Here's another chapter of Monsters and Torment. I will be posting this every other week, the time in between filled with PBR. Enjoy!
Chapter 2
Don't!
The force from his fist sends me flying across the room. I slam into the wall, which almost knocks me unconscious. But Marcus has other plans. He grabs me by the collar of my shirt, and punches me again. My head rams into the wall, and black dots swim in my vision.
"You're a worthless piece of shit!" he shouts. He begins kicking me in the back, and I curl into a ball.
"Useless, useless, useless!" he continues his torment, whilst he punches me in the face again.
"You'll never amount to anything!" he sounds like my mother.
He grabs my arm and pulls it behind me. I cry out in pain, and my arm falls limp at my side. "That's enough, Marcus," a voice says behind me. "Take him back to the cell," it continues.
Marcus grabs me by my limp arm and drags me along the ground. My vision swims, and I fall in and out of conscious. I eventually become aware that I am back in my quarters, but I'm too preoccupied with my own pain to care. I decide my arm must be broken pretty badly, because I can't move it and it still hurts terribly. But it didn't help to be dragged by it, either.
My head hurts, and I think I have a concussion. Eventually, I fall asleep, thinking about how the void is bliss.
I hear screaming coming from the room beside me. It sounds like Johanna. I might be wrong, but that's what it sounds like.
I move to cover my ears, to block out the sound, but it doesn't help. Only one ear is covered, so I just try to sleep again.
Eventually, the screams stop.
"Johanna?" I call into the darkness, still unsure if that's who on the other side of the wall.
"Mm-hmm," she mumbles.
"Are you okay?" I ask.
"Yeah, never been better. I just love being electrocuted. It's my favorite kind of torture," she says.
"What happened to you?" she asks.
"Interview. Concussion. Broken arm," I say.
"Mm," she says.
She must have fallen asleep, because the conversation ends there. I try in vain to sleep, and end up building more card houses. Darius, the Avox who used to be District 12 peacekeeper, gave a deck of cards to me.
The first time I made it fall over, I did it on accident. After that, I kept making them collapse, imaging it was the arena, and taking a card that gets me and Katniss out of it. Saves us. Make's the pain go away.
But it doesn't help. I roll around on the ground, trying to find a comfortable position. I can't. Every time I turn or roll over I find another place that hurts. No, no, that's not true. Everything hurts. Some things just hurt more than others in a certain position.
After a while, Marcus shows up with a belt. "You're gonna pay for what you said last night," he snarls.
Oh God. He rips off my shirt and starts to slap my bare skin with his belt. I cry out in pain, curling into a ball again. He lashes my back, reminding me of when Gale was whipped, and Katniss kissed him.
Yeah, don't think I didn't see that. I was standing in the hallway, Catnip.
I don't know how long it lasted, but at least an hour, maybe two. I blacked out at some point, and he left. I also don't know how long I was out for, but Johanna says I didn't answer for one and a half days, and she thought I was dead.
"You scared me half to death!" she says.
"I didn't think you'd care," I reply.
"I do, because I need someone to talk to. Besides, we victors got to stay together," she says pointedly.
"Yeah, whatever. But they sure didn't stick us all together, Johanna," I continue, thinking about how Finnick was probably rescued, too.
"Well, Annie Cresta's here, too," Johanna says.
"How do you know that?"
"She's over here, on the other side of the wall. I've talked to her some. She's a bit crazy," Johanna says, and I can almost see her rolling her eyes.
"She's Finnick's girlfriend, right?"
"Fiancée, Peeta. And yes, but they picked her up from District 4 after the Quarter Quell."
"Oh."
I lie back against the wall, wishing that I could fall asleep, but I can't. I have too much to think about, Annie being here with us.
"Is she hurt?" I blurt out.
"No, they haven't touched her."
"Oh, good," I say, rolling over again.
The days continue, and so does the rest of the world. I would assume Katniss is still safe in District 13, but that doesn't mean it's true. I have to guess on everything that Portia hasn't told me.
Marcus visits me on a regular basis, always with some new way to hurt me. I'm just waiting for him to start cutting off my body parts. Then again, then they couldn't use me cause I'd probably bleed out, so I don't think they'll do that, but they still could.
One day, Marcus shows up, but he's not alone. This time, he's got Darius and Lavinia, who he addresses as 'the redheads'. He is also accompanied by another man.
"Alright, let's get started," he laughs, and the other man joins in. The other man rolls in a gray, beeping machine, and I can only guess what that's for.
"Ok, Peeta, today we're gonna ask the redheads some questions, and don't even think about trying to stop us," Marcus says. I nod uncertainly.
"Daniel," Marcus gestures to the other man, who takes a length of black fabric from his pocket and binds me against the wall.
"Ok, Redhead Number 1," Marcus says to Lavinia. "You are going to tell me who in the Quarter Quell was part of the rebel plan," Marcus says pressingly.
Lavinia, who can't speak, shakes her head and makes a horrible animal noise, which makes me flinch.
"Give her 20 volt, Daniel," Marcus orders.
Daniel starts attaching wires to Lavinia's back, and types something in on the keypad of the machine.
He presses the button, and Lavinia makes more animal noises, shakes, and then collapses, lifeless, dead, gone, safe and sound.