Chapter 4
I was still clinging awkwardly to the edge long after the lift started moving, because to be honest I
was feeling a bit scared still! My heart told me that I couldn't give up, but really my head was so
confused…probably the many emotions I'v been feeling the past hour or so and I really needed some
fresh air before my torcher officially begins. I saw a button at the side of the lift that said 'open door'
so I opened it knowing anyway that it will be so closed off that I won't be able to escape and live…I
was right! Outside it was full of strange looking tubes all linked together, and I was so high up in the
air but I actually didn't mind that, I felt like a bird or exactly like my alter ego: the mockingjay…
my arms were like wings ready to take flight, and the blood pumping around my veins suddenly ran
a thrill through me and I felt the wind cool my stressed, sweaty face as I looked down. If I did lose my
senses and jump though, fully in character or not, it would be like committing suicide! even if I did
manage to hold on to one of the tubes as I tumbled down, it probably could not hold my weight for
very long. It would also be like surrendering to the Capitol and I couldn't do that for many reasons,
family and personal, so I resisted the temptation and shut the door, been cooled enough now.
Suddenly, a horrible burning,static sensation went through me and it gave me such a fright that I fell
backwards into the back wall of the lift shrieking, I looked around for any signs of where it came
from and what it was but then I knew, the Capitol! My torcher had begun….
My instincts took over and I forgot everything else because I knew that I had to flee! I started
banging on the windows and walls screaming, "SOMEONE HELP ME! GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
but then I realised that I was just being a coward because I knew in my heart that no one could save
me now plus I promised Prim that I'd stay and face it and try and get out alive. Then another impact
hit me, this time much more worse, as President Snow probably watched me stupidly trying to run
away, the pain was unbearable this time, tiny electrolytes went up my back gradually getting
bigger, bigger and so did the pain! At first it was just tiny pricks like getting a jag but then it turned
into me getting hit by a nuclear bomb over and over and over….
It floored me and i screamed and squirmed on the floor, willing it to stop and leave me alone! So
was this what it was like then? torcher? Well the Capitol have done a good job this time I give them
that, but the feeling of the nuclear bomb didn't seem like the Capitols idea, they would be more into
paralysing me or soaking me with water like they did to Peeta but then I got it…Gale.
Gale not only helped but he gave them ideas on how to get my weak spots! Yes I can see him now,
talking to the Capitol President and other associates: I would suggest we use the nuclear bomb as a
feeling, because it's like a bomb blast from the mines, so it would immediately trigger pain for her.
In that moment, I truly hated Gale! I swore that if I ever saw him again, I would punch him in his
tired looking face and maybe even attack him, because I just could not believe that a so called 'best
friend' would do such a horrible thing! Yes he could get blackmailed, but him giving ideas must've
been an opinion…
I was still in pain as I punched the walls and screamed even louder, I got hit again and again and
again and to the nation, I must look like a demented mutt (I hope Peeta doesn't think so
though) as I fought with the agony of the torcher and my even more powerful anger with Gale.
Eventually I fell down in a corner and sobbed covering my eyes, I could not take this anymore, and if
It wasn't for Prim there telling me not to give up, I would've been killed by now, I was too easy a
target for the Capitol now, only my hatred of them and my promise to Prim keep me going though
Gale's betrayal alone is enough to break me.
What I do need though, is someone here with me! I don't care who, just someone who can tell me
that everything is gonna be okay and try and calm me down, I wasn't easy to talk to when I was this
mad, I knew that, but going through this on my own was not an opinion for me this time.
As if someone out there watching the screens that are live on me all over Panem and somehow
reading my mind, I heard someone scramble through the window and land not with a thud, but a
gentle tap on the lift floor, I was too scared still to uncover my eyes, what if it was the President
deciding to step the torcher up a notch instead, or even worse Gale?
But from the shaking, scared voice that came out and what they said, I knew that it was someone
coming to help me in my time of need,
"Katniss, a-are you okay?"