kill for your love - the hunger games

(067) fear of the dark (don't infect me)

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KILL FOR YOUR LOVE.

act three.

(chapter sixty-seven, fear of the dark (don't infect me))

hospital ward, 75 ADD.

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SLEEP WAS SOMETHING JUNIPER was not going to attempt. Even when the nurse put all the lights out and the other anonymous patients settled down, the Hale woman wouldn't even dare close her eyes. Even with none of the lamps on, it was still dark. Juniper was sure she could see the tendrils of the darkness come creeping towards. She didn't want to succumb. She couldn't. 

But as night came and everyone was fast asleep, Juniper was still laying in her bed with her eyes wide open. She could feel her heart beating. Anxiety was filling her up as she fiddled with her fingers. She could feel tremors still rippling through her body. Juniper was scared. Nervous. Petrified. And she never normally was. 

("It was psychological torture... and, oh, did it work.")

She needed some light. She couldn't stay in the darkness. She didn't want to be anywhere near it. But she couldn't turn a lamp on. The nurse would come hurrying in. But Juniper needed light. She could feel the hand-like tendrils of the darkness grabbing her, forcing her to succumb to it. The Hale woman was panting and her monitor was starting to beep more rapidly and so, Juniper made a quick decision to detach from it. 

It went quiet. Too quiet. The nurse would come in soon. But the Victor needed light, some comfort that the darkness would not drown her. And so, she tore the morphling drip out of the socket that was taped to her arm, gasping slightly before removing all of the other tubes. Once she was free, she swung her legs over the frame of the bed, placing her soles on the coolness of the tiles. 

Her legs were trembling as she stood up, the pain slowly coming back to her as she gently held her ribs. The morphling was still in her system, but it would soon disappear and Juniper could only imagine the agony she would be in. But nevertheless, she slowly began to walk, holding onto whatever she could as she did. 

The ward she was in was a long hallway. There were multiple other patients within the room, all asleep or sedated. As Juniper passed Johanna, getting a good look at her, the woman still looked to be under. The Victor from Ten clenched her jaw as she carried on walking. There was a door at the end of the hall and there was light beyond it. Light. 

Juniper could feel her ribs twinge and pinch as she slowly made her way to the end of the ward, feeling as if her legs would give way any moment. But it didn't stop her as the woman reached out to the handle of the door, grasping it as she pushed it open. Once she did, she was greeted with another long hallway that was lined up with doors. There were dimmed lights along the roof and as Juniper walked down her left, she spent her time admiring them. 

There was no darkness here. No tendrils. They couldn't get her here. She wasn't in the Capitol anymore. Clampitt couldn't touch her. The Peacekeepers' couldn't harm her. Snow couldn't talk to her. She was safe here. She was with the rebels. There was no darkness in District Thirteen. 

Juniper seemed to have entered the reception area of the hospital, a circular room that had screens littered around, showing up with patients' faces and where they were. The Hale woman clenched her jaw as she looked around. There were no doctors or nurses anywhere. The dim lights were still present. And there was a splatter of blood near her bare feet.