When I Died

Chapter 8

Pictures flip through my head. Random moments of my life. My mother and father tucking me into bed when I was young, Katniss and me in the woods with our father, her trying to teach me to hunt, seeing Katniss on the TV in the Capitol before the games, and then Coins agitated face after the bomb. The pictures start getting blurrier and then it's just white.

My eyes flutter open and I'm in a small room without windows. I go to sit up and realize I'm chained to a bed with the metal cuffs digging into my wrists. I go to get up again but can't. I shout but its not my voice. It's....

Katniss's.

I shout for a while then my throat is sore so I stop. I examine my surrounding a little more. One of the walls is one way glass and the other three are pale grey concrete. There's no door in sight. How would I have gotten in then?

Suddenly, a section of a wall pops out and slides away to reveal a quarry of nurses. They step in like a mob of killer bees, not breaking apart. One holds a clipboard, another a large syringe full of thick red mixture that looks strangely like blood and another holds an empty syringe.

One sees I am awake and says, "Ooh goody! Katniss is awake! Time for her shots, then President Snow is coming!"

What? Katniss? I'm Katniss. I'm Prim. What is going on?

The nurse with the syringe full of red liquid comes towards me and inserts it into my arm carefully. I feel pins and needles all over my body and then she pushes. The liquid goes into my bloodstream and immediently I scream in pain, so intense, it does my head in.

The nurse looks down at me with an evil smile on her face. I writhe and scream and then the pain slows leaving me twitching on my bed.

"All good but let's just check, to make sure!"

A nurse says. She walks around my bed to the other arm and inserts her empty syringe into it. She pulls it out and thick red blood is inside. But there's something wrong with it. It's too light in color.

"Perfect! Ok, now it's time for Snow!"

At first I think they're going to take the horrible cuffs off me but they don't, they just put a key into the bed (?) and the chains clip off. I go to sit up but the chains are still too heavy. I lie back down and two nurses pick up the chains on my arms and another two pick up the ones on my feet. With a tug of the chains, they move me into a sitting position and then stand me up. My legs are weak and shake under my weight, and if it wasn't for the chains, I'd fall over.

They move the chains in sync and I find myself walking with them to the wall. It opens as we get there and we step out into a clear blood red hallway.

They walk me down it and as they are doing so, I look over at their faces. The nurse that has the empty syringe looks delighted at controlling me. The one with the full one has a determined look on her face, while the other two are like the first. The nurse with the clipboard stands behind me, occasionally poking me with her sharp claws. They lead me down the hallway and several others like it and then we come to a large elevator. The nurses look dissapointed as then clamp the chains on a bar near the back of the lift and then push the top floor button and step out, leaving me with my shaky legs and uncomfortable chains. The doors close and the lift slides into action. It seems to go slower than a normal lift and it plays symphonic suspense music as I observe the elevator. It has blood red carpet that itches my feet and white walls with dried blood colored paint splattered all over them. The lift even gives off the scent of roses and dried blood. I shiver.

The lift suddenly stops and the doors open. Another quarry of nurses come and take my chains and I helplessly follow them out to another blood red hallway. They lead me down a few more of these and then stop outside (guess what color!) a blood red door. One puts her finger on a pad outside and it opens with a clunk. They walk me inside to a small room with another door on the other side. They drop my chains and I want to run but they're too heavy. I nearly fall over but manage to stop myself. Two nurses grab my arms and the others take my cuffs off. Finally! The two nurses pull me over to a wall and it slides open to reveal a body-shaped indent. They shove me into it and immediently cuffs reveal and hold down my arms and legs.

Helplessly I look down at the nurses. Their evil faces beam up at me and suddenly they start moving. I realize that it's not them moving, it's the wall. And me. It's spinning. So fast it's making me dizzy. It spins all the way around and their sick faces dissapear. I'm in darkness. Inside the wall. I realize the walls still moving, but fowards. Towards the other wall. I'm going to be squished! I struggle to slip out of the handcuffs but can't. I close my eyes, take a deep breath and prepare for impact.

But it never comes. I open my eyes and see the wall open up like double doors. They reveal a beautiful office with glass walls opening out onto the whole of the Panem. It has modern contemporary couches and tables and a desk with two small eyes facing it and a black chair on the other side, facing the view. Someone is in it. The wall thumps closed behind me. The person in the chair seems to hear and slowly turns. It completely turns and I am staring at president snow, wearing a huge smile on his face, evilly.

He stands up an walks over to me with long strides. I nearly flinch but manage not to.

I'd only ever met President Snow once. He had come especially to district 12 to speak to Katniss.

He had knocked on the door and when my mother had answered it, white faced, he had strode right in and made his home in our study, waiting for Katniss.

Now, he stared into my eyes with a naked gaze. He clears his throat and speaks.

"You've caused alot of trouble Katniss Everdeen."

Katniss? He was the second person to call me that. I look down at myself. I am taller than usual and my body isn't like mine. It's more slender. A strand of brown hair falls over my face. Not my blonde hair. KATNISS'S BROWN HAIR!

I am in Katniss's body.

"You caused the rebellion then fueled into a roaring flame. You then nearly killed me."

He got closer and presses his face up to mine. In a whisper he says,

"You will die. Once and for all."

He walks back over to his desk and pulls out a knife from a draw.

Even as bloodthirsty as he is, it looks wrong in his hand. He never actually killed anyone himself. He always put his dirty work in the games or some other way where he didnt get his hands stained.

He walks back over to me and pulls up the knife to my face, as if letting me take it in more.

"Oh, and one more thing!" He goes back over to the desk and opens the bottom drawer. The smell of roses and blood wafts out, so strong it sickens me. He pulls a white one out and walks back over to me. He holds it close to my nose and let's me take it in. The smell nearly makes me faint. He tucks it into my breast pocket. He pulls up the knife to my face and suddenly, the sharp tip is touching my cheek. Suddenly it's as if I'm floating in the air, looking down on Snow playing with Katniss's face with a knife. Her screams fill my ears.

"Katniss!"

I try to pull snow away from her but my hands go straight through him.

Her blood streams down her face. He takes the knife away from her left cheek and places it on her right one.

He digs it in and starts moving it around her face. Her screams are non stop now. Tears stream down my face. I desperately try to pull him away but it doesn't help one bit. He 'draws' a mockingjay on her cheek then moves to her forehead and 'writes', "The almighty powerful," in small print then "MOCKINGJAY" in large capital letters.

She's still screaming in pain and I am lying on the floor in a helpless reck. Snow is smiling like a happy puppy.

He steps away and admires his handiwork. He walks over to his desk, pulls out a camera and takes a picture of her helpless on the wall. He takes the camera to a door on the far wall and then puts it into a shute next to it. He then talks into a receiver.

"A picture is on its way down, make sure every citizen of Panem sees it."

A crackly voice comes back,

"Yes sir."

He smiles and walks back over to where Katniss is on the wall. He puts his face right up to her bleeding one and spits, "Are you ready to die, Mockingjay?"

With that, he pulls the knife up and plunges it into her chest.

Her screams echo in my ears as the world fades.

"Katniss!" I whimper over and over again. "No..."

The world fades to blackness.