I look down at the pot she is holding, and see that it is food. Oh great. Food. I almost whine to her that I'm not hungry. If I eat, nothing will happen. But I need to stay strong. I accept the first spoonful, but refuse the next. She continues to persuade me using all of the actions she has at her disposal. Begging, threatening and kissing.
This last part was my favorite. But, after an hour, the whole pot of broth is in my stomach. "Katniss, can I sleep?" I ask hopefully.
"Sure," she says, brushing my forehead soothingly. I drift off, dreaming of disguised people dancing around me as they cool me into a stew, boiling on a fire.
I jolt awake several times, only to fall asleep to similar dreams. One time when I awake, I notice Katniss laying next to me in the sleeping bag. At this I fall asleep with a smile on my face, finally having a peaceful dream. I open my eyes sleepily and look around the cave. Katniss isn't there.
Where did she go? I don't know. What if she was just getting food. She would have told you she was leaving. That means...what if Cato got her? Remember he likes to hunt in the dark. And now I'm trying to get up. I must find her. I have to know if she's alive. I am trying to get out of the sleeping bag when she walks into the cave.
"I woke up and you were gone. I was worried about you," I say to her. She laughs. I don't think I've ever heard her laugh before. It's a tinkling kind of thing that seems completely opposite from her personality. Soft and gentle. She gently pushes on my shoulder to make me lay back down.
"You were worried about me?" she says. "Have you taken a look at yourself lately?" But I'm still scared, still shaken at the thought of her, gone forever.
"I thought Cato and Clove might have found you. They like to hunt at night," I tell her.
"Clove?" she asks, confused. "Which one is that?"
"The girl from District two. Shes alive right?" because of course I don't know. I'm not sure if she would know either. She could have had one of those weird spasms like I had. I still don't know what caused it.
"Yes, there's just them and us and Thresh and Foxface. That's what I nicknamed the girl from Five," she says, answering my question before I could ask.
"How do you feel?"
"Better than yesterday," I say honestly. "This is an enormous improvement over the mud. Clean clothes and medicine and a sleeping bag...and you."
She reaches out and touches my cheek. I grab her hand and push it against my lips. It's such a natural action. I don't know where I got it but it seems so easy, almost like walking. "No more kisses until you've eaten." She manages to coax spoonful after spoonful of a berry mush into my mouth. She offers to let me eat that strange meat again but I refuse once more.
"You didn't sleep," I say.
"I'm alright," she says, but I see the bags under her eyes, and I know she is just aching for the gift of rest.
"Sleep now. I'll keep watch. I'll wake you if anything happens," I say, but she still looks hesitant. "Katniss, you can't stay up forever."
She looks up at my face and sighs. "All right," she says. "But just for a few hours. Then you wake me up." She walks over to the sleeping bag and flattens it out, laying on it. It is too hot to go in it.
I sit next to her on the cave floor with my bad leg stretched out. I search the outside world and then turn to look at Katniss. She is just looking up at me, so innocently. "Go to sleep," I say softly. I brush the hair out of her eyes. I continue stroking her hair as she falls into a deep sleep.
Now what to do. I look around, thinking about Katniss. I can't believe she actually likes me. It is so overwhelming I can hardly comprehend it. I smile and look down at her sleeping body. She looks so much more peaceful when she's asleep. Much younger. Her expression is much less...what's the word. Lethal? Well she doesn't look as menacing as usual. Much more beautiful. Gorgeous really.
I continue to stroke her hair, even though I know she can't feel it. I'm actually very surprised that this is happening. If I survive this, which is doubtful, we will be the winners of the 74th annual hunger games. It's exciting but scary. It also means that 22 tributes have died. 2 at the hands of my sword and at least 3 by Katniss.
I am sure by now that she has killed Marvel. And she killed Glimmer and Bessie. 4 more have to die, though, so you never know. By now it's afternoon, time has passed by fast. Katniss said to wake her up after a few hours but she looked exhausted. I look down at her and open my eyes.
She sits up, saying reproachfully, "Peeta, you were supposed to wake me after a couple of hours."
"For what? Nothing's going on here," I say truthfully. "Besides, I like watching you sleep. You don't scowl. Improves your looks a lot." She scowls at this, and I grin. She automatically puts her hand up to feel my forehead. Her hand feels icy cold against my skin.
"Have you been drinking water?" she asks. My heart drops. I totally forgot about water. And to be honest, I'm not thirsty. I nod, wanting to not get in trouble with her but she picks up the water bottle, feeling how heavy it is. She makes me drink more while she tends to my wounds. Then she unwraps my dressings around my thigh.
I see her face fall, and I feel worried. I sneak a peek at it, and see that red streaks have extended past the stab mark. It has swollen quite a lot too since I've seen it last. I've seen these kind of symptoms before. Remembering back brings a sweat to my brow. The frustration. The fright. And the hopelessness.
I was about 10 when my cousin, who worked in the mines and lived in the seam, rushed into the bakery with my aunt. They gushed about a fanciful story that was somehow true. He was coming home one day after receiving his paycheck from the mines.
An old man, about forty years old, jumped him. He had a knife, and stabbed my cousin in the arm, taking his paycheck. My cousin, whose name is Peck, wobbled home. Of course, my aunt and uncle didn't have the medicine to fix it completely, so they just wrapped it up and kept living their lives.
Now they regretted that because he had the same red veins extending from the wound. Blood poisoning. My mother rushed to her supply closet, but she didn't have any good supplies. Peck was told to go home, and wait to die. But he didn't make it home.
He staggered a few feet, and collapsed. They took him up to my room, and he sat there for 3 days, moaning and groaning. He finally died. His body was moved to the front of the bakery, and the peacekeepers gathered his body, taken away forever.
"Well there's more swelling, but the puss is all gone," Katniss says, her voice shaking.
"I know what blood poisoning is, Katniss," I say. "Even if my mother isn't a healer."
"You're just going to have to outlast the others, Peeta," she tells me, very unconvincingly. "They'll cure it back at the Capitol when we win."
"Yes, that's a good plan," I say, trying to comfort her in any way possible. But now there's no doubt in my mind that I will not make it out alive.
"You have to eat," she says, getting to her feet. "Keep your strength up. I'm going to make you soup."
"Don't light a fire. It's not worth it."
"We'll see," she says, and walks out of the cave. I look down at my hands, overwhelmed at the thought that in a day's time, I could be in a coffin on my way home. Of course, this has been the case for the whole games. But now it is indefinite. I will die. There is no other option.
I scoot over on to the sleeping bag and lie down. It's terrible, really, how bad I feel. My leg is killing me, and the stings and burns which are minor pain in light of blood poisoning, sting from time to time. I sigh.
After about ten minutes, Katniss walks back in, and my face automatically lights up. She puts a few clothes on my skin that feel nice for a few seconds, and then are burning hot. "Do you want anything?" she asks me.
"No. Thank you," I say. "Wait, yes. Tell me a story."
"A story? What about?" she asks, taking a seat next to me. I think about how sad I feel. How desperate I am for a light, in this dark cave that is the remainder of my life.
"Something happy," I finally come up with. "Tell me about the happiest day you can remember."