A/N: Hello. I started writing this as a one-shot but I decided to continue. This is a Peeta POV fic that bridges the gap between when he was captured by the Capitol to when he's rescued by District 13. I'll try and keep it as canon as possible, and if I make any mistakes, feel free to tell me. Enjoy!

It takes me a while to make sense of my surroundings. And when I do, the shock of what's happened hits me with a force that momentarily sends the air out of my lungs. The arena, the explosion, Katniss! Where is she? Where am I? I try and move, but I can't. I'm held down by cold metal restraints on a white table, which only adds to my panic. I start flailing around, as best I can, in the maniac hope that the restraints will let me go. What little energy I had before subsides quickly, and I stop when I realise that all moving around will do is hurt my wrists.

I look around me. All I can see are four white walls and a spotless ceiling. It makes me want to gag. It's too sterile. I'm not in the arena any more, and I'm definately not in District 12. So where am I? The only place that I can think of is the Capitol. But there were only a few tributes left, why would they stop the Games at such a late stage? Actually, why would they stop them at all?

My eyes keep finding the wall in front of me and I get a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. I'm being monitered. As I come to this conclusion, it's like proof simply pops up out of nowhere. There's a humming, which is coming from a machine next to the table. Tendril-like wires spiral out from it, and I try and block out another wave of panic when I realise a few of them are sticking into my arm. There's also a camera above me; I can see the tiny red light blinking on and off.

The wall opens; a door so plain and white and in sync with the walls that I didn't notice it. The man that walks in confirms the suspicion that I am indeed in the Capitol. Dark-skinned, with bright green spirals outlining each round ear, and dressed in a bright white outfit and hat. The colour white is starting to make me feel really ill, and when this man approaches the table, it's all I can do not to try to kick him, or punch him, or even throw a string of profanities at him. I don't know who he is; he might be trying to help. But I don't care. I just want to be home, with Katniss.

"Peeta Mellark," he says. There goes the thought that he might be trying to help me. His voice is kind, but it has a nasty edge to it. I've been around people who live in misery enough to recognise the tone of someone being forced to be friendly.

"Who are you?" I say through clenched teeth.

"My name is Adi. And I'm going to be doing a few health tests. No need to worry; we do this after every Game." he tells me, with the tone of someone trying to manipulate a clueless child.

"You didn't do it after my last one," only after I've said it do I realise how stupid the question must have sounded. I was unconscious for a long time after the first Games, and since I'm living right now, I can assume that they did in fact do a few health tests.

Adi moves around to the machine and bends down in front of it. "Oh, we did, but you were somewhat dead to the world after your encounter with the mutts. Ask your dear fiancée if you don't believe me."

Now I really dislike this man. I may be tied up, literally, but I managed to see Adi's horrid smirk that followed his mention of Katniss. She could be here too, somewhere, restrained in a disgusting room like this, being tortured or even worse. This thought tells me what my paranoia from a few minutes ago hasn't completely left me.

"Where is she?" I hiss, unable to control my hostility. "Is she ok? What happened in the arena?" I stop myself from asking any more, and save the next line of questions for later.

"It seems your 'friends' had been planning," he pauses to see if I noticed the stress on the word 'friends'. "Katniss, that old District 3 fool Beetee, even your mentor. They blew up the arena and saved themselves."

Adi calling Beetee a fool makes me angry. Oddly, the rest of the sentance doesn't even register with me. I'm silent, and Adi shakes his head with another twisted smirk.

"You're not saying much, boy. Although betrayal is a shocking thing to take in-"

"They didn't betray me," I spit. "And you didn't answer my question. Where is Katniss?"

Adi flicks a switch on the machine and there's a slight hissing. My arm starts to hurt as I notice a pinkish-green liquid make its way through one of the wires.

"She left you. In the arena. It was their plan all along. She and your mentor planned to leave you there. They didn't need you any more to pull of that star-crossed lover charade, so they got rid of you."

"I don't believe that!" I cry, hysteria creeping into my voice as the stuff flowing into my arm makes my head spin. Adi doesn't say anything else, and I'm starting to panic again, so I keep shouting. I start shouting Katniss' name. In a matter of minutes I'm weeping. I don't know where I am. I don't know where anyone is. I'm trapped, and alone.

Please review. Reviews are like morphling to a writer.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games. If I did, I wouldn't have killed off Rue :(