Imprisoned By Love

Chapter 5

Katniss

"So, do you like my brother?" Johanna asks as she leads me down one of the many hallways of Peeta's house.

"Yes, he's very nice," I reply.

"That's not what I meant," she says. "I mean do you want to be his mate, to stay here willingly?" I look down.

"I think I might like to," I say. "But it's all really overwhelming."

"You haven't told him have you?" She says.

"What?" I ask.

"You never told Peeta about not wanting kids," she says. I stop and look at her and she just gives me a knowing smirk. "Well, am I right?"

"You aren't wrong," I say. "But now that I'm really forced to think about it, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to have a baby. I actually think I'd like to raise a child with Peeta. But it's just, I never saw myself having a baby at nineteen." She laughs.

"Sweetie, most girls around here become mothers at about sixteen," she says. "You're getting to where you're going to be on the older side of being a first time mom." I look down.

"I just, I'm not sure I'm ready to be responsible for someone to depend on me the way a baby does," I say.

"Somebody already depends on you way more than a baby ever will," she says. She continues to walk down the hallway before I can ask her what she means and I follow her to a dusty, cobweb covered door. She pulls out a small silver key and unlocks it before opening it. I follow her in to the room and she walks over and opens a musty curtain to let in light.

There is furniture all over the room, covered in sheets to keep them from degrading and a tall object in the corner. I can see Johanna's footprints in the dust and she stands beside the window, watching me study our surroundings.

"It looks like no one's touched this room in years," I say.

"Seventeen years to be exact," she says. "Supposedly Father packed it all away after Courtney died. He just didn't want to see it anymore. Didn't want to be reminded of what he had with her."

"But Peeta told me your parents died two years ago," I say. She nods.

"They did," she says. "But his mother, the Luna Courtney Mellark, she died giving birth to Peeta's little brother. My mother was just there to ease the pain as he slowly went insane. My birth helped a little, but loosing the Luna is always what does the Alpha in in the end. He tried, but he couldn't." She looks around and chuckles sadly. "I don't think my brother even has a picture of her. He probably doesn't even remember what she looked like he was so young when she died."

I look around and notice something glittering in a cabinet. I walk towards it and notice a beautiful tiara shining with hundreds of diamonds. I reach out to touch it but then pull my hand back. I turn to Johanna and she nods.

"That was hers," she says. "And when you marry Peeta, it will be yours. You'll wear it on special occasions like full moon festivals and solstices." She nods toward the tall object in the corner. "You oughta take a look at that too." I look slowly up and down it before pulling away the sheet to reveal a beautiful snow white dress encrusted with diamonds arranged to look like stars in a gorgeous night sky as it fades to black at the hem and shoulder. I reach out to touch the silvery silk fabric before pulling my hand back, fearing I may have done something I shouldn't have.

"You're going to look lovely in that," I hear Peeta's voice behind me say I turn to see him watching me intently while Johanna had somehow disappeared. I shake my head and take a step away from it.