Flames to Embers

10- Peeta Mellark

:)))

All Too Well (10 Minute Version) ^^^^

This chapter is not my finest, so I apologize in advance.

As soon as I said goodbye to my tribute, I booked it down the hall to the DIstrict 12 Female's room. I swung open the door, and there was Katniss, standing in boots, cargo pants, a grey t-shirt, and a matching waterproof windbreaker. Her hair was braided down her shoulder, and her district token, the Mockingjay pin, was pinned onto her jacket's pocket.

She looked up when she heard the door open. She set down the sandwich she was eating to give me a hug. I could feel her shaking.

"It's alright," I whispered. "This is what you've been training for. You're stronger than them."

"I can't kill again," Katniss whispered back. "I can't do it."

"No one said you have to," I said. "There have been victors who haven't killed. Seeder, for one."

She didn't respond.

Thirty seconds. A mechanical sounding voice announced. Katniss looked up at me, panic clear in her eyes. I tried not to think about twelve year old Katniss, standing in here with her stylist who she barely knew, all alone besides him. Desperately trying to hold back tears, afraid to appear weak.

"You're stronger than they are," I told her again. "You were Victor material at twelve years old. What does that make you now?"

"A murderer?" she offered.

"No, Katniss. It makes you powerful."

Fifteen seconds.

"Time to go, Girl on Fire," Cinna said. Katniss glanced at him and nodded, then back at me. I pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"You have to win," I muttered. She was shaking harder now, as I led her into the tube, watching as the glass closed around her. I gently pressed my hand against the glass, and she did, too. I pretended I could feel the heat, but the glass was an inch thick, to prevent tributes from breaking it. I watched her platform rise into the ceiling, and she crouched down to keep looking at Cinna and me.

...

Katniss looks around the arena from her pedestal. It's a beautiful plane, wide open with nowhere to hide. Not a single rock, tree, or hill was in sight. Grass, flowers, and bushes spread in every direction, as far as the eye could see. It was a well groomed garden.

"We saw something similar to this arena in the 50th Annual Hunger Games, starring Katniss's mentor, Haymitch Abernathy. This should be interesting." Claudius said, his voice cutting in over the live feed.

She looks up, and her eyes catch a bow directly in front of her, leaning up against the Cornucopia, taunting her, just as it had done in her last games.

The cannon goes off, breaking her from her thoughts. But she's ready. She was trained for this. She's experienced. She sprints forward, faster than anyone had expected from her, her hand wrapping around the grip on her bow while her other hand swings the quiver over her shoulder.

"And they're off!" Caesar's voice announces. "Let's take a brief moment to compare these games to the 66th! This year, Katniss seems to be the one to watch out for!"

"Right you are, Caesar. It's time we got another victor from an outlying District."

Katniss, much to the Victor's surprise, next begins to scale the Cornucopia, much like she had done in her last games. She loads her first arrow into the bow, testing it's draw, before aiming and releasing upon her first victim. She aims for the stronger tributes, knowing the weaker ones will be easily picked off by the Careers. Katniss manages to get three kills before someone climbs the Cornucopia behind her.