I am much happier with this chapter. My last one bothered me so much that I just gave in and posted it. I think this chapter is much closer to what I'm capable of writing. Thank you for sticking around with this story yet.
Where am I? This can't be right? Something is digging into my back. My eyes shot open, the sun blinding me. None of this is familiar. Even though my whole body hurt, my leg and the pounding in my head tore through me. Reaching my hand up to touch my head, it felt sticky. The pain in my head screamed, my hand gently feeling around. Pulling my shaking hand away, I noticed the red covering my fingers.
What the hell happened? "You idiot! Get away from the tracks!"
Tracks? A brunette woman was running towards me, her arms flailing. "The train will be coming through soon! Get away from the tracks!"
What was I supposed to do? A random woman was running towards me and I'm bleeding from the head. I tried to figure out where I was, but nothing was familiar. My leg caught my attention, bent unnaturally. Great, how the fuck am I supposed to move?
"Move!" The woman shouted again. I didn't know what she was talking about, there wasn't a train even in sight.
"I can't!" I shouted back. There was no way in hell I was going to try and stand on this leg. The girl seemed to be convinced of danger, but I didn't see any.
She stopped for only a moment. "Peeta?" Now she was running towards me even faster. "What the hell are you doing out here?"
Doing out where? And who the hell is Peeta? If she didn't slow down she was going to slam right into me. What is this woman's problem?
She slowed down and sat at my side. "What happened to you, Peeta? We don't have time. I have to move you away from the tracks. Any moment the train will come through."
"What train? There isn't one in sight." I noted. The tracks seemed to go on forever, and neither direction showed any evidence of a train. I noticed the two axes attached to her belt and pulled away from her touch.
"What are you doing? Going to finish the job?" I asked. I crawled away from her the best I could, moving closer into the tracks. My leg followed along limply, pain pouring through me with every movement. Someone had to have attacked me. There's no other explanation, and now this woman is here to kill me off.
"What the hell are you talking about?" She bent over me, looking like she actually cared. "Peeta, seriously, you're going the wrong way. You have to get off the tracks."
"Quit calling me Peeta!" Anger suddenly filled me and vanished just as quickly. The shock on her face somehow told me she wasn't a threat. There was silence between us when she suddenly made a grab for my uninjured leg. "Don't touch me!"
She pulled me painfully off the tracks. I watched as my injured leg followed sickly behind me. I caught a hand on the edge of the track and pulled against her. "Don't think I'll just give up!"
"Peeta, quit being stupid!" She yanked hard on my leg, both of my hands clinging tightly to the iron track. For a moment we were at a stalemate. My blood slicked hand slipped and the woman had won. She dragged me at least another 10 feet from the tracks. I clawed against her and tried my best to kick against her hold on my ankle.
She suddenly dropped my leg and pinned herself against my chest. "What the hell is wrong with you? Do you have a death wish? Why are you in District 7? Forget that, what the hell happened to you?"
She didn't know? District 7? "Wouldn't you like to know…" I retorted, pushing myself against her weight on top of me. Without my other leg, I was helpless against her.
"Stop fighting me!" She shouted and pinned me hard against the ground again. "Let me look at you."
I stopped fighting her for a moment and tried to identify her. Who was she? Why did she act like she knew me?
"Peeta… Your head." She touched my head gently but the pain surged from her touch and I pulled away. She let go away and stood. She looked at my leg, still bent limply. Taking out one of her axes from her belt, she swung it menacingly.
Cringing, I tried to crawl away again. "I'm not going to let you kill me!"
"Peeta, there was a time when I tried that. You're not my enemy anymore." She grabbed my leg again and held me in place. "And stop crawling towards the damn tracks!"
I kicked against her again trying to free myself. I felt like a trapped rat and she was the cat playing with me. "I'm trying to help you, you dumb fuck!"
I stopped my crawling and looked up at her. "Then what the hell are you doing with the damn ax?"
"A splint, dumb ass." She yanked her belt off and aligned the ax with my leg and tied her belt around the two. While she was mending to my leg, the ground started to tremble. Trying to stabilize myself, I reached out around me. She yanked on my leg hard and I shouted in pain. My shout masked by the train that suddenly appeared out of nowhere; it's passing lasting only seconds and filling the air with a deafening noise. Loud enough to distract me from the raging pain centered around my leg and the woman's touch. The train disappeared and the air settled leaving us in silence only interrupted by my grunts.
"Guess you weren't lying about the train, then." I mocked as she finished with my splint and moved back to my head.
