AN: This is not an option, this is not a suggestion, and this is something you MUST do. Go to you tube. Type in "Hurricane" by 30 Seconds to Mars – This Is War(non video version). This song EMBODIES not only this chapter but the rest of this story... it pretty much inspired this fic you've been reading. If you don't listen to it, you're completely missing out. Push play once Katniss gets to Haymitch's house and the song should last the entire reading. The feeling I get when I listen to this song is the feeling I'm trying to instill in all of you as I write this. Failure to do this is not an option… (pretty please). This is the only thing I will ever ask from you in exchange for reading my twisted version of Panem.
Chapter 9: The Darkness
Katniss woke up next to a still sleeping Prim. After yesterday's confessions, she couldn't stay in Peeta's bed. It would have been cruel to Gale. She knew it was in turn cruel to her husband but in the end, he hadn't argued at all. After she'd told him that, he'd been the one to suggest she stay with Prim and her mother that night. She knew he didn't like it, being away from her on her last night in District 12 before leaving but she also knew he understood her reasoning.
But there was another reason, one she didn't offer up. This one had nothing to do with fairness toward Gale; it had nothing to do with spending time with her sister and mother. It had everything to do with the fact that Peeta now scared her. She'd been wrong to doubt him yesterday. The guilt she'd felt after believing he was going to hurt her, had been difficult to sort through. Despite that, despite knowing that he still loved her, the new intensity in his eyes held the promise of something she couldn't describe or know.
She shook the thought from her head as she gently pulled herself away from her still sleeping sister. It was time to go to Haymitch's again and receive her last message from President Snow while in District 12. This was the second morning in the past two months that she felt numb to her possible orders for the day. She smoothed a lock of hair out of her sister's face and gave all of her hope, the small amount she had left, to Prim. Everything she had done was for her. Everything she would do in the Capitol would be for her. For Prim. She slowly closed the bedroom door and didn't let her eyes drift from her sister's sleeping form until the door clicked shut, blocking her from view.
The cool spring air helped to lift her spirits as she made her way to her mentor's house. As always, she just let herself into his home. As always, she walked into the kitchen but something was different. He wasn't there. Perhaps last night had been too much for him and he'd passed out. For his sake, she hoped she was wrong. She searched every room of his house and found no one. The first hint of panic started to set in when she trotted out the door and yelled his name. She received no reply.
Next she ran to the home she'd shared with Peeta for the last two months. Skipping most of the steps, she bounded up onto the porch and burst through the front door.
"Haymitch! Peeta!"
Nothing. Now her heart was starting to pound. She quickly skirted by each room just to be sure but there was no one to be found.
Gale.
She ran down the Victor's Village path, past the boulders and toward the Seam. Numbly, her mind barely registered when she ran by her childhood home that held so many fond and terrible memories. Right now she wasn't thinking about the past but the present. Where were they? She rounded the bend and into the block that held Gale's ramshackle home. She didn't knock, she just burst through the door, nearly scaring his mother, Hazelle, half to death.
"Gale, where is he!" She didn't have time to be polite or cautious. She couldn't worry about the mental state of the woman in front of her who just yesterday had her entire family threatened with death. The sense of dread was building up in her stomach and if she didn't find out something soon, she feared it would overcome her.
"Peacekeepers." Hazelle squeaked out. "They came to get him about an hour ago before he had a chance to go to his shift in the mines." His mother's already red and puffy eyes started to unleash a flurry of fresh tears.
"Where did they go?" Hazelle just shook her head. Katniss's rash and frantic actions were obviously beginning to send the woman into hysterics. "Did you see which way they left?" She'd take the time to feel guilty about causing this poor woman unneeded grief and worry later. Gale's mother just pointed toward town, now shaking with tears dripping from her jaw line.
Katniss took off. She wasn't even sure exactly where she was going but she had to keep moving or the knot, the darkness steadily growing inside of her would take over. Is this what her mother had felt the day her father never came home? Did she feel this darkness? She couldn't let it have her, if she did, if she tuned out like her mother, Snow would kill Prim.
