Life goes on

Chapter 5

I get close to Rue just as she falls to the ground. I search for Marvel ready for him to attack. He's gone I guess.

I turn back around to Rue, but it's not Rue.

It's Prim. She is standing up staring at me.

"Prim!" I shout with happiness as I take a step towards her. She backs away defensively. This hurts me, I just wanted to hug her again. I sink to my knees.

This isn't real Katniss. I think to myself. This isn't real.

"Mutt," I look up at Prim and she's screaming horrible things at me. Suddenly it's not Prim who is screaming at me but Peeta instead.

"You're a mutt!" He shouts. I see the same Peeta I did after he came back from the Capitol. Skinny, bruised, broken.

"You've killed so many people! Marvel, Cato, Gloss, all of District 12! Dead because of you!" Peeta screams at me.

I put my hands over my ears and begin to scream. I'm in the same position I was in when the jabberjays were surrounding me during my second games.

I hear all the voices screaming, just like the jabberjays. But unlike in the Quarter Quell, these voices are screaming at me with cries of hatred, not cries of help. I countiue to scream to try to block the noise of eveyone shouting at me, but there's one voice that's louder than the rest. The last thing I hear is Peeta's voice screaming "mutt!" over and over again before I black out.

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I wake to the familiar sound of a beeping. At once, I know I'm back in the hospital. I look to the side of my bed, expecting to see Haymitch, but find Peeta instead.

I immediately begin to panic at the sight of him. The last time I saw him he thought I was a mutt. No Katniss that wasn't real. I say to myself. Or was it? It's hard to tell what's real and what's not.

"Shh Katniss, you're okay. You're safe in a hospital, you're with me. You're safe." Peeta says in a soothing tone which forces me to calm down.

"I found you unconscious in the woods," he states. This takes a moment to wrap my head around. I thought for sure Peeta wouldn't follow me. He knows when I need my space.

"I wasn't going to follow you, but I heard your screams and I knew something was wrong. What happened, Katniss?"

Other than today, I haven't had a conversation with Peeta in a really long time. Even our talk today seemed so long ago. I look at the clock, it's two in the morning. Has Peeta been by my side this whole time?

Peeta clears his throat, to remind me he's still waiting for an answer. I don't want to tell him, he'll think that I'm crazier than I already am.

"Don't you have a girlfriend that you should be checking up on? She'll be worried that you're out this late." I assume that he met some girl off in the Capitol.

He stares at me and laughs. "I don't have a girlfriend, Katniss." His face goes back to a serious look and asks again "Why were you screaming in the woods?"

I decide to tell him, he's been waiting this long might as well give him some answers.

"I saw Rue," I say.

"Aw Katniss, I'm sorry. I know that must have been hard but-" he starts to say but I cut him off.

"And Prim, and you. After you got back from the Capitol." I pause to see if he will say anything but he doesn't. He just puts his face in his palms and closes his eyes. So I continue.

"You were calling me a mutt. Everyone was screaming at me and I couldn't get them to stop. And you said I was a murder. You said everyone dying was my fault." I begin to cry now. "But you were right. It was all my fault."

"Don't you dare say that!" He says loudly. He lifts his head up and I see he is crying too. "You saved so many people. You didn't send planes with bombs to blow up 12, Snow did. You're the reason why there aren't any more games. You saved us."

He begins to get up and leave but I don't want him to go.

"Peeta wait!" He turns around waiting for me to say something. I have to think of something to say.

"Why are you crying?" I manage to get out. I was curious and he is walking back towards me so I guess I was able to keep him hear a bit longer.

"Because you were afraid of me, Katniss. You could have seen any threat but you saw me."

Just then a doctor walks in and Peeta walks out.