Dearest Diary,

Two nights, and I worry I will never sleep well without Peeta beside me again. I would kill anyone else who interfered with my rest, but I suspect that would be counterproductive.

Katniss glared down at the man. "Girlie?" she scoffed.

"Come down now, and we won't have any problems."

That seemed an unlikely promise, as she already took a great degree of issue with him. Katniss looked back up to Prim's window, locking eyes with her sister. Prim shook her head, but that did not stop Katniss from making her calculations. A quarter of the way up, perhaps a third if she was being generous, and she had encountered no difficulties so far in scaling this wall. He couldn't very well reach her with a sword, could he?

And if she did manage to make it to the top? The guard wouldn't magically forget her presence.

"Very well," she sighed. "But put your sword away. This is delicate, and I can't concentrate when there's a weapon involved."

"I don't think you're in a position to be negotiating, gir –" Katniss shot him a look, and he lowered the sword. "Of course. Reasonable request, that."

It was harder to go down than up. Once-sturdy handholds now felt slick beneath her grip, and more than once, a stone seemed to twist beneath her feet. Being watched, and her suspicions of what awaited her when she finally reached the ground, were not helping matters.

The second Katniss' boots hit the ground, the guard snatched her pack away. "You won't be needing this."

She didn't quite manage to bite back a snarl. Really, this was exactly when she did need the supplies, but Katniss knew voicing that opinion would not help her cause. Her eyes narrowed as Crane's stooge pulled a rope – her rope, mind you – from the pack.

"Hands out."

Katniss pulled away a step. She could outrun him, couldn't she? Make her rendezvous with Hawthorne, regroup, come up with a better plan…

Her scheming was cut short when the man roughly grabbed her right arm. The rope burned against her wrist as he wrapped it around her wrist.

"Now for the other one." He paused a moment, waiting for Katniss to offer the other wrist. When she didn't, he yanked on the rope, sending her stumbling forward. He took the opportunity to grab her left arm. Before Katniss had fully regained her balance, her other wrist was bound. Her captor had left a long length of rope free, which he tied securely around his waist, anchoring her to him. If she tried to run, she wouldn't get more than a couple yards without having to drag him along with her.

Inconvenient, but admittedly impressive.

"Come along now." He tugged impatiently on the rope, effectively her leash, as he started towards the imposing main doors.

Katniss took one last look up at Prim's window as the rope around her wrist went past taut and crossed into painful. She shot her sister a reassuring smile before she acquiesced and took a step forward. She wasn't going to do anything to make this easy for him. Girlie.

As they walked, she studied her predicament. Her captor was not a large man, but his build suggested some sort of hard, physical labor, and Katniss knew she had little hope of besting him should it come to a hand-to-hand fight. The castle itself was an enigma. Though she peered up into the narrow windows they passed, Katniss gained no insights as to what lay within its walls. Well, besides Prim and presumably Mother, but she already knew that. Other guards? Crane himself? Half the French army? God, she wished that last one was not a realistic worry, but given the events of the last few days, she wasn't inclined to bet against it.

She tried to be less obvious as she searched for any sign of Hawthorne. The next time the guard tugged at the rope, Katniss took the opportunity to yelp far louder than was truly necessary. Her eyes darted around the landscape, praying she would spot Hawthorne rushing in to save her like some knight in shining armor, and probably brandishing a weapon that had been attached to a literal suit of armor only hours before.

Katniss silently promised that she wouldn't tease him for that if he just showed up now.

The warm, still summer air cooled and dampened as they stepped over the threshold and into the castle. They began down a long, windowless stone corridor. How could anywhere lit by so many torches remain so dark?

The man at the end of the hall was no more than a shadow until he spoke up. "You had best be careful with our guests, Will. They're ladies and gentlemen."

"Not this one," said the first guard, who she frankly refused to even think of by his given name. "She's half feral."

Perhaps it was a good thing that she tripped on the uneven floor before she could bite back. That didn't stop the pain that shot up from her knee when it hit the ground.

"Up." When Katniss failed to comply quickly enough, he hoisted her up and carried her bodily into a room.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Well, that explained where Hawthorne had gone.

"Put her down immediately."

She twisted to get a look at him. Bound to a rickety wooden chair in the center of space, which she now suspected had once been a great hall or something of the sort, an oozing cut marring his cheek, Hawthorne still managed to sound imperious.

"Now, and gently."

Katniss grimaced when she put weight on her knee. Perhaps being toted around like a sack of grain had its advantages.

"Unbind her hands as well. Miss Everdeen is a lady, and she will be treated as such."

She looked expectantly at the guard and held out her hands.

He scowled. "You don't give orders around here." The man kicked at Hawthorne's shin, and Katniss grimaced at the sound of the boot meeting bone.

