Finished chapter 2! It was originally much shorter but I decided I was going to just put these two chapters together. Good thing too.
So hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: All characters from the book the Hunger Games belong to Suzanne Collins, some belong to me.
The female Peacekeeper continued treating me as if I were just a bag of potatoes, she tossed me on to the now clean floor. Apparently someone had come in and washed the floor off while we'd been gone. I saw that Peeta was nowhere in sight and panic immediately shot through me.
I reassured myself that they were just cleaning him off as they had me.
The water on my skin that had once been scolding hot turned freezing as I laid in the cold air, I curled up in a tight ball and could already feel myself shivering beneath my soaking wet clothes.
I peeked through my heavy eyelids, watching as they dragged the still unconscious Peeta into the room. I wasn't surprised to see that he was freshly washed as I had been only his clothes were dry and new. It was obvious he was getting better treatment. But I didn't mind that. In fact I preferred it over both of us being treated the badly. After all, I had been the one who dragged Peeta into this whole mess.
Peeta was tossed in beside me and hit me roughly, all of his body weight thrown against me. I grunted in pain but welcomed the warmth. I closed my eyes tightly trying to force the pain away. I squirmed out from under the blonde's body and slumped against the floor beside him from the effort. When I gathered my wits, I looked over my companion's head, looking for any signs of blood but relaxed when his light hair showed no sign of bleeding.
I closed my eyes, head on his shoulder and allowed sleep to take me. Blurry nightmares plagued me.
The most prominent of them started with me, sitting in the snow, stark naked and freezing. I looked up to find Gale, Peeta, Prim, and Rue staring down at me, completely unaffected by the impending weather. I opened my mouth and called for them to help me, the cry hitched in my throat at the sight of Snow standing behind them, Coin standing beside him. Different faces whos lives I'd destroyed. Finnick, Annie and her son, Cinna, the faces of Cato's family, Peeta's family, even the newest additions to the lives I'd destroyed, the Peacekeeper whos daughter got caught in Coin's blast. Buckets of water seemed to materialize from nowhere in each of their hands as they dumped the water on my freezing body. Frost Bite began to set in and pieces of myself would fall off, but I never fought it...
This dream wasn't odd, it was very similar to the dream where I'm being buried by all the people who died for me. But there was a different. The cold wasn't just in my mind.
Opened my eyes, everything seemed blurry and somewhere far away I could hear Peeta's voice calling my name. I noted that my skin was an odd shade of blue.
This didn't alarm me like it should have though, it was just an observation, as if it wasn't my skin that I was looking at. Somewhere in my mind I wondered what color my lips were just out of curiosity.
My eyes were finally beginning to focus and I realized Peeta wasn't far away, in fact he was in the same place he'd been when I'd fallen asleep. Now he was yelling, I could only hear my name but I think he was yelling other things over his shoulder at the Peacekeeper.
I wanted to open my mouth but my lips didn't part. "Peeta... Whats going on?" But I just couldn't get the question to him. I looked over at the Peacekeeper and realized he was panicking but nothing he said seemed to reach my ears but he was yelling into his walky-talky, that much I knew. I looked at Peeta once again for clearance as to why everyone was in such a fuss.
I felt my eyes becoming heavy once again and the world rolling around me, but before the darkness could take me, Peeta brought his legs back and roughly kicked me as hard as he could and continued to call my name. "Leave me alone, let me sleep" I wanted to say but it only came out as a small groan.
I watched Peeta's form through foggy eyes, he pushed his body forward and placed his cheek against my cheek gently. It felt so warm... So warm.
It hit me slowly... But it did hit me. I was numb... And it was Peeta's warmth that made me realize that I wasn't only numb, I was freezing. So freezing my nerves weren't reacting to the cold. The nightmare I'd just had surfaced once more and I began to panic although my body didn't show it. I was panicking. Scared that my body was already frost bitten and crumbling as it had in my dream.
Strong arms picked me up, rather then dragged me. They even undid my binds. I could hear my stiff bones cracking as they moved from their uncomfortable position. While the noise didn't sit right in my ears, I couldn't help feeling relief.
My head slumped backward on the arm of whom ever was holding me and I was able to see Peeta's lips as they called my name, I saw the Peacekeeper coming up behind him, needle in hand. I wanted to warn him, but my lips had not thawed. My hand weakly reached out towards him, vision blurring. The last thing I remember seeing was a blurry outline of Peeta's body slumping over as he was injected with the drug.
