I pull so hard against the restraints trying to get to the guard that's questioning Darius that I feel my wrist give. It takes a while for the pain of that to hit. It does in the middle of me screaming at him and gives me a moment's pause which sends me coughing on my own spit.

I'm so hungry my stomach hurts, but I've been there before. Our side of 12 often had a bit more food than Katniss' but the Peacekeepers would come through at times and take almost everything, and Mom would get so mad if-but what's it matter...who knows if I'll ever see them again?

I'm surprised they haven't been rounded up and brought here to be shot or hung or dismembered in front of me too.

"Do you want some too?" The bloody blade is wiped on the tip of my nose.

The other guard pulls his companion's arm away, "Remember the orders."

My left wrist is throbbing and pulsing. I try to pull it around, see if perhaps I can slip it out of the restraint now. There's supposed to be some way...isn't there? Dislocate something, get out restraints? That's your thumb...can't even do that right.

Darius is just whimpering now, from what little I've been able to make out recently when they've not been in here, he's fading. He makes odd babbling noises. He's sweaty. Now he just seems to be gurgling and the response doesn't change no matter what they do, but then his legs are down to nubs both shorter than my one. He has neither ear, no nose, no fingers. They've started flaying flesh from him in between shocking him, but less violently than they would shock Lavinia.

They come in at odd times. I've no idea how long it's been that we've been in here. It feels like any time either of us begins to fall asleep or pass out a pair of guards comes in and begins again on him with the questions that...especially now he has no fingers there's even less chance he could answer-as if he would have known in the first place; and they won't stop. They just won't stop. Nothing I've said. Nothing I've offered to say. They won't-they don't stop coming back.

Now I'm just hoping that he will die soon so that it's over for him.

Just, please, Darius, please, give up.

Please.

They haven't given us enough water recently for me to be able to cry.

A scream jolts me awake. It's not Darius. It's not me. Though I do cry out when I jolt because my wrist pulls against the restraint and reminds me what I did to it. A quick glance shows it's discolored and swollen. I can barely move my hand around. This is the scream of an angry, angry woman. I've heard it before because it was shortly followed by her, covered in dried blood, yelling at Katniss on the beach in the clockwork nightmare of the last arena. It's coming from behind me loudly, almost making the wall vibrate.

"Try that again, asshole! Come on!" she snaps, "It's gonna get you the same thing!"

I look across at Darius, but his head is still slumped to one side against his shoulder, stumps of legs tourniqueted off. I hope he's finally died. Then my stomach turns over at the idea, but it will be better. It will. They won't be able to hurt him any more.

Another scream from the room behind me, "Is that it? Is that all you've got? What did they teach you in guard academy?"

Then she screams but it turns into a sort of growl and she barks a few times. I find myself laughing a little and shake my head. Darius still hasn't moved.

There's silence from the other room now.

All this is going on and Johanna...damn.

I find myself laughing and then I realize that the laugh isn't stopping and I...

"Hey-hey...whoever you are, what the hell!?" her voice cuts through, "Shit! Are they fucking tickling you in there? That's so unfair!"

I choke then and the cough is dry because I'm so thirsty. I manage to dredge up some spit and swallow, "No. No tickling. Thank you. I couldn't..."

"Oh, damn," she says, and there's a thunking sound which I feel is her banging her head against the wall, "Damn. Damn. Damn, Blondie, Twelve, damn it...fiance...Peeta, that's it. Is that you?"

"I'm afraid so."

She snorts, "Things so..." and then she stops.

"What?" I demand.

Silence.

"Were you about to say something about some sort of plan?" Then I stop, because obviously there was a plan and obviously they're listening in to everything that goes on in the cells and obviously the plan, whatever it was went wrong so what does it matter what she says, besides, of course the Mockingjay is more important than the baker kid-but Johanna got left behind too.

The best part Katniss hated all of that stuff, all she ever wanted to do was go home to her mother and her sister. I wonder what she even thinks of all their plans now that she's with them and they're telling her things. If they are. They never told any of us much of anything in the first place, "Never mind." I mutter.

"Yeah." She says, "Fuck 'em all."

We fall silent. I wonder if she's gone to sleep. I don't push.

"Darius?" I say, cautiously. Though if he didn't get woken up by my hysterical laughter then...I allow myself to feel relieved and then the guilt courses once more. This man died because of me. Lavinia died because of me. They killed both of them because of me just because they knew me.

I'm making my own horrible choking sobs when the door opens and they unhook me from the wall and drag me out.