Hijacked (Peeta Mellark Fanfiction)

Chapter 7 - What Is Real?

Searing white light rains from the sky, quick bolts of energy hit the earth around me in a sharp zap. Dirt flys in the air and several burning branches fall to the ground. I'm running blindly to an unknown destination while fire cackles around me, the hot waves beat against my sweaty skin.

Katniss, I remind myself, I have to find Katniss. I can feel the rush of the wind and heat, this jungle is still alive and ticking. The loud boom of thunder echoes in my ears, but my mind is focused only on my goal. Long blue beams of electricity explode right in front of me, throwing me backward into the air. I land in a jarring thump, and immediately whip myself back up.

My legs sway and I stumble forward in a mighty attempt to regain my balance. Sparks fly in my face, smoke travels up my nose, I tiredly place my hands on my knees and my head hangs low as I try to catch my breathe. A frantic voice calls out from the trees,

"Peeta!"

Katniss. An strong urge pulls me forward, and a certain type of inner strength I didn't know I had pushes me within each step.

"Katniss!" I shout in reply.

Thunder booms in response and the ground shakes, I stumble sideways, barely staying on my feet.

"Katniss!" I repeat loudly.

I look up at the dark night sky that has dazzling bolts of electricity uncontrollably striking the earth, along with surrounding trees burning dangerously. My head swings around in circles, wondering which direction I should go. All of the movement stops abruptly when my face turns to look right onto the tip of an arrow. My eyes travel up to the huntress, who lowers her arrow to aim straight for my heart. Sweat drips down my temples, and my fists suddenly clench when I see her face.

"Katniss what are you doing?" I ask in a panicked tone. It's just Katniss, I shouldn't be afraid, she wouldnt kill me. All she's done is save me. Her voice sounds robotic, yet so confident at the same time,

"I am disposing of the spare survivors."

My hands raise a little, as if I were surrendering, and when I back up, something sharp pricks the skin between my shoulder blades. My head whips back, and another Katniss stands behind me, readying her arrow just a furiously as the Katniss in front of me. What is happening? Am I imagining this? The sharp pain from the prick stings.

"Katniss, it's me, it's me Peeta!" I exclaim.

Neither of the Katnisses hesitate. I turn away from the replica, towards what I thought was the original, and gaze into her eyes, hoping maybe she'll think straight and realize I'm not the enemy. Her grey eyes swirl with hatred instead of the understanding I was hoping for. She gives me such an unrecognizable look that seems so unreal it's absolutely terrifying. I clench my fists harder as she speaks again, no different than she did before,

"Peeta Mellark." She hisses, spitting out my name from her lips as if it were acid.

From the look on her face and the tone of her voice I can see a certain type of excitement, or possibly hunger for death radiate off of her. Hunger for my death.

"Why are you doing this?" I ask, I almost forget about the exploding world around me when I look into her eyes. The taunting hatred buried in the grey irises send chills down my spine. Her next words come so slowly, there's something so out of the ordinary in her tone,

"I told you I'd see you at midnight."

Long, sharp tentacles of darkness spring out of her eyes, wrapping themselves around every inch of my body. Tiny pricks of pain travel all over me, it's like millions of paper cuts slicing every inch of my skin. I crumple to the ground as the world fades away in swirling colors.

-

I suck in a giant gulp of air. My eyes rapidly flicker around at the blinding darkness. The cold cement on my right ear makes me realize where I am, where I have always been. I've lost count of how many times I have woken up like this. The same pounding pain in my head goes on like every time before.

I quickly sit upright while a wave of splintering pain, similar to the one in my dream, ripples across my skin. I let out a short gasp of surprise, and fearfully scoot back toward the corner of the cell. The terrible ache in my brain doesn't help.

The pain is manageable, but highly discomforting. It's a strange feeling; just the unfamiliarity of it leaves me mortified. I try to focus on something else. I glance at the bare wall of the cell, there's nothing I can be distracted with, and there's no way I'm going onto the crazy confusing roller coaster that is my thoughts and memories.

I can only focus on the wall, where there is a shadow of the patterned barred door from the dim light in the aisle. I've stared at this wall with this pattern many times before, and for way too long. That's how I notice that something is different. It's in the corner, just beside the door, a silhouette of a person.

I gather my knees up to my chest, but as my eyes adjust to the darkness, I can see better. For a second I started to think that it was nothing, that I was just overreacting to a simple shadow, but that's when it started to move. The silhouette drifts forward, and a faint light casts over its face. Then I can see it, it's not just a shadow, and it's Katniss.

At first I hesitate, but then I scramble off the ground and quickly drag myself over to her, ignoring any thought that seems clear but feels unreal. Katniss just turns away and walks right through the door like a ghost.

"Wait! Katniss!" I call after her.

She doesn't hesitate. When I reach the cell door, she's already walking down the hallway, and I catch a final glimpse of her shadowy back as she abandons me.

I'll see you at midnight.

Lies, abandonment, betrayal. And like the drop of a hat, a tremor of thrill, agitation, despair, and elation come over me so powerfully and uncontrollably. It's so forceful, it's like a boulder of emotion is crushing me. My skull continues to ache; my breath hitches and heaves while I lean against the wall with twitchy movements.

No, she didn't lie to me. She didn't mean to abandon me.

Doubts.

After everything she told me, there's no way she would mean to hurt me.

Disbelief.

These feelings aren't real, how can they be real? But if they weren't real, why would I even be feeling them? It's my own mind, why can't I trust my own mind? The only person you can really trust is yourself right? How can feelings be unreal?
I don't know.

I don't know.