Peeta and I slipped in through the large metal door, pulling it gently closed behind us, a sliver of sunlight escaping through the doorjamb.
The others were lined in a semicircle, staring vehemently at the man strapped to a chair in the centre of the room.
President Snow, in all his glory.
Finnick, my father and Cinna each had guns poised and ready to kill, while Gale circled the chair every so often, eyes cold and fists bloody.
President Snow's eyes were bulging out of his head, but he remained utterly calm, even when Gale placed a well aimed fist into his gut.
"Answer the damn question," he growled. Snow's eyes rolled back into his head, his already surgically swollen lip beginning to blush from former bruises and a split lip. When his eyes finally settled into place, he was immediately drawn to my approaching figure.
"Well, well, well, Ms. Everdeen. I would say it's a pleasure to see you again, but I think we both know that's not true."
"Hello, Snow." I said, holding his gaze as we joined the inner circle surrounding him, my hand clasped in Peeta's. I didn't want to let him go, and the feeling was mutual.
"Oh, and Mr. Mellark too," he laughed. "How delightful."
Peeta said nothing. Just stared blankly and emotionlessly at his withered form. I studied Snow from where I stood, taking in every inch of him with a calculated eye.
He looked different. Different from when he had sipped tea from the finest china in our now disintegrated house and I had caught a whiff of his blood-tainted breath. Different from when he had shook his head and informed me that my attempts to prove that I convincingly loved Peeta failed miserably. Even different to his strong and confident stance as he pulled the task from the Quarter Quell from the box, and the relish in his voice as he announced that former winners were going back into the ring.
His face was thinner, his eyes were dull and lifeless and his skin had taken on an unhealthy greyish pallor.
But his sadistic smile still remained plastered across his vile, surgically enhanced face.
"You know," he mused, his eyes shining, albeit less so than when I first met him, "now you've convinced me."
My gaze flickered to Peeta's face, studying his profile momentarily before focusing on our captive again.
"Shame it's too late." Snow laughed humourlessly. "Maybe we wouldn't have had to go through all this…unpleasantness."
"You know what else is unpleasant?" Gale stopped behind President Snow's chair and bent so that his lips were only inches from his ear. "The heel of my boot crushing into your pelvic bone."
"Oh, tut tut, young Gale," Snow smiled. "No need to take out your pent up frustration on me. It must be killing you…to see her here with him…."
"Yeah, yeah, I've heard this spiel before. Not too long ago actually. So, if you don't mind…" Gale rounded the corner of the chair and Snow groaned from the pain as Gale thrust his leg into his torso.
"I changed my mind," Gale narrowed his eyes. "I'll leave the pelvic bone for later."
"Fantastic," Snow grunted. "Looking forward to it."
I exhaled disbelievingly. Snow suffered blow after blow, and he still kept quiet, refusing to grovel. Gale sucked in a deep breath to calm himself. His hands were trembling at his sides, shaking from frustration.
"God," he groaned.
"Take a break Gale," My father said, placing an arm on Gale's shoulder with his free hand and squeezing it appreciatively.
"No," Gale shook his head, "Just let me help…"
"Gale, you've done enough," my dad said more firmly.
"No," Gale said, his voice breaking from emotion. "I need to do something…please, just let me do something.
"You've done enough," Dad said again, putting as much emphasis in his tone as possible.
"Not enough," Gale said, hanging his head. He kept his gaze trained on the cement floor of the warehouse. I looked down on the ground and saw several small wet splotches falling at his feet.
It took me a moment to realise they were his tears.
My stomach turned at the thought of Gale so broken. I had never, in the entire time I had known him, seen him shed a tear. Of course he wanted to be the one to use corporal punishment on Snow. He used violence as a coping mechanism. He projected his inner turmoil and sadness on others, forcing his pain onto others. What did I expect really? His dad was alive, and working for the one thing he hated most in this world, he had manipulated him, wormed his way into his mind and almost forced him to kill me, his best friend. To top all that, the girl he thought he loved was with someone else, and the girl he was growing to love was dead.
At least, he thought so.
Of course he was going a little crazy.
Gale turned around to hide his face from us all and wiped it discreetly by rubbing his face and jerking his hands through his hair in one swift movement. I was about to tell him about Madge, how she had survived and was out cold outside, when the sound of footsteps outside distracted me.
The door of the warehouse creaked open and Haymitch and the two guards ambled in, leaving a large gap in the door way. No one bothered to tell them to shut it. We were all too captivated by Snow.
He was laughing.
"What's so funny?" Finnick asked, his sea-green eyes slits of fury from staring at Snow.
"You," Snow snickered, "All of you. You're all so….naïve."
"Naïve?" Haymitch guffawed, sidling in close to me. I automatically flinched and Peeta's hand griped mine even tighter, to reassure me but also to control him self. He pulled me closer to him and we edge our way out of the circle, making way for the guards and pulling back, watching from a back seat view.
"Yes," Snow smiled and I felt like tracker-jackers were burrowing underneath my skin, trying to break free. "Absolutely and pathetically naïve."
"Right," Haymitch rolled his eyes. "We have you strapped to a chair, right where we want you, no chance of escape…"
"Oh, I'll escape." Snow's eyes narrowed and creased from his smile.
"Now who's naïve?" Haymitch laughed.
"Still you," Snow smirked.
