Yay! I reached chapter seventy finally! I am quite proud of myself for writing that much. ;) Plenty more to come, too. I have been waiting to write this chapter, though. I have had it planned out for a while, so hopefully it is as good as we all hoped!
A loud crash made me sit bolt upright. Through the tick darkness of the night, I could see the door was wide open. A figure stood in the doorway.
"Katniss!" Someone whispered urgently. "Katniss, we have to hurry!"
"What?" I rubbed at my eyes and slid out of bed, leaving Peeta still sleeping soundly behind me. "Gale? What the heck are you doing here? I'm dreaming, right?"
"No time—" He rushed inside, grabbed my hand, and he dragged me out the room. Soon, we were racing down the hallway, but the opposite direction we always go.
The walls and doorways were unfamiliar to me as Gale and I dashed through alien hallways, passing rooms I didn't know existed.
"Gale, what the heck is going on?" I panted to him. This whole thing reminded me too much of when Finnick and I were charging all the way across the refuge quarter to the hospital.
"It's Prim." That was all Gale said. But it frightened me because that was pretty much all Finnick said, too.
"But it's just a dream, right?" Little by little, panic was building in my chest. "Right? Gale?"
He ignored my question and skidded to a halt in front of a closed door. "In here." He beckoned me.
I kicked the door open and raced inside, not knowing what I'll find. When I took a second to look around, I gasped. It was a massive library, filled with hundreds of books, most of which were leather bound. An inch of dust settled on ever book spine I could see. But I know Gale hadn't taken me here to gape at the dusty little books.
"Why did we come here?" My legs were shaking from having just sprinted half a mile in less than ten minutes.
Gale held securely to my hand. "Look-" He pointed to a shape in the corner, hidden amongst shadows.
I squinted really hard at it. "What is…?" But when my eyes finally adjusted to the lighting, the whole room was split in two by my bloodcurdling scream. The figure in the corner was the dead body of my little sister.
"Katniss!" Hands gripped my tightly on the shoulders, shaking me awake. "Katniss, what's wrong?"
My eyes shot open and I was about to let out another scream, when a hand clamped shut over my mouth. Heart beating irregularly fast, I looked over and saw Peeta bent over me, his hand stopping me from screaming.
"What was that, Katniss?" He drew away, only when he was positive I had calmed down.
"Prim!" I scrambled out of bed and was about to run out the door, when Peeta once again stopped me.
"Katniss, what is going on? You are awake. You are safe." He said that in a slow, reassuring voice.
"Prim is in danger, Peeta." I yanked my hand from his. "I might be able to save her." After hastily rummaging around in a drawer for a spare dagger, I dashed out the door.
Peeta followed close behind me. "Where are you taking us? Are you sure Prim is in danger?"
"Be quite and follow me!" Together, we sped down the hallways, but when I stopped at the library door, I whispered. "Now really is the time to shut up. So keep quiet." He wasn't exactly making any noise, but I didn't want to risk it.
Thankfully, the door didn't make any noise when it opened. Peeta and I crept inside, and hid behind a short bookshelf. But what I saw then nearly made me pass out. There, in the same corner she was in my dream, stood Primrose.
She was wearing her lovely white nightdress, and had an old book opened in front of her, curls of blond hair spilling in front of her face. But the exquisiteness of the moment wasn't what made my stomach drop into my feet. It was the fact that only about twenty feet away, hiding behind the nearest bookshelf, were three dark shapes facing my little sister. One was medium-height, and plump in comparison to the thin person next to it. But their leader, obviously, stood behind them both, holding something that glinted dully.
Peeta was about to shrug and say something, but it was my turn to clamp my hand over his mouth. Wordlessly, I pointed to the concealed hiding place where the three figures were. Peeta's brows went from wrinkled together, to shot way up in his hairline. He glanced at me with an obvious question: What will we do? I held up my dagger, which was still in my hand. Peeta looked at me as though I were insane.
"Are you actually thinking of murdering them?" Peeta mouthed. "You don't even know what they plan on doing."
But his unspoken question was answered. At that precise moment, all three of them lunged towards my little sister.
With a cry, I yanked away from Peeta and barreled towards the group of cloaked people. When they heard my yell, everyone, including Prim, turned towards my direction. Primrose automatically screamed and dodged behind a stack of books. The three culprits, however, noticed that I noticed what they had planned, and noticed what I had planned for them, so they ran.
