Here is chapter 8! I hope you like it!
Chapter 8 - A bad idea.
PEETA POV (still)
The sound of a whip. I can hear it coming through the open door in the kitchen. I step outside to assess where the sound is coming from to gather that its coming from the town square. The good thing about where my house is located is that the shops on the oposite side of the Town square than the Bakery are just over the wall at the back of my backyard so I can normally tell what is going on. Today it seems to be a really bad whipping. I wonder who it is today? I normally go to see who it is everytime incase its someone that I know. With that in mind, I walk back inside to get Holly ready. I can drop her off at the Bakery, whilst I'm seeing who it is. "Come on we are going to see Dad." I say to her and she smiles at me. She loves it when we go back to the Bakery.
I help her get her shoes and coat on and we leave the house, walking in the direction of the Town Square. Its only like a 5 minute walk and the horrible sound of the whip gets louder as we get closer. I wince everytime I hear it. This must be a bad whipping because he doesnt seem to be backing down anytime soon. We make it to the square and I cant see over the amount of people. I walk forward and start to push through them. People see me, recognize my face, and then look panicked. Hands shove me back. Voices hiss.
Get out of here."
Only make it worse.
What do you want to do? Get her killed?
But at this point, my heart is beating so fast and fierce I hardly hear them. I only know that whatever waits in the middle of the square is going to be horrible. And when I get there, I see that I am right and those voices where right too.
Gales wrists are bound to a wooden post. A wild turkey she must have shot earlier hangs above her, the nail driven through its neck. Her fathers jackets been cast aside on the ground, her shirt torn away. Her Bra, holding on by tiny little threads at the back. She slumps unconscious on her knees, held up only by the ropes at her wrists. What used to be her back is a raw, bloody slab of meat.
Standing behind her is a man I see just about everyday as he stands at his post in the town square. Head Peacekeeper Romulus Thread.
"Katniss?" I hear Holly say from next to me. I had momentarily forgotten that she was there.
"Holly, go find Rye, go to the Bakery." I say to her and she runs off into the crowd. I know she will find her way there, she does it all the time.
I turn back around to Thread, just in time to see him raise the whip. No! I cry, and spring forward. Its too late to stop the arm from descending, and I know I wont have the power to block it. Instead I throw myself directly between the whip and Katniss. Ive flung out my arms to protect as much of her broken body as possible, so theres nothing to deflect the lash. I take the full force of it across the left side of my face.
The pain is blinding as I fall to my knees. One hand cupping my face whilst the other is keeping me from tipping over. The floor below me, wet with Katniss' blood and the scent of it seaping through the air around me. I choke slightly as I get back up to my feet, fighting hard to see Thread through the welt that is rising on my cheek. "Stop it! You'll kill her!" I shout but he steps forward, gun at the ready.
"Move." He barks but I stand my ground. "I said move!" This time he has the gun raised but I still dont move. He raises the whip, still with gun in hand and brings it round on me again this time ripping away my shirt and my skin down the middle of my chest, causing me more pain than last time. I fall backwards,using the whipping post to stand my ground but he raises the gun on me again and is about to pull the trigger when someone comes running over.
"Wait!" Somone shouts off to my right and Rye comes running into view. "Stop!" He shouts and I reach out to push him away but he shakes off my touch.
"Get out of the way boy! This doesnt concern you!" Thread shouts, lowering his gun and raising his whip instead. Rye stands his ground infront of me. I try to get him to move but the hit I took to the face is making my head spin and I fall to my knees once again.
"I think you'll find it does concern me." Rye says, standing his ground. Thread punches him in the face, knocking him to the floor momentarily until he's up on his feet again a couple seconds later and standing back infront of the new head peackeeper.
"Hold it!" A voice barks and Haymitch appears through the crowd. Tripping over an unconscious Darius who is growing a massive welt on the top of his head. He regains his footing, walks over and pulls me roughly to my feet, trying to keep his eyes on anything but Katniss. "What is the meaning of this?" He asks letting me go. Rye comes over and grabs my arm to stop me from falling.
"They interrupted the punishment of a confessed criminal." Thread barks in Haymitch's face.
