This chapter is dedicated to all you good folks out there. I'll try to make all the following chapters longer than the first two chapters. THANKS FOR READING, KEEP READING :D

Chapter 3

Boom…

Scared…

Booom…

Awful…

Boooom…

It feels like a piece of my mind is slowly slipping with each sound of the bombs. Just when I think it's finally stopped, another wave of bombs come. However, the feelings that I feel with the bombs can in no way compete with the feelings I had felt watching Peeta on the television screen just a few hours ago.

He looked so different, so lost. He seemed to have lost fifteen pounds and he had developed a nervous tremor in his hands. He was still groomed to the point of looking decent yet no amount of grooming could ever hide the bags under his eyes or the pain that he feels even from a slight movement. But the look in his eyes- angry yet unfocused- frightened and concerned me.

He was again asking for a cease-fire, rambling on about the destructions it resulted into. But when he said "and Katniss, you in 13… Dead by morning", all hell broke loose. All the people in Command were instantly talking about all the possibilities, what was behind his words, dead by morning. The camera fell to the ground and I just so happened to witness the sight of the once white tiles no longer spotless, splattered by Peetas blood.

I don't feel right, me being safe while Peeta might be being tortured or even dead at this moment. Yet here I am, perfectly safe in a bunker in 13, probably hundreds maybe thousands of feet underground. I sit on the mattress on the floor. After the drama with Prim and that stupid old cat, everything is relatively calm now, well as calm as a bombing could get.

I'm alone in our compartment. Prim and mother are working the night shifts taking care of the patients. As I sit comfortably on the mattress on the floor, my right arm strokes and trace random patterns on my belly, a habit I've managed to get when I'm anxious or stressed. I remember the thick red liquid on the floor when I last saw Peeta. Is he dead? God please don't let him be dead.

About a week and a half ago, I accepted the role of Mockingjay and made the immunity of his and the other victors lives into one of the conditions of being there Mockingjay. What use is it now if he is dead? I want so badly to know how he is at this very moment. I'm so scared for his life. His eyes looked so insane, what is snow doing to him?

The silence, the stuffiness of the room suddenly becomes so unbearable. I feel like a bird, trapped in a locked cage. The compartment feels like a cell, suffocating me. Overcome with the sudden feeling of nausea, I run to the toilet as fast as I can. I retch and vomit out the already few contents of my stomach. This has been going on for the past six weeks now and so far I'm hating it. Thankfully, Prim and my mother are practically never home so I haven't been caught, yet.

This isn't working; I need to get out of this room. I force myself to stand up when I feel like I've finished vomiting and go to the sink. I rinse my mouth and brush my teeth for good measures as well. I fix myself to what I judge to be a least presentable and head out. Where? I don't know exactly.

I wonder around aimlessly for about three minutes and am surprised when my feet take me to someone's compartment. Someone that I've just realized might have once been or maybe is in the same situation as I am right now- Finnick.

I knock on the door once and wait, nothing happens. I knock on the door a few more times yet still no answer. Just when I think he's asleep and think of leaving, the door opens a bit to reveal an awful looking Finnick.

When I looked into his eyes, I saw my own sorrow reflected on his face. He has changed a lot, from the happy victor I met in the Quell to just a broken shell of a man. It's hard to imagine that he was the one that suggested we made fun of Peeta in the Quell, putting our faces as close to his and waking him up, startling him.

"Oh, hey Katniss. What brings you here?" he asks.

"Nothing, can I come in? or am I disturbing you?". "No, not at all. Come on in, I wasn't even doing anything".

He opens the door wider and gestures for me to come in. his compartment is an exact replica of mine but without any bunks on the walls. Just a simple mattress splayed on the floor. That would be understandable seeming that he is the only one who's going to be living here.

He sits on one side of the mattress and pats on a spot in front of him as a sign for me to sit there. "What is it Katniss?" I struggle for words, not exactly knowing what I really wanted to say to him. An uncomfortable silence settles on us until I say "How do you bear it? The pain?." With that, his eyes turn softer.

"Katniss, don't you see me? Obviously I don't. I can't bear it same as you. The pain is too much". I don't answer back because I already knew that. I just needed something to say to him at the time. We fall silent again and when the awkwardness becomes unbearable I blurt out the question that has been eating at me all this time "Finnick, do you think he is dead? He might already be dead by now."

Suddenly silent tears flow down my face; this is so not like me. I hate it that my pregnancy hormones make it hard for me to be strong. "They won't kill him Katniss. Believe me." What? How can he be so sure? "Why wouldn't they?What makes you say that?".

"They're using him Katniss. Do you really think the Capitol took Annie because they thought she had useful rebel secrets? Of course not. They're using her to break me the same way they're using him to break you." His words slowly seep into my mind.

At first I don't understand but then it strikes me like lighting. They wouldn't kill Peeta because if he died I'd be free to die as well or live for the baby, no torture inflicted what so ever. But if Peeta lives and is continuously being tortured by the Capitol, out of my reach, I would still be doing whatever it takes to save him. I would be in a state of mental depression and stress as long as he still wasn't safe, and that would eventually break me to the point of no return.

This new information threatens to choke me. The tears are still flowing freely and I've long given up on wiping them away. "I'm sorry Katniss." This is why Finnick is so different from the person he once was. The thought that his Annie is in the hands of the Capitol associated by the knowledge that she is being used is too much for him.

"But Katniss, don't break. It takes ten times the effort to piece you back together." He hands me the rope that he has been tying knots with the whole time I've been here. "Here, you can borrow my rope before we get you your own one tomorrow." I just nod in response. Tying knots with the rope somehow helps to distract me a little. Let's just hope it continues to distract me.

Peeta, be safe. Wait just a little more. I'm coming for you.

(Guess it's still short but at least it's longer than the first two right? Thanks for reading. You know, a review sounds pretty good don't you think? So please review -Adri)