Chapter 15

Peeta's POVI am dressed in my best suit. Ready to be married to Katniss.

It's a black tux with a blood-red shirt underneath.

I go for a walk before the ceremony. I need to have all my thoughts in place.

I spot the back of one of my brothers. I begin to run over to him.

And then a firebomb hits him, blowing him up.

The rest of my family is trapped inside of a little fenced off area.

I look up, from where the firebomb was thrown. Katniss is hanging out from a hovercraft, bombing District 12. She throws one on the bakery.

"NO!" I scream. When she sees me, she sends me an evil grin. She throws a couple down on my family, and then Gale appears besides her, and they start to make out furiously.

I try to get to my family, but it's too late. Their corpses are burning up.

Next thing I know, Katniss us standing in front of me. Sheis wearing her wedding dress, it's all torn though.

And across it, there is a word written in blood:

'MUTT' Because, that's who she is. A stinking mutt!

"It's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding," she laughs crazily. She takes out a butcherknife, and cut into the flesh of my stomach. My red shirt quickly becomes soaked in warm, thick, dark blood.

She sticks her finger into my stomach, her finger covered with blood when she pulls it out again. She puts it up to her forehead, and write the word 'Always' on her forehead.

She cuts into my ankle, causing me to fall to the ground. She continues to laugh like a crazy maniac, and keeps on screaming my name.

Katniss' POVI wake up from Peeta throwing himself around in the bed, accientally hitting me in the head. He is screaming in a painful tone, and crying in his sleep. I start to call him, and shake him, trying to get him to wake up.

"Peeta, it's just a nightmare, don't worry, everything's okay, you're okay.

He wakes up, and flies straight up into sitting position. His eyes shoot open, and stares at me. His expression tells me what's happening, before he opens his mouth. The life in his eyes is gone.

"YOU MUTT! YOU STINKING MUTT! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU! I'LL DESTROY YOU! YOU DESTROYED EVERYONE! YOU'RE A FUCKING MURDERER!"

I don't know exactly what is wrong with my brain, but instead of getting out of the bed, I grab his wrists, looking him deeply into his eyes.

"Peeta, it's not real. It's not real. Look at me! It's not real, stay with-" He wiggles himself out of my grip, throwing himself against me. I dodge him, and roll out of the bed. I feel cold metal against my back, and I grab the butcherknife, that I am laying on top of. Peeta flies out of the bed, and throws himself against me. He presses his arm up against my throat, with such force, that he throws me into the wall. I realize that I can't do anything with the butcherknife, since that would just make everything worse. But then I get an idea. I basically throw the knife onto the floor, Peeta turn to the knife, removing his arm from me. I run under his arm, and run out of the bedroom, hearing Peeta run after me. But with a prostetic leg and a cut up ankle, you can't really run that quickly. I grab a broom, run out of the front door, and stick the broom under the handle. Knowing that he can get out of the windows, I start to run towards Haymitch's house.

"Catnip? Catnip! Hey, slow down!"

Oh no.

Gale approaches me.

"Why are you running away from you own house?" He asks me, both of us running towards Haymitch's house.

"Katniss, you are running towards Haymitch's house, with blood all over you, after you locked your house with a broom."

He reach Haymitch's front door.

"Gale, it is none. of. your. business!" I shout.

"Well, let me at least guess: Does it has something to do with him?" He points at my house. Peeta is crawling out of a window.

"Shit!" I say, as I rip the door open, pushing Gale inside. I lock the door, and turn to Gale.

"Listen, if you want to help with anything, check that every single window is locked," I say.

Gale starts to check the windows, and I walk into the living room. I grab a bottle of whisky, and pour it over Haymitch.

"Wake up Haymitch! We have a big problem." Haymitch wakes up, waving his knife around.

"Is he the problem?" He grumbles, pointing the knife at Gale, as Gale enters.

"Okay, so we have two problems today," I shrug. Gale sends me an evil glare.

"What's the problem, Sweetheart?" Haymitch asks, waving his knife around in circles.

"Peeta, he is--"

"WRAAGH!"

