Episode 5 is heeeeeeere! We go for some heavy character centered problems this time! I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did writing it! Let me know!

The Struggle Within

1.

Katniss dreamed in red.

Three vampires, two men and a woman, a sea of blood, dozens of children dead and drained, an old man with deranged eyes she instinctively knew to be Corolianus Snow whispering that he was coming, the end of the world… Blood. Blood everywhere.

She woke up with a strangled cry that startled both her sister and the cat at the foot of the bed. She sucked in big gulps of air, her stomach cramping in fear…

"What's wrong?" Prim asked, both sleepy and worried, rubbing her back. "Katniss? Are you sick?"

She was shaking.

The three vampires… They were the Careers. She knew it in her guts. She knew it in her guts the same way she knew the old man was Snow. The same way she knew this wasn't any other nightmare. Instinct. Instinct was everything.

Slayer dream.

The term came back to her, from the vampyr book she kept under the bed. Not unlike the nightmares that had plagued her since her childhood but more powerful, similar to those that had prevented her from sleeping the week before Haymitch had found her, the week before he had told her she was the Slayer.

Prophetic dreams. Warnings from beyond.

"Katniss?" Prim asked.

All that blood… All those dead people…

"Grab a bag." she said, her voice shaky and frightened. "Everything you don't want to leave behind. Grab the cat too."

Prim's hand left her back and her sister rubbed her eyes, slowly becoming more awake. "Where are we going?"

Far away.

Far far away.

Katniss was already out of bed, already filling a sport bag with unsteady hands… Where would they go? She wasn't sure. But they needed to leave. Now.

She didn't answer Prim's questions, she rushed to her mother's bedroom. She tried to shake her awake, tried to make her sit, tried to make her care… Her meds had knocked her out and there was no getting a reaction out of her.

Katniss bit down on her bottom lip and contemplated the problem only to decide it was one for later. She swung by the living-room, grabbed the family pictures and tossed them in the bag with everything else. Prim was packing toiletry bags, still looking sleepy in her pink pajamas.

Katniss didn't bother getting out of her own pajama pants and old tee-shirt. There wasn't time. They needed to leave town. Once they would be away… Once they would be away she would get changed, take a deep breath and stop shaking.

She rummaged around her jacket pockets for her phone, grumbling under her breath because she was always losing it… When she finally found it, her heart was still hammering in her ribcage and she was wondering if it would ever stop.

The phone rang and rang and rang… She was about to hang up and try someone else when a sleepy male voice finally answered. "What's wrong? Do you need help?"

She could have wept at the sound of Peeta's voice and she almost did. "You need to come to my house. Pack a bag. We're leaving town."

"What?" he asked, a lot less sleepily. "What are you…"

"Peeta, they're coming." Katniss rushed out in a panicked whisper, mindful of her sister in the bathroom. "We need to get out while we can."

There was a beat of silence on the other end of the line. "Who's coming? And… My family…"

Her heart missed a beat. His family. She had forgotten about them. Two older brothers who lived downtown with wives of their own, and his parents… The same went for Gale. And Madge, she remembered belatedly. It wouldn't be a discreet exit if she took all those people with her. And, obviously, she couldn't leave Haymitch behind. Nor Effie, she supposed.

But she couldn't stay at the trailer park either.

The trailer didn't feel safe.

The trailer didn't feel safe and she couldn't help but think Prim would be the ideal target. She didn't have enough weapons here, she didn't have enough…

"Can you come get us?" she pleaded. "I need to get Prim to Haymitch's at least."

Haymitch would know what to do.

Haymitch would fix it.

"Yeah. Sure. That, I can do." He was already moving. She could hear the ruffling of clothes, the clicking of keys. "I will be there in ten." There was a pause and then. "Are you alright?"

She thought about lying but… Her palms were too clammy, her head was still half trapped in that nightmare and…

"I'm scared." she admitted in something that barely resembled her normal voice. She never sounded that fragile usually. Never sounded that lost.

"I'm on my way." he repeated and his forced calm was comforting somehow.

They spent the next ten minutes trying to trap Buttercup in his transport case. They had just managed to get him – and Katniss had the scratched hands to prove it – when Peeta's headlights lined up in front of the house. The roar of his engine was loud and when he cut it, the two a.m. nightly silence slammed back down like a brick.

