The last time Katniss saw Peeta she got scared by her attachment to him. She ran fast, even though Corky and Shirley tried their best to keep her running away but Katniss is scared and she needs an intervention...

Okay, so this is where this fic starts earning its rating...trigger warning...PS I do not own the Hunger Games. Thank you to Norbertsmom for betaing this chapter and her unwavering friendship

Prim's scream penetrated the room. Katniss woke up, she swallowed, and turned around in the bed to gently wake up her sister. "Prim."

After a little prodding her sister, Prim awoke still in the middle of her nightmare. Katniss slowly coaxed her baby sister's plaintive quaking body to a state of calm, until she was able to speak. Her sister's nightmares were getting worse.

"Katniss." Prim wept, her small face pressed into her neck.

"It's going to be okay, Little Duck." Katniss called her sister this because her shirt was always untucked in the back of her skirt and it looked like a duck's tail.

Prim hiccupped.

Once again, Katniss had the urge to go to him, to Peeta. The only person she could speak to about this, she couldn't see. Katniss forced herself to be calm. To not miss him, to be in the present, to remember that Primrose needed her. Her grey eyes focused in on her baby sister's pale face.

Katniss gently continued to rock her sister back and forth until Prim's small scared whisper interrupted the silence of the room.

"I was reaped, Katniss, I was reaped. I died in the arena."

"Shh," Katniss took her small sister in her arms and cradled her. She gently brushed her sister's blond hair away from her face.

"I don't want to be reaped." Prim cried in a diminutive voice.

"You're not going to be called."

"I don't want to die," Prim whispered, frantically clutching Katniss.

"You're not going to die. I promise."

Prim demanded, "How do you know?"

Her sister had been having the same dream for weeks now, sometimes three times a night. "I just know. Now hush, and go to sleep."

"Sing me a song."

Katniss nodded and rocked her sister back and forth.

"Deep in the.."

"No, not that one," Prim said.

"Then which one, silly little duck?"

Prim giggled before her sweet face became shy and her eyes begged for something Katniss knew she was not going to like. "The one daddy used to sing for mama, the one mama hums to herself when she's sad."

Katniss swallowed. She had not dared sing that song for fear that it would hurt her mother. "I don't know, Prim?"

"Please, it's so pretty."

Katniss nodded her head and gently rocked back and forth. Her lashes slid closed as she recalled the way her father's sweet, powerful voice sang for her all the while looking at her mother, his eyes filled with love and devotion. When she was young, she desired that, she wanted someone to look at her that way. Now she was scared of it.

She was scared of it because she had seen it on Peeta's face that last time they had been together. He looked at her the way her father looked at her mother and it frightened her to the point where she'd needed to get away from him.

Tomorrow was the Winter's Solstice and she had not seen him.

It was a genuine battle; she used the winter's harshness as an excuse not to go out into the night. In school, when she was able to go when the weather cleared up, she hid in the shadows and paid no attention to him. When she did see him it hurt. It hurt and not only because a debt was owed.

It hurt because her heart did not beat the same without him.

"Please Katniss, make the bad dreams go away. Make them disappear." Prim's voice grew quiet as she described the dream; Katniss listened attentively to get her mind away from Peeta. "I was running. These large boys were chasing me. I couldn't escape them, then I saw him. He was calling to me, telling to come to him."

This time Prim's dream was different. It was not the nightmare where she was lit on fire by a fireball that fell from the sky. Katniss was curious about this boy that was in her dream, "Who?"

"He helped me, but they killed him. There were two boys and they were too much for him. They sliced him in the knees, then one of them threw a spear into his stomach. He told me to run, Katniss, but I couldn't and then one of them took me by the neck. I was so scared and Peeta was dead and they were going to kill me too."

Katniss swallowed, thinking of both of them dead. There weren't many people she cared about and thinking of both of them dying caused her heart to shatter. Tears gathered in her eyes as she pulled her sister closer. She held on tighter to Primrose, her smaller body curved around her own.

She had no words to say to her sister and she couldn't speak, so she sang the old Carter's song that her father loved to sing for their mother. It was their wedding song, their courting song. He poured his love into it when he sang it and so did Katniss.

"Last night the pale moon was shining.

Last when all was still,

I was wandering alone in sadness

Out among the woodland hills.

I heard the birds a'singing

Out among the trees and view.

And all the birds, my darling,

Were singing, were singing of you.

Were singing, were singing of you (my love).

Were singing, were singing of you.

And all the birds, my darling,

Were singing, were singing of you."

Tears were running down her face as she finished singing the song. Her sister was fast asleep. She sniffled as she laid her sister back on the bed, gently tucking her in as she wiped her face. Standing up, she drifted downstairs and sat on the old sofa. Wrapping her arms around her legs, she rocked herself the way she had seen her mother do, a thousand times in those early years after the explosion that took her father's life.

After a while, the rocking motion lulled her to sleep.

