Chapter 8

Dreamscaperers

(Peeta's POV)

Monday morning after the whole time travel incident is spent inside due to a rain storm. Our Grunkle closed up shop for the day and insisted Finnick, Annie, and Katniss shouldn't walk home in the rain. We spend the majority of the day watching lame horror movies and playing board games. When the rain clears up Delly, Katniss and Annie go outside to stretch their legs. I would have went out but Finnick didn't want to to and I didn't want to be the only boy. What if they wanted to do girl talk? So I sit with Finnick and Grunkle Mitch until they get back. Mitch falls asleep and Finnick sprays shaving cream on his hand. I smirk and open the journal.

Suddenly the girls burst through the door with wide eyes Finnick stands up. "What's wrong?"

"We saw Cato in the woods," Delly says.

"What did he do to you?" I stand up, tossing the journal to the side to join the girls and Finnick.

"He didn't do anything to us," Annie says. "I don't even think he saw us."

"Then what's wrong?" Finnick scratches his head.

"We witnessed something kind of... disturbing," Annie says.

Katniss finally speaks up. "He summoned some kind of... demon to do his bidding..."

"His bidding?" I ask. "A demon?"

"Why does he need a demon to do his bidding?" Finnick asks.

"He's still upset about me dumping him," Delly says. "He wants to get revenge by taking control of the Mystery Shack."

"How's he going to do that?" I roll my eyes.

"The demon he summoned is named Bill," Delly says. "Cato made a deal with Bill, if Bill goes into our Grunkle's ind and gets the combination to his safe where he keeps the deed, Cato can ste4al the deed and take over the shack!"

"We need to help Mitchell!" Finnick says.

Katniss nudges me. "Does your journal say anything about Bill?"

I run to the journal, flipping the pages until I find a picture of a triangle with one eye and two arms and legs. "Bill." I read the text written above the picture.

"That's him," Delly says. "What does it say?"

I take a deep breath and read the words out loud. "Beware Bill. The most powerful and dangerous creature I've ever encountered. Whatever you do, never let him into your mind."

"Grunkle Mitch!" Delly says.

I look at my sleeping Grunkle then continue reading. "It is possible to follow the demon into a person's mind and prevent chaos. One must simply recite this incantation." Suddenly a strange triangle shaped shadow appears over Grunkle Mitch and disappears into his head. "Okay, get ready guys," I say. "We're about to journey into the most horrifying, disturbing place any of us have ever been. Our uncle's mind."

"He's actually not my uncle," Annie says suddenly. "And he's not Finnick or Katniss' uncle either."

"I know, I meant 'our' as I me and Delly." I explain.

"Oh, okay," Annie says. "You can read the incantation now."

So we take hands and stand in a circle around our Grunkle. "Videntus omnium. Magister mentium. Magnesium ad hominem. Magnum opus. Habeas corpus! Inceptus Nolanus overratus! Magister mentium! Magister mentium! MAGISTER MENTIUM!"
Suddenly we're standing in a circle outside in front of the Mystery Shack. I can tell we're in Mitch's mind because the setting is different. And old damaged boat looks shipwrecked here in the woods. "This must be Mitch's mind." I finally say.

"I figured there would be a lot more hot old ladies." Finnick shrugs.

"Remember to look out for the triangle guy." I remind everyone.

"Yeah," An unfamiliar voice says, and we turn towards the voice and find Bill floating in front of the shack. "Look out for the triangle guy." I should be more terrified but all I can do now is wonder how he can speak without a mouth. Where is his voice coming from!

"You leave our Grunkle alone you isosceles monster!" Delly shouts.

"Ah," Bill sighs. "Mitch's family, we meet at last! Rainbow trout, Mockingjay, Shooting Star, and Pine Tree, I had a hunch I might bump into you."

I squint. Bill named us based off of something we wear everyday. Finnick always wears this shirt from the Mystery Shack with a rainbow trout on it, Katniss always wears her Mockingjay pin, Delly's favorite sweater has a shooting star on it, and my hat has a pine tree on it. But he left Annie out for some reason. "Couldn't think of a nickname for Annie?" I ask.

"Sure," Bill laughs. "Let's go with that!"

"I want a nickname!" Annie protests.

"Fine," Bill rolls his eye. "I'll call you... Red. Happy now?"

"Very." Annie says. "Now what do you want in their Grunkle's mind?"

"Oh, just the code to the old man's safe!" Bill explains. "Inside the shack is a maze of a thousand doors representing each of your uncle's memories. Behind one of them is a memory of him inputting the code. I just need to find it and Cato will pay me handsomely."

"Not if we stop you!" I say.

"Ha! Fat chance!" He laughs. "I'm the master of the mind. I even know what you're thinking right now... You're thinking about your dear friend Mockingjay... Would you like me to explain exactly what you're thinking about her?"

"No!" I say and Katniss narrows her eyes at me. "I mean, it's not important, you're just trying to distract us!"

Bill laughs again. "Alright, alright, I'll leave you be then... I have more important things to do." Bill floats into the house, and we run after him. Bill was right, Mitch's mind is a maze of doors. How are we ever going to find the code before Bill?

"Let's split up," Katniss suggests. "Finnick, you go with Delly and Annie, and I'll go with Peeta," She narrows her eyes at me again.

"Okay," Finnick says and he runs off with the girls leaving me and Katniss standing in awkward science.