Katniss opened the door before he could knock, already swinging their bags toward the truck. Peeta watched her with wide eyes, eyebrows shooting up to his hairline, before rushing to help carry everything.

"You weren't kidding when you said you were leaving." he said, his voice rough from sleep. He hadn't bothered getting dressed either and he was wearing a thick zipped-up flannel sweater over his pajamas. His jaw didn't look as smooth as usual and she briefly wondered if he shaved before chasing those thoughts away because they were neither here nor there.

"Prim, get in the car." she ordered.

"But what about Mom?" her sister argued, clutching Buttercup's case to her chest.

"We'll come back for her when we have a plan." she promised. Prim still hesitated and she licked her lips. "Look, she's going to sleep all night. Vampires can't come in uninvited, she'll be fine."

"Then, we should be fine too." Prim pointed out.

"There are more weapons at Haymitch's." she insisted. "And a witch."

"Will Haymitch be okay with the leaving town part of the plan?" Peeta asked, incredulous, tossing the last bags in the trunk. "What happened anyway?"

Katniss ignored the question and climbed inside the truck, forcing Prim to do the same. She chewed on her fingernail until Peeta had pulled out of the trailer park. "I had a dream."

"I am going to take a wild guess and say it wasn't about people living in harmony." he joked. But under the light tone, he was worried too. He tossed her a glance. "What kind of dream?"

"The bad kind." she muttered, rubbing her face. "Do you think Haymitch will still be up? We came back from patrol a while ago."

"He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who sleeps a lot." he shrugged, glancing at the rearview mirror. "You're alright back there, Prim?"

Prim was sleepy and a little sullen, probably worried for their mother. She was still clutching the cat. "I'm okay."

"Should we get Effie when we arrive?" he asked Katniss next. "Did she come on patrol with you guys tonight?"

Katniss rubbed her face again. Peeta had started patrolling with her again, keeping her company when Haymitch couldn't come or he and Effie argued too much for her to stick around. After so many weeks of Gale following her every footstep, it was a little weird to have someone with her who actually listened when she told them not to rush ahead at the vampires or demons.

She tried not to think about Gale too much as a rule lately. She had been avoiding him, as much because she was still angry as because she didn't know what to say to him.

What did you say to someone who tried to make a major decision for you behind your back?

Still, Peeta didn't come every night and that day he had wanted to get a head start on a school project he had been neglecting.

"Yeah, she's the one who dropped me off." she answered eventually. "Haymitch had the bike so she took her car…"

Effie refusing to ride on the bike with Haymitch was quickly becoming a recurrent joke in their little group.

"Maybe we should get her a pink helmet." Peeta suggested, laughter in his voice. "What do you think, Prim?"

The ploy was obvious but Katniss shot him a grateful look anyway when her sister giggled.

"I think it should be pink and have glitter." Prim answered.

"I'll get right on that." He nodded very seriously, driving the car into the Village. "Christmas is coming up."

"She's going to kill us." Katniss snorted.

"Less than Haymitch when you tell him you want to skip town in the middle of the night." Peeta pointed out and then fell silent. "Sorry."

"I know I sound crazy." she muttered, looking out through the window.

"Crazy or not, I'm with you." he promised.

"Me too." Prim added, promptly stifling a yawn against the sleeve of her pajamas.

Katniss should have told her to put a jacket on, she mused, even as she flashed the both of them grateful smiles. Her eyes lingered a little on Peeta and he held her gaze for a second too long. It wasn't uncomfortable though. For a moment, the fear that had her stomach in knots was replaced by strange butterflies.

Then, the truck lined up in front of Haymitch's house and he cut off the engine, peering out through the windshield. "Looks like Effie is already out for the night but there's light at Haymitch's."

One look in the backseat was enough to determine Prim was fighting off sleep.

"We'll settle down at Haymitch's first and then we'll go wake Effie up." she decided, climbing down.

The lights were on in her Watcher's living-room from what she could see. The first floor was dark though. She grabbed a few bags from the trunk, left the rest to Peeta and told Prim to keep a good hold on the cat's case because the last thing they needed was Buttercup running away.

She didn't knock or ring the doorbell, she let herself in the house like she usually did.