She ran to the bakery next. Some people looked up with interest as she tore past them, some just looked up blankly but she didn't see any of them. The moment the bakery came into view, her foot caught on the uneven ground and she crashed to the ground. She tasted the blood in her mouth and every breath she took after, she could smell it. It was like Snow was right there with her, every step, taunting her. She burst into the small bakery with such ferocity that she stumbled again, over the door's threshold.
"What? Who?" Peeta's mother shouted in alarm. The moment Katniss rose to her feet once more, she was met with the acid tone of the cruel woman. "Everdeen."
"Where is he!"
"He's your husband." The woman stated unhelpfully but Katniss didn't have time for her pettiness.
"If you know and you don't tell me right now," She grabbed a slicing knife off the counter and pressed it to the woman's throat. Katniss couldn't know what kind of fiend she looked like just then. She stood there, wild eyes, covered in dirt and her mouth was blood red every time she opened it to speak. Little red flecks of spittle dotted Peeta's mother's white frock.
The darkness was getting closer.
"I don't know…" She sputtered, "He never showed up this morning." Her jowls shook along with the rest of her.
"NO!" She dropped the knife. "No. No. No." She backed up shaking her head, tears finally dropping to the floor. She backed into the door of the bakery before ripping it open and running for her final destination, the Justice Building.
"Peeta! Gale! Haymitch!" She started screaming the moment the structure came into view. If people had looked at her oddly before, they were staring at her outright now. Pity passed through the eyes of most, others couldn't bring themselves to care.
"Peeta! Gale! Haymitch!" The two guards that stood outside the building's entrance didn't look surprised to see her at all. One of them stepped out slightly as she approached and before Katniss knew what was happening, he rammed the butt of his rifle into her gut. She fell to the ground a third time, gasping for breath. It didn't stop her, the pain wouldn't allow her to rise but she pitifully tried to drag herself to the door of the building.
She didn't hear them laughing. All she knew was her final form of movement was removed from her when both of her arms were wrenched behind her back and bound together.
The darkness, it was starting to swallow her up.
"Prim." She whispered, using the image of her sister to try to push it away.
She was barely conscious when they hauled her inside. Each man had a hold of her upper arms and just dragged her through, she didn't know how many, doors. She didn't know when they dropped her to the ground but when she opened her eyes, she was in a small room with a monitor on the floor and a vase filled with white roses. A minute later, the screen snapped on and there, in the small flickering screen was the image of President Snow.
"Hello Mrs. Mellark."
OoO
AN: Now I've gone and done it. I'm going to warn you all now. The next chapter is where the "Dark Fic" warning in the summary comes from. If you thought it was dark before… prepare yourselves for what I'm truly capable of and as a result, there will be no ANs or review responses in the next chapter, we'll save those for the chapter after.
If you didn't listen to Hurricane, then I am very, very disappointed in you. You are only hurting yourself. (The next chapter already has me all dark and broody.)
Girl in a Frostie Box: I'm officially in love too, with all of my all too kind reviewers. But technically, isn't this story getting worse and worse? ;P
catie8: lol, glad you enjoy my ANs and my story. I really did type that in during a fit of frustration. The cursor just blinked after the ! for a good 20 minutes. I love writing Haymitch bits; he was actually my favorite character in the books. Maybe I'll try my hand at a Haymitch centered fic after finishing this one. I love responding as much as I love posting the chapters. It makes the experience so much more personal and it adds something I can't explain. I don't know why it took me so long to write fan fiction lol.
Ambrosia: Things will get interesting (though maybe not the best word) but I'm going to be a little presumptuous and say... you have absolutely no idea.
Carla: We have something in common; I'm obsessed with it too! I would love to tell you one way or the other whether this is going to have a happy or sad ending… but I can't. You took the time and effort to tell me what you think, the least I could do is put in the effort for a response to demonstrate how much I appreciate my reviewers. Everyone is so worried about Peeta lol. Poor Gale, no one seems worried about him… he can't get no love. My thinking on why Snow is more hell bent on torturing Kat is because between the pair of victors, she's the one that defied him, twice, during the games. Peeta just got lucky by riding on her coat tails out of the arena. At least that's the motivation behind my President Snow characterization.
