Always: A Hunger Games Fanfiction

Chapter 18

Katniss

I lean against the wall for support. The branch is lying on the ground next to me, now completely useless. 

Peeta is gone. Gone. I wasn't even gone for that long. Who took him? Is he going to be hijacked again? Or worse. Killed.

My jaw starts to tremble. I put my hand on my forehead and sink down to my knees.

I don't know where to go. I am lost. Lost without Peeta, my dandelion in the spring. The boy with the bread.

"Peeta. . ." I let out a soft, strangled cry.

I'm half-expecting him to walk back down the tunnel and apologize for leaving and scaring me. Or that I would wake up, and be back in my bed in District 12.

Why are things getting worse again? They were just good. The Districts are being rebuilt, the games are gone, and the president is a good one. Why is this happening now? 

****

I don't know how long I sat in that duct, staring at the wall across from me. I have nothing. Literally nothing. I'm supposed to be the brave Mockingjay. Not this insane weakling who buries herself deeper and deeper into a never ending hole. Everyone is gone. My mother, Gale, Haymitch, now Peeta. I have no one. 

Faces flash through my mind. All of the people that I've killed, and those who have died for me. Who died trying to help me. Sacrificed themselves for this war. For the Mockingjay.

Finnick, who's son in fatherless. Wiress, who made sure I got out of the Quarter Quell. Mags, to be sure Peeta would live, therefore keeping me whole. Rue, poor innocent Rue, who was in the midst of my plan when she was killed. And Prim, My poor baby sister Prim, one of the very rare joys in my life. She died in the war that I caused. She didn't die for me, but she made sure those Capitol kids were safe. She was selfless, something I have always tried to be. All of these people, and so many more, died by a supposedly good act of selflessness.

When I finally stand, my legs are wobbly from sitting. The realization of how thirsty and hungry I am sets in. I need to get out of here. I leave the log sitting there, not wanting to carry the extra weight.

I slowly walk down the duct, my feet making muffled clicks on the metal floor. The long hall comes to a dead end with a ladder going up.

A circular cover is at the top. I can just barely see light streaming through.

I carefully open the hole and pushed it up. I am praying that I won't get caught, or end up in Fiona's headquarters or something.

I don't though. I'm in a dark ally. I stand onto the moist black top and close the cover of the tunnel. It's dark besides the sunset on the horizon.

Sunset orange. Peeta's favorite color. I remember the day he told me that so clearly.

I silently slip into the shadows, my braid messily flopping around my back. I can't even bare to think about how I looked right now.

I peer around the corner of the ally to see masked men marching up and down the street, machine guns in hand. One of them took Peeta. I know they did.

There are no citizens walking around. Probably too afraid to come out.

I wonder which soldiers killed my mother and which ones took Peeta away from me.

I don't get it. I led the rebellion, and I won. I thought this was supposed to be done. I don't want to be the Mockingjay anymore. I want to be safe in Peeta's arms back in the Victor's Village.

There is a soft buzzing noise above me. The noise escalates and gets louder and louder. I recognized it to be the low hum of a hovercraft.

I am certain they would see me and shoot me. I'm wrong; they don't shoot me. Instead, the hovercraft lowers the claw down. Panic starts rising in my stomach. It makes me think of the games. Seeing all of those dead bodies being lifted into the air, so carelessly.

The claw is right above me. I try to hide in the shadows, but they've already seen me. The claw wraps itself around my body and begins to raise again.

My feet are dangling off, and I am shaking violently. It's Fiona, I know it. Who else would do this?

When the claw is back inside the hovercraft, I step off into the craft's floor.

"Hey Catnip," says a voice behind me. I spin around. Gale.

Hope you liked it! I know it's short, but I had to write after I watched Catching Fire aka the most amazing movie ever! ;)