HEY! I'm awfully sorry for the delay in this chapter. Been very busy with exam week. Without further ado, I give you good people: chapter 5…
Chapter 5
Stop…
Don't…
Peeta…
All I see is the blood dripping from the side of his throat. The sharp blade stained with the sickly liquid. Peeta's eyes are drained of light. The life inside him no longer visible. I look up and my brown eyes are met with ones that are snakelike, Snow. I'd say that I can smell the stench of blood coming from his mouth, but I can't. I can't because the only blood I can smell is Peeta's.
He killed him. Peeta can't be dead. He just can't be dead, yet his body is lying lifelessly on the ground next to me. I run my hand through his hair, his wonderful blonde hair. I imagine the Peeta who would sacrifice anything for my happiness, the Peeta who never stopped loving me even after he found out that it was merely an act of survival. Gone.
The President is now standing in front of me. When I look up to face him, I find that he isn't staring at me but rather at my small bump. My baby. My hands automatically go to my stomach as to protect my child and his expression turns into one that can only be described as pure evil.
He lunges towards me with the knife that he used to kill Peeta in hand and that, is when I wake up.
When I wake up. I'm sweaty and am soaked with my own sweat and tears. Haymitch is sitting on a chair beside me and has a worried expression on his face.
"What's wrong, sweetheart? I tried to wake you but you wouldn't wake up. You were trashing like crazy."
"Haymitch, where are we? Why are we here?" I ask.
"You broke down, remember? And they just sedated you so you could calm down. Finnick did to, just minutes after you did, by the way. So we carried both of you to the hospital." He says.
"How long have I been here?"
"A day and a half or so."
"That long?"
"Yup." He says.
Then suddenly his expression becomes uneasy and he looks a bit worried. I wonder why. I raise my eyebrows at him as to ask for an explanation upon his change of expression. He looks hesitant and unsure for a moment but then he finally gives in to my demand and says "Look Katniss, Coin has sent a few of our soldiers to rescue Peeta and the other victors. That's the only thing I know, but they don't have communication devices because were afraid of detection by the Capitol."
Hearing the words rescue and Peeta, made me forget where I was for a moment. "Rescue? When? Where? Why is it that only now are there sending a rescue party?" I ask a little too accusingly. "Look sweetheart. It was risky, it needed planning, so they didn't. But what use is it if you can't even function without the boy." He says.
I need to go, I need to help rescue Peeta. Haymitch is eyeing me suspiciously now. "Stop it sweetheart. Don't even think about it. The team already left an hour ago, okay? It was a voluntary mission and they didn't even let me go." How is it that he is able to know what I'm thinking about?
This is it. This is what will determine if Peeta comes home or not, and the worst part is that I'm not even doing anything to help. This is wrong, I need to help in some way. Any way. I can't just lie around this Hospital bed all day and wait. I can't be useless now. I just can't.
"Haymitch, I need to do something."
In the daze of everything happening, I'm surprised that I even remembered to check on Finnick. When I enter his hospital room, he is wide awake and busily tying knots with his rope. When he sees me, he abruptly stops and smiles a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes.
I take the seat beside his bed and say "Finnick, did you know that they sent a rescue party of soldiers to rescue the victors that were captured?" His expression is just how I expected it to be. Surprise, happiness, doubt, hope, and a few others mixed together forming the expression of a victor that has suffered enough and just wants his Annie back.
"When? We need to catch up with them. We need to go too." He says to me. "Can't. They already left an hour ago," I can see the obvious disappointment in his eyes "but we can help. If you want to. We can still help with the rescue mission even if we're not with them." I say. "Of course. I'd do anything to help". "Good, then let's get ourselves beautified first shall we?" Finnick instantly understands what I mean and we walk together in understanding.
Finnick and I have been groomed just enough to look decent for an hour now and were finally done. Before we know it, were back at the ruins of District Thirteen's Justice Building. I'm sitting in my mockingjay suit at the same spot I last had my breakdown and watch as the camera crew get everything ready. All I can think of is this is going to be a long shoot…
Peeta's POV
I'm shackled to a bed in the cell that has been holding me for God knows how long. I haven't eaten in days. At least I think it's days.
In front of me is a screen, large and bright. I don't know why it's there, nor do I know why they keep showing me the mutt. With razor sharp claws, fang like teeth, and wild evil eyes that seem to never stop staring at me. I've watched the mutt kill me in the screen countless times now. Every time, new torturing devices, new agony. Whatever the instrument is, in the end, I always end up dead. Sometimes the images are unbearable and sometimes they leave me screaming.
I know most of the images are not real because if they were, I'd be dead by now. But I do know that some of them are real. Like when the mutt tried to kill me and my friends by dumping a trackerjacker nest on us in the games. She is also the reason that I lost my leg and the reason for the death of my family. She tried to kill me many times, but I survived. Next time I see her, I will kill her – Katniss Everdeen.
I hear my cell door being unlocked. A tall guard, or more correctly a peacekeeper enters the door and goes toward my bed. I immediately notice something different. This isn't abnormal of course. A peacekeeper comes to give me my tiny portion of food every now and then. The unusual part is that there isn't a visible tray with him. But the more unusual thing is that I think I somehow know this peacekeeper.
When he reaches me in just a few hasty strides of his feet, he unshackles me from the bed. He seems to be in a hurry or something.
"Come on, hurry." I feel like I know this voice.
Once he realizes how confused and clueless I am to what he is suggesting, he says "I thought you were smarter than that Mellark." He takes off his peacekeeper helmet and I realize that I do know this person, Gale.
When I see his face, I immediately feel the surge of hatred and surprisingly jealousy towards him. Towards the mutt's boyfriend, the person who she favored over me. I don't know why I even care who she favors, but what I do know is that I have the urge to kill. The urge to kill him because I know I hate him even if there for reasons that I can't quite place.
I lunge ferociously at him and he only has the chance to get out a "What the.…" before I slam him against the wall behind him. He struggles but in my mind, I know that he also has the desire to kill me as much as she does and the fear of getting killed fuels my adrenaline.
I vaguely hear some shouts of unfamiliar voices coming from behind me. I just barely have time to land a decent punch to Gale's nose when I get a hard blow to my head from behind me and pass out. I enter a state of unconsciousness and my mind just floats into oblivion.
What's happening? Why can't I feel any parts of my body? I need to kill Gale yet why do I feel the tiniest bit of relief that I didn't end up killing him even after knowing that he'd kill me the first chance he'd get?
(Again, sorry for the long wait. Please please please review or PM me. I really need your opinion on the story so far and also the writing. I know I'm not that good at writing. So please review - Adri)
