Control | P. Mellark

Chapter Five

Katniss took the small amount of food Seriea could find and began to cook it leaving the other three to themselves. Finnick left her lying there to help Katniss find some more wood to burn since the fire was starting to dwindle.
Peeta took to sitting with Seriea, helping her to lean against a tree as they stretched out their legs. For a while nothing was said, they just sat together with their prosthetics brushing under their suits.
"I forgot how uncomfortable it can be to leave it on for so long." She muttered looking at her leg, even though she couldn't see it under the suit.
"Yea, it's kind of annoying, isn't it?" He smiled, nudging her with his shoulder.
"Oh yea," she smiled back, leaning back into him, "just a minor inconvenience at this point."
Peeta laughed, not loud and boisterous but soft and almost unintentional. Seriea's smile grew a bit as she looked at the side of his face, and the way his smile contorted his face.
It was nice for her, in the middle of an arena of death that she had once escaped, she found something to smile about. This boy, who sat in the same place with scars similar to her own, so easily made her forget the severity of the situation, almost like her brother once did.

A noise behind the two as Milo took the rabbits from the end of the trident startled the small girl. A small girl with wide jagged cuts littered across her face and body still dripping blood.
"Help..." She whispered, trying to run to the two who didn't immediately try to kill her.
Before either of the siblings could move, whether they were going to run or help her in any way, a long jagged stick made too be a spear- nothing like what the capitol would have provided- ran through the small girls chest. Seconds later a boy with terrifying cold eyes steps into the clearing.
Without breaking eyecontact with the two siblings he stepped on the small girls back and ripped the spear from her. No one moved, almost like a stareing contest with a viper- one wrong move and someone dies. Seriea tightened her grip on the trident and slowed her breathing trying to control her heart rate. She watched as his grip tightened the same.
A cannon sounded around them and set the three of them into motion. The boy, who in their stare down Seriea realized he was from one, ran at them in a full sprint. Seriea turned and took off to the right as Milo ran to the left. The boy easily took after Seriea as she was obviously slower than her brother.
The spear stuck into the ground to close for her to avoid causing her feet to tangle in it throwing her the the ground where a sharp pain ran through her shoulder down her arm, causing her left arm to go limp.
She howled in pain as One threw her onto her back by grabbing her left arm. With a small knife lifted above his head Seriea noticed the trident gone from her hand. As the knife swung down towards her blood covered her face and chest. She opened her eyes feeling a sharp pain drag against her cheek, to the side One fell off of her with a silver staff sticking out of the side of his head.
With wide eyes and deep breaths she rolled away from him with cries of pain as her brother got to her and pulled her to her feet. Another cannon went off and startled her.
"Are you ok?" He held her up as her feet tried to find the ground beneath them.
"My shoulder." She groaned and tried to move away from his grip that felt too tight despite him barely touching her.
"Let me see." He moved his hands away to give her space to remove her jacket.
Once she did her tank top showed off the small cuts and bruises she's accumulated over the time in the arena, everything highlighted the obvious dislocation of her shoulder.
"Okay, it's dislocated." He nodded and took a deep breath, "I have to put it back into place."
She nodded and wadded her jacket as much as she could before stuffing it in her mouth biting it as hard as she could. Quickly Milo popped her arm back into its socket. Seriea screamed despite the jacket in her mouth. Tears streamed into the cut making her cheek sting worse than before, drawing her attention there instead of her arm.

The smell of meat brought her back to where she sat, next to a kind boy in an arena meant to be her death bed.
"Here, there's not much actual meat but it'll work for now." Katniss handed over a small, almost burnt animal on a skewer.
"Thank you, Katniss." She smiled as nicely as she could at the girl that seemed to always be glaring at her.
"Yea," she took to sitting across the fire from her.
"I'll take first watch." Finnick put the fire out and squatted infront of the small group.
"Not a chance." Katniss sat on the rock next to where he was.
"Honey, that thing I did back there for Peeta? That was called saving his life." Finnick scoffed at the girl, annoyed at the insinuation, "if I wanted to kill either of you, I would have done it by now."
"Why don't you get some rest," Peeta moved and stood next to the rock where Katniss sat, "I'll take the first watch."
Sereia watched as Katniss visibly softened at his words, "just for a little bit."
Seriea looked down at her fingers, thinking about the emptiness that filled her the minute Peeta left her side. It was odd, she had no reason to reel this way besides the joy that filled her when they talked. He felt like the sun.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Finnick sat next to her, drawing her out of her mind.
"I'm okay," Seriea gave him a small smile, leaning her head onto his shoulder.