Catching Fire in Peeta's Point of View
Sorry it took so long! Internet died and stuff, so almost didn't get this chapter up at all!
Also what I will be doing sometime soon - picking out a few people to Beta Read the first chapter of Mockingjay in Peeta's Point of View! I've been throwing together an idea for a first chapter, but want some ideas on what it's like before I publish it, and get some constructive criticisms perhaps. So let me know if you'd like to take part in that!
Remember! If you want to Beta Read, I have to be able to message you etc, so you will need to comment with a profile that I can reply to.
Chapter Fifteen
We sit facing away from one another, with our shoulders and hips pressed together. I watch the jungle, because I'm not sure Katniss is able to do this without reliving her nightmares, whilst Katniss keeps an eye on the water. I sit and wonder when the right moment to present the locket to her might be, to remind her that she has people she needs to fight for. Katniss lets her head fall back to rest against my shoulder, and I stroke her hair gently.
"Katniss," I say quietly. "It's no use pretending we don't know what the other one is trying to do." I remember Haymitch not answering me, but almost admitting to Katniss trying to protect me. "I don't know what kind of deal you've made with Haymitch, but you should know he made me promises as well." Promises to both of us, but he can't save us both this time. "So I think we can assume he was lying to one of us." Katniss lifts her head to meet my gaze.
"Why are you saying this now?" she asks me.
"Because I don't want you forgetting how different our circumstances are." I think of my family back in District Twelve. My father and mother, who have each other in their own way. My brother Lukail, who will soon be creating a family of his own, and Gareth, surrounded by friends and idolised by my mother. They may mourn for a while after I'm gone, but their lives will go on. I am not essential to their survival. "If you die, and I live, there's no life for me at all back in District Twelve. You're my whole life," I tell her earnestly. "I would never be happy again." It's true. I cannot imagine a life in which Katniss does not exist. If she were to die, there would be nobody who could make me happy again. But if I were to die, Gale would be waiting with open arms to help Katniss piece her life back together again. Katniss opens her mouth to protest, but I press my finger to her lips. "It's different for you. I'm not saying it wouldn't be hard. But there are other people who'd make your life worth living."
I don't mention his name, but I'm sure she knows who I mean. I reach up and pull the chain from around my neck, holding it out so Katniss can see it. I slide my thumb against the catch, causing it to spring open and reveal the pictures inside. "Your family needs you, Katniss," I say quietly. "No one really needs me," I carry on, my voice matter of fact.
"I do," she suddenly says. "I need you." I falter for a moment, have to take a deep breath to stop myself from welling up. She had said it was all for the Games, not directly, but it had been implied. She can't take that back now, can't make me uncertain like this. I'm about to carry on with my speech, but her lips are on mine. I try to pull away, needing to tell her, to remind her that she must go home, but she is persistent. I finally give in to the kiss, the warmth of her lips. My arms snake around her, pulling her closer to me, and it's the first time I want more of her. There have been plenty of kisses, but not many of them had felt as real as this one. It leaves me even more uncertain than before, and I can no longer determine how much love Katniss might have for me.
The crack of thunder and flash of lightning remind us where we are. It jolts Finnick awake, who cries out and jumps into a sitting position.
"I can't sleep any more, one of you should rest." He pauses, noticing our embrace. "Or both of you. I can watch alone." I think of lying down with Katniss, just for a while, but shake my head.
"It's too dangerous. I'm not tired. You lie down, Katniss." I say. For once, Katniss doesn't object. I take her hand and lead her to where the other lay down, placing the chain with the locket around her neck. For a moment, I'm saddened by the thought of our pretend baby, and how she will most likely have a real one with Gale. As long as I can get her out of here alive. I place my hand against her stomach gently, mostly for the audience. "You're going to make a great mother, you know." I tell her honestly, and kiss her again before returning to Finnick.
