Mockingjay – Hijacked

Okay so this is a trial chapter for Mockingjay from Peeta's point of view. If you really like it then please tell me and I'll carry on writing the story. If you hate it and think it's rubbish then please tell me, and I'll have another think, and try a different approach. Thanks – Hermia :)

Chapter 1

The screams almost pierce my eardrums, the noise cutting through me like a knife. I scramble backwards in to the corner of my cell, my back pressed against the cold stone. I clamp my hands tight over my ears, trying without success to block out the agonising shrieks of pain emanating from the room next door.

"Please!" She cries, "Please stop!" Johanna Mason, the woman who once seemed so fearless, so powerful and strong. Now being tortured at the hands of the Capitol, and begging for mercy.

"It's no use pretending you don't know anything Mason," A harsh male voice shouts, "We know you were in on the rebellion from the beginning!"

I press my hands tighter over my ears, not wanting to hear the screams that Johanna will make in just a few seconds.

I was moved to this underground prison a few days ago. At least I think it was a few days ago, it's beginning to become difficult to know when one day ends and another begins. My cell is windowless, made up entirely of cold stone bricks, except for the tiny foot long space with bars, at the bottom of the right wall.

I squeeze my eyes shut, and press my head to my knees. At least Katniss is safe. I think desperately to myself, for that had been the goal hadn't it? I'd entered that arena knowing that I was going to die, and that I would do all I could to help Katniss live. All I know is that during that last hideous night in the arena, the force field was blown out. She was rescued along with Finnick by a District 13 hovercraft, Haymitch and most of the other victors knew of the rescue plan. Katniss and I were kept completely in the dark. I still am.

I feel a surge of anger towards Haymitch. Why couldn't he have told us the plan? That way maybe we could all have been rescued, instead of leaving Johanna and me to rot in this living hell. I should never have trusted him.

I tentatively open my eyes, I'd shut them so tight that it takes a couple of seconds for them to adjust to the gloom of my cell. Slowly, I take hands away from my ears, thinking they're done with Johanna for now. Then I clamp them back down furiously.

"Tell us the truth!" The harsh male voice bellows,

"It'll only get worse for you Mason!" Another male voice adds.

Worse? How could it possibly get worse? When Johanna doesn't answer, she finds out. I hear a splash of water, and then the flick of a switch. And then the most drawn out, painful, spine chilling scream sounds.

I stuff my fingers deep in to my ears, and start to hum. At first it's nonsensical, but then a song flashes in my head. The song that Katniss sung to Rue as she died, the one promising a better tomorrow. I wish I could appreciate the irony.

I've gone through the song at least seven times, before I check whether they've finished with Johanna. Ears straining, I hear the smack of flesh on stone, and then the slamming of a great iron door. I crawl over to the iron bars, on the opposite wall.

"Johanna?" I whisper hoarsely, begging for her to answer. I squint through the bars, and horror washes over me. Johanna is lying sopping wet on the floor, dressed in grey rags. Her arms and legs are covered in deep lacerations, some of which are still sinisterly oozing blood on to the floor. Through the gloom I can see that her chest rises and falls slowly. I feel a surge of relief, at the fact that she's still alive.

"Johanna!" I say more urgently when she doesn't respond. She groans and turns over so that I see the damage done to her face. The flesh looks purple, and dangerously swollen. Her lower lip is completely split, and I can see from here that several of her teeth are missing.

I've been told that I'm scheduled for interrogation later on today, so I know it's only a matter of hours until I end up like Johanna.

She starts to slowly drag herself towards the sound of my voice, coughing and wincing as she moves. She collapses just on the opposite side of the bars.

"Johanna, are you okay?" It's a stupid question I know. Anyone who took even one glance at Johanna now would be able to see that she is about as far from okay, as frost is from fire.

"Yeah never better brainless," she mumbles in to the floor, "it's like we're having a little holiday isn't it?" I take the attempt at sarcasm as a definite sign that she is slowly recovering, and lean back against the wall, keeping the little window to my left.

"Bet they're having a brilliant time over in District 13," Johanna says bitterly.

"They'll be doing all that they can do try and get us out," I say quietly. I may have only found out that District 13 existed a few days ago, but I know that Katniss would not sit idly by and let Johanna and I be tortured beyond all recognition.

"Yeah let me know how that though works out," She spits. There's silence for a few moments, until Johanna talks again a few minutes later. "You know that they got Annie Cresta?" She says hoarsely.

To be honest the information doesn't surprise me, she can't know much, but undoubtedly they'll be using her in some form. I slowly pick up a pack of cards that must have belonged to a previous occupant of the room, and shuffle them methodically.

"How do you know?" I ask.

