Everthorne

Chapter 25

Katniss's POV

I wake up on a cool mattress, a loud fan above me turning in circular motion. I sit up, looking at the room I'm in.

Random paintings covered the walls, neatly hand drawn flowers and people. I recognise one of them. It's the painting Peeta drew of the Hunger Games, something no body should experience. Among those random paintings of flowers and skies were a really detailed picture of Prim, smiling at something in front of her. She has a flower in her golden locks of hair matching the blue colour of her eyes.

As I looks through the canvases of art I hear a creak of a door opening behind me. I turn around to be met with sparkling blue eyes.

"Peeta," I mutter as I throw myself into his arms. He embraces me gently, not like Gale, Peeta holds me as if I'm about to shatter into pieces. Softly but barely, holding back slightly. He lets go of me and examines my face, expressionless.

"I have to show you something," he says, his voice strong and emotionless. I nod and follow him out of the room.

He leads me through dark, twisted hallways. The only sound filling my ears were our soft footsteps echoing through the bare hallway. After a long time of silently walking, we arrive at a metal door, the words Entrance carved into it. I feel a surge of fear for the thing behind the door.

I don't know why I did, but I closed my eyes. I wish I never did that.

I open them to the sight of 23 children lying on the floor, blank eyes staring at the sky. I gasp in shock. Blood is everywhere, coating the young children's shirts. I turn around and fall onto the dirt, coughing and covering my eyes from the sight.

"See Katniss? this is what would have happened if I hadn't have died," Peeta's voice echoes in my head. I shake my head in disagreement.

"No Peeta, no, no..." I close my eyes, begging myself to wake up from this nightmare. I hear loud ringing in my ears, probably the shock. I never thought I would see more children dead after the hunger games.

"But wait, there's more," Peeta's voice echoes from the sky. I keep my eyes closed, no way that my eyelids will open to see what's next. I wait to wake up, but it never happens.

A picture burns into the back of my eyelids. I try to ignore it, but it grows brighter and brighter until the point when I can't ignore it anymore. I sigh, and examine it.

It's Rue.

Her eyelids are closed shut, it looks like she is peacefully sleeping. Her hands are crossed on her chest, flowers in her long brown hair.

The image zooms out until I can see what she is perched on. Hard wood surrounds her until and invisible hand pushes down what looks like a pale white lid. Before I know it I can't see my daughter anymore, but a closed wooden coffin.

Then it hits me, like that arrow I shot at Marvel in the Hunger Games.

Rue is dead.

"Katniss, wake up!" I hear. I groan slightly as I open my eyes, staring at Gale's grey ones. "Katniss! The T.V!" he points at the television in my room frantically.

I sit up, staring at the image flickering on the TV. It's the masked men I encountered earlier, the ones that took Prim and Rue, the ones that threatened to bring the Hunger Games back.

They are holding our President, who is crying. They hold a gun to her matted brown hair, the safety off.

"Go," one of them says. She looks at the sky, obviously silently praying for her life.

"I am the president of the Capitol and the 13 Districts, and the Hunger Games will be going again. Every child in the age of 12-18 will be reaped for the Games, all the rules from before apply," she strains. Tears roll down her cheeks as she closes her eyes. I hear a loud bang from the speakers. She has been shot in the skull. Static takes over the screen and I can no longer see her, or the masked men. It's just me, Gale, and the panic that has settled in our chests.

The Hunger Games are back.

And I'm going to stop it.

END OF BOOK ONE