𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙒𝙊𝙍𝙇𝘿 𝙄𝙉 𝙍𝙐𝙄𝙉𝙎 - 𝙜𝙖𝙡𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙬𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙣𝙚

─── ∙ ⋆★ CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER EIGHT

( THE LEAST YOU CAN DO )

HER EYES GAZED out of the front of her homes window, looking at the dying crowd of people standing in the bakery across the way. Artemis pressed her lips against the glass, taking in the cool water she had poured for her and her two friends.

Unlike Beau and Linden, she was unable to get over the fact that she was blatantly ignored by her best friend. She turned on her heel, huffing out a sigh and she turned her attention to the two boys, resting on the couch, debating on what would happen if the games just suddenly stopped. "What if we refused to have children?" Linden suggested as Artemis sat beside him, placing her glass on the table in front of her. "I have a feeling we'd be forced to have children. Consensual or not. Have you seen the girls that line up outside of Darius's? One of them is bound to have a product of his seed," Beau replied.

"The word you're looking for is 'child', Beau," Artemis added on sarcastically, her eyes slowly drifting towards the window to look at the bakery. Beau shook his head in response with a grunt. He was always a pessimist. Nothing good could come for free, kind of person. He was right about the Games. He was right to worry that day. He was right that Peeta would change. But he was wrong about him not coming home. It was something she was going to hold above him if he strained their relationship.

The door to the house propped open, and her parents along with her sisters strolled through the door. They were off at the bakery, trying to get Peeta's attention. From the sour looks on their faces, it didn't go as planned. Katherine had a noticeable pout as she placed herself on the other side of Linden, her arms crossed her chest as she gazed out of the same window as her sister. Artemis took notice that Liden changed his relaxed, slouchy posture to upright and polite as soon as Katherine sat down. His eyes seemed to drink in her small figure which sent shivers down Artemis's spine. She didn't like how hungrily he looked at her sister.

"Didn't go as planned?" Beau questioned the pouty girl who huffed in response. "It's just like, why don't we get special treatment? We've known them for all of our lives. We should be top priority but no a Peacekeeper has to tell us to just say "Hi, congratulations" and then exit," she exclaimed, the obvious chip on her shoulder growing larger by every scalding second.

The newness of Peeta and Katniss would settle down soon, they wouldn't be treated like royalty and they'd go back to being regular people. Regular people who have killed people. Just plain murderers living amongst them. The Peeta that she'd known all her life had turned into a killer. Not by choice but by survival. The amount of people on the doorstep of the bakery made her stomach flip as she realized that the people there aren't just there to congratulate them on his win but also his murders.

He never brutally attacked anyone, he didn't shoot an arrow into somebody's heart. Perhaps some of the old Peeta was in him. Her father sat across from her, staring between her and the newcomer that he hadn't seen before. Of course, Linden looked out of place in their home. The olive toned skin, the dark hair, the Seam look. It wasn't something her family was used to. They were used to light colored hair, light colored eyes, fair skin to tan skin like herself.