"Soo..." Katniss says. "Why didn't you want Bill to say what you were thinking about me?" I'm speechless. I really hoped she would forget about that. "Do you not like me or something?"

"No!" I say. "It's not that I don't like you... it's the opposite of that, really."

She blinks at me. "You... like... me?"

Oh my gosh! Did I just say that?" "Oh, not like that," I try to explain. "I mean like, I... think you're my best friend, but I was embarrassed to tell you."

"Oh," Katniss smiles. "That's all?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I think you're my best friend too." She admits. "Gale used to be my best friend but things are kind of awkward now that he wants to go out with me."

"You don't want to go out with him?" I ask.

"Not really," She shrugs. "I don't see him that way, but I didn't want to ruin our friendship by turning him down."

"Oh,"

"I think I'm going to talk to him about that." She says. "We should probably start looking for the door."

"Okay," I say pulling open the first door. It's not the combination. We go through about twenty five doors before I get to one of my Grunkle and Finnick sitting on the porch.

"Dude, Mitch," Finnick says. "I've been meaning to ask you. Why are you so hard on Peeta?" This draws my attention. I would like to know the answer to this question.

"Look Finnick," He says. "I'm gonna let you in on something. You wanna know what I really think? The kid's a loser." My heart cracks. "He's weak. He's an utter embarrassment. I just want to get rid of him." I slam the door and blink away tears. How could my Grunkle say those things about me? He must really hate me.

"Hey," Katniss gently touches my shoulder. "I'm sure he didn't mean it." Great! Katniss saw my Grunkle say those things.

"He said I was an embarrassment and he wanted to get rid of me,"

"Peeta," Katniss sighs. "I've been working for your Grunkle for a while and I know-"

"He still said it," I turn to face her. "That's it! I'm done solving all this problems. I work for him all day and night, and all he does in return is say he wants to get rid of me!"

"Peeta-"

"Peeta!" Delly interrupts Katniss. "Bill found the door!"

"I don't care anymore,"

"Peeta," Katniss says. "Why don't you stay here while we try to get the door back?"

Maybe I should, I start to reason. "Okay, I'll try to find the way out of Mitch's mind." They run off and I start opening doors. Eventually I get to the one from earlier. I decide to watch the whole thing to see if he says anything else I should know about.

"The kid's a loser. He's weak. He's an utter embarrassment. I just want to get rid of him." I can't take it anymore. I start to close the door. "Those are all the things people said about me when I was a boy." I swing the door wide open. "I was the biggest wimp on the playground. So one summer my pop signs me up for boxing lessons, and it was even worse than the schoolyard! You know at the time, I thought my pop was trying to torture me. But wouldn't you know it? The old man was doing me a favor all along. That's why I'm hard on Peeta. To toughen him up, so when the world fights, he fights back." I smile.

"Do you think it's working?" Finnick asks him.

Grunke Mitch nods his head. "He's really coming along... When push comes to shove, I'm actually proud of him... Just don't' ever tell him that." Grinning, I lean into the door frame but end up falling into the memory. "Whoa kid, what are you doing here?"

"I... I... We're fighting a triangle demon guy." I try to explain.

"Well," My Grunkle opens up a beer. Word to the wise, kid, we're in the mind. You can do whatever you can imagine here."

"I've got to stop Bill!" I run out of the memory and start searching for Bill and the others. When I find them Bill is taunting them with their nightmares. "You guys," I shout. "We're in the mind. You can imagine things to stop Bill!"

"Don't listen to him," Bill says. "He doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Oh, really?" I snap my fingers and their nightmares go away.

Delly laughs and starts shooting cats out of her fists. That's one way to fight Bill... I guess. The others start imagining fighting techniques to attack Bill. We do this for several minutes, and I can tell Bill is getting ready to explode.

"Enough!" Bill finally shouts, and once again, I'm wondering how he can make any noise without a mouth. We stop fighting him. "I'm impressed with you guys. You're a lot more clever than you look. So I'm going to let you off the hook... You might come in handy later. But knows this, a darkness approaches." He warns. "A day will come in the future when everything will change. Until then, I'll be watching you." Bill starts to disappear. "I'll be watching you." Then he's gone.

We start fading away. "Mitch must be waking up." Finnick says, and suddenly we're standing in a circle around our Grunkle again, and our Grunkle is awake.

"Why are you kids standing around me?" He looks down at his hand covered in shaving cream from the long forgotten prank. "Oh, nice!" He flings the shaving cream at me. I stand there for a moment then with a smirk, I sprint to the bottle of shaving cream laying on the couch, run back to him and start spraying him. This initiates a shaving cream war. We get so wrapped up that we don't notice when the ground starts shaking until something explodes.

"What was that?" Grunkle Mitch says. "Where did it come from?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Mellark family, did I interrupt something?" Cato asks walking into the living room from where Mitch keeps the safe holding the deed to the shack.

"But we defeated Bill," Delly says.

"Bill failed me, so I switched to plan b. Dynamite." Cato giggles.

"What? Bill?" Grunkle Mitch says in confusion. "Who- wh- what are you guys talking about?"

"Spoiler alert, Mitchell. I've got the deed!" Cato says. "The Mystery Shack belongs to me! So get off my property!"

Okay, I'm planning on posting chapter 9 but if for some reason I don't. It should be soon. How did you guys like Bill? I didn't want to make him a Hunger Games character because it just didn't feel right, so I just kept him the way he is in the show. I hope you guys liked this chapter. Have a great day.