Althaea POV
I wake up in a hospital. I'm all alone. There are machines and wires connected to me. I start to panic.
Where am I? Where's Talon... my family. I have so many questions and no one is around to answer them.
One of the machines next to me starts to beep as my heartbeat speeds up. A man rushes into the room.
"Calm down Althaea. Everything's okay."
My mind turns muddled like it did during the Games. The man running towards me, is he trying to kill me or help me? Multiple people rush in after him and I start to panic even more. I feel my body tremble.
"No, please! Leave me alone." I'm on the verge of crying.
They all slow down when a familiar voice speaks. It's Zander.
"Althaea, we're here to help you. No one wants to hurt you."
My body shakes more as he speaks. All of the memories that I saw in the arena come back, plus a few more. Zander murdering a girl in the apothecary as he made me stay and watch, that's a new one I think. There are still the parts of him trying to kill me as well.
"Why is he in here? Where's my family?"
"They'll be in when you're better." Zander proceeds. He walks over to me and cups my face in his hands. My stomach turns. Why are they letting him this close to me.
I start gagging and he sits me up and rubs my back. This is exactly what Talon did when I was sick. The thought of Talon and not knowing his whereabouts makes me feel more nauseous. I vomit all over the sheets and start crying.
"What's wrong Althaea?" Zander asks.
I don't fight anymore; I give up and collapse in his arms while sobbing. When I don't stop someone sedates me and the darkness arrives quicker than it had before.
I wake up in the same boring room. A lady with a clipboard sits beside my bed.
"Good, you're awake. We need to talk." She's cheerily.
"Where am I?"
"District Thirteen. Underground. The Capitol only destroyed the ground above and as long as we keep quiet and stay out of their way, they leave us alone."
"Where is everyone that I know?"
"Here. The Capitol created a story for the citizens of Panem. They wanted to visit you but we need to work with first. See-"
"Where's Talon? Is he here?"
"No, he's at the Capitol. You've only been out of the arena for two days. A Capitol hovercraft will bring him here. They will eventually come up with a lie to get him out of the victory tour. Don't worry, Althaea. He'll arrive today."
I look down to my hands. My rings are gone. Both of them. I want to ask her if she knows where they are but she acts like she needs to tell me something a little more important.
"Althaea, when you got stung, it was a form of hijacking. Do you know what this is?" I shake my head.
"Hijacking is taking the venom of a tracker jacker to confuse your memories. It is a type of memory alteration and fear conditioning method developed by the the Capitol for torture. Tracker jacker venom is used to associate fear with certain memories, and to alter those memories with hallucinations.
The scorpion that they altered somehow did this to you without having to bring memories to your attention. What were you thinking about as you got stung."
"Let's see. I at first was worried about the scorpion, then I was thinking of Zander."
"Anything else?" She prompts.
"I was afraid that District Four would kill me."
"Okay, we'll start with that. You had a breakdown yesterday right? What were you thinking about. What were you seeing."
"When the man came rushing into my room, I was worried that he'd kill me. Once many other people started to enter the room I panicked."
"Anything else?"
"When Zander started talking I couldn't understand why they'd let him in the same room with me. He touched me and then…" My voice trails off and I feel my mind struggle and my body shake.
"It's okay Althaea. You need to talk about it."
"Okay. He touched me and I was afraid he was going to kill me. I got so worried that I got sick.
"He helped me sit up and he rubbed my back. He asked me if something was wrong. That's when I crumpled into his arms and knew that my thoughts were incorrect."
"That's a start. Do you have any other strange thoughts?"
"Everytime I see someone, my initial thought is that they're trying to kill me. I get really scared."
"Alright, Why don't you get some rest. Talon should be here soon."
"Can I see my family?"
"We're going to wait on allowing you to see your family. No one's positive on how you'll react."
"Can I have food? I'm really hungry."
"Have you eaten?"
"Not once."
"At all?" She asks in shock. "I'll get someone to bring you food immediately. Remember, they won't harm you."
She leaves and I'm positive that she forgot to send someone to bring me food. It's been about an hour now. It's six now.
I give up on the thought of getting food and close my eyes. A few minutes later, a young man in walks into the room.
Keep a hold of yourself Althaea. He won't hurt you. I think in my mind.
He sits the tray down on the table beside my bed. He looks at me, smiles, and walks toward the door.
Something about the way he moves is familiar. Even more than that, his face is familiar too.
"Talon!" I shout with excitement. I get of bed and run to him. He turns around with his arms out and I hug him as if I'll never let go.
He kisses my head and lifts me off the ground. He spins me in a cricle. With all of the excitement and spinning, I feel lightheaded and sick again. I make a small noise to let Talon know that I'm not okay and he stops spinning me and takes me to my bed.
He knows me so well. I guess after being thrown into a fight to the death together, we've learned how each other works.
"Sorry, I wasn't thinking. Are you okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine. Just a little weaker than I thought, I guess."
"So, how've you been?" He questions.
"I've been worse. I've also been better. You?"
"I've missed you." This makes me smile. I forgot how sweet he was.
"I've missed you too.
"That reminds me," He gets off my bed and down on one knee. "Will you marry me. For real this time."
"Yes!" He pulls out a beautiful diamond ring. The mian diamond is surrounded by much smaller blue ones. He slips the ring on my left ring finger and kiss my hand.
"Get some rest. We have a wedding to plan."