Doe In The Meadow | Peeta Mellark

twenty five

"Honey, that thing I did for Peeta back there, was called saving his life. If I wanted to kill either of you, I would have done it by now." I heard Finnick telling Katniss, as the two walked close to each other. She always had trust issues. I get it, but she needed to just realize Finn was trying to help us right now. He walked past me, angrily and seated himself next to Mags.

In the night, the fallen tributes flashed above us and I felt myself become saddened to see Cassian had been one of them. I hadn't been able to find him this whole time, and now I knew why. There were eight in total gone now.

I was relieved that Haymitch had sent Katniss a spile so we could get water out of a tree. Peeta rushed me forward to get some and then I moved aside, letting him in.

Around Midnight, a tree had been struck by lightning several times, causing us to wake. Katniss had decided to take watch so we all could rest, and I curled up onto Peeta nestling my head under his chin, with his arms wrapped gently around my body. As horrible as what was happening, I hadn't gotten this good of sleep in a long time, thanks to Peeta being next to me. It was a sort of serenity I could never have alone. I truly loved this boy but I knew one of us were going to die at the end of this. And it wasn't going to be him. Whether that meant I sacrificed myself, or get killed.

"The fog is poison!" A voice startled us awake and we looked to see Katniss running towards us, away from fog approaching. Mags climbed on Finn's back as Peeta and I lept up, running the opposite way of the mystic smoke. Our feet carried us as far as we could possibly go, with the fog closing in on us. It had just brushed me for a split moment, and I let out a yell in pain and shock. Peeta stopped next to me, and now it attacked him, covering the side of his face. Mags, Finn and Kat all stood around.

"Finn- I-I don't know-," I tried to begin. None of us knew what to do because Peeta could hardly walk. I tried helping him up, but it just wasn't happening, as he just dragged behind. He needed to be carried. Mags looked to us and then to Finn, kissing his forehead and then turning away.

"Mags!" Finn shouted, in protest as she sacrificed herself to the games. My heart broke watching Finn. I knew how much he loved her and how she practically raised him.

Finn reached forward, getting Peeta onto his feet and the three of us followed Katniss as quickly as we could but we were no match. The fog was all consuming at this point. I could feel the poison seeping into my flesh, and the ooze filled bumps covered my skin. Just as I thought this was it, we were all going to die, we then found ourselves falling down the hill in our view, as the fog went straight upward, missing us entirely. How the hell did we get so lucky? I looked around at a half dead Peeta and Finnick as my eyes began to close.

"Kat?" I asked, looking around me to see she had me placed in water. I let out a scream as it burned but suddenly a feeling of relief washed over my wounds.

"The water helps." She said as I sat up. Peeta was behind me, holding me and Finn was sitting on a rock nearby. While we continued to wash ourselves off, I looked to Peeta.

"I'm sorry." I said to him.

"For what?"

"For spending all that time being mad at you. I understand you were just trying to protect me." I said to him.

"I should have told you." He said. "You had and have every right to be angry." He grabbed my hand.

"Peeta, Ari," Finnick called out to us in a hushed tone. We looked to the two of them and suddenly felt concerned.

"Walk over here slowly." Katniss said and we looked over to see her and Finn standing on guard with monkeys surrounding us. It was never ending in this new and improved arena.

"Oh, hell." I muttered, as we slowly walked over to the two of them. I pulled out my katana and stood ground next to Finn who held onto his tridant. Katniss shot an arrow through one of them as they began to charge us. Finn began stabbing them and now I was slicing as many of their heads off as I could. I looked over to Peeta as one was just about to eat through his face and quickly plunged my blade through its back. I grabbed his hand, pulling him to his feet and we continued to fight them off, running towards the beach. We dove into the shallow water, knowing the monkeys wouldn't dare to come in.

I found myself plopping backwards into it and not being able to move as they rushed to me.

"Ari?" I could hear Peeta's voice call out, holding onto me. "Ari!" But my vision grew blurry and my eyes just continued to close shut and everything around me faded to black, and they all were just, gone.