The Beginning of the End

Chapter 9

-Peeta-  

  Gale walks out of Katniss's room and I run up to him.

     "Well?" I ask. He avoids my eyes.

     "She is convinced that you're a murderer. She told me to stay away from you." he tells me flat out. No sugar-coating it. I put my face in my hands, but I'm beyond tears. My body is numb and I finally understand the way Katniss must have felt when our situations were reversed.

     "We need to get her out of here." Gale and I say at the same time. I chuckle and he smirks.

-Katniss-

     The moonlight lights my room with a beautiful faded glow. It casts strange, threatening shadows on the wall and I shudder, imagining Peeta coming in with a knife to kill me. I take a few deep breaths and try to relax.

     Suddenly the door opens and I see two shadows creep in. I open my mouth to scream, but a hand is clamped over my mouth. I begin to thrash, but I feel a needle go into my skin and immediately it becomes impossible to move. Gentle hands put me in a wheelchair and I'm moved out into the hall. The light reveals my two captors to be Peeta and Gale. Hatred fills me at the sight of Peeta, and hurt when I see Gale. He promised he'd stay away. I never thought he might be working with or for Peeta.

     The boys are dressed in doctor scrubs, and when the receptionist looks up she just smiles and goes back to typing. It's a simple, but ingenious plan. We get to the elevator and I can start moving my face.

     "You're not going to get away with this." I say, surprised at how calm I am. He gives me a pained look, and takes my hand. Unable to move, I have no choice but to let him.

     "Don't touch me or I swear, as soon as I can move, I'll kill you." I say. Gale smirks and pipes in.

     "Wasn't that your plan all along?" he says. I frown.

     "You betrayed me. How could you do that?" I ask. He bites his lip and shakes his head.

     "No, Katniss. We both love you very much and we are here to help." he says. Peeta nods and squeezes my hand before letting go.

     "You'll be okay." he whispers. We reach the bottom floor and Haymitch is there, waiting.

     "You too?!" I cry. The people in the lobby look up.

     "Well hello to you too sweetheart." he says. Since I can't turn away from him I close my eyes. I can hear him laugh and take the wheelchair from Gale.

     "Okay, the car is waiting for us outside. Peeta, you'll drive us to the train station, where it's also waiting to take us back to twelve." Peeta and Gale talk at the same time.

     "Um...I don't know how to drive." Peeta says nervously.

     "How did you manage that?" Gale asks. I open my eyes and find I'm able to turn my head. I turn to Peeta and his eyes find mine. In that moment I see a cave, and feel his lips against mine. I become confused for a minute. His behavior so far hasn't been threatening at all.

     "Peeta...the boy with the bread." I mutter, repeating the words I feel like I've heard before. His eyes light up and I feel Haymitch freeze and Gale seems to stop breathing.

     "Yes Katniss..." he says, but the memories of his crimes return. I narrow my eyes.

     "You killed her." I say, meaning Prim. His face falls and he shakes his head.

     "No Katniss, President Snow did that." I look at Gale and he avoids my eyes.

     "No! President Snow was a good man." I continue to scream and they put me in the car.

     "I'm sorry, Katniss." Gale says as he duct tapes my mouth. A blindfold is put over my eyes and everything goes black.