Mockingjay: The New Story

Chapter Twenty-Five

Katniss's POV

I wake up with pain in my stomach. I look around and see Haymitch and Effie sleeping beside me. Their backs are turned from me, and the serum my mother injected me with hasn't worn off completely. The pain is gone, but returns after a few minutes of sitting on my bed and staring at the wall. I finally scream, the serum having worn off.

Effie and Haymitch wake up, almost falling off the bed. They reach out for me, but they flinch back as I scream again, holding onto my stomach. The pain, it is worse than before.

"Sweetheart, you alright?" Haymitch asks, taking my shoulder in his hand.

I take big breaths, staring at the bed covers hiding my legs from the cool air. "No."

He is about to ask why when I scream, yet again. I push down on my stomach, where the pain is shooting me. Haymitch shares a glance with Effie and they are soon attempting to scoot me off the bed. They rip the covers off and I shiver. I am soon screaming again from the pain that is no longer stopping for a break.

Haymitch and Effie get me off the bed, helping me walk slowly to the door. The guards from earlier are gone, I guess me falling asleep sent them on. I don't make it to the first corner when I tumble to my knees. The pain becomes unbearable, and I think I am in labor, but the pain shouldn't be lasting this long. There is something terribly wrong happening to me.

"Please, get me to my mother," I beg Haymitch. I scream again, holding his shoulder down to me. Effie takes my hand and I squeeze it hard. She doesn't mind it, expecting it from me. Haymitch takes all his effort and picks me up. At first, my weight is a lot for him to hold, which is expected from the man who hasn't picked up a liquor bottle in months, thankfully. But Effie helps steady him and we rust on. He carries me like he would a child to the elevator, hope in his eyes praying he won't drop me as he picks up into a run, faster than I've ever seen him run.

"Push the goddamn button woman!" he yells at Effie. I smile between heavy breaths. I hold onto Haymitch's neck and my burning stomach. The ride takes longer than I want it to, but once the doors open, Haymitch rushes out, calling my mother's name until she is running down the hall to me.

A bed is rushed to Haymitch and he lays me on top it. Both Effie and Haymitch stay with me as nurses roll me down to a room, I hear that I might need surgery. My mother asks if my water broke, if I think I'm in labor. I scream no. She asks where the pain is and I say everywhere. I feel like I'm burning from the inside out. I feel like a bullet it piercing through the middle of my stomach, my head and my eyes. I am on fire, I am fire, fire is me. I am in pain, I am pain, pain is me. My eyes begin to swim. 

I am not taken to surgery, but a maternity room. My mother puts me to sleep before she can explain anything to me, slow my worry. The pain is so intense by now, I can't care less if I know what is wrong, I just want the pain to stop.

-

"Katniss, can you hear me?"

I groan, opening my eyes to see my mother and Prim standing at my bedside. Haymitch and Effie are seated at the little table on one side of the room.

"Yes," I say softly. "What happened?"

"Well," my mother begins in her lecture voice I used to get as a child when my father and I would do childish things. I groan. "I warned you not to stress yourself out too much. You did exactly that by watching the footage from two. The twins became distressed and one of them was tugging on the umbilical cord, its leg got caught around it, but no damage should be done. That was the pain you were feeling."