A/N: So sorry I haven't updated until today! I've been working on a one-shot about Katniss's mother and father (don't know when it'll be finished) so I haven't had enough time for this until now!

Thanks a 6.5 billion times over to reviewers, subscribers and favouriters. You are BEAUTIFUL!

Disclaimer: Surprise, surprise! I don't own the Hunger Games.


After Suki had left, I sat wondering for what must have been several hours. I didn't move from the spot.

I thought I understood – or, at least, was beginning to understand – how Suki wound up in this place. I still didn't get why she called herself Marion. But she had promised to come back – and when she did, I was going to get her to tell me more.

But I wondered … it sounded like Suki hated rebels. Rebels like me. People who "opposed the Capitol's morals" as she had put it. Was it possible that I had been mistaken in trusting her with District 13's plan? Was it possible she was reporting it right now? Hell, it was possible. Now I'm scared.

I don't want to be labelled, in decade's time, as "that Johanna Mason who gave away all District 13's secrets." God, no.

I fall asleep, eventually. And when I wake up, I'm not in my cell. When I wake up, I'm naked. When I wake up, I'm surrounded by water.

When I wake up … I'm in that room.

I remember this room. I remember this glass pool of water, sitting on top of a tiled floor. I remember that set of controls over there. I remember the man arming them, playing with a couple of switches, evidently bored and waiting for me to wake up. I remember his sudden alertness, as he realises I've come to. I remember him quickly flicking a switch, and I remember my confusion, then dread.

These memories flash through my mind like a silent movie, so quickly that they're finished long before the man arming the control panel notices me. But then suddenly he looks up from fiddling with something in his hand, an elastic band I think, and our eyes lock. I suddenly notice his eyes; I suddenly notice everything more acutely now that I know what's going to happen next. His eyes are grey, empty, expressionless, bored.

He looks down at the control panel and doesn't even bother himself to rush. He must know I'm not going anywhere. He carefully adjusts a couple of dials and checks a gauge while I look on in horror. Then it appears that the machine is ready. He looks up at me, smiles, and flicks the switch.

I expect instant pain, like last time, but it appears that this machine, whatever it is, is on a different setting this time. I float in the water almost peacefully for a few seconds while, I presume, the water is being charged with electricity, but something feels different. The water is slowly heating up, except the heat – no, the type of heat – is not the same as bath water. I can't describe it. All I know is that it is rapidly heating up in its own strange way.

It's really agitating; actually, it feels really strange.

And then the true purpose of this torture kicks in and I understand.

Zap. Zap. Zap. Three sharp, short shocks of electricity that leave me breathless.

"Now," rumbles the man at the control unit in a gravelly voice as the cool water rapidly heats up again. I'd forgotten about him for a while there. "Are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?" I don't bother answering, and in one of those moments of total insanity my mind screams, cliché!

"Well," he says, more to himself than me, "I guess that decides that then." He adjusts another few dials on the control unit, and back comes the electricity.

Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap! Four shots this time, obviously charged with more electricity than last time. They're agonizing, and leave me gasping and with a stitch, like I've just run a marathon.

"Stop!" I call despite myself, seeing the horrifying vision of the man slowly lowering his hand down to the control unit, ready to initiate more electricity. "Wait!"

He looks up and raises his eyebrows as if to say, Really? You're going to tell me all of District 13's secrets? He shrugs again, and I can see he's thinking, That wasn't too hard.

It infuriates me, even though he never said the words aloud. All of a sudden I'm speaking, although I'm aware that the words coming out of my mouth are not my own. "Go on." I say, and grit my teeth. I didn't say that. I didn't intend to say those words. I wasn't even thinking them. Then I realise who did say them – the voice in my head which I have now named Courage.

"Go on," I say again, louder this time. And this time it's not Courage speaking, it's me. I don't need prompting from that annoying voice in my head. "What are you waiting for?" I can hear Courage cheering in my head, and others cheering with it – Trust, Determination and Stubbornness. I decide to befriend the latter.

My, Johanna, you are going crazy.

Don't worry, Courage. I've known that for a long time.

The man decides I'm not bluffing, steps back to the control unit, presses a button.

And when the pain comes, I'm ready for it.


'The water has transformed from a safe haven of oblivion to … to … swimming in electricity.' – Johanna Mason, Water, Torture, Slaughter, Chapter Two.


Well, there it is. Hope you liked it, but I was a bit rushed when I wrote it, so it's not very good.

Please, please, please, please (I really can't repeat that word as many times as I'd like to, cos it would just make this chapter heaps longer), anyway, please review. But no pressure. Honestly, none!