"Get Prim." I hissed at Peeta, and then raced after my targets. Weaving in and out of isles, they finally managed to slip past Peeta and Primrose out the door. I sprinted after them.
Even though I was the fastest girl in my year back in District 12, these people were surprisingly faster. It took every ounce of strength inside of me, plus the mean adrenaline rush, to be the same pace as them. Fear and hate surged through every part of my body. These people were no doubt the ones that had killed Gale. And I was about to kill them.
Abruptly, all three of the cloaked murderers took a sharp left turn. I skidded on the floor, but kept on going after them, slowed down slightly.
The corridor suddenly became familiar. In awe, I stared around at my surroundings, wondering how we managed to get in the recreation hallway where the nursery was.
As if they read my mind, the three culprits broke the nursery door down, and before I could catch up to them, I heard an ear-splitting crash come from the room. With the last bit of energy I had left, I lunged into the room—and stopped.
The beautiful glass ceiling had been shattered completely, shards hanging loosely at the corners. The tall shelf was knocked over and had obviously been used as some sort of stepstool. I climbed up onto the back of it and hauled myself out into the frigid night air. It was very dark out; the only light available was from the sliver of moon visible between the trees. But no sign of my victims were anywhere. My feet pounded against the ground as I still ran.
"Come back here!" I screamed into the shadows. "You stay away from my little sister or I'll kill you!" An unexpected sharp pain in my left shoulder made me scream and fall down onto my knees. I almost didn't want to look to see what it was, but I did anyways. There, sticking out of my armpit was a six-inch blade buried almost all the way up to the hilt. Warm blood was pulsing from around the shiny metal edges, making me nauseous.
Little white dots popped in and out of my vision as I fell over onto my good side, whimpering in agony. Pain was rippling from the point of puncture like I had never felt was a long while before I heard something far away.
"Katniss!" A light voice was calling from a distance.
"Katniss!" A second voice punctured the silence, unmistakably masculine.
"Where are you?"
"Katniss, come towards the voices!"
Now several sets of voices accompanied those of Prims' and Peeta's. I wanted to yell at them to go away; that there were murderers in the woods, but all that came out of my mouth was a low groan and a slight trickle of blood.
"Where are you, Katniss?" This time Peeta's voice was closer, and not five seconds later, a harsh beam of illumination shined directly into my eyes. I heard the voice whisper, "Oh my God…"
Footsteps pounded against the earth as he ran towards me and dropped down at my side.
"Katniss?" Through my slotted eyes, I could see Peeta's horrified face. "Katniss?" He whispered again, and pulled my head onto his lap.
I moaned in pain. I could literally feel the razor-sharp blade graze against one of my upper ribs.
"You're going to be okay, Katniss." I felt something warm get draped over my shoulders. Then Peeta called over his shoulder, "Guys, I found her!"
A few minutes later, multiple footsteps rumbled the ground beneath me and multiple flashlights shone into my eyes. At least half a dozen people could be heard murmuring my name.
"Katniss!" My little sisters' voice came out loud and clear, and I felt her drop onto the ground beside Peeta in front of me. "Katniss, what happened?"
I tried to speak, say her name, anything, but once again, all that came out of my mouth was a noise of pain and a trickle of blood.
Peeta said something to her in an undertone, and I felt the warm blanket get gently pulled away at my injured shoulder. Primrose gasped, and before Peeta could stop her, she wrapped her arms around me tightly and gave me a very painful hug. I cried out.
"Primrose!" Peeta scolded, and I felt him pull my little sister away. "That hurts her! The dagger probably punctured her lung! We have to get her to…"
That is when I blacked out.
Do I end too many chapters with someone blacking out or dying? It feels like I do… But anyways I have big plans for the next few chapters, so it really shouldn't take all that long for the next… oh I don't know… three or four chapters to come out. I think anyways… I know I kept describing the dagger wound as "in her shoulder", but it is actually more in her armpit than in her shoulder. Think of it as high enough to be classified as the shoulder, and low enough to get the tip top of one of Katniss' lungs. Hope you understand now! R&R please! Also, I have some new polls up so check those out if you can!