The Angel of Death || Peeta Mellark x Reader

Innocent

When I woke up the next morning, I found the rope to be looser around my waist, and my body was cold. As I reached for Rue, who had fallen asleep on top of me, I was met with the scratchy blanket. Panic shot through my body, jolting my upright, and my eyes scanned my surroundings for the little girl.

I fought my instincts to scream her name, instead I hurriedly grabbed all of our supplies, packed them into the bag, and tried to make my way down the tree. After a few missteps and near falls, I finally felt my feet hit the solid ground. 

I started to jog around the area that we slept in, but to no avail. I started to get frustrated and worried, and I felt tears poke at my eyes. I couldn't shake the feeling that something horrible happened to her, she could even be dead. I wouldn't put it past her to try and go find food for us, but then run into the Career pack. 

But at that moment, I heard a rustling in the bushes behind me. I whipped my body around to see what caused the disturbance, praying to God it wasn't Cato or another Career, and I was happy to be met with the small, dark skinned girl. 

"Rue! What happened, where did you go? I was so worried, I thought something happened to you", I cried.

"Sorry, I was just hungry, and last night I thought I saw some berries that we could eat. I was just starving, I couldn't think of anything else".

"I would've helped you! It doesn't matter if I was sleeping, wake me up! Don't go anywhere by yourself, I couldn't live with myself if you died because I was getting a few more minutes of rest".

She gave me an apologetic look, which I barely caught before I engulfed her in a tight hug. 

"Anyways, what did you get to eat? I'm hungry, too".

"Blackberries! I found an entire bush full of them, but I could only carry this much".

And so Rue and I devoured the small amount of berries she held in her hands, then returned to the blackberry bush to eat as much as we possible could. By the afternoon, we were full. That was something I thought I would never feel in the Hunger Games. I never thought I would be full of delicious food, and I never thought I would be peacefully sitting next to another tribute.

——————

After the sun began to set, I saw something weird coming over the horizon. It looked like the sun, but it was getting closer to us. Rue was busy looking for more fruit bushes, and she didn't notice the flaming ball of fire that was seemingly heading towards us. At the last second, I recognized that it wasn't my imagination at play, instead a flaming object was about to hit my body.

I let out a terrified scream, and threw my body out of it's path. Rue turned around, horrified, to see what caused my outburst. She saw the fire hit a log, then erupt into deadly flames. I grabbed her hand, and thankfully remembered to snatch the bag, and ran far away from our prior location. 

Clinging on to her wrist, I pulled us up the treacherous hill, and that's when I saw the second attack. I harshly yanked her out of the way, right before the flames burst open, and the rough action elicited a yelp of pain from the girl.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but we have to get away from here".

In my peripheral vision, I could see a third start to manifest itself. Thankfully, I spotted a lake not too far away from us, maybe a hundred meters or so, and I began to head over that way, pulling Rue with me. But before we could reach the large body of water, the flames got too close to us, and I only managed to get Rue out of the way. 

My entire left arm was scorched from the fire, and I let out an agonizing wail of pain. I grabbed Rue off the ground with my right arm, and ran into the water. My screaming didn't stop, even after jumping into the refreshing lake. The entire arm suffered from massive burns, and I could see my skin melting in some places.