CHAPTER 3.3
'It's making my skin crawl.
The silence is so loud.
The lights spark and flicker.
With monsters much bigger.'
Strapped to a cold metal table, Indiana had the sickening sensation of déjà vu. Especially when people dressed in white began covering her in powders and creams and colourful things. However, they weren't enhancing her beauty, they were attempting to mask the brutality that had been inflicted upon her.
Sliding a silk white dress over her blonde head, Indiana noticed it was loose enough to hide the amount of weight and muscle she had lost, and soft enough that it wouldn't aggravate the fresh injuries she had sustained.
Escorting her down the polished hallways, the Peacekeepers refused to tell the terrified girl as to where they were taking her. She had become accustomed to the mannerisms of the Peacekeepers and had discovered that she was always assigned the same two. Relief washed over Indiana when she spotted Peeta at the end of the hallway dressed in a plain white suit.
Both prisoners were ushered into another white room with three armchairs placed on a raised platform. The plushness of the chairs being the most luxurious thing the prisoners had experienced since captivity. When Caesar Flickerman entered the room, contrasting with the room as he was adorned in another sparkly, colourful look, Indiana was confused. Cameras flickered on and cue cards were held up in front of the two teenagers.
President Snow was stood on the side of a camera, his lifeless eyes fixed on the terrified people – his presence yet another reminder that if they messed up or pissed him off, they would be severely punished. This was a chance to get a reprieve from the torture. A green light blinked and Caesar's face split into a blinding smile.
"So... you two, welcome back!" Caesar greeted enthusiastically.
"I bet you thought you'd seen the last of us." Peeta put on an equally fake smile, playing his part perfectly.
"I confess, I did. The night before the Quarter Quell – well, who thought we'd ever see you again?"
"It wasn't part of my plan, that's for sure." Peeta frowned at the memory of that night.
Knowing how temperamental the girl from One was, Snow had made sure that Indiana spoke as little words as possible.
Trying to bait Peeta into revealing something, Caesar began mentioning Katniss and the rebels. More importantly, he began talking about the formation of rebel plans. After spending the majority of their nights talking about anything and everything, Indiana had deciphered that Peeta was clueless to the rebellion, the alliance in the Games and any rebel plans. As a result, she felt guilty for keeping it a secret that she was aware of them. However, she was reassured at knowing it kept him a little bit safer.
"Why don't you two tell us about your last night in the arena?" Caesar asked. "Help us sort a few things out."
Despite it being cued that Peeta should be the one to answer such a loaded question, Indiana cut in upon seeing that her friend was reaching the end of his tether.
"To try and understand that night, you have to imagine what it's like to be in that arena. You know, put yourselves in our shoes." Indiana's jaw clenched when she noticed the dark look in Snow's eyes. "It's like you're an insect trapped in a giant bowl. Every hour brought some new terror. In just two days, sixteen people were dead and some of that blood was coating your own hands. In that arena, the real world is nothing but a distant memory. Everything in that arena is fake but it's your dark reality. You only have one wish in that place and it's costly."
"It costs your life." Caesar said simply.
"Oh no. It costs so much more than that. To murder innocent people? People who are only trying to survive, just like you are? It costs you your soul." Peeta spat, hands gripping the arm of his chair in anger. "Everything you are."
President Snow stormed from the room, the door slamming shut loudly behind him. Breath becoming ragged, Indiana's mind swam as she recounted her screams from the night before.
The room began to spin.
Peeta's shouts were drowned out by the sound of Indiana's heart thumping erratically in her chest, lungs seizing in an effort to steal more oxygen.
Remembering the exercises Gloss had taught her for moments like this, she began counting back from 50, letting out deep breaths until she was calm. Sweat beaded down her forehead and Indiana's dress began clinging to her sticky legs, highlighting how thin they had become.
"And, what about you, Indiana? Do you think we should have a cease-fire?"
Ignoring her cue card, the blonde looked straight into the camera and prayed that wherever he was, Cato would see that she was alive. For the time being.
"I think you should return me to my cell because President Snow won't like my answer."
As the prisoners were escorted from the interview room, Peeta was dragged down the hallway back in the direction of the cells whilst Indiana was bludgeoned on the head. Pain burst across her skull as her Peacekeeper caught her and dragged her in the opposite direction.
"Indie!" Peeta screamed, fighting against his own Peacekeepers in an effort to get to his friend.
Unfortunately, that was all she saw before the world turned upside down and she passed out in the arms of the elder Peacekeeper.
Cato's heart leaped into his throat when the tired, beautiful face of his fiancée appeared on the screen before him. Stood in the packed conference room, his blue eyes were glued to the large screen on the wall. On camera, she looked flawless as always, not a hair out of place.
However, Cato knew differently.
He saw the slight grimace on her face with every single movement. He saw the loose dress adorning her frame as an attempt to hide the bruises and weight loss, which could clearly be seen through the sharpness of her cheekbones and collarbones.
He saw the panicked breathing and the coping mechanism she was using to calm himself down. Cato saw what the others in the room did not.
After the commotion Katniss caused with another outburst, Cato wasted no time in chasing after her. Despite the differences between the two, both their partners were being used as bait – both of them were being tortured in unimaginable ways and then paraded around in front of Panem as a reminder.
Finding Katniss huddled in a corner of an empty hallway, Cato alerted the young woman to his presence, finding it impossible to ignore how she jumped.
"Always had a flair for the dramatic, didn't you?" Cato slid down the wall to sit beside her.
Putting some distance between them, Cato sat down a little way away from her due to the fact that Katniss happened to be very temperamental these days. Not that he could say much about his own temperament.
"What can I say? Drama makes life more interesting." Katniss said bitterly, kicking the wall across from her. "There can't be a cease-fire."
"I forgot you were never one to beat around the bush. Straight to the point."
"Cato, whatever reason Peeta had for saying those things, he's wrong. We can't go back. We can never go back."
"I know."
"He doesn't know what they did to his home, to his family. If he just saw the place-." Katniss continued.
"Katniss, I know. It's not his fault. We don't know what's being done to them in that place. If I have to destroy everything in the Capitol just to get them back, I will." Cato reassured. "The question is, what are you going to do to get them back?"
Silence filled the hallway as Cato's question threw Katniss into a long ago memory of Cinna and a black dress with wings. Turning to face the man from Two, Katniss had newfound determination blazing in her grey eyes.
"I know exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to become the Mockingjay."
'Welcome to the panic room.
Where all your darkest fears are gonna come for you.
Welcome to the panic room.
You'll know I wasn't joking when you see them too.'
