Thank you to all of the people that sent me reviews. I apologize that it has been a while, but things have been busy. Enjoy.

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Katniss felt like her head was going to explode. Three agonizingly slow days had crawled by, and Peeta had not yet made contact, not a single attempt. It was maddening, and he must know it.

Yet, she had not brought herself to dial the number, to break any indecent act that Seneca Crane may have forced upon Peeta, to somehow be the hero and salvage Peeta from his unfortunate predicament. She hadn't, but she could be that person.

So what was holding her back? Katniss' fingers traced the buttons on Finnick's phone. There was nothing that held her back. Her fingers felt jittery, and she knew that any more waiting would be worthless. What if he left the phone on and the batteries ran out?

Katniss focused on the phone and her fingers began to move on their own. School had ended many hours ago. She was driving her friends crazy, and she needed to do something about that. Gale was looking more sullen each time he saw her, even if the Winter's Ball was getting close. Finnick looked almost irritated, probably wondering why she was not more aggressive. Delly and Madge were asking her how Peeta was on the phone, and truth be told, she was quite curious as well.

Katniss' fingers grazed her number knowingly. She paused in anticipation of pushing the 'send' button, when the phone in her hand rang loudly, startling her. The name Katniss appeared on the screen. Peeta was calling her! How eerie. So surprised was she by this that she did not push answer and the phone kept ringing. But at last, she found her wits and pressed the button.

She put the phone to her ear and mouth, but strangely enough, no words escaped her lips. Blank. Her mind was a complete blank. So much anticipation had led to this moment, but now that it has arrived, she was disturbed by her speechlessness.

Thankfully, Peeta was the first to say something. "Katniss?" His voice was neither questioning nor doubtful. In fact, it was rich and gentle, its warmth quite unexpected.

"Peeta? Are you okay?" she blurted. Inwardly, she wondered if she sounded desperate.

He seemed to think about the question for a moment, but his voice, once again, was so reassuring. "Candlelight dinners, champagne baths, a nice warm fireplace with an attentive captive audience. What's there to complain about?" he answered with ease, no hint that the situation was disturbing him. The content of his words though, suggested differently.

Katniss decided she did not like the answer. "I was . . . worried."

Silence.

"Why?" Peeta answered. Such a simple word.

But the question was so loaded that she did not know how to interpret it. Why did she have to be worried? or Why would she bother? She suspected he was asking the latter, and that tugged at her heart. "I don't know." Truly, she didn't.

She heard him sigh. It was quiet, but unmistakable. For some odd reason, she sensed his pain. They had never been friends. They had barely conversed. It must be difficult for him to confide in her. But then again, it must be difficult for him to confide in anyone, seeing as he has been kept so isolated.

"Has he . . . done anything yet?" Katniss kicked herself for asking. It was such an intimate question, and she did not why she felt so intrusive, but she did.

Quiet. She could not hear a single thing on the other line, and she wondered whether she had crossed the line of propriety. She did not understand why she asked such a cruel question, especially when she was so afraid of the answer. And she was ashamed that the words she used was so casual.

"I'm sorry," Katniss backtracked. "I shouldn't have asked. That was meddlesome."

"No, no. It's all right." Peeta sounded tired now, and almost unsure of how to proceed. "No, he hasn't done much, really."

The answer was as vague as her question, but Katniss was afraid to continue along those lines. "How much longer will you be there?"

"A week, maybe." Peeta spoke with such reserve, such restraint. Was he trying to protect Katniss from the atrocity of it all?

"Can I help?" Katniss was desperate. She needed to draw him out, not make him shy away. His answers were too unrevealing. She needed to keep him engaged.

"You already have." She heard something in his voice that she never had before. Gratitude. And for some reason, that made her happy.

"Where are you?" Katniss asked. Maybe if she knew where he was, she could help him if he was in trouble.

Peeta paused, perhaps trying to edit his answers. When he finally spoke, it was not reassuring one bit. "I don't know. They kept me blindfolded through the entire flight and drive. A cabin in the woods. It's snowing outside. I can't tell where I'm at. They're pretty secret about it. And I'm pretty sure that even if I did know, I would not be able to leave without him."

Katniss' heart fell. This was bordering on insanity. This is kidnapping. How cruel and heartless can Snow and Crane be?

Katniss' silence must have bothered Peeta. He continued. "You can help. I am going to send you some files through your phone. Can you save them for me, keep them somewhere safe? Don't send them via any email, especially through the police department."

"What kind of files?" Katniss asked, intrigued.

"Evidence," Peeta responded, his voice tentative, maybe even shy. "That will help me out of this . . . situation."

