Fawn In The Dawn | Peeta Mellark

eight

We sat in the cafeteria, eating the bland and tasteless food that was provided to us. I honestly was just glad to be eating something. Anything tasted good after being starved constantly over the course of the past weeks.

As we sat in silence, a sudden Capitol alert chimed and I grew panicked, placing my hand onto Katniss's and squeezing. As Caesar began to speak, I was curious as to what was about to happen.

And then, we all saw him.

His face was swollen and he was more thin than when I had escaped. My heart broke as I stood to my feet, walking to the monitor, hands over my mouth and tears streaming down my cheeks. I could feel people's eyes watching me, feeling sorry. But I did not want pity anymore, for it felt like thats what I got all the time, I just wanted Peeta here. And even though I regret leaving him in the Capitol, I've come to realize I had to. I had to if I was going to make a difference. And now Katniss and I had to convince people to get him out and save him.

Tears were flooded in his eyes. A song began to play behind Peeta's message. "Katniss?" He gasped.

"He hears your song!" I shouted. He heard her singing. She recorded this before I was here. And they somehow streamed it into the Capitol.

"The attack on the dam, was a callous and inhuman act of-" Peeta began to stutter as the song played for a few seconds more. "How will this end? Who will be left? No one can survive this and no one is safe. Not here in the Capitol, not in any districts." He stopped for a moment as Gale held Katniss and I continued to stare intently on Peeta's face. "They're coming, Katniss. They're gonna kill everyone. And in District 13, you'll be dead by morning!" He shouted as he was being pulled away from the camera. "I love you, Ariz-!" He shouted right as the camera shut off.

"Peeta!" His name left my mouth as I dropped to the floor. And I felt Haymitch behind me, pull me up to my feet.

"He's warning us." He commented.

"Is there anything in the air?" Coin asked while looking at the doppler.

"Nothing." One of her men insisted. She looked at us for a moment and thought for a bit.

"It's time for an air raid drill." She demanded, as Katniss grabbed my hand tightly. And we walked out of the room quickly, as a code red alert went off behind us.

Katniss went her seperate way looking for her sister and I ran down toward the bunker, pushing through people on the stairwell. It was chaotic, to say the least. I continued downward until I reached the bunks and looked frantically until I could find him. Finnick jumped up and pulled me into his body, in a warm embrace.

"It'll be okay." He whispered to me, but all I could do was let out silent sobs as he just held me. We sat on the bottom bunk, holding one another, because we both needed to feel secure in this moment. All either of us had was each other.