Pure Torture: a Hunger Games Fanfiction

Chapter 97

Katniss

"All those arrows you threw, you threw them away. You kept falling in love, then one day, When you fell, you fell towards me. When you crashed in the clouds, you found me."
-Barcelona

"Are you sure you're okay?" Peeta asks after breakfast.
"Peeta, I'm fine."
"You would tell me if you weren't, right?" He says.
"Yes, Peeta. You know I would." I reply.

After we sent Willow to school earlier, Peeta shut the door behind him and turned to me.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
I looked up at him from where I sat at the table, focused on my breakfast that was getting cold.
"You heard me last night." I said, half asking, half already knowing that he did.
He nodded.

"Well, it's okay. I'm fine." I said. He was quiet for a while, but he kept bringing it up.

So here we are, still sitting in the same spot... him trying to get me to tell him about it, me telling him that he heard everything I said and that's all there was.

Suddenly he changes the subject.
"I... I don't mean to scare you, Katniss, but I'm not feeling like myself today." He says without looking up.
I sit up straighter in my chair, alarmed.
"What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean." He says.

I get up and move to a chair closer to him.
"You mean like last time?" I ask.
He nods.

Last time was about 3 or 4 years ago. Peeta woke up fine, he told me no nightmares, but when I was upstairs putting Willow down for a nap, he called me downstairs. I found him standing in the kitchen, breathing harder than usual.

"Peeta?" I asked, my concern heightening when he looked over at me.
"Peeta, what's happening?" I asked him.
"I... Don't know." He said between breaths.
"Are you okay? Peeta, stop breathing like that! You'll only make it worse." I told him. But he didn't stop.

Instead, his knees buckled. Lucky enough, I was there to help him. He's built much bigger and weighs more than I do, but somehow I caught him. I had to. I didn't even think about it. I just did whatever I could to soften his fall and ended up getting my leg stuck beneath his body, but I didn't care.
I only cared about Peeta.

"Peeta!" I said.
His breaths were getting more rapid. His eyes were filled with tears and he kept shutting them.
I put my hand on his shoulder and he smacked it away.
That's when I knew this was serious.
Again, I didn't think about what I was doing, I just grabbed his hands in both of mine and held them. He tried to wrench them away from me over and over again.

"Stop fighting it, Peeta," I said to him soothingly. "Fighting it won't help you. You just need to let it happen. It's going to be awful, Peeta, but it's not real. I've got you. I'm right here, Peeta. Stop resisting it. Just let it happen, and then it will be over. I'll be here the whole time. Just like this. It's not real, Peeta. It's not real. Remember that for me."

After that, he went unconscious. I didn't know what was going on. I felt a scream threatening to erupt from my body, but I thought of my sleeping  2-year-old upstairs. Crying and keeping my eyes locked on my husband on the kitchen floor, I grabbed for the phone. My fingers fumbled as I tried to dial Haymitch's house.

I heard ringing. Haymitch, answer. Answer it. Please.
No such luck. I dialed again and again. Still no answer.
The 6th time I called, he picked up.
"What the hell do you want, girl? Calling me over and over again... This better be good."

"It's Peeta. I need your help. Please, Haymitch, you need to get here now. I don't know what to do! Please help me. Please help me!" I said over and over.
"Katniss, slow down!" He said. "Tell me what's happening."
"Please just get here!" I said, crying.