Finnick and I sit in silence the entire night. Our thoughts are not in the arena, but they are not thoughts that we can share lightly with one another. I wonder if Finnick is thinking about Annie, if she might be the one girl he really loves. I try to put myself in his situation; in love with a mad girl and forced to sleep around with Capitol citizens. It makes me shudder, and I have to wonder how he does it. The thought of touching those people makes me feel ill, and I certainly couldn't get as close to them as Finnick does. Perhaps some of them aren't so bad, even decent human beings. But I can only think of them as the people who like to watch children fight to the death.
During the night, my gaze often flickers to Katniss' sleeping form. I imagine what her life could be like, if we get rid of the other contenders, and then Katniss is crowned the Victor. Would President Snow allow her to live, after believing she had sparked the rebellion? What if he kills her sister and mother, like what I'm sure he had done to Haymitch? Or perhaps Gale? Perhaps he might keep them all alive, to prevent the possibility of an extra spark of rebellion. There's no way to predict what might happen if Katniss walks out of this arena, but it is the only outcome I will allow.
Everyone but Katniss wakes up early, although nobody bothers her. Everybody finds something to do, and I busy myself for a while by examining my fake leg. I hadn't thought much about it since arriving into the arena, but I'm not sure what the effect might be if too muich sand were to get trapped in parts of it. I check it thoroughly, wiping at any corners that are filled with sand, until it's fully clean. I cover it up again and take a glance at the others. Katniss is still sleeping, Johanna and Finnick are talking rather intensely and Beetee … Beetee is staring at his coil of wire, and murmuring to himself. I wander over.
When I get in earshot, I notice he's murmuring about wire, lightning, and electricity. Obviously he has some idea to do with his wire, and lightning – lightning would be the one that hits the tree. "Hey Beetee, what you thinking about there?" I ask, with a slight frown.
"Wrap the wire around the tree, use the lightning for electricity, it could work." I'm still not sure what he's talking about.
A parachute distracts everyone and we gather around to see what's inside. Katniss wakes up just before it hits the ground, and in time for us to divide the bread that Beetee's district has sent again. When we're finished eating, Katniss takes my hand and pulls me to my feet, dragging me down to the water. "Come on. I'll teach you how to swim," she says.
I wade into the water waist height, and Katniss teaches me some basic movements, making me practice them by swimming back and forth. I find that it really isn't difficult at all, although I'm not sure what use the skill is now that we all keep to the land. After some time, Katniss calls me over to the shore and shows me that scrubbing sand across my skin will get rid of the scabs and leave new skin underneath. Whilst in the midst of this, she starts talking quietly, her head down and away from where the others are.
"Look, the pool is down to eight. I think it's time we took off." I nod my head slowly, thinking what our chances might be if we were take off on our own. At least we now know where the sections are around the arena, but there are still three strong Tributes out there somewhere. I'm not sure how well we would fare if it came to a fight between Brutus and Enobaria together.
"Tell you what. Let's stick around until Brutus and Enobaria are dead. I think Beetee's trying to put together some kind of trap for them now. Then, I promise, we'll go." I bargain with her. I'm not entirely certain this is what Beetee is up to, but I'm not sure why else he would be thinking about electricity and his wire.
"All right," Katniss finally says. "We'll stay until the Careers are dead. But that's the end of it." She turns and waves over to the others. "Hey, Finnick, come on in! We figured out how to make you pretty again!" She calls.
The three of us scrub our skins raw, until they're a bright pink and there are no scabs left. Katniss makes us apply some more of the lotion that turns our skin green, and I think how I could use this to hide in the trees. Perhaps if I add more, the shade of the green will differ... Beetee calls everyone over. It turns out I was right about him coming up with a plan to kill Brutus and Enobaria. We decide that the two Careers might have come up with the same conclusion about the arena as we have, or near enough. And that we shouldn't track them or wait for them, but set up a trap. Finnick stops Beetee to go and wake Johanna up, who had laid down for a nap. She joins us, and Beetee begins drawing a quick sketch of the arena in the sand.
