Always: A Hunger Games Fanfiction

Chapter 8

Peeta

Katniss kissed me. She kissed me. I was in shock at first, frozen on that log. But I as soon as I realized what was actually happening I relaxed.

Then, there are huge explosions in the distance. It throws Katniss and I back a little. Some of the trees a couple feet away from us caught fire. I have no idea what to do.

"Peeta!" I hear Katniss say. My ears are ringing, and I can't quite hear right. "Peeta!" she screams again. I look up. She is standing above me, her eyes filled with fear.

I touch the side of my face. It stings faintly. There is a little bit of blood. Katniss and I don't have the best of luck with things like this. The same thing happened to her the first time in the arena.

I stand up slowly. The flames get closer, and higher. Katniss pulls my arm and we run out of the woods, covering our mouths with our sleeves, hoping that there won't be any more bombs.

When we finally get out of the woods, it isn't much different. The whole District 12 is in ruins again. There is a strange grayish fog lifting up in the air. At first I think that it's just smoke but I soon recognized it.

"Katniss. . ." I whimper, pointing to it. It's the poisonous fog they used from the Quarter Quell. Her eyes widen and she begins to shake. This time, I grab her arm and try to pull both of us away from it, but it seems to surround us. I would have thought this kind of thing would be over after Snow was killed.

There is still a small section ahead of us that the fog hasn't covered yet. Katniss sees it too. We run as fast as we can, racing the deadly mist. Katniss makes it out fine, but the fog hits my right hand on the way out. I yell in pain, the memories beginning to flood my mind. It's happening again.

I see Katniss ahead of me. She looks back at me, and something passes over her face. She knows what's happening too. The Capitol's thoughts they programmed me with start filling my mind once more. I try my best to fight them off, all the hushed voices telling me to kill Katniss.

Right before the horrible thoughts completely fill my mind, I tell Katniss to run, knowing what's about to happen. I know I am going to try and kill her again. It's a terrible time too because I can so easily do it.

My mind is totally consumed after Katniss darts away from me.

Kill her.

Find her.

Send her into the fog.

Kill Katniss Everdeen.

I run after Katniss, fists clenched.

Find her! She's a mutt! 

Hurt her!

The voices grow stronger in my head. I finally find her at the edge of a cliff. She is trapped. I slowly walk towards her. She doesn;t see me yet. I crack a twig with my foot and she spins around. Fear passes over her face. She should be afraid. I'm not going to lose my chance to kill her again. This is the perfect time. It will be so easy. And she'll never be able to hurt anyone else every again. I will be able to rid the world of this vile, disgusting creature that lurks before me. I hate her. 

I get closer to her, and she gets closer to the edge. I try pushing her and she falls back, her lower half hanging off the cliff.

Her arms thrash over the ground, desperately searching for a ledge or a twig to hang onto.

I'm just about to step on her hands so she would fall when she takes a deep breath and looks me in the eye.

"Peeta. This is not real. This is not real. This is not real," she keeps repeating. My thoughts swirl around and the voices were gone.

"Katniss!" I whisper, helping her up. I just tried killing her. I was going to push her over the edge of the cliff.

Katniss is shaking violently from fear. The fog starts drifting in towards us. We are trapped. I look at my hand, which is covered with bumps from when the fog touched me. It's what made me try to kill Katniss. Pain caused me to do it.

I look over the edge. It would take too long to climb down. By then, the fog would've swallowed us whole.

The gloomy white air creeps towards us. There is no escaping. Katniss takes my hand and she closes her eyes. I do the same. There is no way out. The words keep repeating in my head, but it seems too easy. There has to be another way. We can't die here. I won't let us die here. I look down the cliff again. A stream was below. "We have to jump..." I whisper. Her eyes open again and she shakes her head. "It's the only way."

"We'll die," she says. 

"We're going to die anyway," I grab her hand and help her a little bit farther down the cliff. "One..." I whisper.

"Two..." she says, taking a deep breath.

"Three!" I close my eyes and jump. For a second I feel as though I am flying. I feel weightless. But it ends quickly and I hit the ice cold water. Something cut my foot but I don't focus on that. I focus on how cold the water is, it hurt. It feels like needles stabbing me consistently. I realize I lost Katniss' hand on the way down.

I swim towards the surface and gasp at the air. I look up to see the fog stopping at the edge of the cliff. It seems to be disappearing. Katniss doesn't come up. A panicky feeling washes over me.

I dive under the water again, and open my eyes. It stings but I don't care. I have to find her. She is floating towards the bottom of the stream. I swim down, grab her arms, and move my way back up. I gasp again when I get to the surface, choking on the water.

I pull myself and Katniss to a sandy part of land nearby. It reminds me of the Quarter Quell. I do mouth to mouth, just like Finnick did to me in the arena. Only I was dead, and Katniss is just unconscious. I'm still absolutely terrified. 

Finally, Katniss sits up, choking violently. "Thank god..." I whisper, pulling her into a hug. Thank god.

Well that's it. Hope you liked it! Be sure to vote!!