Don't Let Me Go

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I flash in and out of reality but mostly when I awake I don’t know where I am and I panic and then a shot goes through me and I’m out again. After a while I start to feel stronger. “Peeta” I whisper out and suddenly my thoughts go straight. How am I not dead? I was so close to death the last time I remember. I start freaking out thinking that maybe I am in President Snow’s hovercraft and he kept me alive to torture me.

Beetee is still out of this world, in the bed next to me. I undo the holds around my body and rip the drip machine from my arm. With my first step my vision blacks out a little. I’m not feeling as strong as I thought. I somehow manage to stumble my way through a hallway. Really I have no idea where I am going though.

“Haymitch” I whisper so shocked when I see him, I never thought I would see him again. Haymitch embraces me but I pull away and look right through his eyes and into his soul “Where is Peeta?” I whisper my eyes filling with tears. “He is here, safe.” Haymitch tells me and with that weight off my shoulders I embrace Haymitch back and smell in the scent of booze, typical Haymitch. But I can’t say I didn’t miss it.

“Where is he?” I ask eagerly “He is still recovering Katniss” Says Haymitch “from what?” I ask “Well he has had a bit of a struggle… Snow’s hovercraft was trying to take him but now he is safe because we got him in time although he had a few injuries along the way” “oh” I say stunned because I was obviously half dead when Peeta had to go through all this, and I know it was all to protect me.

“You have some explaining to do” I say annoyed because how on earth were we all allowed out of the games? Only one person is meant to survive it. “It was the plan all along. The new game maker wanted it to happen, he is on our side. Finnick and the other tributes were meant to protect you throughout because you’re the mockingjay and when you live, the revolution lives.” I stare at Haymitch my jaw dropped with this information overload. “The problem is that some tributes did not agree to this” Haymitch continues. My mind is spinning frantically and I start hitting Haymitch screaming “Why didn’t you tell me and Peeta” “You promised to help Peeta get out, you promised me!” but before I can spit out anymore harsh words I feel a sharp jab at my arm and the world has gone black again.

I wake up on the same bed as originally, trying to work out if it was all a dream or not. But my arm still hurts from the sudden jab and I know that it happened. I try to rise but I am locked on the bed. I bang my head angrily against the bed until I black out again.

It feels like weeks have passed since the dramatic exit of the arena. Do the public think I am dead? Does Snow think I’m dead? If not why hasn’t he already come to kill me? Is Peeta in a bad state alongside me? HOW IS PRIM AND MY MOTHER? I suddenly feel beyond guilty. From my actual functioning moments over the past month or so I feels like I haven’t even thought of those, the ones I hold dear. I wonder how my best friend Gale is. For all my waking moments I was concerned about Peeta but what about those who don’t have protection of what I do here?

With this all stinging my mind I realise it is time to get up and face my problems, the problems that I have been trying to deny for a while now. My legs feel so weak but I manage to stride along to where I see Haymitch and Peeta, just sitting there in a blank room. Peeta looks stable and healthy. “Peeta” I scream forgetting that I can hardly walk let alone run as I hobble as fast as I can. “Katniss” Peeta says starting to limp up to me. Just as my legs feel like they are going to give way I fall into the comfort of Peeta’s arms.

He smells of bread, of hope. How much I have missed having the company of this boy, my boy. I feel a warm tear drop fall onto my shoulder as my eyes fill with tears preparing to do the same. “Oh Peeta” I say wrapping up even closer to him. He smiles at me softly and sits me onto his lap. We talk for a while and I manage to build up the courage to ask how my family are despite how scared I am for the answer.

“Katniss” Peeta says gently. I am preparing myself for the worse as he tells me “they’re alive” a huge sigh of relief floods through my body. “But” Peeta adds. I tense up again. “They are in district thirteen” my jaw drops to what feels like the floor. “What about district twelve?”

Haymitch re enters the room and answers the question because Peeta looks too hurt. “Katniss, there is no district twelve, it was burnt to ashes, Peeta’s family did not make it to district thirteen”. Peeta already knows this news and he looks like he has been grieving. “Oh Peeta, I am so sorry. I should have been there for you” I say tearing up. If I wasn’t so busy being selfish refusing to live. “It is not your fault, you really haven’t been that well” I place my hand on his tear strained face and I look into his sad eyes “I am just happy I didn’t lose you” Peeta says.