Rising Rebellion [#3]

Chapter 20 - Psychological Warfare

Snow just stood there for a moment. It was John’s last words that seemed to get to him somehow. He hadn’t pressed the button again like Sylvia and John thought he would. They were just waiting for the President to say anything, but for a while he didn’t. Sylvia got some time to recover from the last shock as she looked at how Snow was left rather speechless. She briefly looked at John who was in question about what was going to happen next. All of a sudden, President Snow motioned to the peacekeepers behind Sylvia and then gave ‘John’s peacekeepers’ a signal to bring John over to the next room.

“John?!” Sylvia yelled as they dragged him away into the next room. “Sylvia…” She heard, but that was about it. She could still hear him on the other side of the wall. “Oh, don’t you worry, Mason, he’ll be able to hear you alright.” One of the peacekeepers said as he took his helmet off. She had never once, seen the real face of a peacekeeper, but the fact that she did now, was unnerving as the others were unstrapping her from the chair and throwing her on the ground. She didn’t really have any strength to push herself back up, and for some reason, she didn’t think they wanted her to either. One of them kneeled with his knee between her shoulders to hold her down, while the others were cutting up her Arena-suit. She was too weak to fight this back. “Let’s just see how feisty you really are!” One of the others said. That’s when she realized what was happening.

In the other room, the peacekeepers held John steady as Snow stood in front of him. “Perhaps you just need to hear her scream and not know what my men are doing to her, to tell me the things I want to hear.” Snow said as he pulled up a chair in front of John. John breathed heavily and with anger. “If one hair is slightly out of place, you’re going to wish you died in one of your fancy Arenas.” John threatened. Snow simply laughed smugly at his words. “You know, you’re in no position to threaten me, Mr. Wintergreen.” He said before they heard Sylvia’s scream through the wall. John closed his eyes in pain as it hurt him to hear her like that. “Those screams will not vanish until you give me what I want, Mr. Wintergreen.” He then said. John shook his head in disbelief. “You’re not getting it, Snow. I can’t give you what you want because I don’t have it! Neither of us does!” John said looking him straight in the eye as he heard Sylvia’s scream again and started breathing slightly cramped.

President Snow got up on his feet again. “That’s not what I want to hear, Mr. Wintergreen. Perhaps I should turn to other victims than the girl you supposedly love to give me that.” Snow then said as he motioned towards the door as it opened. John looked in that direction as he saw them push Annie through and then led her up in front of John. She was sitting there in foster-position rocking back and forth while covering her ears. John looked up at Snow with disgust. “You’re a sick bastard! She’s the most innocent of all of us!” John argued. “Mr. Wintergreen, I am not stupid. Of course I know Odair would never tell her anything, but that doesn’t mean she gets away it.” He then said as he had the guards position her right in front of John. He only prayed that she could manage to lock it all out. He knew how Snow would use John to affect her and he didn’t want her to see it. At the same time, John could hear Sylvia’s repeated screams from behind the wall. He took a deep breath as he sensed it was all becoming too much for him.

“So tell me, John, what are the rebellions planning?” Snow then asked, but for some reason, John didn’t hear it. Snow took it as ignorance from John’s part. The peacekeepers held him position out of nothing and punched him several times in the ribs. As he was left to lie on the ground, he was trying to catch his breath. Annie was sitting opposite to him, screaming and crying even more intense than before. She kept covering her ears, but for some reason it didn’t calm her down. “What are they planning?” Snow then asked with a more aggressive tone. He had had it. John was done trying to say what he didn’t know and thought more to what he thought. And yes, he had always had a theory. It was the reason why he was where he was, why he was a part of that plan in the Arena in the first place.

As he caught his breath, he then looked up at Snow. “I cannot tell for sure…” John started as he still needed to take a few deep breaths. “I cannot tell you for sure when…or where.” John then continued as he kept his eyes firmly planted on Snow. “But it is pretty obvious what they’re planning if they are in fact rebelling….don’t you think, Mr. Snow?” John then asked him, as John finally bent down again to get his breath into normal rhythm again. The peacekeepers let him sink to the ground as Snow walked away from the room. As John glanced over at him at one point, he could tell that he was scared. Snow had been frightened by John’s words. No matter how much he had hurt John over this period of time, in the end, it was John who scared him.

The three of them were brought back to their cell after that. John and Sylvia were barely conscious when they were thrown in and Annie was just sitting there like a shaking leaf. They were just too tired, too reduced to wake up at first. But of the two, John was the first one to wake up. His entire body was protesting heavily against him trying to sit up. His body was exhausted from first being in the Arena and then in this cell. As he opened his eyes, he saw Annie was sitting against the wall further away from the door, with Sylvia’s head on her lap. She seemed to be calm now as she just sat there and ran her hand through Sylvia’s head.

As John pulled himself closer, he could see that they had shaved her nearly balled and torn up her Arena-suit. He could barely stand the thought of what they had been doing to her on the other side of that wall. He sat up against the wall between Annie and Sylvia, and brought Sylvia’s head carefully on his lap as he could see her eyes opening up. She had been crying a lot, John could tell. “Where are we?” She then mumbled. Annie was sobbing next to John as he offered her his hand. “S-s-still in t-t-the C-C-Capitol.” She managed to say as she leaned next to John covering her ears and closing her eyes.

John grabbed her hand tightly and tried to calm her down, but there was truly only one person in this world that could calm her down, and he wasn’t here. John directed his gaze back at Sylvia who wanted to sit up even further, but her body didn’t allow her to. She just sank deeper into John’s arms as she looked up at him. She could see he noticed something had happened. He was wiping the tears off of her face and was just gently holding his hand there. “What did they do you, sunshine?” He then asked with a voice that hurt so much deeper than any of them knew. John could see that the question hurt her even more as she closed her eyes and tears started running down the cheeks. She wiped them off quickly. John kissed her gently on the forehead as he knew that talking about it would do them both more harm than good.

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Sorry if it's too short, but these chapters are all on the emotional scale way up high. I figured there's no need to drag it out. I hope you read and leave a comment! :)