I don't own the Hunger Games.

Previous chapter: I decided to give myself just one victory - no matter how minor it may seem. Squinting, I managed to get one last glance of the President's shocked face, and gave an innocent smile, as I said my last words, a moment before I went into a heavy sleep.

"What a lovely title for me... The imprisoned mockingjay."

CHAPTER THREE: HATEFUL HANDCUFFS

Peeta's POV

"Hey, look at this!" I laugh, holding up an oyster. I crack it open to reveal a perfectly pea sized pearl, shining with moisture in the sunlight. Showing it off, I turn to Finnick. "You know, if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls." Katniss cracks up into a hysterical laugh, remembering how Effie used to believe this and would go around clueless, telling that to our sponsors.

"No, it doesn't," Finnick replys dismissively, not understanding the inside joke. This makes Katniss laugh even harder. The sound of her is simply beautiful. The noises of an angel. I rinse off the pearl in water, and hand it to her.

"For you," I say, as she closes her fist around it.

"Thanks." The single word held a lot of meaning inside of it.

Thanks for the pearl.

Thanks for this final gift.

Thanks for being here.

Thanks for loving me.

She looks into my eyes, and I gaze back into her intense grey ones. I know what she's thinking, as the happiness drains from her orbs. She's thinking about how she will protect me and make sure I win. Unfortunately for her, I too have promised myself that she will be the one leaving the arena. I will defeat her plan, keeping her alive, even at my own expense.

Although she is thinking about such a depressing thing, she still is beautiful. Her hair is free, blowing behind her in divine curly locks, covering parts of her stunning eyes, so full of intelligence and heavenly attraction. Suddenly, her expression changes into one of suffering and paranoia. There are noises of howling and savage growling, whilst the picturesque atmosphere becomes murky and icily bitter. The same barbaric wolf muttations from the last Hunger Games barge against me and run straight for Katniss.

"No! Katniss! Run!" I screech, but I'm too late. They rip right into her, sparing nothing. Her screams of agony echo across the arena and I'm stuck. I can't move to get to her. I can't help.

"Peeta!" she cries, but I can't do anything. My ears are flooded with her nightmarish screams, warped by the sound of the ruthless monsters tearing her apart. I begin to hear President Snow powerfully laughing with cruelty. I can see the sadistic grin he must have right now.

"I'll kill you!" I howl at him, louder than the mutts. Blood spatters all around Katniss, seeping into the sand and dying it a deep, dark ruby. It spreads across the ground into the water, making it become an ocean of death. It turns so red that it becomes black with her blood. One mutt that is satisfied with it's meal strolls away into the trees, leaving red paw prints behind him in the clean sand.

"You didn't... Protect me," Katniss gasps, collapsing into a deep, bloody slumber that she will never wake up from.

"I'm so sorry," I bawl, "I'm so, so sorry..."

"Peeta? Peeta! Are you okay? Peeta?"

"So sorry..." I murmur.

"Peeta!"

"Wha...?" The grotesque images of Katniss dying faded away and were replaced by the face of Delly Cartwright. She was an old childhood friend of mine back in District Twelve.

"Oh, you worried us all so much!" she scolded. "He's awake!" she shouted towards somebody outside. "You shouldn't have done that."

"I don't understa-" And then it all came flooding back to me. Katniss... Dead. Gone. I'd tried to die, but clearly I hadn't succeeded. For a moment, I had thought that I was in heaven and was finally reunited with her. However, the painful truth was that I was stuck in this reality without her. In my dream, her last words were that I didn't protect her. In actuality, those probably were her last words too. It was accurate; I wasn't able to protect her.

"You remember me, right Peeta?" I don't reply. I remain lying down, staring at the ceiling. "I'm Delly. Delly Cartwright. We used to play together when we were kids." Yes. I remembered her. However, I didn't want to hear anything. Without Katniss, I really didn't have any reason to live anymore. I could hear Delly talking, but I was no longer acknowledging her words.