Again, his response was vague, but the fact that Peeta was working on saving himself gave Katniss hope. Peeta had not given up, and that thought settled her anxiety a bit.

"Why not send emails through the police department?" she decided to press.

"Because the wrong people will find them." Clearly, Peeta had a good grasp of the situation, and it made Katniss wonder how someone seemingly sharp has been imprisoned and locked in his state for so long. But in her heart, she knew why. Peeta had the intelligence and the wit, but very little in terms of friends that were willing to support him.

"And Katniss?" The way Peeta said her name, it was quite endearing.

"Yes?"

"You should be careful," Peeta's voice was full of concern. She pictured his voice, innocent and genuine, blue eyes wide with concern.

Katniss did not know why, but the words made her want to laugh and cry at the same time. Peeta was caged in a cabin with a sex-crazed kidnapper and here he was telling her to be careful? The words were so ludicrous.

"I think you've got it backwards," Katniss answered amusedly.

There was a sound that seemed like a chuckle. "No. I'm pretty in the right mind. Plus, I've got nothing to lose."

His response startled Katniss and she did not know which was worse-that he felt that he had nothing to live for or that he insinuated that she had something to lose. It was effective. Goosebumps were beginning to form on her skin even though it was 85 degrees in the house.

She wanted to say more, but all of a sudden, she heard a door slamming in the background. And then a voice, shrill and drunk, and absolutely disgusting. "Ohhhhh, Peeeetaaaaa," the words were drawn out. Peeta immediately ended the conversation. Katniss' heart raced, fear for Peeta's well-being flooding her thoughts. She quickly dialed her phone back, unwilling to let him out of her hearing. She could not let Peeta shun her out and deal with it alone. To her despair, he had shut off the phone as it went straight to voicemail. Katniss felt like screaming. The conversation ended too abruptly. It was supposed to allay her fears, not heighten them!

Unbidden images came to her mind, all with Crane manhandling Peeta into having sex with him. Each image making her extremely uneasy and restless. She could not sleep the rest of the night, tossing and turning from nightmares that all revolved around Peeta and the cabin.

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"He called, didn't he?" Finnick's voice was firm, drawing Katniss from her distracted state.

It also grabbed Gale's attention. "What?" That look, the one where he cringed and pulled his eyebrows together, was becoming more frequent.

"Seriously, Katniss, you look like shit," Finnick continued.

Katniss looked away. She did not want to answer to that, but she was so horrible at lying that she could not think of a witty response. "He called last night."

"What did he say?" Delly asked curiously.

"That he's all right," Katniss responded dully. She did not want to elaborate and have to retell the conversation. The truth is that her nerves were frayed and she would become an emotional mess if she tried. How could someone she knew so little about affect her so much?

"Details, Katniss," Finnick huffed impatiently. "You can't leave us with that anti-climactic tidbit."

Gale's face was icy cold now. "Since Finnick brought up the topic, has he been deflowered yet?"

"Gale!" Delly responded in horror. "You can't possibly mean that."

Gale looked away, partly from anger, partly from shame. "Sorry."

"Plus, Gale misrepresented me. I was commenting on how lacking in drama Katniss' statement is, not on the fact that there may or may not be climaxing involved," Finnick corrected.

Katniss wanted to bury herself in a mound of dirt. "Why do you feel the need to laugh at someone else's expense." She knew she sounded accusatory, and her friends did not deserve it, but the fact that they made light of Peeta's situation offended her so much.

Everyone looked at her intently. "What?" Katniss spat.

Gale glared at her in disbelief. "Have you just heard yourself talk? You barely know a lick about this guy and you're defending him against us? Making us out to be the bad guy?"

Katniss threw her hands in frustration. "What is your problem? You guys ask me about him, I answered, and now my answer is not what you guys want?"

"Oh, Katniss, we're sorry. We can't help if we don't know all the details," Delly glared at Gale, who let out a sigh of exasperation.

The group was silent as everyone recovered some semblance of calmness. Finally, Katniss spoke. "He said that he was okay. He had some sort of evidence against Crane that he would send me via phone. He sounded grateful . . . and sad. He also warned me to be careful. And then . . . " Katniss' face reddened as the heat went straight up to her head. She could not stop her trembling.

Finnick patted Katniss' shoulder. "Don't let it eat you. Tell us what happened."

"Crane slammed the door in the background and the way he said Peeta's name. It was so disgusting. And that's when Peeta ended the conversation. I've been so worried. And I can't do anything about it!" Katniss shook in frustration and anger.

Gale slammed his hand on the table, temporarily shocking Katniss out of her outburst. "Look, it's not like the guy can't take care of himself. He's most likely more fit than this Crane guy, if everything Finnick says about his workout is true. Seriously, I don't see why you are so worried."