"I hear her wailing at night, going completely out of her head." She replies.

I remain silent, I can't think of anything constructive to say. "What do you think they're going to do to us Johanna?" I say eventually, for the first time voicing my fear out loud.

"Kill us if we're lucky," She says shortly, "no, more likely they'll just keep picking at us, until eventually we don't resemble anything of our former selves."

I suppress a shudder, just as the door of my cell bangs open, flooding the room with artificial light. Two Peacekeepers seize me on either arm, I drop the cards and they pull me up from the floor.

"Don't give in Peeta!" Johanna shouts, just as I'm dragged from the room. The brightness of the light bulbs outside of the cell are so intense, that I have to shut my eyes. By the time I've opened them again, I'm in another cell like room, containing one solitary chair, and a television mounted on the wall. The Peacekeepers thrust me in to an old rickety chair, and slam the door shut.

My breathing is rapid, and fear washes over me. Am I about to undergo the same fate as Johanna? They'll just keep picking at us, until eventually we don't resemble anything of our former selves. As much as I hate to admit it, Johanna is probably right.

The two Peacekeepers handcuff my hands behind the chair, and stand ominously in front of me. The taller of the two men has jet black hair and beard. The shorter, has a long nose and a face that resembles a rat.

"What are you going to do to me?" I ask trying to keep my voice strong, but there's an unmistakable quiver in my tone.

They don't say anything, the rat faced one leans over and flicks a switch on the television. They stand aside so I get a full view of the screen.

Perplexed I look at the screen, and then my heart drops in to my stomach. Katniss stands in the middle of a dense jungle, Johanna next to her. They watch as a trail of golden wire cascades to their feet. The next thing I see makes me gasp, Johanna hits Katniss over the head with the cylinder that holds the rest of the wire.

"What the—" I start, but one of the Peacekeepers stops me from shouting.

"Shut it," one of them growls, and I fall silent.

The I realise why she did it. Pinning Katniss to the ground with her knees, she viciously digs a knife around in Katniss's forearm, relieving her of her tracking device.

"Stay down!" Johanna hisses before running off in to the jungle.

Seconds later two people run towards her weak form. Behind my back my hands curl in to fists as I see Brutus. This must have been minutes before I killed him.

"She's good as dead! Come on, Enobaria!" He says, and they both run from her.

I watch horrified as Katniss slowly makes her way to her feet, messily binds her damaged arm with some moss, and drags herself through the jungle. She hides in the trees as Finnick thunders past, clearly not trusting him. Then the sound of a canon, and Katniss stops dead. Chaff has just died, but of course she doesn't know it.

"Peeta?" She calls softly, just as the lightening tree comes in to view. "Peeta?" She hears a moan, and whips round.

"Beetee!" She exclaims seeing him lying a little way up the slope. "Beetee! Beetee, what's going on! Who cut you? Beetee!" She says bandaging his arm, which is cut in the same way Katniss's is. Then we both see that he's holding my knife, and it's wrapped loosely in the wire.

For a while she stares at the wire, then looks up to the force field, then to Beetee, and back again.

"Katniss!" I hear my own voice, and I remember the desperation I felt. "Katniss!"

"Peeta! I'm here! Peeta!" She calls back. She carries on calling out to me, and I fail to make it in time.

Finnick and Enobaria reach the lightening tree, just as another canon sounds. "Katniss!" I howl in to the night

Slowly she puts two and two together, and I realise why Beetee wanted my knife that night. Katniss hurriedly ties the wire around an arrow. She raises her bow, and I see the trail of fine golden wire coming off the arrow she is preparing to fire. She releases the string and the arrow flies in to the air, just as the lightening strikes the tree. A flash of white runs up the wire, and for just a moment, the dome bursts into a dazzling blue light. Katniss is thrown back in the air, seemingly paralysed by the electric shocks and the screen goes blank.

Then I realise, that it was Katniss that blew the force field that last night in the arena. I sit in the chair utterly bewildered at what I've just seen.

"What do you make of that then loverboy?" The rat faced Peacekeeper asks. Somehow the use of this old nickname brings me back to myself.

"Don't call me that!" I snap, trying to absorb the information I've just seen.

"I seem to have touched a nerve," Rat face sniggers, and then without warning he punches me in the stomach, causing me to double over with pain.

"Careful!" The other one shouts, "President Snow said that we're to not leave any noticeable injuries!"

Eyes streaming, I raise my head to see Rat Face glaring at his fellow Peacekeeper. First I see how Katniss blew out the force field, and now this. No noticeable injuries? And these were orders by President Snow? Someone uncuffs me, and sets me on my feet.

"Come on Mellark, we better get you in to prep." The black haired Peacekeeper says, "You're on air at seven o'clock."