Chapter Twenty Seven

Katniss couldn't count the amount of horrifying images the venom caused her to see. She must have been strung in a lot more places than she had first thought because the reems of endless nightmares refused to desist. She saw her father being shot, her mother dragged from her house and hung for emotional compromisation, Prim brutally mutiliated, all of it again and again and again until Katniss knew exactly what was coming and when it was coming.

But the last one was different.

Completely different.

She had been expecting to relive the pain of watching Prim's tiny body being mangled in what seemed to be a meat grinder, but instead saw herself. Katniss. Only it wasn't her at the same time.

She was dressed like a Capitolite. In a maroon pencil skirt and a white blouse. Her heels were incredibly high, making her much taller than she really was. The only way Katniss was actually able to recognize herself was because her hair was done the way it always was. In a messy braid down her back. She was angry. Impossibly angry. Katniss could feel it burn through her veins, even though she was only an onlooker. What could make her so mad, she didn't know, but whatever it was was going to pay severely for what they had done.

Clenched in her fist was a piece of string. No. Not string. The material was too thick to be string. A leash? Did she have a dog in the Capitol? It was long and pink and coated in silver sparkles. Probably a gift from Effie or something. But what was on the other end of it?

Katniss felt her heart stop as she saw him. Capitol Katniss wasn't walking a dog on a leash, nor was she walking an animal of any sort. She didn't have a pet to walk, she was herding around her slave. She was herding around Peeta.

Peeta stood with his head bowed, standing behind Capitol Katniss as she ranted about something. A collar was tightly fastened around his neck, to which the leash was attached to. It was a terrifying sight and Katniss didn't like it. She wanted to wake up, more than she ever had wanted to before.

"You're an embarrassment!" Capitol Katniss yelled. Her voice suddenly broke through, like she had just broke out through a layer of water. "A good for nothing slave! I should have ditched you when I had a chance. But I was too kind! 'Oh no Effie, it's alright, I think he can change'!"

She turned around Katniss flinched when Capitol Katniss smacked him. The action rang out in the room, the burn that followed practically radiating through the walls.

"You have no future, don't you see? Maybe if you kept this-" Capitol Katniss grabbed Peeta's face, forcing it up so he looked her in the eye. Her nails dug painfully into his cheeks, making thin trails of blood slowly trickle out-"shut then we wouldn't have a problem! You're an idiot, slave, thinking this world can change!"

The thing that hurt Katniss the most wasn't that the Capitol hybrid of herself of yelling or that she was insulting Peeta, it was the dead look in his eyes. The fact that he was taking everything she said without complaint. That he didn't fight back or spit back snide remarks like he did to the slave drivers in the Compound.

An unsettling thought came to mind.

It's because he loves you. He would do anything for you, even if it means taking every insult you throw at him.

Katniss wanted to yell. Scream. Cry in frustration. Anything. But she was stuck in place, forced to watch herself treat Peeta like dirt.

Capitol Katniss' voice was suddenly softer. "You're just lucky that I'm a sucker for blue eyes," she teased. She trailed her finger down the side of his face, collecting up the blood before sucking it all off. Katniss was disgusted. Her stomach churned, like she was about to be sick any second. "And no other man has been able to please me, like you do."

Katniss felt bile rising in her throat. She couldn't watch this any longer because she knew where it was going to go. She knew herself better than anyone and recognized the dark look in her Capitol Counterpart's eyes. Never had she seen it in her own eyes before but she wasn't so out of touch that she didn't know what it meant.

It meant she was going to fuck him.

Helpless and scared, Katniss struggled for a way out. She squeezed her eyes shut but she could still hear them. Only a few more words before the disgusting squelch of swapped saliva. At the end of her tether, Katniss screamed. It was louder than she had ever screamed in her entire life. She screamed until her throat ached, she screamed until she was light headed and had no voice left to scream with.

When she couldn't scream any more, Katniss tiredly opened her eyes, hoping she'd be staring at the sky of the lake she collapsed by. Instead, she found herself staring into the eyes of her Capitol Counterpart. The evil woman was right up in her face, a twisted smirk on her face. If Katniss hadn't screamed her voice away, she probably would have started again.

"This will be you," Capitol Katniss hissed. "You will conform."

"No," Katniss whispered, her voice nothing but a scratchy whisper. "I won't."

Capitol Katniss laughed and stepped away so Katniss could see what had become of Peeta. Only she wished she hadn't. He lay on the floor, his clothes ripped and torn as if a wild animal had attacked him, and out of his neck stuck a syringe, completely empty of any narcotic.

Katniss didn't care about her torn throat. She was so scared that she reached into the bottom of her throat and ripped her voice box right up, using what remained to scream again. Only this time it worked.

The image cracked and fell to pieces, leaving Katniss lying in a void of darkness, contemplating nothing but how tired she was of everything.

~xXx~

"Answer correctly and you will be given a proper meal tonight. Answer wrong and you will eat nothing, understand?"

Peeta nodded, his head heavy. An hour after another venom dosage and his brain was still a scramble. Hopefully the questions wouldn't be as taxing, he didn't even know if he could remember what his name was if they asked him. He just wanted to go to bed and sleep for enternity, was that so much to ask?

Jackson sat across from him, cross-legged in her seat. Harper was beside her, looking as exhausted as Peeta felt. There were dark circles under her eyes and her face was pale. Was she having trouble sleeping as well? Wait, why did he care? Shaking his head a little to clear it (even though doing so was useless because everything just immediately scrambled again) Peeta tried to focus on the metal table in front of him and nothing else.

"We are the good guys, true our false?"

