I waited patiently at the train station with several other residents from the newly rebuilt district twelve. The others are not like me. They would not be boarding the train with me. There is only one train that visits district twelve. It's both a supply train and a passenger train. There's no need for two trains because people rarely enter or exit the district.
The others stared at me. They knew who I was and they saw the duffle in my left hand. They knew what was going to happen to me and I could see the pity on their faces. I recognized some of them from before the war. Their faces had no sympathy, only a blank expression. They knew I didn't want them to feel bad for me.
"Peeta?" I heard her voice. I turned around slowly. She looked confused and concerned.
"What are you doing? Where are you going?" She sounded panicked. The train rolled into the station loudly. I remained silent as she wouldn't be able to hear my answer anyway. The train came to a stop and peace keepers, just as menacing as the old ones, immediately flooded the platform. Two peace keepers took me by the arms and a third grabbed my duffle. They started to take me away. I looked back at Katniss sadly.
"Peeta!" She screamed and started to run toward me, but another peace keeper stopped.
"Peeta! You can't take him!" Katniss yelled and struggled against the peace keepers. I was loaded onto the train and the doors closed behind me. The peace keepers released my arms and disappeared into the train. I remained at the doors. Katniss was still screaming, but I couldn't hear what she was saying. She had started hitting the peace keeper and was struggling still. Haymitch came up to her and pulled her away from the peace keeper and the train. She was screaming at him. The peace keepers boarded the train again in a different car and the train slowly began to move again. I stayed at the glass doors until I could no longer see Katniss.
The train had metal walls, floors, and ceilings. Boxes of supplies were stacked high to the ceiling. I settled myself on the floor beneath the window with my back against the cold wall. Hours must have past by and I was starving before a peace keeper came and brought me a glass of water and a plate of gray mush. Coming from district 12 I'm not usually picky about food, but what they were trying to feed me a dog wouldn't even eat. I forced some down because I knew I would need my strength once I reached the capital.
I was in and out of consciousness for the rest of the ride to the capitol. I was awoken with a start by a peace keeper who roughly lifted me off the ground and pushed me out onto the capitol train platform. There I was shoved into a car with windows so tinted I couldn't see out them. The car came to a stop after some time and I was pulled from the car.
A peace keeper put handcuffs on me and I was thrown into a memory of the night with Katniss in the basement. The night before Prim died. I shoved the memory out of my thoughts. Now was definitely not a good time to have an episode. The peace keepers pulled me down several white unidentifiable hallways and then into a door marked with the number 12. I was strapped onto the bed and then left alone in the room. I looked wildly around. There was nothing that could help me. I pulled at the restraints on my hands, but that only caused the to tighten.
"Struggling will only make it worse, Peeta," I heard Dr. Aurelius's voice. I looked up at the doorway and stopped struggling but by no means did I begin to relax.
"Do you know why you are here?" He asked.
"No," I said although I did really.
"You've been causing quite some concern here in the capitol. We're worried about the violent episodes you've been having," He said.
"Violent?" I asked.
"Yes, you're endangering everyone's life around you. Sure, you only broke a chair and knocked over a table, but who's to say it won't be worse next time? Who's to say you won't take a knife to Haymitch? Or strangle Katniss again?" He demanded. He was right and I remained silent.
"We have brought you here to help you," Dr. Aurelius explained. "We've come up with many new medical revelations we're dying to try. Mrs. Everdeen even helped us with some of them." The way he said "dying" made my skin crawl.
"Trial 1," Dr. Aurelius said and stuck me with a needle. A thick purple liquid entered my blood stream. It made my veins burn like my blood had suddenly turned to fire. I screamed for what seemed like days and then lost consciousness. When I regained my senses a tv was on and playing something on it. My vision was fuzzy but then I heard my voice coming from it. I tried harder to focus and realized it was my first games. Katniss was killing me. My vision became shiny and I pulled at the restraints keeping me on the bed.
"Trial two," I hadn't even realized Dr. Aurelius was in the room. He put a mask over my face and released a sort of gas. It smelled sweat, but also felt like fire. I tried to scream again, but only succeeded on choking on the gas causing me to pass out sooner than last time.
The next time I awoke it was dark in my room. No tv was on and Dr. Aurelius was gone. The mask wasn't on my face and there were no tubes in my arms or legs. I had to get out of here. I pulled wildly at the restraints trying hard not to panic. I calmed myself and slowly pulled at one of the restraints on my hand and was able to slip it out. I then easily removed my other hand, feet, and chest. I walked quietly to the door and to my surprise it was left unlocked.
I left the room and silently closed the door behind me. Where was I going to go? All the hallways looked the same and I couldn't remember how to out of the building. I chose a direction and walked that way. I walked for quite sometime carefully avoiding peace keepers and other personnel until an alarm sounded.
The alarm sounded and I could hear feet coming from all directions. I ran. I ran down the halls until I was stuck between two groups of peace keepers. I had two options: I could let the peace keepers take me or I could I open the door behind me and hope to find something good. I chose the latter. I threw open the white door and rushed inside and slammed the door shut. I frantically looked for something to barricade the door, but came up short.
"Peeta?" a voice asked. I spun around and found President Paylor sitting behind a desk. Just then the door flew open and the peace keepers grabbed me.
"Release him!" Paylor yelled above the commotion of my struggling. They let me go and I dropped to the floor. She shooed the peace keepers from the room and helped me into a chair.
"Peeta what are you doing here?" She asked so I told her everything. I told her about Katniss and the table, and the nightmares, the phone call, the train, the trials, the fire inside me, and lastly my escape.
"Oh Peeta. No more drugs. No more trials. I will fire Dr. Aurelius immediately. You won't get any more phone calls and neither will Katniss. I'm sure Haymitch would be happy to help you both. And I will personally escort you back to District 12. This is an outrage. I'm so incredibly sorry, Peeta," She said and gently touched the top of my head.
"I'll call Haymitch immediately and inform him that we'll be on our way back," She said and I nodded.
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