The hunger games - Gone - Sam and Astrid-

Chapter 2

I'm going to put both views in one chapter from now on, I think It's less confusing for me and probably for you too.

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Astrid's POV

I watch as my dad guides Little Pete gently by the hand into the cell where I'm being held captive. I force myself to blink back tears and look at them bravely. My dad sits next to me on the couch. I think it used to be bright red, soft, and plush. Now it's almost gray, rough and I can feel the wooden frame of the chair through the flattened fluff. 

"Dad," I say almost breaking into tears at the words. " What do I do." Tears fall down my face. I'm unprepared, I will die in these games. I am sure I will die practising my beliefs, I will not kill. 

"Astrid," my father says gently." You are a brilliant young lady, you will know what to do when the time comes. After all God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers." He puts his hand on my shoulder in attempt to comfort me. 

I take a deep shaky breath."I know."

" I will pray every night that you will come home safe and sound."

"Dad, even if I come home, the best you can hope for is that I'm alive. Safe and sound might not be even possible. Even if my bones aren't cracked, my mind with be torn. I will never come out of the games okay. No matter what I will be broken." I say to him.

A small tear falls down his cheek. He knows what I said is true. Little Pete lifts his head and sees my dad crying. " What are you playing Petey?" I ask to keep his mind away from my father. As always Little Pete doesn't acknowledge me and draws his attention back to the black screen. I hugged my dad and he left the room quietly dragging Pete behind him. I took the time alone to cry. 

Some one else's footsteps come towards my room, I think it is a peace keeper. I look up slowly and notice that it's Sam's mom Connie. She smiles at me softly. " You know Sam loves you right?" She asks me. I nod my head and my blond curls bob up and down. "He says he can't live without you." 

I look into her eyes" Without him, nightmares of what happened in there will engulf me night after night. I will probably end up drunk like most of them do. Without him, I will lose my mind. If he gets hurt, I will spend the rest of my life dwelling on how it was my fault. Sam's strong, he can stay sane without me, but I can't stay sane without him."  Connie looked at me sadly. She stood up slowly and walked out the door. She probably went to go talk to Sam. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I was only thinking about Sam. I should've been worrying about my own unlucky butt, but I was worrying about Sam. 

Sam's POV

All I wanted was that Astrid lived through the games. That would be the last thing I did, protecting Astrid. I would die protecting her. Even if she didn't win the games, I would die before she did. My mom poked her head in my room with tears in her eyes. She shook her head, confirming my suspicions. Astrid didn't want to be saved. She wanted just as I wanted but instead of wanting her to live she wanted me to live. I threw a pillow gently at my mom to get her to go away. I needed some time to think. I would protect her whether she liked it or not. The only way she would be able to get me to stop protecting her is if I die, which would be going against her own wishes. 

I smiled triumphantly. I have outsmarted Astrid the genius. I sat there gloating. My happiness was disturbed by a soft knock on the wall. It had to be Astrid, she was  probably right next to me. I answered with a few knocks of my own and waited for a reply. she tapped gently three times. I repeated the sequence. Even if we had no idea what we were saying, we were communicating. We were consoling each other, keeping our thoughts occupied not on the games, but on each other. I put my head on the wall so I could better hear her tapping on  the wall. The walls were thin and I heard her mumbling under her breath. 

She knocked in tune with the words. She was knocking syllables. I whispered, "sorry?" and tapped twice along with the word. I heard her laughing quietly and she whispered. 

"I love you," while she said it she tapped three times, once for each word.

I smiled and tapped four times in reply and whispered " I love you too."

The tapping stopped for a few minutes. I sat there longing the small taps on the wooden wall. Longing the feeling of company. I needed to know I wasn't alone in this. I heard a sharp intake of breath and a loud noise. "No," I whispered. Were they hurting her?

I ran out of the room and two peacekeepers caught me dragging me back in the room. I struggled to get out of their grip but it was no use. They threw me to the floor while a third peacekeeper locked the door. One of the two peacekeepers who caught me tied my hands together and attached me to the ceiling. Were they kidding? They were tying me to the ceiling? The third peace keeper- the one who had locked the door- handed the first peacekeeper a long piece of leather with a thin end and a handle on the end. A whip.

They wouldn't hurt me. I was going in the hunger games. For the Capitol's entertainment. Then again, they were hurting Astrid and the Capitol seemed to enjoy the pain of children.I cried out in pain as the whip made a cracking noise and collided with my skin. I thought of his as a fight between my back and the whip. We all knew who would win in the end, leaving the other one completely distorted and useless. Pain engulfed me as the whip lashed my back over and over again. I faintly heard Astrid crying in her room.

Anger replaced the pain almost entirely. What had they done to her? How badly was she hurt. I had to know. But the bonds held tight and the peacekeepers would never let me get out of here.

"...right?" I heard one of the peacekeepers finish his sentence.

"Repeat ?"  I had no idea what he had just said. The other two snickered and the one closest to me sighed in exasperation. 

"I said: You have learned your lesson, right?" I nodded my head, not wanting to lower his patience with me. He slapped m hard across my face and I tasted blood. I looked at him bitterly. The three just walked away leaving tied up but they left the door unlocked. 

I heard them walk into Astrid's room and leave quickly. She knocked loudly, urgently on the wall. There was nothing I could do except listen. Both my hands were raised above my head by the rope that bound me to the ceiling.