A/N: Honestly, I have NO idea what the heck this chapter will be about, so I'll make it up as I go.

I got a great idea the other day! Since you guys liked the story 'Always' so much, I thought I'd make a prequel, taking place between the end and the epilogue. Let me know what you think in the reviews and if you do want me to do it, I'll get started on that right away.

ENJOY!

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE HUNGER GAMES!

Chapter 14

I don't hear from Peeta for a while after that one night. It's been two whole weeks. Either he's so mad at me he can't even look at me, or he is still recovering from the war, like me. I think it's the first one, considering how cruel I've been. But I can't think about that now.

I'm sitting on the couch, wrapped in blankets, too depressed to do anything, when I hear a small crash come from the kitchen. I get up slowly to see what it is, when I enter the kitchen, I see Prim's old cat, Buttercup. Seeing this doesn't make me sad, or happy, but rather mad.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" I scream, while picking up cups and other glass items, and start throwing them at Buttercup. "SHE'S GONE! SHE'S DEAD AND SHE'S NOT COMING BACK, SO JUST GET OUT!" I move closer to Buttercup, tears streaming down my face. "She's dead." I say quieter. "She's never coming back." Buttercup looks positively terrified at this point, but doesn't move from his spot. "She's dead." My voice is so hoarse and broken at this point, and I can't hold in all the tears that come streaming down my face. This is the worst I've ever cried, and I have a pretty good reason for that.

I feel bad about throwing things at Buttercup and terrifying him more than I could ever imagine.

"Come here." I say in a low, soothing voice. "I'm sorry." I pick him up and hold him tight as I crumple to the ground, sobbing so much I'm surprised I can still breathe.

I've lost everything. Everything I've ever cared about. I lost Prim. I lost Peeta. I lost Finnick. I have nothing. I don't even know where my mother is or what happened to Gale. I've been cut off from the rest of the world and there's nothing I can do about it.

Peeta's POV

I hear crashes and screams coming from Katniss' house. Even though I haven't seen or talked to her in two weeks, I decide to check on her to make sure she's not hurting herself. I do miss her a lot, but I don't think she'd want to see me, that's why I never came to see her after that night.

I open her door, and by now the screaming has stopped, but instead, replaced with sobbing. By now I'm searching for where the sobbing is coming from, I know it belongs to Katniss, but I can't figure where it is. I then enter into the kitchen and see her curled on the ground wrapped in blankets, and holding tightly onto Prim's old cat, Buttercup.

Just by the sight of her, I can see how broken she really is. I know she can't get through this on her own, she can't heal from this on her own.

"Katniss?" I finally say, edging closer to her. She looks up and sees me, but quickly looks back down into her knees. "Katniss, what's wrong?" I ask, although I know very well why she's like this. I silently sit down next to her on the ground.

She keeps sobbing and I don't know what to do. Should I comfort her? How do I comfort her in a friendly way and not romantically?

"It's okay, Katniss." I say soothingly. I hug her just to be comforting, but really I wish I could hug her like this anytime.

"She's dead." She whispers. "She's dead and I couldn't save her."

"You did the best you could." I tell her.

"But I didn't do enough." She argues. "She had her whole l-life ahead of her. S-she would have been a great person. S-she couldn't even finish her doctor training." She sobs.

I hold her tight, and she let's me. Even when she stops crying she won't let me go. But this can't mean anything, right? We're just friends and my arms will always be here to comfort her.

Back to Katniss' POV

As Peeta comforts me I feel a feeling I haven't felt in a long time. A feeling I've never truly felt...

Safe.

I've always been trying to survive and keep my family alive, and in all that time I could never feel safe with the threat of death, which could have been just around the corner.

The kiss on the beach comes to mind. I had gotten that memory back into my head a couple months ago. I remember feeling safe when I was in Peeta's arms on the beach. I felt like the whole world around me had vanished and we weren't really fighting in an arena to the death.

When Peeta gets up to leave, I stop him.

"Peeta... stay with me?"

"Okay." He smiles, retaking his position next to me. After a moment he whispers, "Always."

We soon fall asleep on the kitchen floor, with Buttercup curled up on both of our laps.