My patience, and everyone's around me, was growing thin. My dad held up his hands and motioned everyone to quiet down.
"Right, enough of this," he said, "Let's get down to business."
"I wholeheartedly agree…It's Reed, isn't it? You and you daughter are so alike. You're both alive, when you're supposed to be dead."
My dad didn't rise to the bait. "Snow, this can go smoothly, and if you do as we request, we will let you go, no harm done."
Haymitch snorted and my dad fixed him with a venomous glare. "No harm done."
Haymitch shrugged. "Fine,"
"You will end the hunger games. The Peacekeepers initiative will be dissolved and corporal punishment will be annihilated. Panem will be a democracy, with a set of rules and laws for basic human rights. If you adhere to these conditions, we will let you go. Do you agree?"
"No," Snow smiled. The request seemed reasonable, and would not be impossible to achieve but Snow was blatantly in denial if he thought he would get away without any sort of compromise on his part.
There would be no compromise on the fate of the Games. Enough people had died; the chaos had to end.
"No?" Dad said in mock surprise. He already knew he would have to break Snow's defences before any real progress was made. He really was abusing the "good cop" angle.
But I knew it wouldn't work. I could see it in Snow's eyes.
"Try all your tricks, Reed, they won't work. And soon, you'll all be dead and this whole mess will just be another stain on the fabric of my life," he sighed. "What I wouldn't give for a good dry cleaner to get that out."
"See sense Snow. If you don't agree, you won't get out of here alive?"
"You think this ends with me?" Snow's smile was unnerving. "I'm flattered, truly. But I'm just one man."
"One man can change the world." I said, automatically thinking of Peeta. His words could disarm entire armies, like it had disarmed all my barriers.
"Ah, Katniss, I never knew you were such an optimist. How pathetic."
"He's not going to see reason," I said to no one in particular.
"Now, there's a girl with some sense." Haymitch agreed. The sound of his voice made me see red, my mind growing hazy. I knew what was happening. I was about to have a rage black out.
Peeta lowered his lips to my ear, caressing it with his words "Relax."
He really was a miracle worker. He placed a soft kiss on my temple that set my skin on fire.
I wanted him.
But we were busy.
"Even if I agree, I won't survive long enough to implement it, "Snow said tonelessly. "And then you'll just have to go through this whole ordeal again."
A tremor of confusion and uneasiness radiated around the room. I felt it in my gut, and the impact of his words hit me like a heavyweight boxer.
"You're dying." The matter of fact tone caught everyone of guard and they stared at me, willing me to say I was kidding.
"Well done Katniss," Snow said, "You really are more clever than we give you credit for."
"How long?" I asked.
"Two months." he said. "Bowel cancer, secondary brain cancer, the whole shebang. I even have covering my lungs."
So that explains the blood-breath, I thought, feeling empty inside.
"So all of this," Gale cried, "has been a waste of time?"
"Seems like it, "Snow couldn't keep the smile from his voice.
"So what do we do now?" Gale asked.
"You should prepare," Snow's face split into a grin. "They'll be here in a matter of minutes."
Ripples of confusion were nearly visible in the room, like heat waves on a monitor.
"Who?"
"You really didn't think you'd get away with kidnapping me and taking Peeta Mellark, did you?"
"How?" Dad asked, quickly glancing at me, fear in his eyes.
"Ask Mellark."
Every one of us turned to Peeta. The others turned toward him, stepping away from Snow and ignoring him. They all glared at Peeta, accusation stabbing at him like daggers. Peeta was shocked.
"What?" He had no idea what was happening.
"You've got a trace."
I grabbed Peeta's arm, but there was a small hole where the trace was. It was stupid of me not to check that he had one immediately, but it wasn't there.
"Joanna removed it," Peeta spat at Snow. "When they held us captive together for the first month. The left us alone and she broke free. She broke a window and dug it out with a shard. Then they killed her."
Poor Joanna.
"You really think we don't track Capitol property?" Snow tutted, clearly amused. "I thought you were smart Peeta."
Then it hit me. I looked down.
"Oh no."
"Ah, Katniss again," Snow smiled, "quick as a whip."
"Your leg," I said, pulling up his trouser and revealing his prosthetic. Peeta's face drained of colour, and a groan ran around the room.
Suddenly another voice sprang to our ears, from behind Snow, and we all whipped around.
"You seem happy, Snow?" Madge said, knife held against Snow's throat. "How about a smile?"
Snow's eyes were frantic. That he hadn't been expecting.
"This is for my family.
Madge jerked the knife across Snow's neck, blood gushing from the wound and the light left his eyes. The knife fell the ground and Snow's head hung limp on his shoulders.
He was dead.
"Madge?" Gale said, shocked.
Now he knew Madge wasn't.
"Oh god," she said, shaking. Resident Snow's blood coated her arm and the front of his white shirt was drowned in crimson.
"I killed him," She said softly, in denial.
"Madge?" Gale said again. "You're alive."
Gale tentatively stepped toward Madge, who was still trembling. She had killed him. Not in self-defence, but in fury.
She had killed President Snow.
She might have ended the Capitol.
Gale grabbed her by the shoulders, stared at her in amazement and laced a hand in her hair. A second later he pulled her lips to his and kissed her passionately.
She broke away from him. "What was that for?"
"You're alive," he said simply. "You're amazing."
Outside, there was a flurry of noise, in the not too far distance.
They were coming.