A/N: If I don't get a chapter up tomorrow, Happy Easter!

Chapter Four:

It's dark in the Tribute Center. Dark and quiet. And lonely. Not only has the power not been restored yet, but we're locked in cells not unlike the ones in Snow's mansion- my new one is labeled 045, just like the last. It seems the building has had a bit of a remodeling since the end of the Quell.

There are a couple of Peacekeepers outside my cell, guarding it and the others. But as far as I know, there's no one else in the building.

Or so I thought.

I'm proved wrong when my cell door opens and scientists come in with the same gear they'd had back in my last prison. The two Peacekeepers enter and restrain me to the back wall- I'm too out of it from the blow to my head to fight back effectively. One of them leaves, but the other stays. He even draws his baton.

Right, my punishment for warning Thirteen…more hijacking.

The scientists pull up a small display and I recognize the location on it immediately. It's District Twelve; home.

I study the scene. There are soldiers lined up, their guns pointed at three figures standing before them. In the middle of the soldiers, bow drawn, is Katniss Everdeen. And the three figures? I recognize them too- they're my family. My breath catches in my throat.

A needle pricks my arm before I even realize a scientist is at my side.

The scene on the display begins to play, ingraining itself into my head.

Katniss's bow points at my brother's head. I try to run towards her, to knock her over, but something's holding me back. I turn to look over my shoulder. It's Peeta. He's holding on tight, his muscles trained to hold, lift, and throw weight. I can't break free.

I try to kick him.

He scoffs when nothing happens, his eyes full of loathing. "I don't think so, Haymitch."

"Peeta! You have to let me go." I demand.

He shakes his head and gestures his chin towards Katniss. "Look."

I'm not sure why I listen to him. I hear one of the soldiers shout a command to take aim. Then the order to fire is given.

"No!" I shout. "Don't!"

But I have no power here.

I watch as the tip of Katniss's arrow pierces my brother's skull. I hear him cry out and watch his body crumble to the ground. I hear my mother and girlfriend scream too and watch their bodies shudder as they each take several bullets. They fall to the dust of the road in heaps, their crimson blood staining the dirt.

I throw all my weight away from Peeta, but it's like I'm chained to a wall; he doesn't move an inch. I'm in hysterics, growling like a feral animal as I waste my energy trying to tear free and run to the bodies on the ground. It's no use.

Tears roll down my face against my will.

Katniss's gaze meets mine. Her gray Seam eyes have a triumphant gleam in there. She holds three fingers to her lips and raises them in mocking.

I squeeze my eyes shut so tight that they hurt.

My eyes snap open and my gaze looks desperately towards the scientists. The hysteric state from my memory comes back to the present with me a little. "Make it stop, I beg you. Please. No more. I don't want to remember. Just let me forget."

I wish it was dark and empty and lonely again. I want them to leave.

I want to hit myself for warning Katniss about the bombers- she doesn't deserve to know. If she can plan and follow through with an execution, she doesn't need a warning to survive a bombing.

And Peeta...I want to punch the boy in his perfect teeth. After all, it was he who had offered me up in his place in the Quell- wait, that wasn't real. My brow furrows in confusion. That hadn't been real, had it?

I don't know anymore; I don't want to know anymore; I don't care anymore. I just want it all to end. I want to go back into my first Games and jump over the cliff onto the forcefield myself. Then I wouldn't have to deal with any of this. My mind is too big of a mess for me to even bother sorting through at this point.

My life is one big nightmare and I just want to escape it. Someone help me.

"One more. It's the last one, I promise." A scientist tells me. "Just relax."

I swallow and close my eyes, refusing to look at the screen. That doesn't stop me from recognizing the voices and the circumstances of what was happening- my eyes are open again shortly, reluctantly glued to the display.

I collapse with a cry of pain as the poison fog disables my legs. Mags falls with me, tumbling from my back. Finnick turns back for us.

"It's no use." Katniss tells him. "Let's go, we won't make it if we bring them with us."

"I'm not leaving Mags." Four tells her, voice full of conviction, as he kneels down beside us.

He tries to get the elderly woman up onto his back and start off again, but he's not strong enough. She kisses him, turns, and walks straight into the fog. A cannon sounds, signalling her demise to the poison.

Finnick glares at my twitching limbs.

"Leave him, Finnick!" Katniss begs. "Come on!"

But his gaze softens and he pulls my arm around his shoulders. "Help me get him up."

She hesitates, clearly not keen on saving me. Something makes her relent anyway; probably pity for Finnick. She throws my other arm over her shoulders and we stumble away from the ever-nearing fog as fast as we can. It stings at our backs.

I let out a snarl as I finally snap out of it, my eyes flicking around wildly. My breathing is heavy again, and sweat trickles from my hairline. My legs and back ache, my clothing is ruffled. The Peacekeeper is putting away his baton as he leaves my cell.

The scientists write down a few final notes and pack up their gear. I manage to ask them to let me free of my restraints. They obey my wish and leave.

It's dark, empty, and lonely again. And I'm relieved.