We all turn to where the sound came from. Peeta is slamming himself against a window.

"MUTT!"

"Oh, so it's boy problems?" Haymitch chuckles.

"Haymitch, it's not funny!" I hiss at him. Gale tries to swallow a laugh, because of the fact that Peeta looks kind of stupid, throwing himself against the window.

"Okay, okay. Tell me what happened," Haymitch says.

"Okay," I take a deep breath. "Last night someone broke into my house, so I called Peeta, beause I was scared. The person tied me together with rope, and grabbed a butcherknife. Peeta came to save me, and attacked the person, getting his ankle cut open in the process. The person escaped. Peeta slept over, because we had to get him to the-"

"Woah, woah, woah. You let that psycho sleep in the same bed as you? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"Gale, first of all, he isn't a psycho, he is hijacked! Second of all, stilll, none of your fucking business!" I shout at Gale.

"Now, let me continue: We had to get him to the hospital first thing in the morning, but he was having a nightmare, so I woke him up. When he woke up, he was having flashbacks."

"How are you still alive?" Haymitch asks, and I know what he is referring to: How could I get out, with him so close to me.

"At first I tried talking him out of it, but it didn't work. Then he threw himself towards me, and I fell out of the bed. I felt the butcherknife from yesterday, and I grabbed it, just as he attacked me. He pinned me up against the wall, and I loudly dropped the knife, turning his attention to that. Then, I escaped."

"Okay, stupid move with that knife in the first place. That knife is not a happy memory. But, dropping something that you could kill him with, might make you seem like less of a threat."

"Well, if he actually tried something, she needed some sort of self protection from that psycho!" Gale shouts.

Haymitch jumps up, pressing the blade of his knife against Gale's throat.

"Listen carefully boy: I don't know why you are here, but you shouldn't. Peeta is loosing his mind because of around two and a half years of torture from the Capitol, and you have the guts to call him a psycho. And, out of all people, you. You saw the weapons that they used to torture him with, when you got him out of the Capitol. If I were you, I'd either shut up now, or leave, and never speak to me, Katniss or Peeta ever again. Or I might just turn you into an avox, so I am certain that you will never speak to anyone ever again," Haymitch hisses, slowly pulling away from Gale.

Gale looks frightned for a moment, but then it is replaced by pure rage. He slams Haymitch into a wall.

"Gale!" I gasp.

"listen, you are nothing else than an old drunken, who doesn't know anything else other than sorrow. You are a pathetic excuse for a human being, and you know that. And, you're a murderer."

You're a murderer too, I think to myself.

I pull Gale off of Haymitch.

"Gale, leave. Now." I say coldly.

"There is a psychopath out there, Katniss!" He yells.

"And you better not lay a finger on him, even if he chokes you," I say back. Then I realize something. Peeta is quiet.

I rush over to the window, and open it. I look down to see Peeta knocked out on the ground. I lean a little out of the window.

Before I can react, Peeta flies up, and drags me out of the window.

Peeta rolls on top of me, trying to choke me. I grab his hands, intertwining our fingers. I look deeply into what is usually two bright, soothing, calm oceans, now replaced with dark waters, and wild storms, that is his eyes. As he forces all his power down on me, trying to kill me, I use mine to push him away.

His face starts to soften, and instead of his expression being pure rage, he looks like a lost puppy. I let go of one of his hands, tossing it away. He is just about to throw it around my throat, when my free hand reaches his cheek. I run my finger over it, and he collapses on top of me.

Haymitch and Gale rushes over to me, and when they see Peeta, both of them just stares.

"Wha-What did you do?" Haymitch asks, his voice shaking.

"Nothing," I whisper, my voice cracking.

As if Haymitch can read my thoughts, we drags himself and Gale away.

I pick up Peeta in my arms, crying into his shoulder.

"Peeta, please. Please don't be dead, please, please..."

After a while, Peeta starts to cough.

"Peeta!"

"Wha- what happened?" He mumbles in a raspy voice.

