The Hunger games - I'm still breathing (Everlark)

Chapter 32

I sit across from Peeta, watching him push his half-eaten food around his plate with his fork. We decided to eat in the hotel café. It's a small little room and painted in such a way that you feel like you are under the sea. The different shades of blue and green sway around us, the mural creatures loom over our heads. Although it could make some feel like they're drowning, I feel extremely at ease. I do think it could have used some of Peeta's artistic skills here and there though.

"You should try to eat," his voice breaks through my thoughts, making me jump a little.

I see the worry in his eyes as he looks fixedly at my own untouched food. For his sake, I nod, put on a smile and attempt to eat the stew in my bowl.

"You need to stop worrying about me and eat your food too," I tell him, giving him the most reassuring look I can master.

He sighs and puts down his fork, giving up entirely. I take a napkin and place it up to my mouth, spitting my food out into it in the process. It wasn't going to stay down anyway.

"Do you want to talk about what happened earlier?" he asks me softly.

I quickly look around the room, certain that the lizard mutts would return again. My body starts to tremble.

"Hey it's okay, we don't have to talk about if you don't want," Peeta says, reaching his arm over the table and taking my hand in his.

I hold on tightly to it as I scan the faces in the room. There are no mutts that I can see, just ordinary people with ordinary faces. My tense shoulders slump in relief. I let out a slow breath that I'd been holding.

"Let's change the subject, erm..." he sits with his hand cupped around his jaw, the typical thinking position.

I smile at him, feeling my fear slowly slipping away.

"I know!" he says, clicking his fingers. "I have a question, why do you always associate Dandelions with me?"

My smile widens as I think back to that fresh, spring day.

"Remember the day when you gave me the bread when I was on death's door?" I ask him.

"How could I forget?" he says.

"Well it saved me, it saved what was left of my family. It awoke something in my mother and brought her back to life. It made me hopeful for the next day. We found each other's eyes through the crowd after school but I couldn't hold your gaze for more than a second. I was embarrassed because I felt like I owed you something that I wouldn't be able to give back. When I looked down, I saw a Dandelion at my feet. It reminded me of all the time that I had spent in the woods with my father and the edible goldmine that was inside it. After picking that Dandelion, I knew that we would pull through. And if you hadn't thrown that bread for me, I never would have found that Dandelion that kept us all alive."

"I'm sure someone else would have helped you if I hadn't," Peeta says shyly, smiling down at my hand as his fingers draw small circles on it.

"No, Peeta," I say, tilting his head up to face me. "I had been looking for help all day, you were the only one kind enough to do anything."

"I was kind of biased since I had been in love with you for quite some time," he says.

I roll my eyes and flick him on the arm.

"Stop being so modest, you would have done exactly the same no matter who was scavenging through your bins," I laugh.

He shrugs his shoulders and squeezes my hand.

"You didn't answer my question," he states. "Why do I, the boy who threw you the bread, remind you of a Dandelion?"

"I don't know, I guess because like the Dandelion that gave me hope then, you give me hope now. I know that I can get through each day if I have you with me," I say.

This last comment makes his eyes twinkle brighter than any star I have ever seen. He leans right over the table and kisses me.

I let out a giggle when he pulls away and I see that a slice of my buttered bread has stuck to his shirt, along with a few splatters of stew.

"You've erm, got something," I say, pointing my finger to his chest.

He looks down and sighs with an exasperated smile.

"Well that ruined the moment," he says, peeling the bread off and attempting to soak up some of the grease with a napkin.

"Come on," I laugh, pulling him up from the chair, "let's go back to the room before anyone sees you like that."

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I'm laying flat on my back in the sea, rocking from side to side with the waves. I hold my arms up in the air, watching the water drip down them. The sun warms my face. Bliss.

But the waves start to turn on me, bringing me up high then pulling me back down. They drag me down deeper each time, straining my breath a little longer. When my head breaks the surface, I see that the sky has turned black. Rain has begun to fall, the drops spraying like quick bullets that sting my skin. The roaring thunder makes it impossible to hear the waves crashing over the rocks.

The rocks.

The current is dragging me towards the rocks.

I kick my feet vigorously, trying to stay afloat. There's no use trying to swim in the other direction, the water's too strong.

As I near the rocks, I make out their dark silhouettes. Twenty-two pairs of eyes boring into me. Their howls filling in the gaps between the thunder claps. I'm being tugged right into their clawed grasps. The wolf mutations.

I turn and fight desperately to swim against the current. My power is nothing compared to nature's though. Just when I think I'm getting somewhere, I'm knocked back again.

Something stabs my leg from below. I scream just as it pulls me down. My open mouth swallows the water that fills my lungs. I open my eyes to find the Lizard mutts crowding in a circle formation around me. Their swinging tails knock into me, I bounce from one to the other.

I'm losing consciousness.

"Was is hard living without your father, Katnisssss?" they ask in union together.

I bring my knees into my stomach, keeping my eyes shut, waiting for sleep to take over. My lungs burn through my chest.

"Was it hard having half of your life torn away from you?"

Why am I still awake? Please let me sleep.

"Because of you, Finnick's son will never know his father. His whole life will be hard. YOU tore half of his world away."

I scream silent bubbles out into the water, each remark cuts like a knife. No, it's not their words that are cutting, it's their teeth that are ripping the flesh off my legs.

I hit out at them, using all the remaining energy I have left but they don't stop.

"This is exactly how Finnick Odair felt when we tore him apart."

**********************

I jolt up from the bed, ripping the sheets off to examine my bloody legs. But they're still in one piece, not a scratch or cut in sight. I shakily turn to Peeta, who's snoring soundly despite my whimpering.

The air in the room is suffocating, I feel like I'm back under the water.

I can't stay in here.

Before I know it, I'm up and running out into the biting wind.

I can't do this anymore.

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Sorry this has taken sooo long to update, I've had so much coursework to do. I haven't even got time to blink at the minute! Sorry if this chapter is a bit iffy too, my brain feels frazzled! -.-