Chapter One
I hold out my hand in a gesture of self-protection. "Please!" I cry, staring up at the cruel, evil Capitol-bred Avox who has been hired to beat me until I'm dead.
It seems my life, my soul, has been ruined ever since we broke free from the arena. The handsome, smart, speech-giving, camera-ready boy who was in me before we went back in the arena has died. A cold, calculating, and deadly me has taken this boy's place. Has taken the boy with the bread from me.
Snow walks into the room, and I can't help but notice how even those who work for him sneer up at him with disgust- and fear. The president's already-puffy lips have gotten puffier, his tongue lethal, alive with poison and death serum.
"Hello, my boy." Snow says the words kindly, but his tone is cold and encrypted. "We need you to do an interview today. Show the rebels who they're messing with."
His tone sends a cold chill of fear sliding down my spine. I know Katniss is suffering with the rebels. The rebels, who have ensnared both of us in their trap. The rebels, who have been planning this since Katniss and I pulled the trick with the berries. Ever since then I have been very far, very distant from Katniss. Though I love her, at times I feel like I have no idea who she is.
The Avox smiles, and I stick my tongue out at him, which I know is wrong. The Avox begins to tremble and shake violently until he's sputtering with anger. I smile.
"Peeta, you are evil-bred," Darius, the only kind Avox in the Capitol, signs to me. We made up a sign-language a long while ago.
"I know," I sign back.
Darius smiles.
Snow seems to see us communicating, and this angers him. He slaps Darius across the face, then me, his cold touch sending chills of freeze-dried death down my soul. "If you ever wish to escape my Capitol alive, do not speak" Snow cries.
He storms from the room.
Darius signs, "I think President Snow does want you alive, Peeta. To hurt Katniss. To break her." I have told Darius everything I believed since I left the arena. How the Capitol is nothing but a hellhole designed to break us. How Snow is keeping me alive for some reason unknown. And Darius, an Avox who can never speak again, has come to a conclusion much faster than I have.
Suddenly the Executioner spins into the room furiously, Lavaina, the other Avox, on his arm. He's throwing Darius and Lavaina across the room. Taking out his axe. Blowing it. And putting it through the Avoxes' heads.