"Gale, would you give it a rest," Madge reprimanded.

"I think Peeta has a good head on his shoulders. It sounds like you probably do not need to worry about him. On the other hand, he has warned you to be careful." Delly tried to reassure Katniss.

Katniss shook her head. "You did not hear the way Crane spoke. I can't get his obscene voice out of his head. And he was drunk!"

"So less likely to be able to take advantage of Peeta, if you think about it," Finnick reminded Katniss.

"But Peeta's recovering from his injuries," Katniss was unconvinced.

"Katniss, you can't dwell on it. It's eating you. We should wait for whatever this evidence that he will send you is. I bet he knows what he's doing," Delly spoke reassuringly.

"Plus, you can't do anymore. Save your energy for when you can do something about it," Gale spoke quietly.

Katniss looked at Gale closefully for the first time that day. His eyes seem dejected, but his words held a certain weight to them that for some reason affected her more than what the others said. One lone tear fell down her face, but she wiped it off. She could not deny the fact that what Gale said was true. And with a heavy heart, she had to let go, at least until Peeta made contact with her again.

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Katniss regained some semblance of normality over the next few days. Her friends did not speak of the topic of Peeta. Effie Trinket returned to her bubbly self, acting as if Peeta never existed. Cornelius Snow returned to the school, although every day, he seemed to be in a sour mood.

Yet, there was no word from Peeta. She tried dialing her cell a few times, but unsurprisingly, it went straight to voicemail. It was such a dichotomy. All around her, everyone was ranting about the Winter's Ball and excitement over clothes and dates was ridiculously high. Even her friends were caught in the hype.

But she could not feel their excitement. Her thoughts lingered on someone quite far away. She knew it was unhealthy, but she could not help it.

Despite her thoughts constantly drifting to Peeta, Katniss was successfully keeping her anxiety at bay. That was, until one day, Cornelius Snow stepped outside of his office, beaming brightly. He must have received some excellent news because he was grinning right to left. It was exactly one and a half weeks from the time he had dropped Peeta off at Crane's house. He spent one whole week, dour and irritated, yet all of a sudden, his mood changed.

And that alarmed Katniss. The change in Snow's mood could only signify that something had changed in Peeta's interactions with Crane. Katniss felt her body shiver once more, and not just from the chilly air. It was getting close to the date Peeta promised to be back in Caprice by. Whatever evidence he had promised to send her way had not happened.

But for some strange reason, Katniss felt like it was coming soon. She clutched Finnick's phone in her hands, anticipation and dread fighting for dominance over her emotions.

That evening, she excused herself after dinner and locked herself in her room. She turned off the lights, hoping that her family thought she was asleep. And then, as if on cue, Finnick's phone vibrated in her hands. It was not a call from Peeta, but a message. The words Katniss lit up on Finnick's cell. She opened the message with apprehension. It was not just one message, but many. They were photos, a lot of them, preceded by one text that read 'Please keep these safe. Do not show them to anyone, even your father. It is not yet time.'

And with a sense of dread, she opened each photo one by one. What did Peeta call it? Oh yes, 'evidence' that would save Peeta from his 'situation'.

She anxiously opened the first one. She didn't understand. A photo of Crane, his face smug with a tattoo on his shoulder, and in red ink read 'Sucker for the young ones' beneath a grotesque image of a naked boy. Another photo was that of a license plate that read 6M8 4U2. The license plate looked old and burnt. The third, a photo of Crane whose tongue was firmly latched onto a woman probably half his age, their bodies mostly nude. Nothing made sense. If Katniss could show her father, she probably could figure out why these images were important. No doubt, Peeta knew of their significance. The seemingly innocent boy does not seem so innocent now. He must know some pretty dark secrets about Crane. How he came by them, well, she would have to discover later.

Katniss felt frustrated. None of these pictures were self-explanatory. At least, she did not know how these would help Peeta out of his predicament. With frustration, she continued to open the other files.

The next file was a photo of a contract. It was not typed, but written in nice handwriting, affixed with Crane's scrawl of a signature and Peeta's elegant cursive at the end. It was an agreement of sorts. But the content caught Katniss' attention. This agreement between Cornelius Peter Snow and Seneca Haymitch Crane represents a binding contract in exchange of $10 million dollars for the services of Peeta Mellark Snow. In addition, the contract will be voided if the following conditions have not been maintained on the day of the exchange, February 14th of the year 2013. The conditions subject to verification are: 1.) That Peeta maintain a healthy diet. 2.)That Peeta continue his basic education so that he demonstrates no lack of ignorance to basic science, math and current events. 3.) That Peeta will keep his body in a healthy state, his workouts designed to strengthen his core muscles and tone his body. 4.) That Peeta remain free of STDs, otherwise known as sexually transmitted diseases, with documented bloodwork. 5.) That Peeta be educated in the art of sex and demonstrate facility in a wide range of sexual activity. 6.) That Snow will oversee this period of nurturing and growth for Peeta.

