A songbirds soulmate- hunger games catching fire/mockingjay fanfic

chapter 6

"Oh for crying out loud!" Johanna shouts across the room as she paces up and down her cell. "What does a woman have to do around here to get some water?" She now shouts through her bars to Balbus who pays not an ounce of attention. She most defiantly knows we're not getting any water, I just think she likes to be the one speaking.  

"If I so much as hear a whisper from you again I'll..." 

"You'll what?" Johanna laughs manically to Enobaria who's lying on her bed facing at the ceiling with her hands over her tired eyes. 

She continues to laugh long after the comment. I feel a bit awkward with our adjoined cells, watching her giggle hysterically which is complimented by her bloodshot eyes which are almost bulging out of her head. I'm pretty sure we've been moved into this prison block to drive us further into insanity. 

I try to remain quiet and not let myself talk with the others. Even after only hours I can blatantly see changes in personalities. I stand up and stretch my weak muscles, use the bucket and sit back on my bed with my back facing away from Johanna. I lift my gaze slightly to see if mine and Darius' eye's meet; but his are facing the ground. I don't plan on disturbing him; he probably wants to be alone now. I suppose he is getting used to silence being an Avox, no one talking to him. What a lonely life. 

The thought of Daruis makes me shift my head to Lavinia who has been crying since she arrived here. It's not so much of a cry but a squeak of some nature with tears running down her cheeks. Without her tongue she is unable to weep properly and can only make noises that bounce of the back of her throat. It sounds almost like an animal called a seal which lives in the ocean what I learned about once in school. 

The thought of this tightens my insides and I instantly feel homesick. I guess I pushed thoughts of my family and friends aside when it came to the Quarter Quell because my only thoughts were about making sure Katniss survived. Gook job I made of that. I'm a useless good-for-nothing bakers son who can't: Hunt, walk quietly, tell a girl I love them when I'm not about to die or find the right colour to paint those, deep... grey... beautiful eyes... 

"AHHHH!" I roar in frustration. I pick up my shoes from the floor and hurl them at my cell bars which make a loud clang and vibrate everyone else's cages. They all look at me but no one dares speak up and when I flash my anger-filled eyes in their direction they immediately look to the floor. On hearing the vibrations Annie covers her ears again and starts talking nonsense about fish.  

I quickly sit back on my bed and try not make eye contact with the others. 

"That's a lot of rage you got in their boy." I hear a voice behind me say in what sounds like an old country accent but with a funny twist. I slowly look over my shoulder at the small man in the cell on the end. 

"Well how do you expect me to act?" I ask angrily as I turn away from him. 

"I'm not expecting you to act like anything. I'm just saying you gotta lotta rage. Nothing wrong with that is their?"  

I don't answer him so he continues talking. 

"I got to watch you last year. They said 'it can't do no harm lettin' me watch kiddies killing each o'ler.' But what they didn't know what that they just showed me even more of their plots, their lies!"  

He recovers from his enthusiasm and grows serious again. " Boy, that was some shit you pulled with them berries you know that? You and your lady friend sure did show up Snowball an' his fellows." 

"Don't talk about her like that!" I demand. "Don't call her 'my lady' because she's not. Not anymore." I let trail off. 

"Well, sure she is! Boy I never seen another couple so in love. Jus' because she off running free don't mean she's forgotten you. Well, I'll bet she's doing all she can to get you back!"  

I give into the man's attempt at small talk and turn to face him.  

"You from nine?" I ask. I can distinguish his accent easily. 

"As close as you come!" He says proudly. "The names Avel and obviously you're Peeta." 

"Yep." I don't know what to say next. I have nothing to talk about so I just say the thing on my mine not knowing what its consequences might be. 

"Say Avel, if you don't mind me asking. Why are you here?" 

He laughs at me and takes a loud sigh. 

"Well, it started back at home. I was bucking barley as usual early every morning. I was in the lowest of the low. Us men who were not considered as good workers as the others were made to do everything by hand; we never go to use no machines. Them Peacekeepers were trying to make better workers outta us but I knew for me it wasn't gonna happen. I hated the Capitol just like evey'n else but with a passion! I wanted to see that blasted Snow taught a lesson and I felt I was goin' to be the one to teach him. 

That work was exhausting! Day and night doing the same thing over and over and over. It drives a man mad after a while. I mean I gotta be real bad here and say that just like them Capitol folk, my favourite time of the year was the games. We were made to watch it meaning; rest! But, after a while I noticed something. You know that video they show just before they pick the children outa' the bowls?" 

"Yeah." 

"Well, on that video it shows the same clip of the district 13 rubble every time! I know you know now about the rebels and thirteen and all that lot but I was the first to see it! I told everyone I knew about what they were doin' and I even got people to believe me. That's until Peacekeepers started to find out what I was doin' an sayin'. They tried to make out I was some crazy person an thata' needed lockin' up." He leans in now. Even though we are two cells apart I can tell he's trying to speak only to me. 

"One night I had this feeling in ma gut that something bad was gonna happen. So I packed some stuff and headed to the gate which kept us in. I managed to get out no trouble and I set off running. Someone must have seen me go because soon after they were coming for me, with big mutts too! Then they got me and now I'm here, have been in some sort of cage for seven whole years! I coulda' made it too; if ida' been a bit more careful. Oh well, I got my proof now and no one can call me a liar!"  

"How come you weren't turned into an Avox?" I ask suspiciously. 

"Well I suppose they wanted to know my secret first. How I spotted their flaw. I'm guessing they will one day soon. I've told them everything." He says lifting his shirt to show me his grotesque back filled with blisters and burns which look infected. "I bet you think I'm crazy don't you?" 

"No." I answer, because I don't.