Mockingjay: The New Story

Chapter One

Peeta's POV

*

Being locked up isn't as horrid as I thought it would be, or how I imagined it, at first. I guessed wrongly.

At first, it was nice, quite pleasant and better than the arena we called our death sentence. We were given food and the freedom to roam around. We were assigned rooms to share or stay in separately, however we wished. We were given treatment almost like royalty. We made no inconvenience whatsoever, but it still changed.

We had no track of time, what day it was, what week, what month. We were only given orders. When to wake, when to eat, when to sleep. The rest of the time we could visit the others or shower or stay inside and sleep. I only imagined, dreamed, of what happened next.

We were given assignments, just to do simple interviews with Caesar Flickerman, the perky Capitol man with way too much makeup and way too many surgery's done to look his age. We agreed, were given lines and got prepped. We were to say every line given from the papers we were handed, and every one from our ear piece, one little slip up and we were over.

Everything had gone well, until Katniss went up. She had been quiet the whole evening of the interview. Getting dressed up and beautified, she didn't say a word. I asked quickly if she was alright, she said she was fine. She claimed she was tired and wished not to speak. I took it well, knowing she was indeed tired. They had tended to our wounds from the arena and gave us a change of clothes everyday. Our new prep teams did not perfect us like our old ones did when we won the first Games. They only covered our healing wounds lightly and kept our scars out. Katniss would try to cover up, but this one woman, with quite a strange name I could never pick up, would tell Katniss to show them off. Be proud to wear those scars. She breathed in deep, and would hold my hand tightly from screaming at the woman. The woman only smiled and walked off to another who needed assistance.

Once Caesar announced the beginning of the interviews, in front of a tiny crowd quite different from the giant ones we sat in front of before, is when Finnick went up. They were going by district, so Katniss and I would be last. Every interview would be separate, besides like the Third Quarter Quell where we were interviewed together. Katniss held my hand and clung to me while we watched Finnick remember every line he was given. Then Johanna went up, she was tricky to convince but after a while, and many threats, we got her to comply to the interviews. She went through with ease, and now, it was Katniss's turn.

Katniss's hair was off to the side in loose curls, glitter dancing around her cheeks and bare arms. Her shoes were high and a deep eggplant color, I had to hold her steady most time. Her dress was simple, but also classy. Dark blue that sparkled in the light. It was tight on her chest but blossomed into a round skirt to cover her large stomach. There were no lines about our child in the papers we were handed. Meaning Caesar would never bring it up in any of our interviews.

Katniss listened and said what she was told, until one question. She refused to answer the lie she was told to tell, she would only shake her head at Caesar and stay quiet. Caesar's face was filled with astonishment and terror only a Victor could track. That was the slip up he was waiting for.

Katniss was called back by the woman who's name I could never figure. Caesar excused Katniss, called me and I entered the limelight. Katniss only had time to look back at me once, before she had disappeared behind the curtains.

I was practically controlled my whole interview, my only thoughts floating around Katniss. Where she went? If she was okay? What could they possibly be doing to her? I answered every question Caesar threw at me with whatever the person on the other end of my ear piece said to me, and made it out alive. Soon, the interviews were over and Caesar was saying goodbye to the crowd.