Hunger Games High School

Chapter 23 : Gifted

Katniss POV

“I miss them so much and can never have them back! If you hadn’t swerved into them they would still be with me!” he yells. I inch a little closer and grab Annie slowly. His grip loosens and Annie falls from his arms to her knees and crawls over to Finnick shaking. 

“Then take me. Don’t hurt my friends though. But think about what you are doing! If there wasn’t snow that day no one would have swerved and crashed. If one person had left a second later we wouldn’t have crashed. There are so many what ifs from that day but killing me will not bring them back or change anything. I know you are hurting because I am too. I am scarred for life because of what happened but I can’t blame anyone. It was a case of bad timing. Just think about what you are committing.” I say to him in a calm voice. He looks at me and points the knife in my direction. I close my eyes and wait for the pain to take over my body. Instead nothing comes.

“I am so sorry.” he says. I think this means he is sorry for what he about to do, kill me. Instead I hear him running. I open my eyes and my body stiffens. I hear Cato or one of the other two take a step towards me but I put my hand up signaling them to stop and leave me. I hear them all step backwards and walk back to where we were sleeping. I rest my arm on the tree and turn to lean on my back. I slowly slide down and grab my knees. No tears come and nothing comes out of my mouth. I think he is gone. I think he will stop bothering me. I had no idea the other car had bad damage. I never really was concerned for them, I just grieved for my dad. He had the chance to kill me and he didn’t. Someone was out to get me for years. All these thoughts and many more run through my head. I stand back up and wobble on my feet unsteadily. I walk around his backyard and over to this little pond in the back of his property. I look into the water and run my fingers in the cold clearness of it. The water shakes and I turn around looking to see who is causing the commotion. I see Delly walking towards we angrily and I stand up with my arms crossed. My stance makes her even angrier and she breaks into a run. I am starting to get a little worried about how close she is getting and she isn’t slowing down. Before I can move out of the way she pushes me and I splash into pond. The wind is knocked out of me from how cold the water is. I struggle to come up for air. I finally reach the bottom and push up. I gasp when I reach the surface and cough. Delly stands there with a sick smile on her face. She skips away from me. How the hell did she even get in here. I splash the water angrily. I swim to the edge and pull myself up and out of the dirty water. I was finally dried off from earlier and now I am soaked again. I pull off the sweatshirt and I am in my under garments. I wring it out and slip it back on shivering again. I walk back over to the huddle and everyone is fast asleep. I need something else to wear but I don’t want to wake anyone up. My head starts to get dizzy so I lay down a little farther away from everyone else before I fall asleep. 

Peeta POV

I wake up with the sun in my eyes. My back is really sore from sleeping on the grass. I look to where Katniss fell asleep and she isn’t there. I look around and a little farther away she is laying down facing the group. Her sweatshirt is soaked and so is her hair. No one else is still wet which confuses me. I walk over to her and realize how pale she is and her lips are purple. I speed up my pace and crouch beside her. I grab her hand and it is freezing. I wrap her in my arms and shake her trying to wake her. It takes a while but soon enough her eyes open wearily. “Peeta…” she whispers and coughs. She seems really weak and my grip tightens. 

“Katniss what happened?” I ask her.

“Ask…Cato…Finnick…Annie” she whispers. I pick her up bridal style in my arms. I kick everyone to wake them up. They all groan and when Cato sees Katniss he kits Finnick and Annie. They look away nervously. Katniss looks to them and nods.