"I dont care if he blew up the blasted Justice Building!" Haymitch snarls.
"She was poaching. What business is it of yours anyway?" Thread snarls back, pointing the butt of the whip at me and Rye.
"He's her best friend, its completely his business." Rye says. "And 'he' if you dont recognise is the winner of the 73rd Hunger Games. The worst ones to date. So I'd show him a little bit of respect if I where you." I see a glimpse of recognition in Threads face as he glances towards me. "And he's my brother, if you want to get at her then expect to go through both of us." I catch sight of my family standing off to the side, all looking quite scared. Maybe we're it. The only 3 people in the whole district that are willing to make a stand for what we believe in. To cause some sort of rebellion.
One woman from the crowd steps out, I believe her name is Purnia. "I believe, for a first offense, the required number of lashes has been dispensed, sir. Unless your sentence is death, which we would carry out by firing squad."
"Is that the standard protocol here?" asks the Head Peacekeeper.
"Yes, sir," Purnia says, and several others nod in agreement. I doubt they actually know what they are agreeing too though.
"Very well. Get your friend out of here, then. And if she comes to, remind her that the next time she poaches off the Capitols land, Ill assemble that firing squad personally." The Head Peacekeeper wipes his hand along the length of the whip, splattering us with blood. Then he coils it into quick, neat loops and walks off.
"Katniss." I turn, my hands fumbling at the knots binding his wrists. Someone passes forward a knife and Rye cuts the ropes. Katniss collapses to the ground.
"Better get her to her mother." says Haymitch.
Theres no stretcher, but Mrs Stratser at the clothing shop sends Eric to go back into the house and get the board that serves as her countertop for the time being until she has it fixed. Haymitch gives her some money and Eric appears not long after carrying a board. Most of the square has emptied, fear getting the better of compassion. But after what just happened, I cant blame anyone.
By the time weve laid Katniss facedown on the board, theres only a handful of people left to carry her. Haymitch, Rye, and a couple of miners who work on the same crew as Gale did in the mines lift her up.
Brooke appears at my side and I look down at her, or attempt to atleast. "Could you go and get Evelyn please. Tell her to meet us at Haymitchs's?" She nods and sets off running towards the seam. I grab Katniss' jacket and shirt and let Leaven guide me to catch up with the others.
"Get some snow on that," Haymitch orders over his shoulder. I scoop up a handful of snow and press it against my cheek, numbing a bit of the pain. My left eyes tearing heavily now, and in the dimming light its all I can do to follow the boots in front of me.I cant apply snow to my face and my chest at the same time so I just alternate between the two.
As we walk I hear Bristel and Thorn, Gales crewmates, piece together the story of what happened. Katniss mustve gone to Darius' house, as shes done a hundred times, knowing Darius always pays well for a wild turkey. Instead she found Romulus Thread who wasnt actually meant to be there but was meant to be either at his post in the Town Square or at his own house. Thread put Katniss under immediate arrest and, of course, since she was standing there holding a dead turkey, there was little Katniss could say in her own defense. Word of her predicament spread quickly. She was brought to the square, forced to plead guilty to her crime, and sentenced to a whipping to be carried out immediately. By the time I showed up, shed been lashed at least forty times. She passed out around thirty.
"Lucky she only had the turkey on him," says Bristel. "If shed had her usual haul, wouldve been much worse." I'm actually surprised at the fact that they both know her.
"She told Thread she found it wandering around the Seam. Said it got over the fence and shed stabbed it with a stick. Still a crime. But if theyd known shed been in the woods with weapons, theyd have killed her for sure," says Thom.
"What about Darius?" Rye asks.
"After about twenty lashes, he stepped in, saying that was enough. Only he didnt do it smart and official, like Purnia did. He grabbed Threads arm and Thread hit him in the head with the butt of the whip. Nothing good waiting for him," says Bristel.
"Doesnt sound like much good for any of us," says Haymitch.
Snow begins, thick and wet, making visibility even more difficult. I stumble up the walk to Haymitch's house behind the others, using my ears more than my eyes to guide me. A golden light colors the snow as the door opens. Evelyn, who I didnt know was here, is standing there with a look of shock on her face, waiting for an explanation as to why there are so many people in the house but she sees Katniss, her mouth drops.
