𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗗 𝗙𝗨𝗟𝗟 𝗢𝗙 𝗗𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗦 ༄ 𝖿𝗂𝗇𝗇𝗂𝖼𝗄 𝗈𝖽𝖺𝗂𝗋

chapter twenty five

- COSTLY CONSEQUENCES -

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IT WASN'T OFTEN that Nadia slipped. She had always been able to clean up her act before meeting with a man or woman, and she always got a positive review.

     This time was different.

     It was hard enough to do what she does with one person a night. Nadia had three, one after the other with only a few minutes in between to clean herself up and go over whatever preferences were asked of her.

     She was used to having multiple clients, she was used to putting her body through the sickening process of pleasing them. She knew how to handle herself.

     What distracted her and what she couldn't shake to the point she didn't satisfy her last client, was the constant image of Finnick's last breath. It replayed over in her mind like a broken record.

     She wasn't as lively as she usually was, and it showed in her performance... Needless to say, Snow was not at all happy with her negative review and wasn't going to let her off with a simple warning.

She had barely made it back to her room when suddenly the two Peacekeepers who were escorting her back had gripped tightly to her arms and started dragging her down a hall she didn't recognize.

"What's going on?" Her voice was tremulous as her body went stiff, but she didn't get an answer. She never did.

     What did she do? Did she do or say the wrong thing? Was she not wearing the right lingerie for that particular client? She didn't know, she was just so tired.

     Her wide eyes glanced back and forth frantically from wall to wall as they passed hallway after hallway. Where were they taking her?

     "What—" She cut herself off on her question as they turned into a room with one swift motion, the same room she was kept in before, cells of glass and cement lining the walls.

     Nadia didn't fight too hard against them, but her mind was running amuck trying to rack her brain of what she could've possibly done wrong. Amidst her aimless thinking, her ears piqued at the sound of sniffling.

     She looked to her right as they guided her to the end of the room, her eyes widening in a second at the sight of Johanna. She sat against the wall, knees tucked into her chest. Apart from her bruised skin and purple under eyes, the most striking difference was her hairless head.

     "Jo!" Nadia struggled with what little strength she had for just a few more seconds with her friend, her call perking the woman's ears as she gained her attention.

     "Nadia?" The woman stood wearily, rushing to the glass, her eyes wider than Nadia's. She must've been left in the dark of her being here. "Nadia!"

     "Keep moving." The Peacekeeper at her left pushed her past Johanna's cell as the woman continued to call for her friend, insults and profanities spilling from her lips along with threats to kill them if they so much as harmed a hair on Nadia's head.

     She stopped again as she passed Johanna, lo and behold in the cell just beside hers was Peeta.

     She was nudged harsher than necessary by the guard who pushed her further, but for what little time she had to take in his appearance, she could already tell he'd been through rounds and rounds of some form of torture.

     She was shoved inside her cell, but the bruising grip didn't even make her flinch at the harsh handling because the image of Peeta curled up in a ball, lying there stiff and shaking filled her mind and her stomach clenched in empathetic distress.