Doe In The Meadow | Peeta Mellark

twenty

I stretched out my legs as did the other tributes. Mags and Finnick stood near me, chatting. Cassian was off somewhere doing whatever it is that he does, which I still couldn't figure out what that happened to be."You good?" Finnick asked me and I snapped out of my trans.

"What? Yeah, why?" I asked him, confused.

"You're staring at Johanna like she's something to eat." He laughed a little and I straightened up.

"She just," I tried to find the right words, "irritates me." I assured him. "But I'll let you know when the feast is." I looked to see him with a cheeky grin on his face.

"So fiery." He commented, picking up the trident and leaning into it. "It's like that time where your mother told you that you couldn't get that god awful piercing on your nose and so you took all her jewelry and strung it up along the house like christmas lights." Finnick began to laugh hysterically.

"I was like thirteen when I did that." I smirked at him, glancing over at the weapons rack.

I approached it, and I looked down at the similar katana as it stared back at me and couldn't bring myself to touching it. It looked a lot lighter than last years and more flexible, I knew I could work with it. Becoming one with your weapon is key. But to do so, that meant I needed to pick it up.

"Need some help?" Finnick asked as a joke at first, but I couldn't move. My fingers felt numb, as it crept through my body. "Jesus, kid, you're trembling." He dropped his weapon and held onto me as the shaking continued and I backed into the wall, underneath the gamemakers, out of their view. I just kept shaking my head in protest.

"I can't." I simply stated.

"It's okay. Just breath." He continued to hold me as my knees turned to jell-o and I dropped to the floor. "Arizona, relax. Just regulate your breathing, it'll be okay."

"It's not okay, Finn, I killed someone. I killed two people." I cried. "I can't breath." I began to hyperventilate, reaching at my throat. I watched as he glanced around the room, making sure none of the other tributes noticed my weakness. Mags sat next to me as he ran off and moments later, returned with Peeta.

"I didn't know what else to do, figured you could help her." He told him. "I've never seen her like this before."

"Oh god, Arizona," Peeta rushed over to me and pulled me into his arms. "Hey, hey, calm down, it's okay." He said, and just his voice was able to calm me. After a few minutes of just feeling his embrace and warmth, I was finally able to stand once more.

"I'm- I'm sorry." I told them, in a hushed tone.

"Don't be sorry, Arizona, It happens." Finn assured me, sending a sympathetic smile at me.

"Well, that was pathetic." We all looked over to see Johanna, arms crossed, scoffing.

"Can you fuck off?" Finn snapped at her as she pranced away, with a smug grin.

I clenched my fists as my teeth felt like they were going to shatter in a million pieces, and charged over to the blade on the weapons rack, grasping it in my hands and whipping it across the room, as it just barely missed Johanna's head and stuck itself perfectly in the wall in front of her. She turned to me, eyes widened and mouth gaping like a fish without water.

"What's pathetic?" I shouted across the room, tilting my head to the side as all the tributes looked to me, including gamemakers. "Bitch."