She fell through clouds. They were bright white against a brilliant blue sky, but slowly, as she descended, the sky turned darker, murkier. The deeper the color, the worse the feeling of foreboding steeped into her bones. She landed in the dark interior of her house on the sofa.

Everything was out of sorts and when she tried to get up she found she couldn't. Her arms and her legs felt heavy. Her tongue felt swollen as if a bee had stung her and she couldn't swallow, her breathing was shallow. She was choking. She gasped for air. Sounds came out of her as she tried to call for help. She struggled and tried to thrash, but she felt as if something or someone was pressing down on her limbs.

Suddenly she was able to scream.

She sat up with a gasp. Disoriented, her vision was blurry. She sat on the sofa. Everything around her seemed the same, but that instinct she developed as a hunter told her nothing was the same. Her heartbeat sounded like a large drum beat. Nervously she stood, her palms sweaty. She opened the door to find hundreds of children walking past. Their faces washed in grey. Their thin arms hung limply by their sides.

Katniss did not want to leave her home. It was safer inside than out there with those lifeless creatures, but a great force pushed her out. She grasped the door frame, her fingertips scratched the surface of the wood door as she held on. She screamed, but nothing came out of her mouth. She tried harder, but the nothingness penetrated the air. The only sound she heard was her beating heart as she was sucked forward.

She stood in front of the Justice Building among the other children. The District Twelve escort Effie Trinket stood at the podium in a blood red outfit with talon-like nails. She looked around her. Gale stood proudly with his scowl tattooed on his face. It was his open rebellion. Peeta stood to the side amongst the boys. He was stood still. His normally ruddy face was pale. She searched the crowd for her sister. Her small frame was way ahead of her.

Her shirt was un-tucked from the back of her skirt.

Katniss heard the music as the movie played. The voice of the President was heard and it transformed once more into her heart beat. She listened carefully. It was not her heartbeat, it was a clock and it was counting down.

She looked up to see Effie Trinket reach into the bowl.

"Primrose Everdeen," her capitol accent called charmingly.

"NO!"

She reached out to push her way toward the stage. "NO!"

Katniss cried but even as she heard her own voice, no one else heard it.

She screamed again "NO!"

Prim marched to the front.

"NO, PRIM, NO!" Katniss tried to move, but her feet were cemented to the ground.

Her sister slowly made her way up the stairs.

Desperate she called out, "I VOLUNTEER, I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!"

No one heard her voice. No one listened.

Katniss yanked at her legs trying to get them to move, but they did not.

"Peeta Mellark!"

"NOOOOOOO!" Katniss screamed. Tears streamed down her face as she watched him take the stage, his face scared, unsure, pale just as her sister's. Determined, she yanked on her legs and was finally free. She ran toward the stage, but as she reached it her reality morphed and she saw them in the games. The loud blast of an alarm went off.

The countdown was over, and it was time for action. She stealthy moved through the arena. Not understand how she could be here, but she heard her sister's cry and she ran toward Prim.

Heart racing when she saw Prim trying to scale a tree.

Katniss hurried. There were sounds of beasts coming. She saw when Peeta reached her sister first.

"PEETA!" Katniss yelled when the beasts emerged from the background as he was trying to help Prim up the tree. She grabbed a stick from the ground. She had to make a decision.

"SAVE HER," Peeta yelled at her. "SAVE HER, KATNISS!"

"NO!" Katniss yelled back as she threw the stick at the Capitol made an animal with pink skin and large horns. It had claws that could easily tear a person apart.

She impaled one, but it was too late. The beast tore through Peeta. Katniss fell on the ground screaming for him even as her sister scooted up the tree safely.

Things morphed again and once more she was in another arena. She heard Peeta's cry and she ran to find him.

On and on it went.

If she tried to save her sister, Peeta died.

If she tried to save Peeta, her sister died.

On and on, she tried to save them both.

The first time she tried to save Peeta, her sister died in a cavern under the earth, like her father did. The second time she was speared through the heart. The third, a boy stoned Prim to death.

When she tried to save Prim, Peeta was mauled by vicious flesh-eating mutts. The next time, a swarm of tracker-jackers stung him and made him crazed. The third time, he died slowly in a ditch from blood poisoning. The last time was the worst. She saw him try to save her and her sister. He fought against two massive boys with muscles in their necks. In horror, she watched as they hacked him to death while laughing.

She screamed and fell to the meadow where she stood holding Prim.

The agony of loss overwhelmed her.

A fog enveloped her. It's cold fingers gripping on to her skin and pulling her down. She felt her blood drain downward as she called for him, for Peeta, even as his bloodied pieces were left out on the field. Even as she fought to not be sucked under the ground, she screamed for him because he was the only one she wanted. He was the only one who she could count on. Peeta was the only boy she was in love with. In her desperation, she clawed her way out from the pit.

She called to him in vain, because he couldn't hear her.