𝐅𝐋𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐒 ❦ The Hunger Games Sequel

four

☆ CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE! ☆
029. tight lips sink ships

|| DYING IN LA ||
❝you looked at death
in a tarot card
and you saw what
you had to do.❞

➳➳

I COULDN'T FIND the strength to focus for far too many hours that followed.

I didn't know a lot, one thing I did know was that I had been scooped out from the boiling water pretty soon after I stopped trying to swim. I also knew that they had carried me somewhere else before I could adjust to the cold Capitol air- they didn't give me a moment to breathe before I felt a buzz; the hum of power was within me as I jolted in my chair or as the ends of my hair stuck out from it's heavy mess of knots.

The chair wasn't cold or warm- it wasn't noticeable compared to the itch on my back that begged to be scratched. There was something ravenous about the Peacekeeper's need to see me in distress that became apparent as the elecricity they used on me was finally turned off and I heard him sigh. That was all I heard- the feeling of their gloved hands was all that I could feel.

They had momentarily paralyzed me.

Despite the eerie loneliness that could of been shattered at any moment, it made my cell a Heaven on Earth after hours of being dipped into boiling water or electricity; the darkness and hollow silence that was occasionally filled with the sounds of cries in the distance or shouts filled up with agony from my friends had become the highlight. I no longer worried for my friends- I worried about the things I might see if I waited one second more in the darkness after so much stimulation, and I worried for my sanity.

I continued to shiver even after a full day had passed.

Peeta was the worst when he screamed- me and Johanna were almost silent compared to his- when it did laps around the room like it was trying to beat it's own personal record. When I really listened, I could pick out parts of it that reminded me of the people I missed the most, or the people I was terrified to see again after so long. I was worried who would appear out of the shadows next to taunt the fact I couldn't stop my muscles from contracting, but that hardly compared to the actual panic when I saw the outline of a foot.

Or when their arms swayed against their hips so gently that they could of been caressing an invisible ache. As I sat in the corner of the room, my body only kept in an upright position due to the uneven and porous wall behind me, it seemed as if his steps were getting longer.

"What did they do to you?" Johanna's voice croaked between the space in the wall. I could glimpse her head (that was now shaved bald) when I glanced away from a face that made me want to scream until my throat bled, but nothing else. I didn't have the strength to try and see her actual face.