Love is not a game (Hunger Games Fan Fiction)

Chapter 10

Just a warning! This chapter is pretty gruesome, you can read it but if you get grossed out by blood and stuff, you might not want to continue. It's not too bad though so don't worry! I will give a warning for when it is coming up. Enjoy this chapter! :)

Chapter 10: 

I awake in a strange room. My vision is still foggy and my head throbs painfully as I try to stand, instead staggering and nearly collapsing into a heap on the floor. The air smells of roses and a smell that is familiar, yet frightening at the same time. It's a metallic smell; blood. I begin to panic, searching around the room frantically for a door. My eyes land on a large, oak desk that sits in front of a giant window. 

I stand slowly, attempting to ignore my aching head in the process. With each shaky step that I take towards the desk, the scent of blood increases. Blinking my eyes against the bright light from the window, I make out a figure in front of me. Eventually the figure becomes clearer and more detailed as my eyes adjust to the brightness. I gasp in surprise, nearly falling in the process. There, in front of my very eyes, sat the man I had always despised. 

President Snow smiled kindly at me, I saw underneath that smile though. He was an evil man, not to be trusted. His piercing eyes stared at me intensely as if staring into my soul. I squirmed uncomfortably, wondering what happened for me to be standing in front of this treacherous man. 

"If you're wondering why you're here, maybe you should think a bit harder." President Snow told me as if he had been reading my mind. I racked my brain, trying to remember the exact moment before I blacked out. It all came crashing down on me, turning my face pale. He was going to kill me, right here in this small room. Even if he doesn't, he'll make my life in the arena unpleasant. 

"Why am I not dead right now?" I asked him, my face as white as his hair. He let out a long chuckle before leaning forward in his seat. His breath held the sickly scent of fresh blood, a smell that I will be very familiar with in the arena. 

"Because that wouldn't be punishment enough." He told me, causing goose bumps to rise on my arms. "People need to suffer, instant death does not teach them anything. Pain and suffering, however, does." He continued on, smiling evilly across the desk at me. Blood seeped out of his mouth, trickling down his chin. It just made him look more savage, like an animal. An animal eyeing down its prey, assessing the challenge before pouncing and ripping it to shreds. 

Quickly, he wiped away the blood with a handkerchief from his pocket and leaned back in his chair. His eyes never left mine as his arms came to rest on the desk, folded neatly in front of him. 

"I hear you have a little brother. What was his name again? Oh, right. Xavier isn't it?" President Snow smirked as my eyes shone with angry tears. "I might pay him and the rest of your family a visit. Wouldn't that be nice? Maybe even your friend, Rico, could join us? That would be splendid!" His eyes looked excited, as if causing people pain was his entertainment.

It probably is.

"You're bluffing!" I yell, more to convince myself than him. I knew he wasn't. 

"Oh really? That's just what Johanna Mason said when she was reaped." I remember Johanna Mason. She was the 'weak' girl from District 7 although she ended up being the victor of the 72nd Hunger Games. "She didn't want to play in the Games either; I guess some of you just don't know that you don't have a choice. You HAVE to obey the Capitol, otherwise this happens." He gestured to a large television that was attached to a nearby wall. 

(WARNING GRUESOME PART) 

I stared, disgusted at the video before me. A small girl of around the age of six, the spitting image of Johanna back when she was in the games, was screaming and crying as she was being led to a giant machine. I watched as the machine turned into a large shredder type machine and felt the bile rise in my throat. The innocent young girl screamed as she was carried up a flight of stairs and to the top of a platform that was just above the shredder. She was tied to a large rope, by her hands, and was dangled above the shredder teasingly. Slowly, the rope was lowered until the girl was only a few inches away from the razor sharp blades of the shredder.  

Screaming and crying, the girl begged mercilessly for the Peacekeepers that were controlling the rope. It was no use though; they just lowered her further towards the blades until her toes were sliced off one by one. A deep crimson liquid spewed out of the remainder of the girl's toes, staining the colour of the machine. The girl was convulsing now, the loss of blood had driven her insane. They wouldn't pull her up though, they only lowered it further. Soon the flesh of the girl's legs went flying all over the room, spreading itself on the surrounding walls. The girl was crying and screaming and begging for her life.  

This was surely the worst form of torture I had ever seen, the slow and painful kind. The kind where you're barely holding onto life and just wish you could slip away already and be at peace. I am not ashamed to say that I cried whilst watching this video, the girl was only six years old. She still had her entire life ahead of her. I tried to stop myself from picturing Xavier going through this torture, I just couldn't though.  

President Snow cackled the entire way through the twenty minute long video. I watched in horror as the girl's body was sliced away, bit by bit, until only the neck was left. By now the girl was dead, long gone. I was wondering why they continued to torture her even though she was dead; the whole point of torturing somebody is making them suffer slowly.  

(GRUESOME BIT IS OVER :)) 

Then I saw her, whimpering in the background and watching the lifeless body dangle in front of her.

Johanna Mason.

She witnessed her own sister's slow and painful death. She sat by, unable to stop her sister's torture because she knew she didn't have a chance against the Capitol. The Capitol is powerful, more powerful than all the District's combined. She had no chance in saving her. 

"So," President Snow said casually once the video had finished. "Do you think I'm bluffing now?"

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Author's Note:  

Please don't hate me for making that really... Disturbing... I don't usually write like that, at all! If you think it made the story better, please tell me :) I need to know what my readers think. The reason I made it so disturbing was because I needed to show the reason Cato had to be scared... Please tell me what you think! I love getting feedback! 

-Emily :)