Signed, Seneca Haymitch Crane and Peeta Snow

Katniss gaped at the audicity, the grotesqueness, and the cruelty of the contract. It was downright insulting to Peeta, being addressed like an object, exchanged for money.

There were a few files left, but this one gave her pause. She was reminded of the last conversation between Peeta and Snow. Peeta had promised him something, she vaguely remembered. Was this it? Was this the reason Snow was beaming with joy at school today? Crane had signed the agreement? Katniss did not realize that Snow could sink any lower in her mind, but somehow, he had managed that.

There was one point in the contract that gave Katniss some relief. It seemed that Peeta had probably not been violated. Not if there needs to be documentation of STDs necessary before following through. And why they chose Valentine's Day to follow through with this bondage is absolutely irreverent.

Nevertheless, Valentin's Day was a couple of months away, and that thought allowed Katniss a moment of reprieve. Peeta sounded safe for now, and that was all that mattered. She smiled bitterly to herself. It was a little bone that was tossed to her, but she would accept it if for no other reason than to ease her anxiety.

She could make it to the Winter's Ball now. And oddly enough, she felt absolutely sure that Peeta would be there as well. Snow would grant this of him, she was sure of it.

With a little less trepidation, Katniss opened the last three files. There was a photo with a collection of snakes, strangely enough. She recognized a few of them as a coral snack, a python, a cobra. But a few she would have to look up. Odd. Was Crane collecting venomous snakes for a reason?

There was a photo of a pile of powder, which she presumed was some sort of illegal drug, the presumed recipe for the chemical reactions laying next to it. She quickly looked up the chemical structure online, horrified when she found out that it was the chemical structure for an aphrodisiac. Of course, she snorted. That was in line with Crane's plan.

And finally, the last photo. The resolution was not great, but was enough that the situation expressed was undeniable. Katniss' jaw immediately tightened, her heart which had slowed down to baseline just moments ago, had picked up its pace once more. It was the tree in the orchard that Peeta had painted. It was unmistakeable. And underneath it was a woman, a woman Katniss recognized as one of the portraits Peeta had painted. There was a bullet in her head with blood streaking down her face. Her limbs were slack as she was reclined against the tree. To her right was a man, legs straight with his body facing away from the camera, but with his face towards the woman's body. He stared angrily at the woman. His left arm was oustretched, with a pistol in his hand aimed at her head. The man wore a suit. He was very tall. But her eyes were drawn back to the dead woman and the tree. Yes. It was that tree, at the edge of the orchard that Peeta had painted. How did Peeta describe it? Anyone sitting underneath that tree would be at peace.

She did not know how Peeta got a hold of the photo. The photo was taken roughly 20 feet from the two figures, so that person could not have been easily ignored by the man with the gun. If this was a photo from his past, then Peeta must have been a child when the photo was taken. Peeta must have been the one who had taken that photo because the point of view too close to the ground to be from anyone other than a child.

Katniss' heart welled in pain for Peeta's suffering. Peeta, who was only a child, witnessing a gruesome murder of a woman who if she had to guess, had to be his mother. Peeta, who somehow had embedded that vision in his mind, able to replicate the scene minus the man and the woman on paper with immaculate precision and strangely aesthetic beauty despite the horrid situation.

Peeta's life was an absolute mess. And to certain degree, Katniss began to question his sanity. She did not want to because in truth, she wanted to trust him, to believe in his goodness, to rely on his humanity. But truth be told, no human being could live through these atrocities and maintain any semblance of mercy. And Peeta could not possibly be any different. She closed her eyes, imagining what Peeta's expression is when nobody is watching, how would he look in his truest form. She imagined a hurt creature that let go of his repressed anger, his handsome features distorted by rage and lunacy.

But strangely enough, she could not picture it. Because every time she closed her eyes, all she saw was a boy whose eyes were a beautiful and calming sea blue, whose facial features were full of sadness and longing, and whose relaxed body overlooked a scene of nature with a hint of awe.

This dichotomy confused Katniss. Was the latter impression of Peeta something that was true to his nature, or something that she wished were true? All of a sudden, the Winter's Ball could not come soon enough. She so desperately wanted to talk to him, to dig a little deeper into his psyche, to unveil his true emotions to either prove or disprove her perception of him. But then, on a different level, she was almost afraid that she would uncover a beast.

Who is Peeta Mellark, really?