*X*

I lose track of time fast. No one comes to my cell for hours. It remains pitch black and deathly silent throughout the night, though I do manage to get a few hours' rest between flashes of Katniss and Peeta in my nightmares. I'm too tired of everything to bother sorting through the mess of my mind right now. All I want is to go back to my home in Twelve and drink myself into a state of unconsciousness so deep that I can't dream, just like I used to.

I wonder what Johanna and Annie Cresta are doing, I wonder what Snow's doing, I wonder if Katniss and Peeta are still alive or if they've been blown to oblivion by the bombers. I'm not sure if I want them to be alive or not.

I suppose I'm not really sure about anything anymore, not after the Quell. I've been all wondering and not knowing since I was thrown into that arena.

God, I shouldn't have volunteered. What was I thinking?

I wish Peeta was here instead of me.

I wish he and Katniss both died last year and that nothing changed.

I wish I died in my first Games.

But I didn't, and here I am. Rotting away in a cell in the Capitol, questioning everything I thought I knew. It's a cruel world here in Panem.

It stays dark and quiet.

Until I finally hear something other than my own thoughts.

It sounds like doors being kicked open somewhere down the hall. I draw in a breath, unsure of who's entering. It's probably the scientists, to perform more experiments, or some Peacekeepers coming to bring me to Snow.

I hear the clatter of something bouncing off the floor as it's thrown into the cell block. The doors burst open loudly and I can faintly hear footsteps through the door of my own cell. I can make out voices and I see red light sweeping through the air outside.

I swallow, my muscles tensing, when the light stops moving just outside my cell. I prepare to pounce on whoever it is coming in as I hear the lock of my cell beep in affirmation of my worst fears- whoever's here is here for me. It's better to be safe than sorry, I decide. I'm tired of getting beaten, tortured, pricked by needles. No more- not without a fight, anyway. I just wish I had a knife with me, in case of the worst.

When the door opens, I launch myself at two dark-clothed men. I'm met with the stock of a gun to my jaw. I gasp as I'm thrown into the back wall, my head hitting it hard.

"Shit." A familiar voice curses. "Is he alright?"

Everything goes dark as I slip into unconsciousness.

*X*

When I come to, it's to the sound of a beeping pulse projector. I'm laying on a medical table, dressed in all white patient's clothing. I lift my head up to examine my surroundings and freeze at the sight of tubes coming from my arms. The sound of my pulse on the machine grows louder. No. But I'm not restrained. I take the tubes out myself, watching blood leak from the entry points in my arms.

"Relax." A gentle voice tells me. "It's only morphling."

I let out a sigh, the tension in my muscles deflating with relief.

I hear Annie Cresta outside, her voice filled with joy as Finnick's name escapes her lips.

"District Thirteen." I realize, my eyes lighting up as I sit up. I'm free from the Capitol. "We're in Thirteen."

"Yes." The doctor replies, taking my arms and bandaging them. "You're safe now."

I don't know about that. Katniss is here. Peeta too. But it's better off than the Capitol- or so I hope it is.

I hear the Mockingjay's voice outside my room as she greets the person whose voice was the last I heard before I passed out- Gale Hawthorne.

The door opens suddenly, and the first person I see is Peeta Mellark.

He smiles a little, though his voice is almost cautious sounding. "Haymitch."

"Peeta." I give him a small nod, spotting a concerned face behind him. "Katniss."

"What did they do to you?" Her voice is hardly a whisper as she eyes the bruises on my face.

I just shrug and give a light scoff. "I was part of a rebel plan."

"You know, for a while we thought you were dead, that Snow had you killed after the Games." Peeta admits. His voice almost breaks as he adds,"If they had killed you after you volunteered for me, I don't know what I would've done…"

It's almost enough to convince me. Almost.

"You're voluntelling me to die?"

"Yes. And you're going to do it."

"You're lying." I growl, jaw tightening in anger.

"What?" The boy looks baffled. "Don't you remember-"

"I remember you threatening to kill me if I didn't volunteer in your place!" I snarl, my rage boiling at his denial. "You made me volunteer so you wouldn't die!"

I throw myself at him, my hands outstretched before me. He moves out of the way just in time and I latch onto Katniss's throat instead. They've both done me wrong anyway.

"Hey!" Peeta shouts, a little more than alarmed.

I ignore him and focus on choking the girl. She's already gasping, her eyes wide in horror at the events unfolding. I slam her into the door and throw us into a metal cart. We fall to the hard tile floor with a violent thud. I easily pin her beneath me, my grip tightening as I squeeze her throat.

"Haymitch! Get off!" Peeta yells at me.

The doors burst open as backup races in. Arms wrap around my chest, trying to pull me away from my target. But my grip remains unwavering and we're both heaved up from the floor.

"Let go!"

Somehow, I throw them off and drive Katniss's back into the floor again. Her terrified eyes are reddening and she looks like she's just about to pass out. I press harder. As her eyes fall closed, something slams into the back of my head and I'm knocked off of her, my own vision going dark for the second time in one night.

Sure enough, when I wake up, I'm restrained. I guess some things don't change no matter where you go.