"Thread," Haymitch says, and she gives him a curt nod as if no other explanation is needed.
They place Katniss on the kitchen table once its been cleared and Evelyn carefully unhooks the remaining threads of her bra so that she can get to her back. Thats when Katniss wakes up and screams fill the room. Rye runs over and grabs her hand. "She needs morphling!" Evelyn shouts but I know that there isnt any. Why would there be any. "Haymitch get the sleeping syrup. We will combine it with anti-biotics and it should last for now." Haymitch runs round Evelyn to get to the cupboard behind her and takes out 2 bottles and handing them too her.
Prim is now stood infront of me, pulling my face up to meet hers, with her finger under my chin. "Didnt cut your eye but you'll still need stitches." She says to me and turns to my chest. "Could you get your top off please?" She asks and I nod, taking off my jacket and pulling the ripped shirt over my head, gritting my teeth through the pain. "Leaven, could you get me a bowl of warm water from the sink and a cloth?" Lev walks off towards the sink and I look at Prim, I'm surprised at how grown up she is. Its like I'm talking to her mother. "I'm gonna clean it up and look at the wound but I can already tell that its worse than the one on your cheek." She says and I nod.
When I'm finally all cleaned up, she begins to stitch up my wounds. I couldnt have any anti-biotics because Katniss needs them and Evelyn said that she might be able to spare some sleeping syrup of I wanted to be asleep for it but I told her to use it for Katniss and not to worry about me. She agrees and now I'm going through the pain of the needle every couple of seconds. Its not that painful, I've been through worse but Prim is still learning so she is quite slow at doing it which is worse than a skilled hand. This is going to leave a horrible scar. I dont think Portia is going to be happy about the one on my face.
"There you're all done." She says and starts cleaning away everything. By now Katniss is completely knocked out andhas a snow coat on her back to reduce the swelling. Prim hands me the left over bowl of snow and I apply some of it to my face. "Just hold that on there until it melts, we will see what its like after that." She walks away to help her mother clear away all the stuff used on Katniss and then her and Prim dissapear off to bed upstairs.
"Maybe you should get some sleep." I say to everyone. Dad, Leaven and Brooke are all sitting on the dining room chairs. Holly is lying asleep in the corner with a couple of blankets from upstairs. Brooke looks like she is going to fall asleep at the table and I can tell that dad and Leaven are tired too. "You can go next door if you want." I say to them and Leaven nods, helping Brooke up from the table. "You'll have to be careful. There arent ever any peackeepers around the Victors Village but you never know. I'm just gonna stay here." I say and dad follows them out of the house after I give him my key.
Rye doesnt move away from Katniss' table so I take my chair and put it on the other side of Katniss' table so that I'm facing Rye. He has tears in his eyes. I've never seen him like this and its quite strange seeing your older brother crying but I guess when your girlfriend is close to death you do cry. "Thanks Peet, for what you did back in the square." He says to me.
"I would do anything for her Rye, you should know that by now." I say to him. He smiles slightly.
"Thanks Peet. I'm glad that I have a brother like you." I nod at him and focus my eyes on Katniss. She looks peaceful, despite the pain that her body is going through right now. "Maybe you should get some sleep." Rye says to me and I shake my head at him. "Peet you need rest." I shake my head again but I am really tired. My head is just about staying up but I dont want to leave her. Its not long before I'm asleep on with my head on the table.
KATNISS POV-
We where starving. My dad had just been killed in the mines and we has run out of the money that the Justice Building had given us for compensation. My mother was supposed to get a job but she didnt. She could have just gone to the Apothecary in town and asked for a job because thats what she knew most about so it only seemed right but she was still too caught up in my dads death to actually get out of the rocking chair that sits in the corner of the living room, next to the fire.
Me and Prim where dying and she still doesnt get up. I had come up with a plan to sell some of Prims old baby clothes. Peeta had agreed that it was a good plan and he had told me that if he was older or if he had won the hunger games then he would give me some money and help me out but I told him that he wasnt allowed.
