Captured || Book 1

Chapter 3 | The Interview Full of Lies

Katniss' POV

Only a few days spent in this cell and it already feels like a month. Annie has been good company, and friendly too, always asking how I am and if I need to talk about anything. Johanna is the same as always, sarcastic and rude. I don't feel any comfort in talking to her. She never has anything nice to say anyways.

No one has come to see us. Not President Snow or any torturers, which I had expected. No one has brought us any food either. We all feel as if we're starving though I'm sure we've all gone through a few days without food in our lives. The only people we really see are the guards who stand outside our cell, keeping us from escaping.

"Up!" A guard comes into the cell, pulling Johanna by the hair. She yelps in pain but begrudgingly follows. I start thinking of the worst they could do to her, beating her with a whip or burning her with fire. Both sound terrible.

It's not until I hear her scream that I really panic. I cover my ears, much like Annie does, trying to block out the scream. It doesn't help, I can still hear the pain in her voice as a continuous scream comes from just down the hall.

Soon enough they bring her back, throwing her body into the cell. I crawl over to her to see a wet and charred body.

"What happened?" I ask nervously.

"Electrified water," she replies in a raspy voice, still trying to catch her breath. "No big deal,"

"No big deal!" I shout a little too loud. "They could've killed you!"

"Well they didn't," she says. "Besides, I don't think that's half as bad as it's going to get."

Another guard comes in and drags me into a room. At first I think I'm going to be tortured like Johanna was. Maybe burned with fire to give the girl who was on fire a whole new meaning. 

It isn't until I'm put into a room with two chairs and a fireplace, cameras lining the walls, that I start to have second thoughts about them torturing me. For now at least.

"Miss Everdeen!" Snow walks in, greeting me. "How nice to see you again."

"You too," I say sarcastically. "What am I doing here?"

"I want you to do an interview with Caesar," he replies and explains to me how to answer the questions and what not to say. "And if you don't do as I say, there will be dire consequences." He warns me. "Remember that, I'm not lying."

"Of course," I say. "We agreed never to lie to each other, didn't we?" 

Soon enough Peeta's prep team comes in (because mine is in District 13) and they get me all ready in a red dress, much like the one I wore before the first games and smear makeup across my face. Then I start my interview. The interview full of lies.

Peeta's POV

From my hospital room I stare down at my wrist, reading the bracelet the hospital has provided for me. Mentally Disorientated , it reads. I think of how true it is. How everyone around me has to deal with my constant ramblings and my monologue, which the doctors have told me to do when I'm feeling stressed. I basically start with the small, easy things I know about myself. I then grow into more complicated things.

"My name is Peeta Mellark. I'm 17 years old. I'm from District 12. My home was destroyed. My family didn't make it out alive. I was in the Hunger Games. I escaped. Katniss was taken hostage. She is thought to be dead. She most likely is dead. I couldn't live with myself if she was dead."

I say this over and over again, trying to call myself when really it just makes me more stressed. It makes me think about all the terrible things I've gone through in only a matter of words.