| The Jabberbird | THG |

Chapter 4

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all that is gold does not glitter

not all those who wander are lost

the old that is strong does not wither

deep roots can't be reached by the frost

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Katniss

(A/N this chapter is rated M for horror violence, blood and gore, it is not recommended for readers under the age of not really being okay with that sort of thing)

I feel a pattern emerging... Pass out. Wake up. Pass out. Wake up. I hate it.

I think about Finnick, about where he might be now, about what might be happening to him. I wonder if his neck is still throbbing like mine where they stuck the electric prod. I wonder whether he is in a room like the one I'm in now, marble walls, ceiling and floor, like the others. Except this room has a steel chair in the centre. Straight back. No arms. I shudder.

I pull my knees up to my chest and wrap my arms around them. Trying to keep warm. I am no longer wearing the orange dress. They must have changed me when i was out cold. The thought brings a shiver through me that has nothing to do with the low temperature, or the fact that the thin crisp material of the hospital gown provides neither warmth nor comfort.

I hear a distant noise, it's horrible. A kind of, guttural screech, but not quite right, I have never heard anything like it. But it is so full of terror and agony it immediately makes my heart pump faster. The wall to my left slides open smoothly, revealing thick glass.

Through the glass I can see another room, just like mine. Although distorted by the glass, i can still make out the same steel chair, and it could've been a mirror, if it weren't for the thrashing person trapped in it. I see chains on her lap and know she can't escape.

I crawl to the window and put my hand on it, trying to see who it is. I can't make out their face because they're moving too much, but I do see they have long, flaming red hair.

A man comes towards her, one of the 'peacekeepers' with the black armour. He's holding a red cord, which he plugs into the side of the chair. I whip around, looking for the same thing on mine, I don't see it, but then, it could be on the other side.

I bang the palm of my hand on the glass, yelling, but knowing they cannot hear me, the glass is as least five centimetres thick.

He pulls the chains tighter, and walks over to the side of the room. The girl stops screaming and jerking for a second to see what he's doing, and in that moment, when her face is still, I realise who she is.

The redheaded avox girl. The one I couldn't save. The one who tried to save me. The one that I don't even know the name of. I throw my whole body against the glass, and shout louder. I must've made some noise, because her head turns towards me, her lips move but make no sound. Even if I was right there next to her, I wouldn't be able to hear her.

Her eyes fix on my face, with that same look. The look she gave me all those years ago in the woods. The pleading look she gave to me when i was her last hope. The look she gave the person who didn't bother to help her, and now, when it's most important, can't.

 I see the man touch something on the wall, and her eyes flick away from me, turn to the ceiling, all whites, and squeeze shut in anguish. I see her whole body spasm and shake. I see her mouth open and I can see down her throat. I know she is making that noise that only avoxes can make, that screaming, screeching sound of pure agony.

They keep doing this, keep electrifying her, keep torturing her. All the time I can't take my eyes away, I wish I could, wish I could turn away, but I can't. If I did it would be like I was betraying her, disrespecting her, when she is in so much pain.

Even when it gets worse.

When they pull the plug on the chair and bring a round club out and start beating her, hard enough that it hurts, but not so hard she passes out.

I think I lose consciousness again when they start cutting of her fingers with a scalpel. I wake with my head next to the glass, I scramble up, leaning on the glass, my head throbbing. I turn towards the window and for a while just look at it, I don't look through it, I just dazedly look at the glass, the red mass behind it a blur.

I stay like that for a while, too scared to focus my eyes. But then I have to, I feel like I owe it. To her. I see her body crumpled forward in the chair, all of her red and bruised. I stare at her, searching for the rising of her chest that means she's alive, I don't find it.

I hear another sliding noise, the wall opposite has slid open too. I turn to it, my vision blurred by tears.

This time it's Darius who sits in the chair, I watch the same man, his hands still red, plug in the cord.

And I see it all over again.

Darius puts up a fight, he was always strong, being an ex-peacekeeper I guess. his arms break one of the chains, but the man overpowers him and fixes him down.

Darius's mouth never closes, his screams, unheard, never end. His pain, undeserved, only gets worse. 

Darius. Who tried to save Gale. Darius, a peacekeeper, but a good one. He tried to kill President Snow, with the girl. Tried to save me.

I jab my knuckles into each of my ears and scream, I sink to my knees on the floor and fall to my side. I keep screaming, not opening my eyes, knowing all I'll see is death on both sides. I can't escape, I can't breathe, I can't move.

I scream so loud I don't even hear the door open and the steps of the man walking towards me, the blood on his shoes slapping against the marble.

A/N I hope I made the right choice keeping Finnick instead of Johanna, if the Peeta-Katniss thing is reversed I thought the Johanna-Finnick thing could be too. please vote and comment if you like it! And tell me what i could do better if you don't! thanks, it means a lot. xo

P.S sorry this is another short chapter, it's kind-of a 'I'm still alive and will be updating soon but i'm lazy and have lots of homework' chapter ::))

quote (if you didn't know it already )- J.R.R Tolkien