Surviving the Same War

Chapter 23

Surprising what happened last chapter huh? Well, sorry it you won't know what Christina thinks until the next chapter. Sorry again, but for now, let's see what Katniss has been up to shall we?

Oh and one last thing, in this chapter, you will find out who is telling Jeanine all of this stuff!

What the heck, I'll just tell you now.

It's-

KATNISS POV

I held my throat as someone from behind me threatened to kill me. In front if me I saw Gale, he looked pale and frightened. His lips were moving, talking to Jeanine but I couldn't hear anything from my side of the force field.

Jeanine smirked at him and said something I could not hear, but Gale shook his head. Jeanine's face was furious, but she raised her hand to her ear and said something else. The man from behind me let my fall to the ground and I gasped for air. The man sighed and shot Jeanine a glare as she was speaking to Gale. Gale's relief that I had seen seemed to flow out of his body and he stared at me with pleading eyes.

I wanted to tell him something, anything, to say I was okay, but I couldn't. The guard lifted me up as if I was only a feather and dragged me out of the room. With no care, he threw me back into the familiar room I had stayed in for the past few days.

The black walls were plastered with tally marks that were here when I arrived. I had counted them earlier, there were 492 marks on this wall. 492 days someone had stayed in this room before me, but I did not focus on what they did while they were in here when I first counted the marks. I thought about how they left.

Did they die like I fear I will if Jeanine continues to visit me every hour? Or did they escape somehow? I always questioned the marks on the walls, all 492 of them. I've counted them constantly ever since I found them hidden behind the creaky bed that I am forced to sleep on every night after the abusing from the she-devil.

Every hour, she comes in here with a small piece in her ear that she speaks to. Jeanine asks questions that I don't know the answer to, and when I do know an answer, I don't tell her anything. It results in scars along my back from the whips and marks across my face from the slapping, but not once have I ever given her the satisfaction of a single tear or bit of information. She leaves the room furiously every time, murmuring to herself about how next time it would work. Now was no different than any other time. In moments, Jeanine would burst through the door and try to get more information, but it won't work, I'll make sure she doesn't know anything that could be used to her advantage.

"Katniss. Are you ready?" It's no surprise to me as Jeanine walks through the door with a small window frame and brings in a small case. Each time she carries that silver case there is a "new" surprise for me. A whip, a knife, scissors, she has tried everything to get me to talk. "Katniss, I've decided to do something different than our other chats." She takes a step forwards and her lab coat flows behind her. "You see, the is nothing in this case, I won't need it for our talk this time." She slides the case across the floor and it skids to a stop at my feet. My eyes are wide as I open the case and nothing is inside. I glance up at her and stand up.

"What are you going to do this time?" I ask hesitantly. She smirks and reaches into her coat pocket, pulling out a small, silver box.

"This." She reaches to press a button that is at the top and I am met with the screeching sound of a child.

She is screaming my name and I can hear gun shots in the distance. Her shrieks pierce my ears, making me temporarily deaf until I realize who it is.

Prim.

Jeanine reached for the top button once again and pressed it with a wide smirk plastered in her face. "Wasn't that beautiful? We found her Katniss. Your precious Prim, she is here actually, in this very building. So sad for your father though, he put up a good fight, but in the end he couldn't save her, or himself for that matter." She walked slowly around the room and leaned herself up against the wall. "I'll let her go if you just answer a few little questions."