Peeta's Hijacked Memories~Part 5
Two days. The Peacekeepers do whatever they want with me for two days. By the third I can't move, I don't want to. I don't want to speak either. I've stayed by Annie's cell each time I'm thrown back in, with my hand outstretched to her if she needed to hold it, but otherwise I was dead to the world. They've killed Darius, and I half expect to be next. They're through with me, I failed, I even helped the rebels. Helped Katniss. Each waking moment its Katniss and the expectation of death.
On the third day, I'm not led to a room parallel to the cells as before, instead, I'm led to the room at the end of the hall no ones been in yet. Its a big room, a light only on a single chair in the middle, one you might see in at a dentists. I don't fight back, what was the point even if I could? I'm strapped down into the chair easily and the Peacekeepers leave. I sigh and close my eyes. I hope they took heed my warning, hope she's safe. I'm sure of it, otherwise there would be no need for any of this right? The door opens again and I look over and find I'm watching a Capitol doctor rolling a tray full of syringes toward me.
"Peeta Mellark. I never expected to see you in person." His voice was raspy and cold. He stopped at my side and picked up a pair of gloves off the tray, slipping them on his long fingers. Now he was closer to the light and I could see his aging features clearer. Tattoos gotten long ago, now scar his face, sending chills down my spine. His smile is none of comfort as he picks up a syringe. He points it up into the air away from us both, and a clear liquid shoots from it when he presses it.
"Are you familiar with tracker jacker venom?" I nod, of course I was. I was stung in my first Games. "Then this shouldn't come as a shock to you." I felt a pinch as he stuck the needle into my arm without warning. I winced and closed my eyes. The moment the venom was injected into my veins, I felt the burn. My body tensed and arched, I clenched my teeth to keep from crying out. Footsteps then another pinch into the other arm and more venom flooded into my veins. I pulled against the restraints and screamed. If this was how they were going to kill me, I wish it was already over. I try to break free of my restraints, wanting to get at my arms and stop the burning, the paralyzing pain that was now spreading through my body.
Minutes go by, it felt like hours really until the venom settled and it was only a dull ache now. I opened my eyes, I couldn't move otherwise. The doctor was still there, watching me and when he sees my eyes have opened he smiles. His features have begun to contort and what I had thought was scary before, was even scarier now. His eyes were growing larger as they stared his voice was distant.
"Now that you've opened your eyes, lets watch the film shall we?" Film? He leaves my view and is replaced by strange creatures, flying or crawling over the room. They looked like something from a nightmare. The wall facing me suddenly lights up and I see a girl running. I know her, I think. She climbs a tree and there I stand with a group underneath it. My group looks like they're trying to attack her.
"Why are we doing that?" I find myself asking. THe people on the screen begin contorting. The girl in the tree grows fangs and shifts into a dog like creature as she climbs. What is she going after. She's normal again as she pulls a knife out and begins cutting a branch. There's a nest on the branch that turns into a snaking slithering around the nest and constricting it. Colors of all sorts dot tmy vision as the snake and egg fall. The egg breaks releasing tracker jackers. The tracker jackers are after me. The girl, what has she done? " Who is that?"
"Katniss Everdeen. She is your enemy, she wants you dead and here's the proof." Katniss Everdeen… The braid flowing down her back as she runs away from us, the ones who she dropped the lethal mutts on. Katniss… No. These are lies. Venomous lies.
"No!" I yell and the colors explode into tiny sprinkles raining down on the room.
"Yes, Katniss Everdeen is a mutt, a murderer." The doctor insists. The video switches to District Twelve. Fire bombs are raining down on it and the camera has specifically zoomed in on the square, the bakery. "She is the reason you family is dead." I can just see in the bakery, enough to know it isn't empty, just before a bomb hits it and the building explodes, sending debris flying.
"No!" I yell again. It wasn't to deny the accusation about Katniss this time, but to deny what has just been show before my eyes. Tears spring to my eyes, blurring everything, making everything seem underwater. More than one flame has filled the room and I start struggling against my restraints again, trying to run from the fire, screaming into heated air.
"Katniss Everdeen is a mutt, a murderer." I hear the doctor say before a sharp prick in my neck and a liquid injected inside, making my vision go black.
I wake up with my head pounding and my body feeling like its floating in the sea.
"She's a mutt, a murderer." I hear myself mutter.
"Peeta?" I slowly turn my head in the voice's direction and see Johanna. "Peeta, who? You keep saying it, who?"
I furrow my brow, looking toward the ceiling now. "Katniss Everdeen." Saying this seemed wrong. I can't remember much, just the doctors words, the images that were on the screen, my family being blown up.
"No Peeta. I don't know what they've said or done, but its a lie." I focus on the girl with the braid in my head. I squeeze my eyes shut picturing her grey eyes.
"I know." I whisper and fall back asleep.