The Hunger Games - Peeta's POV

Chapter Twenty-Five - Victors from 12

"Katniss," I say, shocked. She turns around. "We won. We can go home!" Our lives are spared. We lived. Survived. How is this true? Only a week ago I was as good as dead. In one week I will be as good as new. We cradle each other, rocking back and forth, soaking up the impossible truth that is our reality. That we are to live another day.

The night only gets colder. I share my extra jacket with Katniss, and I hold her in my weak arms. I feel a tugging, a want to slip away, but Katniss does everything but allow me. After what feels like a few hours, the sun rises swiftly, and blesses us with its shine. The mutts were, to my understanding, sucked into a hole underneath the Cornucopia, similarly to the dream I had before the reaping. When the sun peeks through the trees, Claudius Templesmith is the first to greet us.

"There has been a slight rule change in the Games. Previously, the rules stated that two tributes could be crowned victors, as long as they originate from the same district. However, that has been taken aback. There may only be one victor. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour." What does that mean? Why isn't he taking us home? I don't understand until Katniss looks at me, a single tear rolling down her pink cheek. They never meant for two tributes to survive. They just wanted their fun. I can only think of one word. No. No. I wanted to live. I thought I could. I thought I could escape. I thought, I thought, I thought. There may only be one victor. And I think the audience knows who it should be.

I throw aside my knife, signalling that I am not going to attack. Rid me of my nightmares. Take yourself home, I think. I pull out the arrow in my tourniquet and toss it to Katniss. I expect her to draw it back, release it into my heart. But she simply rushes back to me and re-ties it into my leg. I try to crawl away, maybe letting myself bleed to death, but she is already much faster than me. I only speak once it is secured.

"Kill me. We both know who deserves to go home. Who their family needs more. Shoot me."

"They don't need their victors." She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a cluster of blueberries. No - nightlock.

"No!" I dive towards her, swatting the berries out of her hand. She picks them up again, and helps me up.

"Do you trust me." She whispers.

"Yes." She pours half the berries into my hand. "On three?" I ask.

"One, two, three." We both pour them down our throats, and as I'm about to chew them, Claudius screams through his microphone.

"Wait! Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the District 12 victors of the 74th Hunger Games!" Simultaneously, we both spit out the berries, and Katniss sprints to the lake and dashes back with the water skins. We wash our mouths, just to be sure there is no juice left. The hovercraft materialises above us, and drops a ladder. Katniss assists me in getting there. Once I touch the ladder, it freezes us in place. But as soon as it lifts into the air, the tourniquet falls off, blood being dragged out of my leg from the force of the wind. Again, the tug towards sleep. Stronger than before. We are pulled up into the hovercraft, and I immediately collapse on the ground. I am vaguely aware of Katniss, screaming and thrashing, but I am taken into a starless  sleep.