Glancing a little to the side, I gazed at the shelves full of things. There were more little tubs of pills and medicines, but those weren't what I needed this time. They would be able to remove the pills from me again. My eyes trailed along the shelf, looking for something that would quickly do the job. Right there! There was a small knife, the kind used for surgeries. It wasn't much, but one quick slit to the throat would definitely kill me before anybody could stop me.

"And so, after that fire, your family didn't get out in time," Delly carried on talking quietly. I didn't care. My family and I never exactly had a 'loving' relationship. Now... the knife.

"Oh, my family?" I said, distracted, as I casually sat up slowly.

"Yes, I'm so sorry Peeta. But as I said, there are still lots of us here who love you," she babbled on. Whilst she was talking, I decided I would run for it. There were no other people in here. I would be quick. Swiftly, as I got up, I was suddenly restrained. Oh. Of course. No wonder I was left alone with Delly. "They had to handcuff you for your own protection," she added sadly. "I know it's silly. I had a big argument with them, telling them that you don't need 'protection', but they wouldn't listen to me." Closing my eyes, I leaned against the back of the bed.

"Delly..." I spoke to the darkness.

"Yes, Peeta?"

"Please..."

"What? What is it?"

"Kill me?" I asked calmly. She didn't reply, so I opened my eyes. Her face was distraught. "Please, Delly."

"I'm sorry," she whispered, and walked out of the room. Sighing, I close my eyes again. It was a pretty cheap shot.

"Now that was just cruel," I heard Haymitch say, but I didn't look at him. "I can't believe you've become so cowardly to the point that you would put somebody else to do your dirty work." Well, I couldn't exactly do anything whilst I was restrained, could I?

I refused to reply to him. I needed to show them all that there was no point in keeping me alive. I was a waste of space. "Not talking, eh?" Silence. "Fine. Have it your way."

After he left, I'm not sure how long I was alone for. It could have been hours. I had a plastic bracelet on my wrist, that classified me as 'mentally disorientated'. As I fidgeted with it, Haymitch came back in to the room.

"Come on, up you get," he mumbled, unlocking my chains and replacing them with another pair of handcuffs. Dragging me out of the room, he locked one on my wrist and one on his. Exhausted, I got dragged across lots of corridors by him. Most people stared, but I didn't know any of them so it didn't bother me. I was led into a large space full of people eating. He took us to an empty table and we sat down, without saying anything. Two bowels of some sort of stew were placed in front of us and Haymitch began eating straight away. I looked up to be met by the face of Gale.

"You couldn't protect her," he said quietly, sitting down with us. Resentful, I glared at him. It knew that it was my fault that Katniss had died, all because I couldn't protect her. It was my fault. "Don't get me wrong," Gale added. "I meant that you couldn't protect her. No matter what, the outcome would have been the same. Whether it was you or anybody else in that arena, she couldn't be saved. So don't feel bad about it." Even Gale pitied me now.

"Peeta, we all know that you don't want to be here, but you need to step up," Haymitch said, between mouthfuls of stew. What was he even on about? I didn't need to do anything. "Now that the Mockingjay is gone, the rebels need a new face." I gave him a questioning look.

"We can't just give up now," Gale said, staring directly at me. "We need to carry on fighting. For friends. Family. Next generations." He could see that I was dismissing the thought of helping out. I had no reason to, since I had nobody else to keep safe. "For Katniss." I felt my throat tightening, and my eyes were beginning to sting again. They knew that they were hitting a soft spot for me.

Haymitch added, "Katniss wouldn't have wanted you to just give up. She would want you to fight on." No. I refused to allow them to guilt trip me. There was no use in me doing anything if she was already dead.

"I told you. He's a stubborn, little selfish thing that only cares about himself," Haymitch muttered. As Gale opened his mouth to say something, the huge TVs began showing a broadcast from the Capitol.

"Take him out," Gale told Haymitch sternly. "Now. Take him." Squinting at one of the TVs, I saw President Snow's face appear. "Haymitch! Don't let him watch." What? Why couldn't I see what was going on? Haymitch covered my eyes and quickly dragged me out. Before he did, I heard President Snow say one thing from the speakers.

"I would like to make a deal with the rebels, regarding Katniss Everdeen."

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