Real or not real? (everlark)

21

"Bye, drive careful!" Peeta yells out the door to Johanna. She was the last guest to leave, except for my mother of course. She sits in my accent chair, smiling with her eyes closed.
"You okay, mom?" I ask her as I enter the living room. She opens her eyes at the sound of my voice, and smiles broader when she spots my face.
"Everything is fine, dear. I don't want you to be coddling me while I stay." She says, and I grin at her.
"Asking if everything is alright isn't coddling," I shake my head at her and head up
to bed.

The scream is what wakes me up. Not the shattering glass, or the loud, furious thumping, but the earsplitting scream. I sit up, the covers flying, and Peeta does as well. At first I think that the scream was part of my dream, but then I hear it again, followed by yelling.
"GET OFF OF ME!GET AWAY!"
"Mom?" I ask, leaping out of bed and running down the stairs. "MOM!"
I jump the last three steps and skid to a halt in the living room, momentarily shocked by what I see. But soon I run full into the action, yelling.
"Hey! Leave my mother alone!" I scream, and jump onto the man's back. It seemed smart at the time, but looking back, I feel stupid about doing it. I struggle to wrench his arms from my mother, but his grip is strong and relentless. He throws me off with ease, and my face hits the corner of the table, and the glass falls and shatters on top of me. I look up to see Peeta and the man fighting, and Peeta being thrown off as well.
I have just enough time to see him disappear with my mom before the world goes black.

Beep. Beep. Beep.
"She's waking up..." A faint voice says, and I know I've heard it before, the sound is so familiar. I try, but I can't grasp any sort of name. then i hear another.
"Is she going to be alright?" Another voice says.
The same voice now. "She'll be alright, Peeta," Peeta! I struggle to wake up, but it feels impossible. Maybe if I can just open my eyes, just a little bit, then he will know that I'm okay. My eyes feel like they are being held down with thick, heavy iron bars. I can't even get them open enough to see a sliver of light. I give up, still feeling dizzy. But then, a wave of nausea hits me, and I have to struggle to keep it all down. But eventually it becomes to much.
My eyes snap open with a sudden burst of strength I didn't know that I had. I lean over and puke right into a bucket conveniently seated next to me. I feel a hand on my back, pulling my hair from my face. A doctor with crisp, white gloves comes and takes the putrid smelling pail. He replaces it with a clean one, just in case I guess. But there was no need for the extra puke-pail, I already feel as if someone cleaned out my stomach.
I settle back against the bed, getting comfortable among the pillows. Then I look up to see a doctor standing there, discussing something with a man in a large trench coat and a police officer. I look up curiously at Peeta who is seated on the arm of my hospital bed. He shrugs is shoulders and clears his throat loudly. The three men turn their attention to me, and I suddenly feel self conscious. I pull up my hospital gown even higher, so that it nearly touches my neck. I adjust my blankets slightly and wait for them to say something.
"You're Miss Everdeen, correct? Soon to be Mrs. Mellark?" The sandy haired cop asks me. He has a nice smile, white and straight teeth. His hair was messy and standing up in places, like he had just taken his hat off. He looks young, about my age. I nod my head and then scrunch my eyebrows at him in question.
"How did you-"
"Word travels quickly around here, Miss Everdeen. And the girl on fire getting married to the boy with the bread is huge news around these parts. Everyone will be wanting an invitation to the ceremony." He laughs lightly, and it rings out like a chorus of wind chimes. Soft, but pleasant.
"Oh." I say in response. I'm in no mood for laughing and making jokes, surely the cop most know that. He seems to pick up the vibe that I am projecting, and so he gets straight business.
"So, Katniss. I know that you just woke up after a horrible incident, but I really need you to answer some questions about your mother, and everything that happened before now." He says, and I nod. He gets out a small notpad and the man in the trench coat takes out a sketchpad.
"Okay. So. Can you describe the man for us, Katniss?" He asks me, and I think back to- how many night ago was it? Three? Four? I don't know. But I think back to the night that I woke to my mother's scream. The dark made it hard to see him, but there were some details that were impossible to miss, so I list those.
"He had dark, shoulder length hair that was really greasy, and a mouth full of crooked teeth. He was really tall, and really large, muscular you know? And he had a scar across his face, from the bridge of his nose to the right side of his neck. He was missing three fingers on his left hand, and he had really big feet." I tell them, and the man in the trench coat scribbles furiously before turning the sketchpad around.
"Is this him?" He asks me in a deep, growly voice, and I nod.
"Yes. That's him." And the man nods before looking at the police officer with a grave expression.
"What's wrong Brent?" The police officer asks the trench coat guy, Brent, not getting what he was so upset about. Brent looked at him for a moment before answering.
"This is the guy that we've been looking for. Remember the case with the Immels? And the Smiths? They all described him the same way. Exactly like this. He's the only guy causing serious problems in this District that we haven't caught yet. If we catch him, we will have a whole load of stress of our shoulders." He turns back to me. "Do you know where he went off to?" He asks me, and I shake my head.
"I passed out right when he left with my mother." I tell him and he nods in understanding. Then Peeta speaks up from beside me.
"I saw him leave. I could only follow him for a moment, because I couldn't just leave Katniss behind. But he left into the woods." He says, and puts an arm around me. The police officer and Brent get to their feet and shake my hands.
"Looks like we're taking a walk in the woods," the police officer says, shaking my hand one more time. "Maybe we'll catch him before new years."

Thanks for reading guys!
Merry Christmas!
Skyzone