"Haymitch?" she called out. The lights were on in the hallway, the living-room and, she ascertained after a few steps, the library. She could also hear fighting sounds. Grunts and repeated banging… Her mind flashed back to her dreams. The three vampires, the blood… Snow. "Haymitch!"

She dropped the bags and rushed to the small trunk that was covered with a thick layer of dust and neatly tucked away between a dead plant and an ugly vase next to the stairs.

"What's wrong?" Peeta frowned, tossing the bags he was carrying to the side to place his hands on her sister's shoulders, ready to herd her off to safety. That was what she liked about Peeta. Gale would have already been right next to her looking for a weapon of his own, ready to fight with her, when what she needed was someone to make sure Prim was alright.

"Get her out of…" she started ordering, faintly noticing that the banging and grunts had stopped, but she fell silent when Haymitch staggered out of the library.

He was bare-chested and barefoot, his pants were up but the belt was undone and he looked terribly disheveled. His eyes were bright and a little wild. He took everything in in one glance: Prim holding the cat case, the numerous bags scattered on the floor, their pajamas, Katniss crouching next to the weapons trunk…

"The fuck's going on?" her Watcher asked. Alarm made him stand a little straighter. It wasn't the first time Katniss was seeing him bare-chested – they did train together on a daily basis – but, as usual, her grey eyes were drawn to the ugly swollen scar on his side.

"I heard fighting noises." she retorted. "I thought you were under attack."

"Ah." It was all he said. He rubbed the back of his neck, looking ill-at-ease, and then seemed to remember he wasn't entirely dressed and quickly buckled his belt. "Sorry. We were…"

"Sparring." Effie declared, gliding out of the library, immaculate as usual in the same red dress she had been wearing on patrol. "We have been doing research for most of the night and felt the need to let out some… steam."

Haymitch tossed the witch a look but his face was blank. "Yeah. Right. What she said."

Katniss frowned harder. "Why are you half-dressed?"

"Cause I was too hot." Haymitch grumbled. "Didn't you hear? We were training. What's up with…" He swept an arm out, encompassing the bags and Prim. "Hey, sweetheart."

Her sister offered him a shy smile and a small wave. Prim hadn't exactly been in a lot of contact with Haymitch aside from that one time he had saved her from vampires and a few occasional chance meetings when he had picked Katniss up or dropped her off. "Hey."

Peeta cleared his throat and Katniss looked at him to see him patting his leg, his eyes on Haymitch. She turned back to her Watcher in time to see the man hurriedly burying something deeper in his pocket. Some sort of silky black fabric. A handkerchief maybe. Why he looked so embarrassed about it though…

Then, Effie cleared her throat, her face a little red. "Is there an emergency?"

"Are you moving in?" Haymitch added. He didn't look entirely opposed to the idea but he did sound a little bit puzzled.

"I had a dream." Katniss announced.

"Not the fluffy kind." Peeta commented.

"The grab everything and run kind." Prim nodded in agreement.

She tossed them both a look. "You two are not being helpful."

"I can't be helpful when I'm tired." her sister argued, twisting her head to stifle another yawn against her shoulder since her hands were full.

"There's a guest room up the stairs to the right." Haymitch said, his voice softening. "It's probably a bit dusty but… Make yourself at home, kid."

"I will come up and help." Effie offered, already guiding Prim toward the stairs with a hand on her shoulder. "Perhaps, if there is no immediate life or death situation, you could make us all some hot cocoa, Haymitch. The children look frozen."

"Yeah. Okay." Haymitch agreed, surprisingly meek that night. Usually he shot down every of Effie's suggestions just for the fun of it. "Go to the library and…"

"The kitchen." Effie cut him off. "We made a mess with the… sparring."

"Right." the Watcher winced, nervously licking his lips. "No library. Kitchen. This way."

Peeta snorted and then coughed what suspiciously sounded like laughter.

"I'll take the bags up." he offered, hurrying up the stairs after Effie and Prim before anyone could stop him.

Katniss wasn't sure she was happy to be left alone with an odd Haymitch but she supposed she had brought it upon herself.

Slayer dreams, some packing, a scared Slayer, busy naughty Watchers... Did you enjoy this chapter? Let me know your thoughts!