When we wake up, it's dark outside, so we get up and I start a fire in the fireplace.

"Katniss, did you see this letter?" He asks from another part of the house.

"I never checked the mail." I say. "Why?"

"It's from Annie." He replies, coming into the kitchen with the letter in his hand.

"Read it." I tell him.

"Dear Katniss and Peeta, I wanted to write to you and tell you about everything that's been going on. First of all, Katniss' mom has been living with me here in District 4. She is working as a healer at the hospital. Gale got became a Commander in District 2. He helps lead the army of District 2 and travels to teach other armies. As for me, I am spending everyday with my son, who reminds me everyday of his father. We owe it to ourselves that our world is now in peace and that our children can live full, happy lives without the threat of death."

"You'll be happy to know," Peeta continues. "That the new president has been elected from District 8. She was the leader there, but will now take on the role as leader of Panem. She will be having her coordination on November 27th at 8:00 pm. I hope you are both finding peace. -Annie." He then hands me a picture of Annie and her son hugging, finally in peace.

"November 27th?" I ask. "That's today."

"Looks like they will broadcast it on TV in an hour. Should we call Haymitch over to watch it with us?" He asks.

"Yeah, I'll make dinner for the three of us, you can go get him."

"Okay."

An hour later, we are at the dining room table eating lamb stew while watching Paylor's coordination.

"I solemnly swear, to the best of my ability to preserve, protect, and uphold the rights of every citizen of Panem." She says after the judge. Plutarch is standing in the back, behind President Paylor.

"There's Plutarch." Peeta says.

"He became Paylor's second in command." Haymitch says.

"May I present," The judge on TV says. "The President of the new Panem, President Paylor." There is clapping in the background from all the Capitol citizens.

Soon afterwards, President Paylor announces The Hunger Games illegal, and no harm will come to the innocent and the guilty. She promises never to let any citizen be treated unfairly for crimes, but rather be disciplined in a humane way, unlike the way of President Snow.

After everyone leaves, I go to bed, only I can't fall asleep. Images keep popping into my head. Things that have happened to me and things that I don't know are real or not. Things the Capitol told me. I don't know whether or not they really happened. I see my home being bombed by the rebels, but that wasn't real, right? The rebels killed my family! They did!

So many things fill my mind that it is literally painful. I see myself in the Capitol again, being tortured for reasons that I don't know.

"AAAAAHHH!" I'm screaming in the corner of wherever I am. It feels as if I am in a cold, dark cell. Yes, this is where I was in the Capitol. Wait! Am I in the Capitol? Are they going to torture me again?

Suddenly there are arms around me, and someone distant screaming my name.

"Katniss! Not real! Not real!" The person screams.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" I scream. "DON'T HURT ME AGAIN! PLEASE!"

"NOT REAL! NOT REAL!" The person's voice is getting closer and closer, yet I can't quite make out who it is. "NOT REAL!"

"NOOOOOOOOO!"

Suddenly, everything is back to normal. I am on the ground in my bedroom, curled in a ball and tears all over my face.

"Not real." Peeta tells me, but my eyes are closed so I can't see him. "Not real."

"Not real." I repeat. "Not real. Not real. Not real. No... no... NOOO!"

"Please come back to me... please." He begs.

"Not real... not real... not real..." My hands are covering my ears as I rock back and forth in a ball with my eyes closed. "Not real... not real... not real..."

"Yes, not real, not real." Peeta tells me soothingly with his arms wrapped around me tightly. "Not real."

My eyes finally open and I see Peeta's face. His eyes are closed as he wraps his arms around me, but I can see the worry all over his face.

"Your safe..." He tells me.

"I'm s-safe." I repeat. But truly, we will never be safe. We will always have scars from the wrath of President Snow, mentally and physically. We can never ensure our safety no matter how many times we tell ourselves "we're safe." Because really, there are still bad people out there and there will always be. Just because our world is safe now, there will always be another mountain that gets in our way. We will never be truly happy, nobody can, but if we tell ourselves that we are happy, that is something that we can ensure.

After everything I've seen in my lifetime, I know I want to live my life to the fullest, no matter what the Capitol did to me and the people I care about. The one thing they didn't take away from me was my fight to survive...