The Little Mockingjay

The Reckoning Part II: Flint's POV

Song: The Reckoning by NEEDTOBREATHE

Nadia and I don't move. We just sit, stunned for a couple of minutes. I look up and see she's been crying silently. I don't really know what to say to her for comfort. That's always been her specialty. Comforting me and asking for nothing in return.

"That was... a lot," I say.

She nods.

"I'm sorry about... everything."

I can't bring myself to mention what "everything" entails. Her beaten body, her venomous DNA.

"I just think we shouldn't focus on the things we can't change. Like Mom and Dad's past. There's nothing we can do, and it's just gonna upset us."

I have to agree with my sister. We need to start thinking of the positive things. But, nothing really comes to mind. I see Nadia's eyes start to flutter. She's still weak.

"You hungry?" I ask

She shakes her head.

"Okay, get some sleep then. I'll see you for dinner."

Her eyes close right away. She's probably happy to escape into the sheets of darkness that drag her into a drug-induced sleep. I'm pretty tired myself, so I leave the hospital wing and head back to my small compartment. I get lost on the way. Eventually, I just end up curling up in a spare closet filled with military uniforms. I fall asleep to the dull roar of the heating ducts above my head.

My dreams are filled with screams. My own, as The Captain and his people try to torture information out of me. Soldiers, as I slam the heel of my boot into their guts, as I rake my nails down their faces in retaliation. My dreams are filled with splashing water. I'm water boarded again and again. I still can't provide information. My dreams are filled with the crunching of Nadia's bones and the slicing of her skin as I stood behind the one-way glass, watching her drown. I couldn't help her.

I wake up sweating. The horrors that I've been trying to ignore. I haven't told Nadia or Finn. I haven't told my parents. I haven't told the doctors. Nadia was too easily breakable. They broke her bones and gashed her skin and starved her and made her sick and fed her false information. All of this was clear. She wasn't even the one who tried to retaliate. That was me. I fought the guards at every chance. I tried to escape. I never believed their lies, and I made sure they knew it. And while Nadia and I were separated, or while she was passed out, as she often was, I was being tortured as well. It didn't leave marks on my skin. They thought I had information, so they attacked me in much worse ways. Water boarding. So much water. Electrocution. So much electricity. The screams of my loved ones, ringing in my ears. I couldn't make the noise stop. I couldn't tell them anything. I didn't know where my parents were. It turns out, they were hidden here. The Captain expected them to come for us, alone, almost right away. I didn't know what they were doing instead of falling into his trap, so he just kept drowning me, shocking me, getting in my head, but never left a single mark. Nadia was to be the face of their movement, and I was to be the brains. How was I supposed to do that? I'm only 14. I knew nothing. The worst part is that no one can see what he's done to me. And no one ever will. I am determined to not let it show. So I wipe the mixture of sweat and tears from my face and exit the storage closet.