Dear Readers,

I appologize for my inconsistency with posting chapters. Writing has been difficult recently due to personal reasons. But I am trying hard to pull myself together. Ive read through this entire story and am planning to make the next upcoming chapters longer and more well written. For the people who have stayed, and the newbies. Thankyou. -G

Chapter 26

I'd never drove faster in my life.

Thunder roared above us and the grey sky lit up on occasion with a explosion of lightning. My sapphire eyes were narrowed on the road as the windscreen wipers worked furiously to clean the constant torrent of rain from the glass. Katniss hadn't spoken to me all night. She sat as far across from me as the cab would allow, her knees pulled to her chest. Wearing a thick woolen coat and woolen knitted boots. Her hair, usually in its elegant neat braid fell down one side of her face in a matted mess of knots and tangles. Her grey eyes were distant. Pale.

She'd been like this for days. And not even I could pull her out of it...

"Prim! Prim!" she screamed, as she shoved all her weight into the steel door that lead to an abandoned cotton factory. Gently, I tugged her aside. Slamming myself into the door that refused to budge. Grimacing, I continued to throw all my weight against the door. Causing pain to shoot up my shoulder, and my jaw to jolt with the force of my efforts.

"KATNISS!"

The girls voice was unlike I had ever heard before. The terror was clear. As was the pain. Her screams for her sister were piercing, before they morphed into the howls that reminded me of an animal caught in a trap. The most primal screams of complete agony that I could never dream Prim could expel.

"Cato! Get the fucking door!" Katniss screamed, her eyes wide in panic. I growled, muscles bunching with rage as I let out a yell of my own before throwing myself at the door once more. The steel door moaned and held on momentairyly before snapping from the hinges and falling to the floor with an echoing clatter.

I couldn't figure out what was more disturbing. Prim's screams. Or silence when we stepped into the warehouse.

"Prim..." Katniss said, her voice small. Weaker then I had ever heard it before. My eyes scanned for any evidence that anyone was in the warehouse. Touching Katniss' arm gently I took a breath before speaking with the strength and clarity that Katniss now lacked.

"Prim!"

More silence... And then...

"KATNISS!"

The pair of us took off running towards the noise. We would be lead to one decaying room after another before the noise changed its location. We couldn't find the source of Prim's screams. And then... More voices joined the horrifying chorus.

"CATO... CATO" Cried the twins in unisen. I froze, not believing my ears. The small voices of the toddlers sounding in such agony. Screams of pain from Prim and the screams of my name bounced off the walls. My heart pounded in my chest.

What were they doing to them to make them make those sounds...

I felt my chest tightening up. I couldn't breath. I couldn't move. I couldn't think.

"KATNISS HELP ME PLEASE!"

"CATO"

Katniss had fallen to the floor, her hands to her ears and I knelt down in front of her. The screams getting louder and more torturous every moment. I held her wrists, holding her hands from her ears. She thrashed, her eyes closed- tears pinching in the sides as she screamed herself.

"Katniss!" I yelled. Trying desperatly to reach her through the screams.

"KATNISS!" I said, taking her face in my hands. She beat at my chest and shook her head, tears flicking from her eyes. Then. A new voice joined the twins and Prim. My Mother.

"CATO! PLEASE HES GOING TO KILL HER"

And then I realized... It wasn't real. They couldn't have that recording. Because my mother. She was dead.

"Katniss" I cried over the sounds. She kept screaming, her body shaking. I held her as tightly as I could. Letting her hold her ears I covered her hands with my own. Rocking her gently.

"It isn't real..." I said softly, squeezing my eyes closed in an attempt to escape the awful place. "It isn't real"

Snow continued to use the same trick over and over.

Leading us from place to place. Making us think he had our families and then changing their location. We were no closer to finding them since we started. And Katniss was at breaking point. Many times I had caught her with a bottle of alchol, curled up in the wardrobe- drinking as much as she could. Or in the bathroom, surrounded with bottles of pills. I'd hold her in my arms, forcing her to vomit whatever she'd taken before she could seriously damage herself.

She'd wake up screaming. And lock herself away for days. Returning with small spotted scabs from injection sights in her arms. I couldn't tell where she was getting the drug from, something called "Morphling" but she was using it to escape. She was killing herself. Slowly and cruelly.

And I was completely useless when it came to saving her.

Only so much can be solved with gentle kisses and protective hugs late at night.

Looking over to her in the car she ran her fingers across the scabbed dots on her forearm, pulling at some until she drew blood.

"Don't..."I said softly. She pulled her sleeve down and looked away from me, out the window. I didn't blame her for feeling the way she did about me. She hated me for putting the people she loved in danger. I pulled the car over. And took her hand. She turned to look at me, her gaze held mine only for a few seconds before her eyes fell to her lap.

I pulled her closer and held her to me, her back against my chest I could feel her breathing. And gently, I kissed over the marks on her arm. One by one. She didn't pull away from me this time. She closed her eyes and her shoulders shook with quiet sobs. I held her tighter. So she knew she wouldn't break in my arms.

"We will find them" I promised her. She looked at me, her eyes full of tears before she laid her forehead against mine. I held her cheek and we both closed my eyes.

"I've got you..."

She sniffled and pulled away. Retreating back to the corner of the cab.

"I'm exhausted..." she said. That was obvious from the dark circles under her eyes, and her sin that had lost its olive color.

"Me too" I said, staring the old truck again. "I'll find us somewhere to stay"

We reached the small motel room and I fumbled with the slippery wet key as rain poured down on my back. Soon i'd managed to unlock the door and I turned on the light, looking around the motel room. It was dimly lit, with mocha walls and a grey stained carpet. There was a small bathroom with a bathtub and cracked mirror, and a lounge with sofa couch and ancient tv. The bedroom was the nicest part of the room. It had a large double bed and an en suite bathroom. Katniss would have the bed, I slept on the couch. Which had been the norm for the weeks we'd been on the road.

"I'm soaked to the bone... I'm going to go have a bath" she said quietly, shutting herself in the bathroom. I took my backpack into the other bathroom and washed my face and hair in the sink. I pulled on some cotton pants and a white shirt, ruffling my hair with a towel to dry it. Picking up my bag I could hear something from the bedroom.

She was crying again.

I put my bag down on the sofa bed and quietly opened the door to Katniss' bedroom. The light on the beside table was on, illuminating a picture of her Mother and Prim. Smiling as she hung upside down on a branch between the pair. Katniss' cries echoed from the bathroom. I slowly turned the door. It was unclocked. I peeked into the bathroom, waiting for her to tell me to go away. But she said nothing. Keeping her eyes closed she continued to cry and I moved over to the bathtub, kneeling beside her I took her hair and combed shampoo through with my fingers. Shushing her softly as she cried. I washed her hair for her and helped her stand, wrapping a towel around her whilst she kept crying I kissed her and spoke sweet nothings in her ear as I helped her dress and climb into bed. She curled up under the thick sheets, the worst of her crying gone.

I kissed her head and stroked over her cheek, causing her eyes to flutter with exhaustion. Soothing her off to sleep. I stood, looking out at the sofa bed. Before I felt her small hand wrap around my wrist.

"Stay with me..." she said feebly.

"Always" I replied.