Tortured but Together (A Hunger Games Fanfiction) [UNDER EDITING]

Chapter Twenty-Seven

A/N: obligatory author's note that the Hunger Games characters belong to Suzanne Collins and not to me. As always, hope you enjoy the story!!

(Peeta POV)
A war...so there really is going to be a war then. Millions of people are going to die...it feels like an impossible thought to grasp. "We never asked for a war, all we wanted to do was protect the people we love," I say firmly.

"Well Mr. Mellark, how exactly is that going for you? Not well I'd assume, given that your whole district has been reduced to rubble. And besides, you know what they say about good intentions, don't you?"

"That the road to hell is paved with them. But at least we meant to do good things. Your only goal is to maintain your power using whatever means necessary."

President Snow glares at Katniss. "Miss Everdeen, when will you learn that sometimes the best course of action is to hold your tongue?"

"Probably never." She crosses her arms and meets President Snow's gaze, refusing to back down.

This is escalating quickly, and I desperately try and think of some way to calm down the situation before things get worse. I hate President Snow just as much as Katniss does, maybe even more, but I know that antagonizing him is never a good course of action.

President Snow calls a peacekeeper over to him and whispers in his ear before nodding at the two of us. When he walks over, I instinctively tighten my grip on Katniss and she does the same, peacekeepers spell nothing but trouble.

"Miss Everdeen, Mr. Mellark, if you'll come with me please," he says, gesturing for us to follow.

I eye the peacekeeper warily, but with his helmet on, it's impossible to see his facial expressions. "Where are you taking us exactly? We're not going back to the cells are we?" Even the thought of that makes both me and Katniss shiver.

"Not yet."

That's rather...comforting, I think to myself sarcastically. Still, I offer a hand to Katniss and help her get up from the bed as we prepare to follow. One of the things I've learned about the Capitol is that you have only two options; either you do what you're told willingly, or you do it unwillingly after a lot of pain. Katniss knows this too, since I'm pretty sure she remembers everything now.

The walk down the various hallways is nearly silent, we all no that this is no time to talk. It's like a sort of unspoken agreement. After about a half hour, we end up in front of a set of nondescript doors. "This is where the two of you will be staying from now on. Peacekeepers will escort you to prep teams and to your interviews. If you attempt to leave these rooms for any other reason, you will be shot on sight."

Katniss starts trembling a bit at that, as the idea of our death seems like it's becoming more and more of a possibility. I think we're both on edge. Hesitantly, I open the doors, and I see a nice spacious set of rooms. Even though this will be our prison, it'll at least be a comfortable one.

Eager to be away from the peacekeeper and his ominous threats, I lead Katniss inside. The second we're out of the doorway, I see the doors slam shut behind us and hear the lock click into place.

"What do you think they have planned for us Peeta?"

I rub her back, still hesitant to step farther into the rooms, there's something wrong here, I can feel it. "I'm not sure Kat, I'm not sure. We'll just have to face it I guess, whatever it is."

She nods, taking a few deep breaths, and I see her fill her gaze with resolve. "We should look around here, see what there is. If there's something bad we might as well not put it off till later," she says firmly.

Katniss has a good point, just standing here won't do anything for us. Giving her hand a reassuring squeeze, we make our way farther into the rooms. There doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary, a dining room, a living room, a bathroom, and a bedroom. At first glance, this just looks like a set of regular guest rooms.

Convinced that there isn't anything that looks set up to kill us in the next few minutes, I excuse myself to the bathroom.

Closing the door behind me, I take a look at myself in the mirror; it looks like I haven't slept in days. As I look around the room, I can see that one of the tiles on the wall looks slightly askew. Sure that I'm just imagining things, I turn away and blink a few times before looking back at that tile. To my surprise, it's still askew.

Walking up to it, I can see a piece of paper that's been wedged between it and the wall, and my heart starts to race. Whatever this note is, it's definitely not supposed to be here.

"Peeta, are you alright in there? You've been in there for a while."

"I'm alright, just looking around. I should be out any minute now," I say, in what I'm hoping is a reassuring tone. At this point it's hard to tell. When I hear her footsteps fade, I quickly grab the note with my trembling fingers. Taking a deep breath, I open it and read it.

"Their eyes are everywhere, be careful what you say and do. We're coming for you soon, just hold out a little bit longer. And most importantly, stay alive.
-H

Haymitch? He knows where we are? The questions start swirling through my head so quickly that I can barely differentiate one thought from another. Seeing there's still a bit of writing below that, I read the rest of the note.

"P.S. don't tell Katniss, just in case she's already compromised. And write something on the back so we know you're still alive."

A response? What the hell would I say in response to that? Searching through the drawers I find some lipstick and use it to scribble out a quick message.

"Alive but not well. Snow has something planned, I can tell. Please hurry.
-P

Sliding the note back into the narrow space between the wall and the tile and putting the lipstick back where I found it, I head out. Hopefully he'll come for us soon, I have the feeling we're running out of time.

When I walk out, Katniss wraps her arms around me. "I was worried something had happened to you in there. I'm glad you're alright though. Come on, let's keep looking around."

I nod. It'll probably take a while for Haymitch to respond anyway, and if I just sit around like I'm waiting for something then it would make me look suspicious. Taking Katniss' hand, I follow her into the rest of the rooms.

There's a lot of the same Capitol technology there was when we were tributes for the games, a flat screen tv that pops up with a push of a button, a remote to change the appearance of the walls so that it could look like a forest, or the beach, or any number of other places. Apparently we're not the only ones who'd rather be anywhere but here.

After a couple hours of exploring, Katniss suggests we put on a movie for a bit, try to get our minds off our situation. I worry that I'm almost too quick to agree. Sitting down on the couch, Katniss curls up against my side, leaning her head on my chest while she flicks through the movie options.

We decide on a fun looking romantic comedy, and for a little while, everything is going well. About an hour into the movie, I start to relax a bit. Maybe this really won't be as bad as I thought...

Before I even have a chance to fully grasp the situation though, I'm being roughly shoved to the floor by multiple peacekeepers. They press my face against the carpet, but that doesn't stop me from hearing Katniss scream as she's dragged out of the room. Rushing after her as soon as I'm no longer restrained, one of the peacekeepers puts up a hand to stop me. I'm at the doors they told me not to go through. The words "Shot on sight," play on a loop in my head.

When Katniss still doesn't come back for multiple hours, I force myself to head to bed. It's safe to say that I won't be getting any sleep tonight though.