Pure Torture: a Hunger Games Fanfiction

Chapter 29

Peeta

"Your Kingdom's come, it's waiting still. The space between you'll never fill." -Charli XCX

As soon as Coin finishes her announcement, two men grab Katniss and aggressively move her away.
"Hey!" I yell. "Be careful with her! She's hurt!"

The men turn to look at me, and let go of Katniss. She falls to the floor, as she should be in a wheelchair but isn't.
I rush over to her and help her up.
I reach for her hand and take it in mine, carefully pulling her off of the ground. I let her hold onto me until she catches her breath and the pain lessens a little.
"You okay?" I ask her.
She gives me a thumbs up, but I can tell she's hurting badly.
"Yeah." She says breathlessly. "Thanks."

The guards take her again, as she can't be there for the voting. Stations are quickly set up, and people begin to vote their opinions. I make my way to the nearest station and wait in the long line. I zone out until I'm at the front of the line. I'm faced with a small tablet-like device and there are two options.

YES OR NO?

My finger taps YES without any hesitation.
I move out of the line when I finish, letting a short woman with blonde hair have her turn. I walk away, and as I do, I notice a man at a different station tap NO on the screen. I look around and see that NO is a popular option. I watch lots of people tap YES and others hit NO throughout the room.
I don't quite understand why people aren't choosing yes. However the vote turns out, I know it's going to be close.

I watch Finnick tap YES quickly. Then, I turn and exit the huge room. I walk the halls quickly, heading to the hospital. As I walk, I think about Katniss firing the final shot of the war. It has to happen... Doesn't it?

When I reach the hospital, I'm directed back to Katniss's room as usual. When I get to the room, I see Katniss lying in her bed alone, her hands clenched into tight fists.
"Hey." She says quietly when she hears me enter. She doesn't move her head.
"Hey. Are you okay?" I ask, concerned.
She takes a deep breath.
"I could use... Some... Morphling." She says, her words split with breaths.

Just as I get up to find a Doctor and request Morphling. She speaks again.
Her voice changes from pain to something else. It's like she's struggling against something.
"Peeta!" She says, cutting the silence of the room.
"Katniss? What is it?" I ask, getting more worried as time goes on.
She struggles for a moment, her fists splaying out and then clenching back together again. She cringes.
"I feel it coming. A flashback or a relapse or something." She says.

I want to panic. But instead, I move anything that could pose a serious threat to her away from where she lays on the bed.
"Peeta..." She says, her voice filled with pain and terror.
"What?"
"I can't hold on... I can't hold on any.. Any longer. It's gonna happen." She says.
She looks as if she's fighting with herself.
"Please, come hold me down! I love you!" She bursts out, her normal self slipping away.

I quickly go over to her hold her hands down.
The relapse starts to take over her. But with whatever last bit of herself and her own sanity she can manage, she must feel me holding her down.
"Thank you." She gasps out before being totally plunged back into a world of darkness and torture.

--

She fights me, harder than I've ever seen her fight before. She strains against my hands that are locked around her arms. Somewhere, inside her, I know the real Katniss is fighting too. Katniss's eyes darken. Her pupils dilate and contract over and over again. She gets so pale, she could almost blend with the white sheets of the hospital bed.

She struggles against my restraint for a while. Then she speaks.
"Let me do this!" She says, angrily.
"Never." I reply.
"I deserve this. I'm a mutt. Peeta, stop this! Help me stop this!" She says, her anger intensifying.
"No." I say.
She throws insults at me, then, calling me a coward and other things. I am usually able to brush these things off quickly, but it's hard to this time. It's hard seeing her like that.
"Look me in the eyes." I say to her.
Her dark and insane eyes lock on mine.

"Katniss. This isn't real. Not real. Not real. You're here with me." I say, calmly.
Her eyes search mine for a few seconds. Her pushed against my arms grow even stronger. I fear I won't be able to hold her much longer.
She closes her eyes. She opens them again momentarily and searches mine once more. It's as if she's found something in them. She pushes one hard, final time, and yells out.

Then she stops. Her extremely tense muscles relax. She lets out a long, pained breath. Her eyes droop. I begin to panic a little, as she never does this after a flashback.
"Hey." I say to her as her eyes continue to close more. "Hey!" I repeat.
Her eyes stop closing and slide open a little more.
"Stay with me Katniss. Don't close your eyes." I say. I fear that if she closes them, they'll never open again.

Her eyes don't close.
"Hey, Katniss? Can you look me in the eyes again?" I say, calmly.
I try to find something she can focus on so she doesn't slip out of my reach and go unconscious.
Her eyes lock onto mine again. For a moment, I think she's gone back into her hijacked-mode.

"Okay Katniss, you see my eyes? Tell me what color they are." I say.

Her eyes change a little. I can't quite put my finger on what exactly changes, but it's something. When she doesn't answer after I ask my question, I think she's going back into a relapse.

"They're blue. Duh." She says, "I may have been hijacked but I'm not stupid, Peeta."

I let out a long breath I didn't even know I was holding in the first place. Happy tears fill my eyes, but I blink them away.

She looks down at her reddened and sore arms from me holding her down.
"What...?" She asks, not remembering.
"Relapse. Had to hold you down." I explain, quickly.
"Oh," she says. "Oh... I think I remember telling you to do that."

Well, at least she remembers that.
"Thanks for doing it." She adds.
"Well, I wasn't going to let you do anything." I reply.

She smiles at me a little. Her eyes droop again, but quickly open back up.
She lets out a moan.
"Can I have that Morphling I asked for now?" She says. She gestures to her body, "This freaking hurts."

I let out a shaky laugh before agreeing to go get a doctor so she can get the medicine she needs.

**sorry this is a bit short! I'm sort of having writers block atm. Thanks for all the reads and support! On your way out of this chapter, please do me a HUGE favor and tap that little star if you're enjoying it! Comment anything you'd like, as I love to read them! ❤
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Thanks!
-Aly