My hand fell limply and darkness took over once more.
I woke up wrapped in layer upon layer of blankets to the point where it felt as if my whole body was wrapped in some strange kind of cocoon. But a butterfly wouldn't emerge when the shell finally broke open.
I was shivering but it wasn't like how it had been. I looked down and found that my right arm was the only thing not concealed in the tight warm layers of blankets. I stared at the familiar tubes sticking out of my arm.
My fear of frost bite quickly returned and I rapidly removed the blankets that tangled around my body. I looked over my hands and legs looking for any signs of falling apart.
Relief washed over me when I did not catch sight of any darkish blue skin that indicated frost bite. I knew well what frost bite looked like. During the winter, before the rebellion, countless people would be placed on our kitchen table as my mother and Prim tried to save their dying body parts.
I leaned back against my pillow, an improvement to the concrete floor I'd been laying on just a few hours before. Or maybe it was days ago. It was always difficult to tell when your sleep is drug induced.
Peeta... Where was Peeta? It was hard for me to be too worried about him, considering he appeared to be the "favorite" in this place.
I looked around the room, it was like the hallway. Completely white, I sat wondering if the walls and floors where made of white plastic. I looked at each corner of the room.
I knew they were watching me. Filming me. I wouldn't be surprised if images of me curled up in my own filth or freezing were all over Panem by now. Thats how it always was. Always just a tool.
A tool to spark hope, to spark fear. A piece in everyone's little game of chess.
I wonder when I will win. But then again, you can't win when you've already lost and the moment I spared Peeta and took out those berries, I'd already lost the match.
I sighed and could already guess at the things that would happen next. Dress me up and parade me around, that was the Capitol's style. Even now.
I lifted my shirt and looked over my body. I wasn't as malnourished as I had been, but that was mostly likely just to keep me alive. But just enough to keep me alive.
I stood up and fell to my knees the moment my weight sat on my legs, I grunted in pain and stared at the pure white floor, trying to catch my bearings. My shivering had gone away but a new shiver slid through me when the cool air ran through the very thin fabric of my hospital gown.
A moment later the door opened and someone sang my name out "Katniss~", my blood ran cold. The voice stopped mid tone "my dear where did you go?" It asked. Trembles rocked my body. "ah there you are." The voice said, amusement lacing its tone.
I continued staring down at the floor and saw the tips of black designer shoes that could only belong to the man I'd heard. I wanted to look up at my captor, spit in his face, and show I wasn't afraid.
But I didn't and I was.
I just kept staring at my hands which still had the slightest shade of blue to them. "Now now, its not very ladylike to be on the floor like that." He said and snapped his fingers. The black tips backed away, My head turned towards them, my eyes trained on the engraving of a white rose on the sides.
Even when I was lifted up like a rag doll by two pairs of strong hands, I kept my eyes trained on those little white flowers.
The shoes began pacing back and forth as the chilling voice spoke. "you know, you have been quite the hassle" he said with the smallest bit of amusement in his voice "Heart stopped twice you know, but we can't have you dying just yet."
I watched the shoes face towards me, and I could feel the eyes boring down on me but I didn't look up.
"You know its very rude not to look at the people who is talking to you" he said angrily, grabbing me by the chin and forced my face up towards him.
I felt my breathe leave my body when I saw familiar beady black eyes.
I took in the man's appearance.
His hair was moderately long and slicked back, it was black with random streaks of gray that made him seem older than he probably was. But it also gave him a mature and slightly attractive look. But his cold unfeeling eyes only made me shiver with horror and that smell. The sickeningly sweet smell of what could only be artificially made roses.
The man gave a dark chuckle "by the look of fear on your face I can tell you've probably figured out who I am" he said loosening his grip on my chin but didn't release me "or at least found some connection from your past."
He slid his hand down from my chin, sliding his fingers along my neck in a way that made my skin crawl. "Boys... move her to her new room" he said and just like that he turned his back on me and walked away.
I had no idea but I was almost certain horror was written all over my face. I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat and stood on shaky legs, feeling as if the white walls all around me were going to just swallow me up.
I needed to get out of here before I throw up whatever was in my stomach.
I felt myself once again stumble on my feet and smack against the wall and nearly knock over equipment. In one swift movement, a needle was shoved in my arm and I fell into the arms of the unoccupied Peacekeeper. And darkness ate up the white.
I've become pretty sick of waking up in unfamiliar places and I'm sick of the bruises that have formed from being gabbed in the arm. It hasn't gotten to the point where I think if they just asked, I'd follow willingly.
