The Wrong Victor

Chapter twenty: Katniss

Peeta was shot in District 2. He's now in the infirmary and Prim and I sit with him waiting for him to wake up. Prim is asleep in a cot in the corner. I'm in the bed with him. I don't know why I climbed up here, but it felt safe and nice. I lay on my side playing with his blonde hair.

"Peeta Mellark." I whisper as I twirl a lock of dirty hair around my finger. "The baker's son, real. A mutt, not real. Seventeen, real. Nice, real. His favorite color is blue, not real. Orange, real. Bright orange, not real." I knit my eyebrows together. His favorite color. It's orange. What kind of orange?

"Sunset orange." I look down and see Peeta's blue eyes open. His nose scrunches as I start to move away from him. His calloused hand gently grabs mine. "Stay with me?"

"Always." That come automatically anytime he asks me. I settle down and he pulls my hand back to his hair. I smile and play with it. "Do I normally play with your hair?"

"Honestly?" I nod my head. "No. You normally hate being all touchy feely. You close yourself off to everyone, but Prim. I got pretty close to getting you to open up, but then all of this mess happened."

I'm closed off? I look over at Prim who tells me that I'm an amazing sister and caring. But here Peeta is telling me I'm closed off. I knit my brows again and try to think. I don't know who I am. I bite my lip and look away from Prim to Peeta. "Who am I?"

"Katniss, you are too scared to let anyone close because you're scared to lose them. You're hard headed and stubborn to no end. You are caring and loving, but hate to show it because you think it makes you weak." Peeta whispers noticing Prim is asleep in a cot. "You like sweet things and you love cheesy bread. You like to hunt and be silent. You like to observe and not be in the spotlight. You hate attention on you and you are terrible as public speaking."

I look at his face and study it. He has stubble and his eyes are bright and happy even with being shot. "What's my favorite color?"

"Green like the trees. But how I got that information I will never forget. You and I were sitting outside of the train while it was being fixed. You had just smarted off to Effie and I came to see if you were okay. You were angry and it was to be expected, we were being sent to go give speeches about the games to the districts. So we were outside and I said we should talk. We didn't talk much after we got out of the Games. So I wanted to get you to talk. We started small. With our favorite colors." I brush his hair back. I stare into his blue eyes but they slowly begin to become shiny.

I pull away from him and he grabs my arm. No. Not real. He's shiny! I pull from him more and more only for him to hold me tighter. NO! Let me go! "No!" I scream pulling from him. He lets me go and I fall to the ground. He goes to get up, but he can't. I have to get away. I have to get away. I scramble up from the floor and run out.

"Kat- MUTT!" I cover my ears and run. No! I keep running. My legs hurt. My lungs hurt. I can't breathe. Arms grab me and I scream.

"NO! LET ME GO!" I scream struggling against the arms wrapped around me. It's all shiny. It's all shiny! All bad. All bad. Not real. Not real.

"Katniss. Sweetheart, calm down." Haymitch? Haymitch! I turn in his arms and hold onto his neck. "It's okay. It's okay. I got you."

"It's all shiny. Everything's shiny. It's all wrong. Not real. Not real." I whimper to him as his arms hold me and rub my back.

"Nothing is shiny here. Look at me. I'm not shiny." Haymitch says and I shake my head.

"No. It's not real. Not real." I whisper tears rolling down my cheeks.

"I'm real. I'm right here. I'm real. Look at me." I look up and he's right. It's not shiny. He's not shiny. He's real. His calloused hand meets my cheek and brushes my tears away. "I'm real. I'm real." I nod and hide in his shoulder again.