"If you were Brutus and Enobaria, knowing what you do now about the jungle, where would you feel safest?" He asks us.
"Where we are now. On the beach," I answer. "It's the safest place."
"So why aren't they on the beach?" He asks, and he reminds me of a school teacher, coaxing answers from his school children.
"Because we're here," Johanna says, sounding as if she wished he would get to the point.
"Exactly. We're here, claiming the beach. Now where would you go?"
"I'd hide just at the edge of the jungle. So I could escape if an attack came. And so I could spy on us." Katniss says.
"Also to eat," Finnick adds. "The jungle's full of strange creatures and plants. But by watching us, I'd know the seafood's safe." Beetee grins up at us.
"Yes, good. You do see. Now here's what I propose: a twelve o'clock strike. What happens exactly at noon and midnight?"
"The lightning bolt hits the tree."
"Yes. So what I'm suggesting is that after the bolt hits at noon, but before it hits at mignight, we run my wire from that tree all the way down into the salt water, which is, of course, highly conductive. When the bolt strikes, the electricity will travel down the wire and into not only the water but also the surrounding beach, which will still be damp from the ten o'clock wave. Anyone in contact with those surfaces at that moment will be electrocuted." It's a possibly good plan, if it works, and I'm awed for a moment by just how smart Beetee is. I think of what might go wrong, and Beetee's wire is the first thing I think of. It's such a thin, delicate coil of wire.
"Will that wire really be able to conduct that much power, Beetee? It looks so fragile, like it would just burn up."
"Oh, it will." He reassures me. "But not until the current has passed through it. It will act something like a fuse, in fact. Except the electricity will travel along it."
"How do you know?" Johanna asks him suspiciously.
"Because I invented it," Beetee says. "It's not actually wire in the usual sense. Nor is the lightning natural lightning, nor the tree a real tree. You know trees better than any of us, Johanna. It would be destroyed by now, wouldn't it?"
"Yes." She's almost reluctant to admit it.
"Don't worry about the wire – it will do just what I say."
"And where will we be when this happens?" Finnick raises a good point.
"Far enough up in the jungle to be safe."
"The Careers will be safe, too, then, unless they're in the vicinity of the water." Katniss says.
"That's right."
"But all the seafood will be cooked," I try and lighten the mood. At least if it fails, we'll have some food.
"Probably more than cooked," Beetee dashes my hopes. "We will most likely be eliminating that as a food source for good. But you found other edible things in the jungle, right, Katniss?" He looks at her, and she nods her head in response.
"Yes. Nuts and rats. And we have sponsors."
"Well, then. I don't see that as a problem. But as we are allies and this will require all our efforts, the decision of whether or not to attempt is up to you four." Allies. But for how long? The four of us exchange glances. Beetee is by far the smartest of us all, and he's the best person to decide if a plan like this might work.
"Why not?" Katniss shrugs. "It if fails, there's no harm done. If it works, there's a decent chance we'll kill them. And even if we don't and just kill the seafood, Brutus and Enobaria lose it as a food source, too." Katniss points out to us. It's true. Trying out the plan won't effect us greatly in any way.
"I say we try it," I decide. "Katniss is right." Finnick looks to Johanna, raises his eyebrows.
"All right," Johanna sighs. "It's better than hunting them down in the jungle, anyway. And I doubt they'll figure out our plan, since we can barely understand it ourselves."
It's around nine in the morning, and Beetee wants to inspect the lightning before we set up the trap. That gives us about three hours to get up there, and find a safe distance. We break camp and head to the lightning section of the beach, then walking up into the jungle. Finnick and I have to take turns carrying Beetee on our backs, because he can't walk fully by himself. It's not much of a struggle with the two of us to alternate, and we make it up fairly easily. When we draw closer, Finnick decides that Katniss should take up the lead instead of Johanna.
