GONE (The Hunger Games)

Ash and Ruins

As my mind is finally pulled out of that hell, I simply lie on the floor, gasping for air as I shake violently, raking sobs shuddering my body as tears leak from the corners of my eyes which are clamped firmly together. My arms hold tight onto my torso as I so desperately try to calm myself. And finally my shivering eases, and my eyes heavily open, feeling terribly sore- as if they were on fire. I breathe in the oxygen like how I did in the Quarter Quell, when we had just escaped the poisoned gas. However, I feel as if this situation is far more horrific than the gas. This- this was me, so readily killing Katniss. At least, fortunately, it wasn't really her. And then the mutts: as my FAMILY! And what they said about Katniss killing them? What's happened?
The mutts, they're monsters! And I was them, just as deadly, and in synch for speech. So this is what Snow has made me. Not just a Capitol lackey, but far more worse. A mindless, vicious monster.
I'm loosing my on self. My own identity and mind. A part of me knows that soon, there will be absolutely nothing left of Peeta Mellark- of me.

***

The first thing I feel is a softness in my head. Like fluffy cotton balls cushioning my brain, putting me at rest. The next is that I'm lying down, but not on the hard ground like before: this is a bed, with a straight back and linen sheets, which feel oddly smooth and clean against my bruised and cut, tense hands.
Although my eyes are closed, I can tell that the lights are turned off, or put to a very dim brightness, because they don't pinch through my eyelids and create a rich and dark red haze.
I hear distant sounds and talking somewhere to my left, and my eyes snap open to see who and what it is.

I find myself still in the same room as where I'm assuming I had fainted, back in the same bed as where I was strapped in earlier. I see a few people and my doctor talking in hushed voices as they watch a video on a tv attached to a wall in the observation area at the side of the room where they had taken notes of my Capitol mind lash out.

They seem a bit tense and out of their usual comfort zone as they watch the video. They don't notice that I'm awake, so as quietly as possible, I gently lift my head to look more clearly at what they are watching.

Soon enough my ears adjust to the sound of the tv, as well as my groggy eyes from unconsciousness.

My breath hitches in my throat, and my heart jumps up about a mile when I see a video clip from the rebels. Katniss is standing in the middle with roaring flames behind her, curling up to a Capitol plane wing, licking at the smoke filled air. She yells at the camera, her own fire burning in her eyes. But it's not flames, it's determination, hurt, revenge and pain from a broken soul transformed into anger, all directed to giving the people who destroyed her life, some hell right back at them.

"You can torture us, bombard us and set our districts on fire. But you see that? Fire is catching, and if we burn, you burn with us!" She says, and I feel myself brighten up slightly by how well she is leading this rebellion and being the Mockingjay.

The people watching the video flinch and mumble under their breaths, shaking their heads and sneering.

Once the video ends with a Mockingjay symbol made of fire, burning bright against the black background, a woman wearing a tan and red suit with her hair pulled back in a tight bun turns a livid shade of red, and storms over to a computer which is connected to the tv. She types in a few things, and presses something on the monitor screen.
Onto the tv screen, the image of President Snow pops up in a video call.

"Yes Egeria, what is it?" Snow asks in an annoyed tone, clearly he didn't want to be disturbed.

"Sir, have you watched the video that those Radicles just sent out? They weren't able to air it onto the Capitol televisions, but we got word from District 1 that they were played this video, as well as the rest of the districts." She explained quickly.