I suppose this is an improvement though.
The next time I opened my eyes, I found myself in a room almost as nice as the one I'd stayed in at the Capitol for the Hunger Games and the Quarter Quell. The decor was surprisingly colorful compared to the pure white walls I'd seen. Bright orange curtains lined what I could only assume was a "fake" window which only had virtually made environments installed into it. The bed's comforters, sheets, and pillows were a dark shade of red that I would have quite liked if it weren't for who had probably picked them out. The walls were a shade of hunter green that I'd always loved, but now the shade might have been ruined for me because of this place.
There was one bathroom and a door that I had to assume lead to a larger living area. Capitol always had to show their "guests" just how rich they were. Everything was high tech, from the window to the wardrobe which appeared to have an assortment of clothes already in it.
The next thing I noticed that made waking up better was, I didn't wake up alone.
I felt strong warm familiar arms wrapped all around me. I didn't even realize that I wasn't home until I finally allowed my eyes to open and let reality set in.
I sighed and buried my face deeply into Peeta's chest, taking in the clean scent. The dank smell that had attached to our skin earlier was now gone from his body and replaced by apple scented shampoo and bread. I knew I should've been thinking of an escape plan. Some way to contact Plutarch and Haymitch to somehow find us, but at that moment I wanted to pretend nothing was real for just a little while longer.
I stayed awake for a while, just staring at Peeta's chest, silently drawing circles in the pure white fabric with my fingers lightly. I looked over the blonde's face and noted the dark circles and his current state of deep sleep. I got the feeling that this was not the cause of drugs but of staying up for far longer than his body could take.
I slid my hand up to his cheek and ran my thumb along the dark circle just under his right eye, his eye lids tightened together slightly and his left eye opened up just enough that I could see a sliver of deep blue. He reached up and took my wrist with the arm that I wasn't laying on top of, I looked up at him curiously as he pulled my hand away from his face slowly, I didn't fight him.
He placed the back of my hand against his lips, I could feel the tip of his nose against my knuckles which seemed to cause air to fill my body to the brim and I thought I might float away. It was a strange lightness, but it was welcomed.
Peeta's eyes finally slid open to completely look at me, my hand not moving from its place against his lips. His eyes looked over every detail in my face and changed in such a heartbreaking way I wish I could destroy whom ever caused him the pain.
But I knew it was me whom had caused him this pain.
"You... died" he whispered gripping my wrist tighter, I know he didn't mean to hurt me, but I was still weak and fragile from my mistreatment and I knew it would leave a bruise but I showed no expression that I even felt.
He pushed my hand open with his nose before nuzzling into the palm of my hand, still clutching my wrist.
"I heard it..." he chocked, voice breaking as he described my 'almost' death "I hadn't gone under yet and you... they were scrambling around... I concentrated so hard on the beeping on your monitor... it was the only thing that let me know that you were alive. And when it went flat I just... I just... didn't know what to do... I think I snapped. Broke the restraints with brute force, I think I punched a few Peacekeepers..."
Peeta took in a deep breathe, trying to calm his nerves. I hadn't noticed the deep marks on Peeta's wrists, I was surprised that his wrists hadn't snapped from his rage fueled act.
"And I just..." he went on, I slid my hand over and placed my palm against his cheek and moved my body in as close as I could to his "Shhh, I'm okay now... its okay..." I whispered in a way I never thought I could.
I placed my free hand on the back of Peeta's head and guided his head to my chest and placed my chin on his smooth blonde locks. I wrapped my arms around his head and held him to me, his strong arms wrapped around my small waist and held me closely.
It was uncomfortable really, Peeta really didn't know his own strength sometimes but I didn't fight him. I ran my fingers through his hair and buried my nose into the apple scent, taking it in deeply.
This was... odd to say the least. Even though Peeta was the one who had his heart on his sleeve, I was always the one being comforted. This was why I fell for Peeta, he was the only one who could put out my flame but I guess the thought that this could be our last days together brought out a new side in me.
Water was seeping into the thin fabric of my shirt, it would hit my skin warm and quickly turn cold.
We laid still like that for what felt like an eternity, but when it was finally broken, I felt that it hadn't lasted long enough.
"Peeta... We have to get out of here."
So, hope you enjoyed and I would REALLY appreciate reviews! I know I'm becoming more and more unconvincing that this will be very interesting but I still promise. It will be. Awesomeness with arrive in the future.
