Together, Always || An After Mockingjay Everlark Fanfiction

Chapter 26

Her black hair fluttered behind her in a gentle gust of wind and then settled, cascading down her back in a silky sheet. She grasped my hand tighter with hers as she pulled me along and I looked down at our intertwined fingers. Her hands were small and delicate compared to mine but strong. She guided me in between trees with such familiarity, after having practically lived in these woods since the moment she could walk. I tugged at her hand, pulling her towards me and draped my arm around her, resting my hand on her waist. Smiling, she put her arm around me too and snuggled into my side. We walked through the forest in peaceful silence enjoying the familiar sounds of our surroundings. After half an hour passed we reached our usual resting place, a large flat faced rock next to a berry bush.

We strip the bush of half of its berries and placed them in our hunting bag, eating one every now and then. Then we start throwing berries to each other, trying to catch them with our mouths. Katniss catches every one, watching the berry fly towards her and placing herself perfectly underneath it. I, on the other hand, miss almost everyone apart from the occasional times I get lucky. Still laughing, we fill up half the hunting bag with berries before Katniss scootches towards me and places her lips on mine. I feel a stirring in the pit of my stomach making me ache for more. I slowly begin to wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her gradually more and more towards me but she pulls away, grins at me cheekily then beckons me to follow her and move on with our hunting trip.

We continue through the forest until Katniss gives me the hand signal that tells me she can hear game nearby. This hand signal also tells me to stay put so I don't scare away the game she's trying to hunt by being to loud. I stop in my tracks and watch as she pulls out her bow, whips out an arrow and secures it into place in her bow in a second without making a single sound. She crouches slightly and poises the bow so the arrow sits straight, parallel to her line of vision. I wish I had my paintbrush and paints to paint her like this.

Suddenly, her whole body stiffens as she prepares to let the arrow fly at her target. But every bone in my body told me that something wasn't right. Her eyes were wide with fear. She slowly backed away from something that I couldn't see behind the trees. She held her arrow for too long. I ran towards her until I saw what had left her so shocked.

Finnick. Wearing black battle gear, tears of pure terror swimming in his sea green eyes. If I wasn't so sure that he was already dead, I would have run to him, helped him. Finnick takes a sudden step towards me when Katniss finally let it fly, the arrow finding a home in his chest. He screams in pain over and over again, his screams becoming more and more animal like. His nails grow and curl into black talons as he scratches at the arrow in his chest. His eyes become covered in a layer of pale white slimy scales and he stretches taller, towering over Katniss and I.

The mutt runs for Katniss who I shove hard into the other direction, "Run!" I scream. I shut my eyes, unable to fight my old friend. I feel slimy hands grab me, it's claws ripping into my skin and hear the terrifying screams rattling in the throat of the mutt. I wait for the death bite but it doesn't come. I open my eyes again to see my surroundings change, now I'm in a bedroom. I scream when I see the mutt above me again, gripping my arms and still screaming, spraying it's spit in my face. I push the creature off and roll off the bed preparing to run.

"Peeta! It's Katniss! Whatever you're seeing, it isn't real!"

I look back over my shoulder hesitantly, this could be another of Snow's tricks. But I see no lizard mutt, just Katniss crouched on the bed, ready to either run or attack if necessary, I'm not sure which. Katniss crawled across the bed towards me cautiously, her eyes boring deep into mine as if she were examining them. When she seemed satisfied with something in my eyes, she rushes towards me and wraps her thin but strong arms around me. I become aware of my pounding heartbeat, my violently shivering body and my shallow quick breaths. Sweat and tears drip off my face.

"It's okay Peeta. It wasn't real. It was just a nightmare."

"It seemed so real," I whisper my voice quaking with terror.

"Its okay. You're okay. Just take some deep breaths." After a few minutes my breathing and heart rate seem to return to a relatively normal state again.

"Real or not real?" I ask.

"Sure."

She guides me gently over to the edge of the bed where we sit.

"This is your bedroom."

"Real."

"We are in District 12."

"Real."

"Finnick is dead."

She hesistates a moment but takes a deep breath and says, "Real."

"I killed him."

"Not Real. He was killed by lizard mutts in the Capitol."

"Snow made Finnick into a lizard mutt."

"Not Real."

There are so many questions zooming around my head but I think I can figure out the rest myself.

"Thank you Katniss. I'm sorry."

"Its fine." She sits on my lap and leans in for a long lingering kiss. All too soon, her soft lips part from mine.

"Its pretty early. Do you want to try and get some more sleep?" she's says, stroking my hair off my sweaty face. I look out the open window and see its still pitch black outside. I nod and she climbs into bed first. I crawl into her open arms and place my head on her shoulder. She envelops me in her arms as I do the same. She strokes my hair off my sweaty forehead and to my surprise, begins to sing softly the tune of what must be a lullaby. Half of me wants to stay awake and listen to her beautiful voice, but the other half becomes so sleepy from the calming tune. I fight to stay awake to listen, every now and then catching words like "meadow" and "willow". But eventually, drowsiness overcomes me and pulls me under.

                                                                                         🌼🔥🌼

As soon as my eyes open, I notice the absence of Peeta from the bed. I stretch, hop out of bed and search for him, knowing the first place to look. After nights like last night, Peeta likes to wake up and paint while the images are still fresh in his mind. And just like I thought, when I peek my head around the half closed door I see Peeta in his little art studio, his back facing me as he paints.

I can see two new paintings that he has managed to paint this morning plus the third painting he continues to work on now. One resting on the wall to the left of Peeta shows me, in position to shoot an arrow from my bow into something hidden in the trees. The other finished painting to the right of Peeta depicts a terrified Finnick amongst the trees of our forest I assume, tears swimming in his emerald eyes. The third painting he continues to paint now shows Finnick again but this time with an arrow in his heart, his white scaled hands clawing with curled black talons at the arrow. I watch as Peeta covers his beautiful green eyes with white scales and fills his mouth with sharp teeth. He drops his paintbrush to the floor and holds his head in his hands. I rush forward through the room and wrap my arms around his shaking frame to calm his sobbing.

HHAHAHAH I KNOW YOU'RE SICK OF READING ME WRITE ABOUT THEM HAVING NIGHTMARES IN THIS STORY BUT HAHAHA HERES ANOTHER ONE BECAUSE I'M STUPID AND UNORIGINAL AND CANT THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE TO WRITE ABOUT

HAPPY NEW YEARS! I hope 2016 is amazing for each and every one of you beautiful people. I hope you have an awesome year!!