Masked Enemies

Chapter 33

Katniss

I cannot sleep.

I wake up over and over again, each time the realm of dreams so close, I can feel it and smell it and hear it, but I can't seem to reach the place where either I would be happy, or suffer. There never was a way of telling with dreams. Either you had a peaceful night's sleep, or you woke up in the middle of the night, your heart pounding in terror, like you were back in the Hunger Games.

I get out of bed, knowing it's past curfew, and if I was caught wandering the hallways, I would be punished. Or, at least, that's how 13 under Coin was. I open the door of my room anyway, and walk in a daze through the corridors. I see no signs of life; everyone must be asleep. Good. Peace and quiet was exactly what I needed right now.

About five minutes later, I hear a faint buzzing coming from a room at the end of the hallway. The door, which was slightly open, let a dim yellow light hit the floor of the hallway. Confused, I walk down the hall to see what it was. Peeking through the crack between the door and the wall, I see two figures, both of them cloaked in shadows, sitting at a table, a giant television behind them.

"We have to tell him." One of them, the taller figure, says, pointing to the blank screen.

"He can't know. He'll go insane; he'll kill himself trying to find her." The other one says, this person rounder, and much shorter, pointing to the screen as well. The taller one grabs the remote and turns the television on, and as it flickers to life, I let out a silent gasp.

A lovely if somewhat bedraggled woman sits in a chair on the screen, her sea-green eyes dull from hunger.

I am looking at the unmistakable face of Annie Cresta.

Another small gasp escapes my mouth, and both figures turn to face me. I can see their faces clearly now. Plutarch and Haymitch look at me, their faces showing expressions that I cannot identify. Alarmed? Angry? Indifferent?

"Katniss." says Plutarch, nervously. "Don't tell him."

"Why? What are they doing to her?" I ask them angrily.

"We don't know, sweetheart. But no one can know." says Haymitch calmly, escorting me out of the room. "Especially not Finnick. Not until the time comes. It's for his own safety."

I nod bravely. Keeping secrets wasn't exactly my thing anymore. I walk away from the room, only looking back to see Haymitch closing the door behind me.

I continue my pursuit for peace through the fleet, trying to pretend that I had never seen anything in there. Maybe that footage was old. Maybe she was dead. I bite my nails, which have just started to grow back. It'd be better if she was dead. Better than the Capitol torturing her again.

On the far end of the hovercraft, I find a small room, which seems to have no one in it until I look closer. Johanna sits there, alone, staring into the distance through the floor-to-ceiling windows. I look at what she is looking at, the rolling hills of District 2. She turns to face me, a smile playing on her face, which gives out an eerie glow, thanks to the moonlight. She kills the smile, and looks at me, indifferent.

"Katniss." She says. "What brings you here?"

I need to tell someone, someone trustworthy, someone who loved Finnick just as much as I did, what I had seen in that room.

"Johanna." I say. "I need to tell you something. But you have to promise not to tell anyone. Especially not Finnick; if he finds out, he'll surely die." Johanna nods, and I sit down in the chair across from her. I scan the room, checking for cameras. No one could hear what I was about to tell Johanna right now.