pencil dropping to the floor. I look down and remember what I was drawing; how Katniss' hair looked just as she disappeared behind her door. Why would she ask me something like that, I thought she already knew the answer. Does she love me? No over course not, right?
I can't keep dwelling over this, it's most certainly unhealthy. I stand and walk into my kitchen, and pour myself a glass of water. I gulp it all down and pour myself another. I drink this one slower this time, while leaning back against the counter. That's when I heard it. A scream, mixed with a moan. And I know exactly whose scream it is.
I drop my glass and sprint out my door, or as fast as my leg will take me. I run the past the houses until I am in front of Katniss' and skip her stair three at a time, ultimately reaching the top n two steps. Hoping she forgot to lock her door, I reach for the handle and attempt to turn it. Damn. I think. It doesn't budge. In the house I can still hear her moans and screams. I run my hands through my hair as I walk around the house, looking for same form of entry. To my luck, the window above her sink is propped open.
I firmly place my hands on the sill and hoist myself up. I get my feet on the sill as well, but lose my balance and fall into Katniss' house, hitting my head on a cabinet on my way down. I land with a thud and rub my head. My thoughts quickly return to Katniss when I hear five or six incoherent words. I pretty much leap to the rocker she occupies just outside the kitchen, and I quickly take in my surroundings. A bowl of almost completely melted ice with rags in it as well, all the windows opened slightly- which I guess I missed when I was rushing to get it- the fans I can see turned on full blast, her in the rocker, and the most odd of all is Greasy Sae laying on her couch, with a rag on her forehead. Something is wrong with Greasy Sae, but before I worry about her, I need to worry about Katniss.
I kneel in front of her body, place my hands on her shoulders and softly shake them. I whisper,
"Katniss... Katniss," but all she does is mumble something. I shake her a little harder and say her name twice more, louder this time. Still I get no response. With one finally effort, I pull her away from the back rest so she won't hit her head when I shake her violently. As I do so I say her name a little quieter than a yell. She bolts upright, throwing me backwards. I can see the panic in her eyes, then relief when she realizes where she is. Then her eyes style on me, and hundreds of emotions cross her eyes. She scrambles to back up, which, I'll admit, hurts. Does she really still believe I'm a monster?
I stand and the fear in her eyes begins to subside. And to my surprise she walks toward me, looking be directly in the eyes. What is she hoping to see? She's less than a foot away from me know, we're sharing the breaths. She interrupted the silence by saying,
"Everyone left me. So feel free to leave too.". I am stunned by her assumption that I want to leave. I just got back. Literally less than twenty four hours ago. I scan her eyes for any glimpse of a joke, but see only seriousness. I counter,
"I would never leave you, not again, not ever." As I finish I quickly wrap my arms around her body and pull her into my chest. I can tell she sucks in a breath and stiffens, but as quickly as it appeared, it vanished, and she into my body. And with her fists by her chin, she starts to sob. Her knees buckle, but I don't her fall. Instead I move to the rocker and pull Katniss into my lap. Her sons continue to rack her body and I rock the two of us back and forth and whisper soothing to words to her. After about ten minutes of sobs, her crying begins to settle down.
"Hey, Katniss, I'm pretty sure I know the answer already, but do you want to talk about it?" And to my surprise, she nods her head. Before she starts, she takes a deep breathe.
"I was in my front lawn, and it started with his smell, Snow's smell." I could tell she was exhausted just by her voice.
"And then everyone I loved was in a line, and Snow was retelling me how they had died, blaming me, and also telling me how I will ultimately be the reason why everyone alive will die.". Wow, that makes for a tough night. She doesn't continue, but she lays her head on my chest. It's barely audible, but she asks,
"Peeta, will you stay with me?" And of course, I answer, "Always,".
So that's chapter dos, hoped you like it. I threw IN some everlark for all of you katpiss shippers out there (don't worry, I am too) I start school on tomorrow so it will start getting difficult to update this often, but I will do my best to do so once or twice a week. I love and appreciate you all.