Author's Note: I managed to crank out a chapter today at work instead of working. I've updated the picture for this story today too; I hated the last one I had up. So here we finally venture from cannon and have a little bit of action. Good way to kick of a Friday. Let me know if you like the direction of this now =) I rather like it!
Chapter 9
Whatever Happens
Everyday it's the same thing. Wake, prep, smile for the districts, eat, socialize, board the train and hold Katniss until we fall asleep. I no longer deviate from our speeches and just as she's promised Katniss hasn't left me alone. Sometimes I feel her start to slip into herself and I pull her back, sometimes, when I don't see the point of it all she kisses me and tells me to come back to her.
Two broken people trying to just do the best they can with what they are given. I feel myself both looking forward and dreading the end of this victory tour at the same time. I don't have much control over the situation and time seems to slow down and speed up of its own accord. We are just about to re-enter the Capital and I face the terrifying thought with Katniss's holding onto me for dear life, her fingers are almost painful in their grip. I have my arms resting on her hips and my chin resting on her head. I don't offer words of comfort I just offer her my presence.
The Capital party is unlike any of the other districts. Their extravagance knows no bounds. While millions starve they can eat, purge and repeat. It makes me so angry I find I clench my hands repeatedly. Katniss knowingly pries my fingers apart before laying a kiss on my hand and a small smile.
My feet are tired and I feel like we have been dancing with socialites and making small talk for ages. My nerves are fried and every time they pull Katniss from my reach I can't help a creeping sense of paranoia that she's gone for good. After another grueling dance with another strangely colored capital woman I manage to make my way over to a refreshment table where I find Haymitch standing.
"Where is she?" I don't beat around the bush and there is no point in clarifying who I'm referring to. There is no one else.
"I was wondering the same thing." His response sends my heart plummeting to the floor. I start to peer around frantically, but I don't see her in the arms of any of the men that have been pawing at her. But then I start to look for someone I should see but don't, Snow.
"Where is he?" I ask Haymitch. He looks at me and presses his lips into a thin line.
"Find one and I bet we find the other." He says. We start to casually walk the room. Haymitch pulls Effie aside and whispers into her ear. She nods and then darts off. "She's off to check the little girl's room."
When Effie returns later she offers us a shrug of her shoulders and shake of her head. Great. Where did he take her? I know he has her, there is no other explanation. Just as I'm about to lose it one of Snow's bodyguards makes his way over to us and leans into whisper, "Your presence is requested with the President."
We follow our escort out of the hall and the door closes behind us drowning out the sound of the tinkling of glasses and the giddy laughter of the party. We climb several flights of stairs and make our way down a thickly carpeted hallway. He brings us to a set of double oak doors and opens one, motioning for us to enter. He immediately shuts them behind us leaving us in the room.
I see Katniss perched on the end of a love seat, Snow's arm on her shoulder. I move to go to her when I'm grabbed roughly from behind an arm tightens around my shoulder and I feel a sharp shooting pain in my neck. "What the..." I start by my words are choked off.
Haymitch is shoved by another guard to sit next to Katniss. I look at her and her eyes look right back at me pleading me to do whatever it is they are asking me.
"Now, now let's settle down." Snow begins and he stands up and walks to his desk where he leans against it. I can't move my head in any direction but where it's directed and whatever the guard has jabbed in my neck pulls if I even breathe.
What the fuck is going on? As if hearing my thoughts Snow begins.
"You three are on my very last nerve. I give you one simple task to do…" He fades out as if he is to exasperated to know what to say. My heart is pounding and my legs are weak with adrenaline. "This is your last warning. Toe the line or you will regret ever having pulled out those berries do you understand me?" His voice rising as he continues.
He nods to the guard behind me and I feel a horrible burning sensation in my neck and then at long last it's pulled free, I catch a glimpse of a needle in my peripheral vision and I feel sick. What the hell did they just put in me? I start to feel a little woozy and lean forward; I don't want to fall to the floor in front of this man so I pull myself over to the sofa. Katniss immediately moves forward to kneel in front of me resting her hands on my knees she asks, "Peeta, are you okay?" I feel strangely weak and I only nod to her in response. "What did you do to him?" She asks President Snow.
"I cannot have the three of you traipsing around Panem as if you own it; offering promises, making a mockery of this fine Capital. We'll let Peeta take this punishment; it's only fitting after the little stunt he pulled in District 11. So whenever you get the urge to try my patience again look at the pain Peeta feels and maybe you won't be so apt do it again."
I try to talk but I feel a bit winded, "I don't... I don't understand… the pain?" I'm unable to really finish but I'm confused, I don't feel any pain, I'm lethargic if anything else.
Snow gives me an evil smile and walks towards me. "How do you feel Peeta? A little weak perhaps? A little light headed?"
I look at Katniss whose eyes are darting between me and Snow. I nod in confirmation. He nods to the man that stuck me with the needle who swiftly moves forward and roughly pulls Katniss in a headlock. My pulse surges and I move to pull the man off of her when I am blinded by an excruciating amount of pain. I cry out before I can stop myself. I feel like knives are stabbing me all over. I crumple immediately to the ground and pull myself into a fetal position. I don't even know where I am, how I got here or what is going on around me.
After an amount of time passes I feel the pain start to ebb away and I become conscious of reality again. I'm soaked in sweat and I think I have bit through my lip or my tongue because I have blood running down onto my shirt and I can taste the familiar metallic flavor. I'm stiff and achy as if I've just gotten over the bad flu as I shakily pull myself into a sitting position.
Katniss is sitting beside me on the floor; she looks like she's afraid to touch me. "What..." I have to stop to clear my throat, it's a bit gravely and I think I must have screamed myself hoarse. "What just happened?" I close my eyes fighting to keep awake.
Snow just gives me a grandfatherly smile and walks back to his desk. "What you just experienced Mr. Mellark is a new invention I've had cooked up just for you. Any surge in your adrenaline and you will be crippled with an overwhelming amount of pain." I look at Katniss and over to Haymitch trying to wrap my head around his words. Haymitch looks like he's aged twenty years, his face pale and he looks like he's shaking. "Just think Mr. Mellark, when your heart race? Anytime you run, when you're afraid, when you make love…" He smiles glaringly at this last point.
Through the fog in my mind I'm starting to connect the dots. And I think I'm totally screwed.
"There is no other antidote other than what I personally have. No one will be able to help you but me, but you must follow my rules or you will stay this way." He nods to the guards and says "Escort them out take them back to the train."
Katniss tries to help me to my feet but she too seems weak. I hope they haven't laid a hand on her. I couldn't take it if they had. Instead Haymitch grabs my arm and heaves me up. I seem to walk okay on my own if we go slowly but the guards seem to be in a bit of a hurry. The stairs give me grief too so Haymitch pulls my arm around my shoulder and he takes some of my weight.
We are escorted down the back stairwell and out a back door into the dead of night. No grand exit or farewell on this return trip. A dark tinted car is idling in the drive ready to whisk us back to our train. I sit down heavily in the back seat and Katniss slides in next to me. We pull away from the mansion and it quickly falls away in the rearview mirror. I'm having a hard time staying awake so Kantiss guides my head into her lap and strokes my hair soothingly. I nod off to the gentle rocking of the car. I hope tomorrow I'll wake up in Katniss's arms on the train and this all been some horrific nightmare, but I don't think I'm that lucky.
