Broken (Peeta Mellark Fanfiction)

Chapter 14 - Decisions

"Peeta."

"Dad?"

The little boy sits in a bakery, his father sits down next to him at a wooden table next to an oven. The lovely scent of freshly-made bread floats in the air around them. The father of the boy is a large man, with light hair and caring eyes. He pats his son's shoulder approvingly, then speaks to him in his deep voice,

"I know that I don't tell you this enough, but I just want you to know that you really are something special. In times like these, you never know what the future may bring, but you deserve to live in a better world than this one. Your mother is just... bitter. She thinks you aren't good enough for this world, but promise me right now that, whatever happens, you will never change."

"I promise Dad."

"Good. Maybe the odds are on our side."

The little boy jumps out of the chair to wrap his scrawny arms around his father, the father pats his blonde head lovingly.

"I know I don't tell you this enough either, but I do love you, Peeta."

"I love you too Dad."

The bakery turns into a fiery mass of destruction, everything is burning, the sky is raining fire. The boy is older now, ripping through the debris at the entrance of his home. He screams at the broken windows, pounding the walls that are still standing. He shouts at the mess, hopeful that his family that resides in there is still alive, but it's doubtful that they are. His despair turns into violent rage. He kicks the piles of wood, and barges into the door until the flaming wall falls on top of him. The flames catch onto his skin, sizzling away up and down his arms and face. It stings like crazy, but he doesn't move, he just lets the flames consume him.

-

I'm not dead. I'm back in a hospital bed. I blink away all of the dreams. I lift my hands to rub my eyes, and when I do, I notice my left hand is all patched up with bandages. It's for the burns. I try to sit up, but there is a strap over my waist that is keeping me down. I look down at it in confusion.

"It's just a precaution. I'll take it off in a little bit. You got a little crazy in your sleep, we weren't sure what you were going to do."

I look up to see a man, I assume he's a doctor from the look of his outfit.

"I believe we've never actually met, but you might've seen me around in District 13. I'm Dr. Aurelius, your head doctor. It was I who observed your condition and came up with the methods to try and help you. I was very busy with other patients so you probably met with Dr. Salvo most of the time."

Now that I think about it, I think that I have seen him around before. With the nurses while I was being medicated, talking with to Dr. Salvo after sessions of therapy. I guess I never really paid any real attention, because of how confused I was at the time.

"Can you... tell me what happened...exactly?" I ask him.

Dr Aurelius sits down on a chair across from my bed. I notice now that there are two other hospital beds in the room, but I'm the only one in one.

"There was a double explosion at the City Circle, you were badly burned. The war is over, the Capitol has fallen. President Snow is now a prisoner awaiting trail, and Alma Coin has taken the position of Panem's leader temporarily."

"Cressida, Pollux, Gale, Katniss... did they survive?"

"Yes, they're alright. Cressida and Pollux are off filming a few things for Plutarch, Gale survived two bullet wounds and he's helping everyone clean up all the messes, and Katniss is in deep recovery."