Debut - Locked to Katniss

[fuelforthefire]

Something was very, very wrong. I know the second the wire bounces back toward the tree. Finnick sees it too, Beetee the only one who’s so wrapped up in what he’s doing to notice. He can’t see what’s wrong, wrapped up in his winding the wire around the knife I’ve just given him, the knife I wish I had in my hands now.

When Brutus pounces on us I lunge for Beetee, for my knife, but Finnick gets in the way. It’s too late for the tribute from three, but Finnick pushes me, forcing me back and into the woods. “Go,” he hisses before launching himself at the Career.

Finnick saved me, I realise as I tumble through the trees, running and falling in equal measure. I’m not running away, I’m running to Katniss. The attack came too early and I need to find her. I need to make sure she’s safe; to make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid. The trees seem as if they’re trying to trip me and my leg isn’t helping. I stumble again, unsure of where I am and what is going on until I hear her call my name.

I call back with only a second of thought. I know she’ll be panicked, wishing we had never separated. She needs to know I’m alive before she does anything headstrong, before she sacrifices herself in some crazy Katniss gesture. Even if it calls Brutus and Enobaria down on us. It’s close to midnight and I’m sure of what she’ll be thinking. The kind of Katniss-like things that will get her killed.

She can’t die. There’s no going on for me without her. She has to live.

Hearing me call her name might be what keeps her thinking straight. If she knows I’m out here she’ll look for me. I hurl myself toward where I think she’s calling from, only I’m hurt now. There’s blood and I don’t know whose it is and where it came from.

Not far off the buzzing of the insects ceases and I realise that it’s almost midnight. It’s almost time for the lightning to strike. Had Beetee done enough? Would the tree electrocute us? Was she far enough away?

With that thought I know there isn’t enough speed. There’s no way I can make it through this jungle on time, that I can find her. I howl her name, hoping that whatever happens next she’s far enough away to be safe.

The world explodes.

That’s the only way I can think of it. The flash of white, the sparks, the fire that starts raining down. It’s only when the dome is illuminated in flame that I realise it. Too late I see the other game that’s being played. I should have seen it earlier the way the pieces all snap together, but I was so concerned with keeping Katniss alive, with outsmarting her at her own game that I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t see the picture, only the details.

I scream when I see the hovercraft, but I’m not sure I make any sound. Is my voice raw from calling for Katniss? Can anyone hear me? The cameras won’t be on, the Districts blacked out. But maybe they have their own fires burning tonight.

Revolution doesn’t mean much without her. I want to get away from the claw, away from the Capitol but I’ve gotten too much of the shock. I can barely control the way my body moves, I’m not even sure I ever made a sound.

I don’t want to be their pawn

That’s the last lucid thought I have. It's the last thing that flashes through my mind as the claw lifts me from the Arena.

Comments

[vocalfuel]

I stop short when I see him, frozen to the spot, like I'm physically incapable of moving. For a moment, I'm not sure that isn't true, if only because of how badly I want to run to him or run away. It's been months now since I've seen Peeta, since he vanished without any kind of word or ceremony. I should be relieved, and I am, I guess. I'm just also equally as worried. I can't trust it, can't trust him, even if I'd recognize what he's wearing anywhere, know when he has to have come from. I don't know what to make of that, either.

Heart lodged somewhere up near my throat, I force myself to take a deep breath, fingernails pressing hard into my palms for a moment before I relax my hands again, all I can do not to reach for a weapon. If he tries to attack me, if this is some further Capitol trick, I'll still be ready.

"Peeta?" I ask, like I'm not sure it's him, nearly wincing when my voice breaks. Apart from that, all I can do is stare.

[fuelforthefire]

It's cold wherever this is. Freezing cold and strangely wet. Is this torture, the sort of thing the Capitol does to people after they disobey? Am I dead or just hurting?

I've barely processed all of that when I hear a voice. Her voice. I push up from the snowbank, gasping with shock and cold and wonder. "Katniss? Are we- What happened?"