Chapter 3

Katniss

I realize that the sun has started to work its way down. "Oh no!" I exclaim and jump up on my feet.

Madge stands up beside me. "What's wrong?" She asks.

"I really have to go back now", I say. "I'm already in a deep deep hole, I can't be outside the wall and now I've not done what I'm suppose to do".

Madge looks at me. "You mean scrubbing the castle?" She asks and I nod. "That's not a princess job", Madge mumbles angrily.

Madge got really upset with my story and hers didn't exactly make me happy either.

I mean now I know that my evil stepmother, the queen, has put up a so high taxes, that the people now starve because the give the queen all their money. And that's way the village looks as it does. All the bread from the bakery goes to the castle, the people only get the privilege of smelling the scent.

"Well, it's my job", I shrug. "And I really gotta go now!" I say and start to run towards the hole.

"Wait! Katniss am I ever gonna see you again?" Madge shout after me.

"Oh I don't know", I shout back, as I round the wall and finally see my hole.

I fall down on my knees and get into the hole. I start to feel sick when I'm on the other side again. I don't want to be here. I want to be outside. I want to see stuff. Not be stuck here!

I run up to the bucket and start scrubbing. I scrub so much and fast that my fingers literary starts to bleed.

This doesn't work anymore. I've seen too much of the outside world. I can't be kept a prisoner like this anymore. I just can't. When the sun finally is gone, I throw away the sponge and I kick the bucket as hard as I possibly can and it flies away. I look up and see my stepmother in the window. When she sees me, she closes the curtains. I make an ugly grimace to the curtains and hear someone clear their throat behind me, so I turn around.

My maid. Levine. She's older then me. She were my mothers maid before, then when she died, my father made her to my maid instead. But then he died. I don't think that my stepmother really care if I have one. Levine can't say anything or do anything, she's the queen and Levine can't argue against her. So if she's my maid, it doesn't really matter. "Oh hey Levine", I say and smile shyly because she must have seen the ugly grimace.

"Now we're not gonna be like that, sweetheart", Levine says, laughing.

Levine were pretty young when she became my mothers maid. She were only fifteen. So she's only thirty two years. I can talk to about anything with her, and I feel most comfortable in her presence than other in the castle. We only have maids and stuff, but the others are really mean to me, so I don't like them. Levine is beautiful. She wears maid dresses, yes. But not a torn one like me. I also have a maid dress, but mine is so torn it's almost impossible to wear. I manage because I have no other option.

"Yes we are, 'cause I hate that evil women, I mean just look at what she did to our village!" I say angry without thinking.

Levine's eyes grow big and she looks terrified. "How do you...?" She whispers.

I sigh and tell her everything. She only looks more and more terrified, when I tell her everything about that Haymitch guy, about the village and about Madge.

"So they don't know who you are?" She asks with big eyes.

"Yes I told Madge but no one else knows, I told you, they think I'm a girl that moved here today and that my name is Eleanor Giveaway", I say.

"Why did you tell that Madge girl?" Levine asks.

"As I said, she were my best friend, I couldn't do that to her, she thought I was dead and I'm not", I say. "Why would the queen say something that is so untrue?"

"I don't know sweetheart, but you do understand that you can't see her again right?" She asks, brushing a lock of hair out of my eyes.

I back away from her. "What do you mean?" I ask.

"You can't go to the village one more time, no one can see you, Katniss", she says.

I feel tears flow down my cheeks. I can't go out to the village? But I've just been there one time. That's far to little time. I haven't seen everything.

"But I can't be kept as a prisoner in my own castle anymore!" I say with higher voice. "I just can't! I have to get away! I want to see stuff, tell all of the people in the village that I'm not dead, that I'm as alive as them!"

'"But Katniss... They're not really alive as you think, they're poor and they starve, they have to watch their children die in illnesses", Levine says.

"I'm not alive either in such case, how is this life living?!" I ask and storm away and into the big doors that leads into the castle.

I can't take this anymore. I have to think of a way to get out. Maybe I can just run away. Not that my evil stepmother will be worried or anything but she would be mad, because I would ruin her plans, whatever they are.

"Oh Katniss dear?" I hear behind me in a pretend sugar sweet voice.

Ugh. Not her. Not now.

I paste a fake smile on my face before I turn around. "Hello stepmother", I say, respectfully. "My fair lady".

"Hello", she says. "You're getting older now dear, would you want to see the outside world? I've kept you in here to protect you for the evil outside the walls".

The only evil terrible enough is you, witch! I think to myself while the fake smile is still pasted on my face.

"Yes stepmother I would, but I know that you only wanted to protect me", I say. My lady fair would do nothing to harm me. I do know that, graciousness".

"Tomorrow you are allowed to walk out but only with a huntsman with you as a guard", she says.

Wait what?! Excuse me? Is this a joke or something? Is she serious? Is she allowing me to go outside the wall? Is she sick? This can't be right!

"Oh thank you sooo much stepmother!" I say pretend to be happy and hug her. She don't hug me back.

"Yeah okay, goodnight Katniss", she says and walks away.

"Oh goodnight beloved stepmother", I say. I have to talk to her this way. No really, she's had people teach me how to talk to her. That's insane, right?

Why is she letting me go out now though? Is she up to something? But what could it be? I need to have a huntsman with me as a guard, and of course she's gonna tell me that I can't let anyone know who I am tomorrow. There's something fishy going on here. Why would she just ask me if I want to see the outside world?

Wait a minute... Does she know that I've been outside the wall? Did she see me crawl through the hole? If she did it's so not good and I'm so dead!

But still... I wonder why she would let me go just like that tomorrow. If she doesn't know that I've already been outside, what is her plan? And she would never do anything nice for me, she hates me.

I don't know if I trust this little trip I'm going on tomorrow.