"What the hell did you think would happen on train tracks?" She sarcastically added and tried to clean the blood matted on my head. "Damn, Peeta. Thought you were smarter than that."
"Why do you keep calling me that?" I started to trust her more. After all she did save my life, even against my will apparently. One thing bothered me though. She seemed to know me, but I had no idea who she was. "And… Who are you?"
She stopped wiping at my head with part of her shirt and gave me an inquisitive look. "How hard did you hit your head? You're loosing it."
She attempted to start cleaning my wound when I pushed her hand away. "No, seriously. Who are you?"
"Peeta…" She stopped looking as if she didn't know how to explain. My trust for her was starting to vanish at her contemplation. "I'm Johanna. Don't you remember me?"
Johanna? I shook my head at her. The name didn't register with me at all. "I'm not your favorite person, we weren't exactly allies until the end. I can't believe you forgot about me."
"Allies? End of what?" I asked starting to panic.
"Peeta…" She had that look in her eyes again, a look that made me question the way I treated her earlier. How could someone who cares enough to help me be all that bad?
"Please quit calling me that." I muttered.
"What would you rather me call you?" Johanna scowled. "I don't much care for my name either, but I'm stuck with it."
"My name is Peeta?" Despite not knowing my own name, the question was still something that didn't sound right. Who the hell doesn't know who they are.
"You don't remember anything?" Johanna asked.
"Of course I do." I answered instinctively and then paused. Wait, no I don't. I don't remember anything. I was to busy thinking about Johanna trying to kill me that it never sank in. Where the hell am I? How did I get here? Most importantly, who the hell am I?
She held me down as I started to thrash in my confusion. "I'll take that as a no." I felt myself calm down as she ran a hand through my hair. "Don't expect me to do this every time you have a fit. It's not me."
Her hands in my hair grounded me. Reaching around her hips, I pulled her on top of me. Her yelp and the pain in my leg made me jump; her slap brought some clarity back to me.
"What the fuck, Peeta?" Johanna shouted and stood and continued to mutter. "Try to be nice, Johanna. He's a friend, Johanna… Fuck this shit, I'm no good at this shit. Make a pass at me again, and your leg will be the least of your worries. And Cato would be absolutely pissed and I'd probably die to. I'm not ready to die for you. Not anymore."
"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked finding myself lost in her mumbles.
"It's probably better if you don't remember…" Johanna muttered again and turned her back to me. "Some of us don't have that luxury. Think of it as a blessing. You can start over, and if anyone deserved it more, it's you."
"Johanna…" I didn't like that I somehow hurt her by trying to remember. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."
"Feelings?" She laughed spinning back to me. "Johanna Mason does not have feelings. Get your ass up. I'll bring you back to my house so I can get a better look at how massively you fucked up your leg."
"Could I get a little help?" I muttered trying to straighten my leg up and stand. I couldn't do this on my own. She grabbed my arm and draped it around her neck. She was taller than me, making her help awkward for both of us. We started our walk back to her house as I started to ask her questions. She answered what she could, telling me I was in District 7; something about lumberjacks. I was Peeta Mellark from District 12. She couldn't answer my question about why I was here and not back in 12. I started to wonder if I came alone. Johanna told me that I probably did. Apparently I wasn't a very nice person lately. It was hard to hear. I didn't feel like a mean person, I didn't think I had it in me to hate anyone. But then again, I had no idea who I even was. Who am I to be the judge of that.
She commented on how well I'm taking the news that my memory was gone. How else was I supposed to react? I couldn't remember anything and there was nothing I could do about it. She kept mentioning that I was better off without them, then why question it further?
We made it back to her house. It was bigger than I thought it would be for some reason. She didn't look like the kind of person to have such a large house.
She must have noticed what I was thinking, "Kinda big for me. But what can I say? They gave it to me for winning the…"
She broke off and paused. "Won the what?"
"Nothing. It doesn't matter. You don't have to worry about things that don't exist anymore."
I nodded at her. I was curious but it seemed to bring her pain. I wondered why she stayed in a house that only reminded her of pain, but I didn't know her. She probably had her reasons.
"Why do you live out in the middle of nowhere?" I asked leaning against the wall while Johanna opened the front door and helped me inside. "I mean, it's pretty. But don't you get lonely?"
She laughed at my question. "I'm better off alone. Plus, when you're famous, you try to stay out of the public eye."
"You're famous?" I asked finding a seat at a chair in front of a large table. "What for?"