Peeta scrabbled for an answer in his mind. Before he was injected, the answer would have seemed obvious, but since the venom was still in his system possible answers jumbled around and blurred together. Images of Capitol women helping him suddenly flashed before his eyes but the thought didn't sit properly in his mind. It was there but it didn't seem to fit. Like a puzzle piece wedged into the wrong slot.

"False," he finally managed to grit out between clenched teeth.

Jackson rolled her eyes and looked at Harper in exasperation. "This isn't working," she said.

"He will respond," Harper insisted. She leaned forward, her eyes tired. "Peeta, Katniss Everdeen is your enemy, true or false?"

Her name sparked a million unsettling images. Peeta squeezed his eyes shut and tried to refuse them, push them all way, try to find what he wanted to be the truth. "No," he said. "False."

"Harper, this isn't-" Jackson began.

"Hush," Harper silenced. "You're going to confuse him." She returned her gaze to Peeta with a surprisingly gentle stare. "Take your time and answer when you're ready. I'll ask the question again. We are the good guys, true or false?"

Peeta was too tired and frustrated. His head was filled to bursting point and he couldn't focus on anything. He just wanted a good night's sleep, that's all. Maybe he would be able to answer their questions if they let him rest. He buried his face into his arms and tried to concentrate in the dark to provided. "I don't know," he mumbled.

"Harper, listen to me, if this isn't working then I am upping his dosage whether you like it or not," said Jackson.

"It will work, Jackson. Don't touch him, don't up the dosage, I can do this," Harper replied. "Peeta, focus on me and my voice. We're the good guys, we always have been. Katniss is the enemy. She has kept you captive for many years now. Jackson and I rescued you and it's killing us what she has done to you."

Her words were familiar but they didn't ring true. Peeta couldn't accept that what they were telling him was truth. Despite his brain being in a muddle, it didn't make sense. No matter how hard they tried to convince him, anything negative said about Katniss didn't add up, no matter what it was that had been said.

He felt so helpless. He just wanted to go to sleep. Was that really so much to ask?

"Maybe he just needs a little encouragement," Jackson said, her voice dripping in seduction. Peeta couldn't see her, his face shrouded in the darkness of his arms. There was the scraping of chair legs against the floor and he winced, waiting for whatever blow or inappropriate touch was to come. There was a bump and a struggle.

"Don't you dare Jackson! If you touch him you might mess things up!" Harper snapped.

"You're no fun," Jackson muttered. Peeta could imagine her sliding into her seat in a huff. Even though he didn't like Harper, he was thankful for her presence. "I don't care what you say, when we're done here, I'm having some fun. If you try and stop me, I'll report you for emotional compromisation."

Peeta lifted his heavy head. He squinted at the two women through tired eyes. All he had been able to make out was 'emotional' and 'compromisation'. Jackson was standing again, staring Harper down defiantly, who wore an outraged expression of her own.

"How dare you even incinuate that I have any emotional feelings towards this piece of filth!" Harper shouted, her seat skidding out from underneath her as she stood up as well. "I can't believe you would even say that!" Her voice was wobbly and unsure, like an actor speaking script lines without having revised over it. "You should know better than that!"

"I should know better?!" Jackson roared. "I should know better? You nearly fucking sold me out when Glimmer wanted to take him to District 1 and I said no! You warned me, you said, 'I'm sorry Jacks but it's my duty'. Well if you keep coddling this unworthy piece of . . . piece of . . . dirt I will fucking do my own duty!"

"I'm not coddling him!" Harper shouted. "I'm trying to do this venom control treatment so he'll be under our order! I've been working all day and night to try and get this right! All you've been fucking doing is complaining at me about how you can't grope and screw him!"

Watching them was almost comical but Peeta found humour in few things now-a-days. His fatigue overtook everything and he was too exhausted to even crack a smile. Plus they were arguing about him and what was to be done about him. He had no doubt in his mind that Harper was telling the truth when she said she was not emotionally compromised. She had no reason to be so.

"This is barely torture anymore!" Jackson yelled. She kicked her chair and it smashed against the wall. "If that Everdeen girl saw him right now all she would see is an exhausted kid. It would probably give her more hope because there's barely a scratch on him!"

Harper slammed her hand against the table so it banged loudly. Peeta jumped at the vibrations on the metal table and almost fell out of his seat. Jackson shouted in frustration and yanked at her blond hair in rage.

"Prove you're not emotionally compromised and take a break," she said. She put her hands on Harper's shoulders and steered her towards their captive. Peeta groaned and let his forehead press against the metal table. Maybe they wouldn't notice if he just stayed like this and fell asleep. His body wasn't going to be able to handle the exhaustion much longer.

"I can't take a break until we've won," Harper muttered.

"I know," said Jackson. "But part of your work can also be play." She started murmuring something into Harper's ears. Peeta couldn't make out what it was she was saying but occasionally he heard random words. Words such as 'helpless' 'fun' 'abuse' and 'release'. None of them sounded particularly desirable. "And if you don't, I'll report you for emotional compromisation."

It seemed that Jackson was turning on her own colleagues. Maybe she was losing her mind and was turning on whoever she slightly doubted. She was blackmailing Harper into hurting him just because she had been focusing more on the venom than actually abusing him.

Peeta knew that Harper wasn't going to risk being accused of emotional compromisation but he wasn't afriad. There was something about Harper . . . something strange. She wasn't brash unless necessary and wasn't crude like Jackson. Maybe it was just because she prefered having sex in a soft, gentle way. It was hard to believe that she was a rare, genuine person who perfered work over play. But she'd do what was necessary to keep herself safe and wouldn't let Jackson get away with blackmailing her.

Maybe Jackson truly was losing her mind. How long was it going to be before she became reckless? How long was it going to be before she didn't care what Harper said did what she wanted?

How much longer before she started making her own rules?

A/N: Thank you everyone for your kind reviews!

Please R&R! :D