The Reality of Torture

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games.

A/N: I decided to write something about Peeta's torture days. I apologize if it sucks. Please review~

"You shall obey President Snow's orders. You will do as we say, nothing else. Understand?" Peeta nodded. "Good. Now, eat and get ready. You've got an interview tonight." The guard set a tray on the table and walked out of the room, locking the door behind him. He sat at the table, eating slowly. Seconds after he finished his meal, his prep team and stylist were shoved into his room.

Portia managed a weak smile. "Hello, Peeta." She embraced him quickly. Although her clothes tried to hide it, she had become impossibly thin. Her eyes bulged out of her face a bit. She had bruises, scars and cuts all over her body, poorly concealed with makeup. The same for his prep team, Alana, Selvia and Adair. They set to work immediately, making no attempt at conversation. They finished quickly, and a guard almost immediately ushered him out the door. He turned to say goodbye but the guard had already shut the door.

When they arrived, he was instructed on what to do and say. "Fall out of line and you die." He entered the room and sat next to Caesar Flickerman. The interview seemed to drag on but at last, it was over. He was lead to a different room this time. No, not a room. A cell. Well, he was a prisoner after all. "Hey, neighbor," a familiar voice said. It came from the cell next to his. The girl poked her head through the bars, a wry smile on her lips. "Johanna." She looked badly beaten. Her head had been shaven, leaving her almost bald.

"So they didn't save you. Shame. But, it looks like we'll be neighbors for a while." He remained quiet for a few seconds. "Who else is here?"

"Down here, just me and you. They have Enobaria and Annie somewhere else." He nodded. "Thank you" He retreated to his cot in the corner of the cell. His sleep was plagued with nightmares. Finally, morning came. He felt a brief sense of relief. It quickly vanished when the guards arrived. A small group of people walked behind them, carrying various objects and devices. One of the guards approached Johanna's cell. He heard her whimper and watched as she was dragged her out of her cell. They tied barbed wire around her ankles and wrists and hung her from the ceiling, upside down. "Let's see if you rebels learn a lesson or two" They didn't bother blindfolding her. They wanted her to watch, knowing when and where she would be hit. Her ankles and wrists were already bloodied, the barbed wire digging into her flesh. They brought out whips and lashed at her, over and over again.

She cried out in pain. He turned towards the wall. He wouldn't watch this. It was too horrible. He had already seen this happen to Gale. "Oh no, pretty boy. You're gonna watch every minute of this," another guard said. He pulled Peeta out of his cell, restrained him, and sat him directly in front of Johanna. He watched helplessly as they whipped her, seeing the pain in her eyes, how she would cringe every time she saw a guard raise his arm.

They stopped eventually, before she could pass out from the pain. She was released and thrown back into her cell. She retreated to a corner, rocking back and forth, bloodied and crying. "Your turn, boy" The guards, who by now he'd nicknamed Thing 1 and Thing 2 due to how similar they were, pulled him to his feet. They kept him restrained. He cringed, guessing what was coming. But they used different weapons on him. They stuck a pair of handcuffs into a nearby fire. When Thing 1 brought it out, it was glowing white hot and steaming. He watched helplessly as they placed them on his wrists. How they didn't get burned, he didn't know, but his mind was consumed by the pain. He gritted his teeth, refusing to scream. They brought out lit torches, using them to burn his arms and legs. "What wrong? Can't take the heat?" Thing 1 shouted. "You seemed to be fine at the opening ceremony before your first Games." They interrogated him, trying to get information on the rebellion. H stated that he knew nothing, but they didn't believe him. They only burned him even more. Finally, he couldn't take it. He screamed, thrashing around in an attempt to escape the burning flames.

They released him after a while, shoving him into his cell. The same routine continued for the next few days. They fed them rotten food and filthy water, just to keep them alive. One day, they tried a new technique. They restrained him in a chair, and the group of people that came around during their hours of torture approached. He watched a woman fill a syringe with a liquid labeled TJV. Thing 1 and Thing 2 held him down as the woman injected the liquid into his arm. He felt a familiar burning in his veins. TJV. Tracker Jacker Venom. He thrashed wildly, screaming as horrible images materialized. He felt them hook him up to some sort of computer.

The images shifted. He saw Katniss, as beautiful as ever, and reached out for her. "Katniss..." She turned to face him and snarled. He watched in horror as her features shifted. She transformed into an ugly mutt, with sharp teeth and cruel features. She pounced and he cried out as he watched her tear chunks out of his flesh. It's just the venom, he thought. She's not really here... When she was finished with him, his family materialized behind her.

He watched in horror as she slowly tortured his mother and father, his brothers. She tore them apart, limb by limb. By the time she was finished with them, they were nothing but pieces of meat and flesh. Their organs were strewn across the ground. He caught sight of one of his father's eyes rolling alone, leaving a streak of blood.

The mutt moved on to his friends. He watched Delly Cartwright being sliced to pieces, Madge, decapitated. Katniss continued, until she had murdered all of District Twelve. "No!" he screamed. Every memory of Katniss morphed into something horrible. Her smile into a vicious mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Her laugh into a menacing snarl. Her kisses into bites and scratches. He looked around him. All of District Twelve destroyed. His family and friends, dead. She's tried to kill him. This was all HER fault.

They finally released him and he retreated to his cot, knowing he wouldn't be able to sleep. They repeated this for about a week. He had had another interview with Caesar Flickerman. And today they said they had a special treat for them. He watched miserably as they dragged in Darius and the redheaded Avox girl. Lavinia, he heard someone call her. The guards referred to them as the redheads. They, too, looked beaten and malnourished.

"We brought you some special guests" cackled Thing 1. "I believe you know them." Lavinia was strapped to a chair. Darius was put into an empty cell. They attached wires to her body and turned a knob on one of the devices. Peeta watched the electricity run through her. Her body convulsed. She couldn't scream, being an Avox, so she let out these guttural animal sounds. They alternated between beating her and electrocuting her. Finally, during one of the electrocutions, her heart gave out. She slumped in the chair, dead.

Darius was next. He was literally ripped to pieces, limb by limb. It took a few days for him to die. He didn't scream. He made those same noises that Lavinia had. He finally bled to death, after falling unconscious from the pain.

Peeta and Johanna were tortured during the brief breaks the Avoxes got. They used electrocution on Johanna too. They would soak her with water, then send the currents through her body. Sometimes they even put her in a giant tub, just for the heck of it. She would always pass out, and at night he could hear her sobbing in her cell. He was still tortured with the Tracker Jacker Venom, and he had become unable to tell reality from fiction.

At his third interview with Caesar, Portia and his prep team had been executed. He couldn't take it anymore. He had become attached to them. They were like family. He shouted out the warning to District Thirteen before being beaten unconscious.

He awoke in his cell. Only one thought ran through his mind. This is all HER fault. Katniss. The Capitol's mutt.