Mockingjay: Peeta's POV

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

I'm grabbed by a guard. He hoists me up, holding my arms behind my back as if I'm going to put up a fight and need to restrained. Another guard punches me in the gut. I would double over in pain if it weren't for me being held up by a guard. The wind is knocked out of me.

Snow stands off to the side, an angry expression on his face. "You've told them the plan, and now it will have to be activated early."

Another punch. Then, another. More punches are thrown at me and I can only stand there being held up. I can't draw breath into my body.

"I couldn't." Another punch. "Let her die." I'm dropped to the ground. "You promised," I say before a boot from a Peacekeeper stomps down on me. I cry out in pain.

"I'm the President. I can do anything I want," Snow says, watching on as the guards repeatedly stomp on me. "Hijack him."

Hijack? What does that mean? The guards have stopped momentarily beating me. But only for a needle to be jabbed into my arm. They must have been carrying it with them. Just in case I would pull a stunt like the one I did. I wait to pass out from the pain from what they just injected me with and from the beating. But nothing comes.

When I slightly move my hand up to wipe some of the blood from my nose. I'm hit again. A guard picks me up easily dragging me to the waiting car.

~M:PPOV~

The next thing I know I'm being pushed into my quarters. I fall to the floor. The door clangs shut behind me. I can't move from my position on the floor. Blood pours out of my nose, my stomach feels like it on fire. I cough and blood sprays before me.

~Hallucinations~

My mother's yelling at someone outside the bakery. I peek out the window to see who. A girl around my age. Katniss. I watch from the window. When my mother comes back inside from telling Katniss to leave, Katniss follows her into the bakery. I go back to the kitchen to take the loaves from the oven. I hear my mother scream from the other room. I run toward the sound, the loaves still in hand. My mother is on the ground, Katniss standing over her. When Katniss sees me she turns and advances toward me. She reaches out, snatching the loaves from me. Katniss turns running from the shop.

***

I'm laying on the ground, covered in mud and leaves. My leg searing with pain. I can't move a muscle. I'm embedded in the mud. I hear footsteps close by but unable to defend myself. The footsteps near closer, almost stepping on my face.

"Peeta! Peeta!" a voice calls. Katniss.

"You here to finish me off, sweetheart?" I say.

"Peeta? Where are you? Peeta?" Katniss says, frantically.

"Well, don't step on me," I respond.

I hear her jump back. I open my eyes and she gasps. "Close your eyes again." I obey. She kneels down beside me. "I guess all these hours of decorating cakes paid off."

"Yes, frosting. The final defense of the dying."

She tells me firmly. "You're not going to die."

She says this like she actually cares about me. Like she's in love with me. But I doubt it. "Says who?"

"Says me. We're on the same team now, you know."

So that's why she found me, she doesn't actually care whether I live or die. She needs me to to help her survive. Something flashes in her hand. What could it be? Suddenly, more pain flares up in my leg.

"That should keep you alive long enough for me to win," she says, a cruel, twisted smile on her face.

***

The train, that's carrying us back to District Twelve after the Games, stopped to refuel, and we are let off to get some fresh air. Katniss and I walk the down the length of the train. I stop to gather some flowers for Katniss.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"I have to tell you something," she says, staring into my eyes.

I wait for her to continue. "What?"

"I'm a mutt of the Capitol," she growls.

"W-What?" I stutter.

"You heard me. And since I didn't finish you off in the arena. Well, I guess I will sooner or later. I just have to make it look like an accident," she says taking a step closer to me.

I start backing up to run back to the train. To tell somebody.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," she laughs.

"Why?" I say, trying muster up my courage.

"One, they won't believe you. Two," suddenly, she's at my throat, a knife in hand, "I could kill you right now."

~End of Hallucinations~

My head is throbbing. I open my eyes to see a pool of blood on the floor beside the bed. My hand shakily reaches up, tentatively touching my head. A cloth is bound around my head, wet with moisture. The blood is from my head. What happened?

Suddenly, everything comes back to me. Me warning the rebels of the impending attack. The beating. Why would I warn them after everything Katniss did to me? The memories I had while I was knocked out are true. I just know it. Katniss Everdeen is a mutt of the Capitol. She's out for blood. My blood. 

Edited