"You don't remember, do you?" I ask him. I realize that my voice sounds weird, since I was crying.

"No, not at all," he says softly, pulling me close, rocking me, and comforting me.

I debate on whether or not to tell him, but end up digging my head into his shirt.

"Seriously, what happened?" He says, pulling my head away, lifting my chin, forcing me to look into his eyes.

"I'll tell you later. We have to get you to the hospital," I get up, grab Peeta by the wrist, pulling him up. He stands so close to me, that I can feel his breath on my lips. I find myself looking at his lips. Those beautiful, soft lips that I miss so dearly. Maybe if I just...

"Katniss," he exhales, "My ankle really, really hurts."

I slip out a small giggle, pulling a bit away. "Let's go."

---

When we get to the hospital, we luckily get through pretty quickly. The doctor tells me that I did a pretty good job, but he still removes the stitches. He does a lot of stuff that I don't know what is, and Peeta screams in pain a couple of times.

"You're all done now, Mr. Mellark. You can't walk on it yet, so we'll get you a pair of crutches. I'll go get them for you now," the doctor tells Peeta. Peeta nods as a thank you, and the doctor disappears.

"Now you can tell me," Peeta smiles.

"Peeta, I don't think that this is the best place to tell you." I say in a concerned tone.

"Oh," he says, frowning.

"No.. Katniss.. I'm so sorry," he says, his voice trembling. He is staring out into nothing, meaning that he is having a flashback of what happened.

"It's not your fault. It's not like you can control it," I defend him.

He pulls me close, whispering into my hair: "If we could have a shot of even being friends, I have to. It is my own fault. I have to control it."

My head is now buried in his shirt, but I manage to speak: "Peeta, you can control it. There is a reason that Dr. Aurelius let out go." I look up into his eyes, since I could feel his eyes on me.

"Yeah, he was tired of me," Peeta smiles jokingly.

"Well, if that's the case, then he is definitely missing out." I smile to myself.

"What do you mean?"

"Not being together with you. In fact, anyone who isn't with you all the time is missing out."

"So everyone should just be jealous of you, since you get to be together with me?"

"Yes," I grin. Peeta chuckles lightly, and pulls me even closer, hugging me tightly.

"I have your crutches, Mr. Mellark," I hear the doctor say behind us.I pull away, take the crutches, and hand them to Peeta.

---

We get back to the Victors Village, walking up the stairs to Peeta's house.

"Soo.." I mumble.

"Soo.." He repeats. "Wanna come in?" I nod, and walk past him, into the house. He haven't been home for a whole night, yet I still get hit by the intense smell of baked goods and paint. I could get used to this smell.

As we enter, I kick off my shoes, and sit down to help Peeta take off his.

"Katniss, you know that you can't be here every time I have to take my shoes off, right?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that I can't help you now," I shrug. "Stupid double knots, I grumble. I fiddle for what seems like forever with the shoelaces, before I finally get his shoes untied. Then, I drag them off. I stand up, and grab Peeta's wrist, pulling him into the living room.

I throw him down on the couch, and take place on his lap.

"Cute," he grins. "Real cute."

"What?" I smile.

"You," he smiles back.

I slide a little off to the side, my arms wrapped around his neck. I rest my head on his shoulder, and his arm snake around my waist.

"Will you tell me now? The whole story?" He asks.

"About what?" I ask.

"You know," he says, his voice shaking a bit.

"Oh, right," I say, straightening a bit.

"You were having a nightmare, and when you woke up, you were in mutt-mode, so I ran out of the house, locking you in with a broom. I went to get help from Haymitch, and you had crawled out of a window, and then you started throwing yourself against one of Haymitch's windows, because you saw us. All the sudden you just stopped. I think that you knew that I would go check on you, because you dragged me out of the window. We started fighting, but you passed out, and you didn't hurt me at all." I explain, leaving out stuff like when he threw me up against the wall, Gale and other stuff like that.

He pulls me close into him, so close that there is no space inbetween us. We're all curled up together, and then he as usual whispers into my hair with a guilty, and hurt tone:

"I'm sorry."