Anyway, I went to the market to try and sell the clothes but when I got there, no-one would take the clothes. I would have gone into the Hob but I was too scared without my dad. He always made the trades whilst I followed him around. I was actually kind of scared going in there with my dad but i felt better knowing that he was beside me. I left the market and some Townie kid knocked me into a puddle and the clothes got all wet. I knew that no-one would buy them if they where like that, so I just left them there and started walking down the alleyway behind the shops of the Town Square and I found myself sitting at the back of The Bakery, under a tree.
The day before, Uncle Haymitch had said that he would help us but mum told him to get lost off the porch when he came knocking. I think she was just really upset. She would never say something like that to Uncle Haymitch normally. A week later they sorted out though and he started to pay for us which eventually started to annoy me but I got used to it when he told me that he made a promise to my dad to help us if anything happened.
Inside the Bakery someone started screaming. Mrs Mellark, it always was. I've only ever been in the Bakery twice because of her. Peeta tells me that she doesnt like people from the Seam so I normally just stay away from The Bakery but today, I dont really have much strength to move. Mrs Mellark came flying out of the Bakery with Peeta by the ear. He was holding 2 loaves of bread in his hands and he had tears streaming down his face. "You little Brat! No-one is going to buy burnt bread! Feed them to the pigs!" She screamed at him and he fell forward as she pushed him and stamped back inside.
He got up to start throwing the bread into the pig pen off to the side but then he saw me and without even thinking, he threw them to me, motioning for me to pick them up, so I did and I ran as fast as I could, away from The Bakery and away from Mrs Mellark. Truthfully, that woman terrified me.
The next day when I went to school, I felt better after the bread but I was still hungry. After school I had gone to meet Prim at our usual spot when I saw him. Peeta, sitting on a bench at the far back of the yard, staring at me. He smiled at waved but all I could see was the big welt on the side of his face and the thought that I had done that. He was waving me over but I couldnt go over, not after what I had caused. I averted my eyes towards the floor and found a batch of Dandelions and I knew what I had to do to survive. Hunt.
PEETA POV-
"Peeta?" Someone says and I find myself opening my eyes. "You awake?" Its Leaven.
"Yeh." I reply. I seem to have fallen asleep on my swollen side of my face and pain is shooting through my skull. I grit my teeth through the pain and look at Leaven. "What time is it?"
"Its about 5am, me, dad, Brooke and Rye are all setting off back to the bakery soon but Evelyn asked me to wake you up, she has breakfast out. Her and Haymitch made it." He says and I nod, pulling myself up from the table. "Everyone is waiting for you in the dining room."
I follow him into the dining room, just now realising the pain in my chest. After my injury in the games, this one is really not going to help it. I still feel the pain of it sometimes, causing me to find it hard to breathe and now I've just gone and got another injury on my chest. This will not be good. "Peet, you alright?" Rye asks me, I hadnt realised that I had walked into the dining room but here I am and everyone is looking at me.
"Yeh... sorry I was just thinking." I reply to them. If I told them about the pain then they would only worry and I don't want them worrying about me when Katniss is in there, the way that she is. I quietly take a seat at the table and start to eat the food in front of me, not realising how hungry I actually was.
For the rest of the day, we mostly just sit in silence, waiting for Katniss to make some kind of miraculous recovery. But it doesn't happen. When Rye shows up, he goes to mine to get me some more clothes. He is worried about Katniss as much as I am but I know full well that we both have the same way of dealing with it and right now I cant do anything because I am not allowed to leave the house until I'm healed. The way we both deal with things like this is to keep busy that's why Rye went back to the Bakery. I'm not dealing with it very well because Evelyn is ordering me to stay as still as I can and not move around a whole lot so that my chest can heal. She says that after my injury in the games, I could stop breathing at any moment so I have to have someone near me all the time in case I do. I went to bed earlier because I was tired and they actually had to have Delly and Prim take shifts on watching me sleep. It was embarrassing when I actually feel fine, physically, just a little pain but Evelyn says that's bad because I should feel a lot more pain. She knows what she's talking about though so I don't question it.
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