"Same reason I have this house." I nodded at her and dropped the subject. She paused looking at the floor before catching my eyes. "I probably shouldn't tell you this… But you'll find out eventually. You're actually more famous than I am. Another reason why I brought you here, the public would eat you up in your state."
"Me?" How could I be famous? What did I do? I was curious, but Johanna didn't seem to want to talk about it. I had so much to ask her, but she dodged each and every question about my past. I was starting to get frustrated with her. The only part that kept me at bay from exploding was that it seemed painful for her to relive.
"I have to make a call." Johanna muttered and started towards the stairs.
"To who?" I asked. I didn't want her to live. For all I knew, she could be using me. Playing me into what she wants. The fact that I'm famous, she could be anyone and created this whole thing just to get to me. She disappeared upstairs as my mind wandered. Maybe she brought me back here to kill me. She could be a serial killer. What person walks around with axes? Lumberjacks, right. What a load of shit. If they were lumberjacks then why are there so many damn trees outside her house? Taking me to a secluded area after everything that happened. Shouldn't I be getting help for my leg? Or the fact that I can't remember anything but the last couple hours?
She came back downstairs, sulking slightly. "You're not going to kill me are you?" I couldn't help but ask, my mind wandered too far and all signs pointed to it.
"If I was going to kill you, I would have killed you years ago." Johanna snapped at me and sat in front of me. "Now let me look at your damn leg before I change my mind."
I hesitated at first before letting her take my leg. Unraveling her belt, she released the splint and slide my pant leg up to look. "I mean, you bring me to this secluded area. You could be taking advantage of me. I am famous or something, I guess."
Her cold glare and twist of my leg silenced me as I doubled over in pain. "Shut up, Peeta. I'm not going to kill you." Her hands were cold against my skin as she felt around at my knee. The silence that filled the air was heavy and forced me to think about the person I used to be. Whoever that was.
"Somehow, you managed not to break it. I think…" Johanna broke the silence. "Think you just twisted it really good. Stay off it, not that I need to tell you that."
She unceremoniously threw my leg off her lap and stood up to grab some ice. "Here." She tossed the bag to me and walked off. "There's a bedroom over there, feel free."
I didn't see her for a few hours and made my way to the bedroom she told me of. I hobbled on one foot, finding myself to be slightly clumsy. From what Johanna told me, I expected myself to be slightly more… Graceful. Collapsing on the bed, I let my mind wander for only a moment before trying to shut it off.
I awoke, my head spinning from my dream. Ice, lots and lots of ice. A girl with an arrow in her eye. I had no idea who she was, but the dream me cared for her deeply. What kind of fucking dreams was I having? What could I even dream about?
"Where is he?!"
The slam of the door and voice made me jump.
"What are you doing here?" Johanna shouted back. "And don't just burst into my home."
"Don't play stupid with me Johanna, you told me he was here."
"Didn't think you'd be here so fast. He's in the room over there."
Someone was here to see me? I kicked my legs off to the side of the bed and sat at the edge. Running came from the room outside mine and the door creaked on its hinges angrily. A large blonde man nearly knocked the door off and rushed into the room.
"Peeta! What happened?" He ran to my side and pulled me to my feet. Pulling me close, one hand wrapped around my waist, the other holding my head. I was lost in the feeling, finding my own hands wrapping around his neck. I didn't know who this man was, but he was hot as hell and his embrace was warm. Holding him close, I never wanted him to let me go.
He pulled away from me surprised and let me fall back to the bed. "Did you just hug me back?"
"Isn't that what you're supposed to do when someone hugs you?"
"Peeta? Are you finally back or are you just playing some sick joke on me?"
"What are you talking about? Why would I play a joke on you? I don't even know you." The look in his eyes when I told him I had no clue who he was is something I never want to see again. It was the look of complete pain, I couldn't hurt him more even if I tried.
"It's me." He paused for a moment and knelt in front of me. "Cato."
He had beautiful blue eyes. I didn't want to hurt him, but I already did. "I'm sorry." It was all I could think to say. His hands were on either side of me; his head dropped to my lap while he choked back sobs. What could possibly make a man like Cato cry?
I reached my hand out and ran my fingers through his hair, trying to calm him down. I caught part of his strangled whimpers. What he said brought tears to my own eyes.
"You told me you'd never forget."
A/N: So as you probably already know, I'll be working a lot lately and my updates will be taking a bit more. I only had to work a half day today so I wrote some, but it'll be harder from here out. I'll try to post as much as I can when the opportunity rises. Love you all. Hope you enjoyed. And much more to come.