A Whole New Game: A Hunger Games Story

Chapter 34: Impending Doom

Eleanor

I'm dead. I'm dead. Fire catches within my sandpaper lined throat. I'm choking, I'm choking, but I'm dead.

Please make it stop. Im dead. I'm DEAD! I'm fucking dead.

It's unbearable, raging fire trickles down my esophagus like bitter wine.

"MAKE IT STOP," I gurgle to no one. Because I'm dead.

"Eleanor, open your eyes."

Impossible.

"Eleanor Teagen Ruehler, open your eyes," The voice commands.

Regrettably, my eyes flutter open.

It's him.

"This is hell,' I mutter through my raspy mouth.

"That's no way to treat me, Darling. Especially since you are very much alive."

For once in my life, I am silent. I feel only sensations. I feel cool liquid as it drips from an IV and begins to seep into my veins. My wiggling toes set off ripples in an ocean of crisp white sheets. Light strains into eyes that haven't opened in far too long as I look at him. His musky smell of cigars races up my nostrils.

"Dad?" The word finally stumbles out of my mouth before I can process it.

He smiles, though his icy eyes wag disapprovingly. "You knew it was only a matter of time before I rescued you from those treasonous traitors, didn't you, Darling? I've been in the Capitol since your disappearance. I reached out to Coriolanus before well... Anyway, he agreed to send some of his peacekeepers in an effort to reclaim a loyal Panem citizen."

"No," I hardly whisper as my hands reach for my throat, the place where all the blood pooled.

My father, the mayor, shakes his head."You see Darling, it was the plan to rescue you the whole time. I couldn't bear the idea of my offspring dying a traitor, a martyr really, for the rebellion. I had to do something, so I pulled a few strings in the Capitol to arrange your extraction. However, Peacekeeper Damien only saw a young girl dressed like a rebel, and he shot her. It wasn't until Peacekeeper Ferox walked past the girl whittling away in her blood and noticed the girl was you."
He pauses briefly, "The Capitol doctors stopped their work on dutiful soldiers to save the life of my little traitor."

He blinks away hazy tears as my shaky fingers graze over my jagged skin.

"Well, have a look," My father reaches for a hand mirror on a table beside me and places it into my hand.

I stare at a foreign reflection as tears unrestrainedly flow. My dull hair disappears into grey skin only illuminated by ragged red scars. And my neck. My neck is patched with scaly gold fibers like my own set of gills.

My father removes the mirror from my hand.

"I'm," I begin as I gulp down tears.

Disappointment furrows in my father's salt and pepper eyebrows, "Darling, you better pray for a benevolent leader of whoever wins this war, because right now, I don't think either side would want you."
He stands tall as he brushes away a single tear, and walks to the door, "Goodbye, Eleanor."

"Dad, please" I barely whisper, yet want to cry.

I think I see him hesitate, an acknowledgment perhaps, but just like too many times before, he exits. I am left alone with the humble buzz of the television in the corner. The screen displays sea of Capitol officers encroaching on the rebels. And for a moment, I think I see the blonde bastard that left me to die, and I hate him. I hate him as much as my father who allowed me to live.

With a shrill scream, I rip the IV out of my arm, and there's blood. Just blood staining the white sheets, washed away with salty tears. I'm alive. I'm alive... And I've never been more dead.

With fire raging in my heart, I slide out of my hospital bed. The breeze ruffles my hospital gown and my bare feet recoil when they hit icy tile. The jarring cold compels me back to the bed, but every voice in my body screams go.

One foot in front of the other, Ellie.

Katniss

Peeta and I slowly approach the City Circle, the metal shard in my thigh burning with each step. But, of course, I don't let Peeta know this because he'd make me stop and worry over me.