Stay • Everlark (REVAMPING)

17. fire

I highly recommend listening to the song above whilst reading this chapter. (I may start adding a song to every chapter from now on.)

Katniss:
The hospital doors fly open and I almost collapse at the entrance. Rightly so. I've at least ran five miles. The hospital is small, but there's a few clinics dotted around now that 12 supplies medicine.

I drag myself to the desk and come to a man with thin glasses and cropped black hair. "May I help you?" He says bluntly, without looking up.

"Peeta Mellark. Where is he?" I pant.

The receptionist finally looks up and is startled to see who I am.

"Miss Everdeen, what an hon—"

"Cut the crap. If you're not going to help me, I'll find someone who can." I say, making the man jump a mile.

"Uhh, Follow me, right this way. He'll be in room 94 when he's ready for visitation."

I follow him into a white corridor with the label 'mentally disoriented'. It must've been a new ward made after the war, you'd be surprised at how many of us that label describes.

After a lot of twist and turns, I finally see Haymitch sat miserably on one of four blue hospital chairs. His hands are over his mouth and I can only hope it doesn't mean anything bad.

"What the hell happened?" I cry at Haymitch, before I unravel in front of him.

He sighs and lends me a hand to get up from where my knees fell away. "We were out looking at wedding suits for him when we passed the old bakery. It's one of the only buildings that hasn't been touched. He saw the sign and it must have triggered some bad memory or something because he just collapsed and started sobbing and banging his head against the concrete. I went over to him but he pushed me back so I got help and now he's here."

"Can I see him? Please Haymitch let me see him." I beg.

Haymitch pats the seat for me to sit down and shakes his head. "The nurses said he needs to be isolated. It's standard procedure apparently."

I shake my head furiously. I know him better than anyone, and the one thing he'd hate to be is alone.

"They don't know him like I do." I tell him. "Please."

Haymitch sighs again. "I can't, precautions are precautions."

He's left me no choice but to go in myself. And he knows it.

"Katniss, don't you dare."

I run through the double doors in front of me and look for room 94. I'm surprised at the lack of nurses chasing me but I can hear Haymitch's feet behind me yet I don't care. I pass all the rooms until I'm sure the one I'm in front of is it. It's sectioned off from all the rest. Special treatment, I assume. The glass on the door is tinted, so I take a breath, and slowly open it.

Peeta is sat by himself on a hospital bed, staring down at the cleanly sheets. He has a fading bruise going from his head to the corner of his right eye.

When he see's it's me, he puts his hand over his mouth and the tears begin to stream from my eyes. I can feel my body starting the shake with sobs and a sound of exasperation escapes my lips from the crying.

I dash unsteadily towards him, exhausted from all the running, and I can't believe he is really there. He just looks at me gratefully and tries his best to stand up.