Hawthorne flinched, but to his credit, gave no other indication he had been hurt. "Please unbind her. How many of you are there? Five I've seen, and I assume more could be here in minutes if you shouted for help." His eyes flicked over to Katniss. "She weighs half what you do. Surely there is no risk in untying her bonds. Mr. Crane would hate to see his guest injured, would he not?"

"Crane'll take care of you lot when he gets back." The sneer on the guard's face was echoed in his voice. "I don't think he much cares what we do to you, as long as he gets to be the one to finish you off."

What a lovely fellow.

Katniss' heart sank. So this was it. The end. There had always been merely a slim chance of success, but she had never truly faced the near-inevitability of failure until now. It was dark, and lonely, and though she wanted nothing more than to have Peeta at her side now, she was endlessly grateful that he had stayed in London.

"May I see my mother and sister?" Her voice cracked. "Please?"

"There's no need to be cruel, Will." The guard she had seen earlier, the one who had admonished this absolute joy for his rough treatment of her, lounged in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest.

Katniss knew an easy touch when she saw one.

Hawthorne noticed as well. Cry, he mouthed, and she set to it.

"I just want us all to be together again." Oh dear, these tears came far too easily. Her next words came out between heaving sobs. "One last time."

"Just let her see them." He uncrossed his arms. "We're not being paid enough to mop up female tears."

"You can kill them, but you can't watch them cry? Gone soft, haven't you, Charlie?"

"This will all go easier if we just bring them down," Charlie – she was quite willing to use his name – reasoned. "I'll fetch them. A short visit won't hurt anyone, now will it? Crane'll never have to know." He was clearly trying to convince himself as much as his companion. He straightened and nodded. "I'll only be gone a minute. Don't be an ass."

Katniss suspected that was a bit much to ask of her captor, but she left that thought unvoiced. She doubted she could have managed the words. She bit down on her quivering bottom lip, but it did nothing to stop the tremors that threatened to take over her entire body.

"Your little act worked. You can give it up now."

She sniffed. Patting tears away with bound hands was near impossible, and the rope burned against her cheek as she tried to wipe her face clean with her sleeve. Katniss straightened, steeling herself. She would be strong, for all of them. She had to.

Prim's smile made her forget the horrifying circumstances. Her sister ran to her, enveloping Katniss in a tight embrace. She leaned into her sister, and another set of arms wrapped around them both. Even after two days, her mother's dress still held a trace of her perfume, the warm, floral scent that had been familiar as long as Katniss could remember. She let her eyes drift closed and nestled closer, pretending just for a moment that all was right with the world.

Katniss bristled when something cool brushed her arm. She glanced down to see Mother twist the end of her sleeve closed with a knot, trapping the object next to her body, and Katniss shot her a questioning look before realization struck. She knew this weight, had carried it on her for months.

Mother had promised to return her knife.

The moment was cut short. "That's enough." Her guard tugged on the rope that still bound her arms, pulling Katniss away from her family.

Mother nodded, her expression solemn. "I suppose it is."

"Thank you, Hawthorne," Prim said, leaning down to pat his hand, bound behind his back, lingering longer than was really necessary. Oddly familiar, Katniss thought. Had Prim and Hawthorne spoken more than twice?

"They can go back now. They've had their visit." He beckoned Charlie over. "You got them out; you take them ba –"

Her guard crumpled to the ground as the wooden chair struck him over the head. Hawthorne rushed towards Charlie.

Katniss frantically pulled the knife from her sleeve and sawed at her bonds. She heard a grunt as two bodies collided, but she couldn't look now.

Prim's scream came at the exact moment her bonds finally unraveled. Katniss started towards the two men desperately wrestling on the ground, knife posed to strike, but as almost as quickly as it had begun, the fight was over.

Hawthorne pinned the guard down with his body weight, heaving. "Silent," he warned.

Katniss passed him the knife.

"Thank you," Hawthorne said, polite as ever. He turned be back to Charlie, pressing the sharp blade against his throat.

"I'll let you go." Charlie's entire body shook. "Just take me with you. Give me sanctuary from Crane, and you can go. I never wanted to be tied up in all this."

A look passed between them, and Katniss shrugged. Hawthorne did not drop the knife as he stood up. "Very well." He pulled Charlie up by his shirt. "Now lead me to my coachman, and we will be on our way."

Katniss felt a pang of guilt at that. She had not spared so much as a thought for the coachman, who had risked his life to save her family as much as Hawthorne had. Was this who she had become? Katniss did not want to believe that just a few months in London had changed her so, made her into one of those terrible society ladies that thought of their servants as little as -

She was distracted from her thoughts when Prim pulled her back into a hug. "I knew you would get us out."

This time, Katniss was able to return the embrace. "Of course. Anytime."