Forever I am with You ||Everlark||

Chapter 8: Katniss

Katniss POV
I know I'm going to have nightmares tonight, even though I'm not going to admit it, Gale shook me up pretty bad, mentally and physically. I think Peeta realizes that too, but he's not pressing me to answer questions. I'm definitely not in the mood to be interrogated. He's given me a slight funny look, and a hug, but hasn't done anything else.

Really what I want to do right now is run out to the woods, climb a tree, and shut out the world, listening only to the birds. Being out there is amazing, it's where I feel at home. The woods are my true home, whether I sleep there or not.

Peeta walks me to the end of his walkway before letting me go home. He gives me a warm hug, "Be careful, okay, you had me pretty scared there."

I give him a small nod before crossing to my house. Some families know that our parents hate each other. Most people wouldn't care, but tongues fly, and it'd make it back to my mom somehow. It's not so much the fact that it's Peeta, it's just that I'm "cheating" on Gale.

I don't even want to think about Gale right now. This time, I try a different tactic. I climb a tree near the upstairs bathroom window. I'm just hoping nobody's in there right now, because this is a much smaller window. I'll barely fit. Hopefully it's unlocked.

It's not. I scramble back down the trunk of the tree and back to the rose trellis. It creaks but still standing, allows me into my bathroom. One of these days, it's going to fall though. I don't want to be on it when it happens, that will not be good. It's probably going to end with a broken foot, which I have a reputation for.

I glance back towards Peeta's  yard, where he is still standing there. He gives me a thumbs up, grin, and heads back into his house. I peel up the corners of my mouth in a smile.Then I flip around from the window to find myself face to face with my mother.

"Oh hey!" I say in a tone so fake even the most gullible person in the world could figure out it's fake.

That earns me a slap across the cheek. I keep a stone face, which is hard, but I succeed. I don't want to let her know she causes me pain. I won't let it show. My injuries, physical, are on the outside. But my emotional injuries, they're on the inside, where no one sees. It's going to stay that way.

She slaps me again, harder this time, I think just to test me. This time, the full force knocks me into the wall. I see spinning stars around the room.

"Where were you for dinner?" she snarls at me, pressing her towering form closer to me in the corner by the toilet.

"On a walk." I answer.

"LIAR! TELL ME THE TRUTH!!!" she explodes at me.

I know I can't tell her my actual adventures of the evening so I repeat my statement. "On a walk." That actually was halfway true.

Instead, her response is to kick me in the side, spin on her heel, on stalk out of my bathroom. That went somewhat better than usual. Only bruises, which I have to say makeup covers much better than cuts. I just wish I didn't have to own six different types of concealer.

I huddle up into more of a ball in the corner. I let the tears leak out of my eyes slowly. They drift to the floor until I'm sitting in a puddle. Slowly, the daylight drains from the sky. I realize if I'm just going to sit here and cry, I might as well do it in bed, and try to sleep. It has to be late.

I undo my braid and brush out my long dark brown hair. I wipe off my face, washing away the layers of makeup. My face white, I notice a palm shaped bruise forming on my right cheek. I avert my eyes from the mirror and change into grey plaid flannel pajama pants and a Superman t - shirt. I slide down the covers in my bed and fall into a sleep.

---

Dream:
I just keep walking. One foot in front if the other, left right, left right. I can hear the scuffling of many feet behind me as well. I don't turn around, not because I don't care, but I have a feeing I'm not supposed to.

We reach close to the edge of a cliff, and a realize who they are. They are the faces of every person I've ever cared about in my life. My father. Glimmer. Clove. Foxface (Analeigh) Marvel. Leevy. Cato. Johanna. Finnick. Annie. Prim. Peeta. And some more distant family members keep following me. I've stopped, I'm twenty feet from the edge. Gradually, they file into a single line, then unstopping, walk off, one by one. First my cousins, then Marvel, Glimmer, Cato, Clove, Foxface, Leevy, Annie, Johanna, Finnick, and then it's just Peeta, Prim, and my father.

"STOP!" I scream, running towards them.

But they turn away from me, "Goodbye Katniss." They say into the wind.

I keep running towards them, but I move in slow motion. My father plummets downward, then Prim.

"NO!" I yell into the wind. Peeta turns around, and hesitates slightly. "Good-bye." Then he jumps.

I keep moving towards the edge trying to jump. I won't live alone with my mother. I'm astonished by the sight at the bottom. There are bright orange flames. Dark figures have tied up everyone, and there are five figures for every one of my friends. They hold spiked whips, repeatedly cutting up my friends. I try again to jump down to save them. No luck. There is some sort of forcefield holding me back. Peeta's blood splatter's everywhere when the figure strikes him.

I scream again, pounding my hands on the glass. It's not far down, maybe fifteen feet. Eventually heads start to slump, including everyone but Johanna. Then six dark figures, cloaked in red come from out of my line of vision, all holding guns. One by one, they proceed to shoot down every one of my friends, every single one.

I scream and scream and scream at them, crying for them to stop.

"Wake up!" a distant voice calls. The call repeats itself again. "Wake up!"
The voice is rather soft, but yet very smooth. I flutter my eyelids, wondering what is going on.

Tears still flow frequently down my face, from the shock of seeing everyone I love die. I'm like Johanna was before her death now. I have no one. Then, when the light seems too bright to face, I close my eyes into the blackness.
---
Reality:
No light comes through my windows, but I can still make out that it's Peeta by his smell of freshly baked bread. He's still lightly shaking my shoulder until I roll towards him.

"Peeta?"

"You seriously scared me there!" He says.

"How?" I answer.

" You were screaming so loud I could hear you in my house..."

"Oh." I say, my voice trailing.
---
Authors note:
Okay this better be good, I've been drafting it for three days... And yes, there is a reason the chapter ends in a weird spot like that! Just wait!

Thanks so much for reading!

1252 words and counting...

--HG_Fangirl10101