"Katniss can hear the forcefield," Finnick explains to our two new members.
"Hear it?" Beetee asks.
"Only with the ear the Capitol reconstructed," Katniss says.
"Then by all means, let Katniss go first. Forcefields are nothing to play around with," he says, wiping his glasses. The tree towers above the others, so it's not hard to point out. We all stop for a moment so that Katniss can go ahead to determine the reach of the forcefield. She calls out, warning us to stay below the large tree.
We all have our tasks to do; Finnick guards Beetee, Johanna taps for water, I gather up nuts, and Katniss hunts for some more of the tree rats. I gather up a few handfuls, and Katniss returns with three tree rats, so we sit down to cook them all. Beetee snaps off some of the bark and joins us, throwing it at the forcefield. We watch the bark bounce back and sit on the ground, glowing for a few moments and going back to the original colour. "Well, that explains a lot," Beetee murmurs. I raise an eyebrow, and Katniss and I look at one another. I fight the twitch of a smile on my lips, because it explains absolutely nothing to the rest of us.
In the next section of jungle, the clicking sound of strange insects rise. We had heard it the night before, but it's a lot louder here than on the beach.
"It's not mechanical," Beetee says.
"I'd guess insects. Maybe beetles," Katniss says thoughtfully.
"Something with pincers," Finnick adds in. The clicking becomes louder, perhaps alerted to our presence. It's unnerving, and I wonder if the insects are likely to stay in their own section.
"We should get out of here, anyway. There's less than an hour before the lightning starts." Johanna decides. We only go over to the next section of the blood rain, eating our food and waiting for the lightning. Beetee requests that Katniss goes up into the trees for a better view, and she scampers up whilst the rest of us try to watch from the ground. We don't see much from our point, and have to wait until Katniss returns to tell Beetee about the dazzling light, and how the tree glowed brightly, even in the daylight. Beetee seems satisfied, but none of us know what it means.
We make our way back to the ten o'clock section, and Beetee allows us some free time whilst he messes around with his wire. We all try to take turns napping, but it isn't long before we're wide awake, unable to sleep. So instead, we decide to have a feast of seafood. We all dive for oysters. I enjoy the feeling of being under the clear water, gathering up the oyster shells from the seabed, watching the colourful fish that swim past us. I'm still a little uncertain with my swimming, so I don't linger under the water longer than necessary.
On the beach Finnick, Katniss and I start to clean and lay out the food whilst Johanna keeps watch. I pull apart the shell of one oyster, peeking inside for the meat. What I find instead is a perfect, white pearl. I begin to laugh, picking out the pea sized pearl and holding it up for the others to see.
"Hey, look at this!" I laugh again. I remember Effie telling us once that with enough pressure, coal can be turned into pearls. "You know, if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls," I tell Finnick.
"No, it doesn't," he says, but suddenly Katniss starts to laugh as well. I wash the pearl in the water and wander over to Katniss, holding it out to her. "For you," I say. Katniss holds the pearl in her palm.
"Thanks," she finally says and lifts her eyes to mine. There's something in her grey eyes, and my expression drops. I hold her intense gaze.
"The locket didn't work, did it?" I ask, not worried about the others being able to hear me. She doesn't answer. "Katniss?"
"It worked," she says simply.
"But not the way I wanted it to," my eyes flicker away to the water, down to the oysters, anywhere but those grey eyes. We all sit down to eat, and another parachute appears with some red sauce and more bread rolls. When we've filled ourselves with food, Katniss and I sit by the water with our hands clasped together, not saying a word. I'm not sure what to say to her. What else can I say that will change her mind? She's become my opponent now, in a twisted kind of way. She is determined to keep me alive, and I am trying to make sure that she makes it out of the arena.
Now all we can do it wait to see if Beetee's plan will work, and after that I must find some way to convince Katniss she needs to stay alive.