In Peeta's Eyes CF 23: Screams

I abandon the leaf map I am making with Johanna the moment I hear the scream.  Turning so fast I injure my neck, I search the forest line and am just in time to see Katniss bolt into the darkness of the trees.  Finnick runs after her as I stumble to my feet in the shifting sand.  I call her name, but she screams something at the same time.  I can’t make it out until she shouts again, already deep in the woods.

     “Prim!  Prim!”

     And then she goes silent.  I call to her a few more times, but she doesn’t answer.  Neither does Finnick.  I run for the wood, determined to find them both, and I slam into an invisible wall.  It tosses me back forcefully and I land on my back, all the air leaving my lungs.

     I am conscious of Johanna speaking to me, looming over me, but I’m so focused on trying to breathe that I don’t catch what she’s saying.  When I can suck in a breath and release it with relative ease, I sit up and scramble to the barrier that now separates me from Katniss.

     “What is this?” I ask out loud, not really needing an answer.

     “It’s a wall, idiot.”

     “I know that, Johanna.  But why?  Why a clear wall in the middle of the arena?”

     Johanna shrugs.

     “We’ve got to get in there!  Did you hear the scream?  That was Katniss’ little sister Prim!  What are they doing to her?”  I’m desperately pounding on the invisible barrier, attempting in vain to make some kind of crack or dent.

     Johanna understands what is going on long before I would have.  “It’s not actually Katniss’ sister.  Look.”  She points to a small black bird with a white crest that holds its beak open.  No sound comes out.

     “What is that?” I ask.

     “Jabberjay,” Johanna exclaims.  “Lovely mutt bird.”

     Then I remember what I’ve heard about the jabberjays.  They have the ability to perfectly copy a human’s voice pattern and sound, and then repeat it multiple times.  I don’t know what Katniss and Finnick are hearing right now out there in the woods, but it has to be horrible.  This is the four o’clock wedge: emotional torture by jabberjays.

     Beetee joins us at the wall and reiterates what I’ve just remembered, and then goes in-depth into the history of the bird.  I continue slamming my fists, my shoulders, my hips into the barrier, even though I know it is futile.  I even try to stab and slice it with my knife, and Johanna takes a few whacks at it with her ax.

     Finally, after what seems like forever, I can see Katniss and Finnick barreling down the hill towards us.

     “Shut up, Beetee!” I order, and then I begin shouting.  “Katniss!  There’s a wall!  Stop!  Katniss, you’re going to hit the wall!”

     “She can’t hear you,” says Beetee unhelpfully.

     “Katniss!  Finnick!  Stop!  It’s just jabberjays!”

     Both Finnick and Katniss slam into the wall at full speed.  Finnick catches it completely in the face and stumbles back with a bloody and flattened nose.  Katniss falls to the ground, clutching her shoulder, and stays down.

     There are no jabberjays here yet, but they must be coming.

     I kneel down in front of Katniss and press my palm against the barrier.  “Katniss, it’s going to be okay.  I’m going to get you out of there.  I promise.  Katniss…”

     She helplessly puts her own hand up to mine and stares at my face with wide, terrified eyes.  My heart breaks, but I keep speaking.

     “Katniss, just hold on, sweetheart.  It’ll be over soon.  Look at me, Katniss.  Katniss, look at me!”

     Because she has turned to look at the birds as they arrive and open their mouths.  Finnick immediately curls into a ball on the ground, holding his hands against his ears.  Katniss fights a little longer, using every single one of her arrows to kill the jabberjays around her.  She takes out over a dozen, but there are always more.  When her quiver is empty, she hunches on the ground beside Finnick and tries to hold onto her sanity as the birds keep up the chorus of horror.  I can only imagine what she hears.  Her sister screaming.  Her mother.  Gale, no doubt.  Maybe Haymitch and other friends of hers from back home.

     The hour I have to wait to rescue her seems like eternity.  All I can do is sit on the wrong side of the barrier and watch her and Finnick’s suffering.  It very nearly kills me.  I keep a hand on the barrier constantly, so the second it disappears, I am standing and lifting Katniss off the ground.  She goes limp in my arms, but won’t let go of her ears.  The muscles in her arms and face are rigid and hard.

     I reach the edge of the beach and sit down, holding Katniss on my lap, rocking back and forth.  “Shh…  Katniss, it’s all right now.  You’re safe.  I’ve got you, love.  I’ve got you.  It’s all right, Katniss.”

     She begins trembling when she drops her hands and clutches me tightly.  “You didn’t hear them,” she says quietly.

     “I heard Prim.  Right in the beginning.  But it wasn’t her.  It was a jabberjay.”

     “It was her,” Katniss insists, her voice shaking as badly as her body.  “Somewhere.  The jabberjay just recorded it.”

     “No, that’s what they want you to think.”  I shake my head, my chin rubbing her hair as I do.  “The same way I wondered if Glimmer’s eyes were in that mutt last year.  But those weren’t Glimmer’s eyes.”  I’m still not sure what they were, but I’m not about to show doubt when Katniss needs assurance that her sister is safe even if I think it might not be true.  “And that wasn’t Prim’s voice.  Or if it was, they took it from an interview or something and distorted the sound.  Made it say whatever she was saying.”

     “No, they were torturing her!  She’s probably dead.”

     “Katniss, Prim isn’t dead,” I say, putting every bit of resolve and certainty I can into my voice.  “How could they kill Prim?  We’re almost down to the final eight of us.  And what happens then?”  I nudge her when she doesn’t answer.

     “Seven more of us die.”

     “No, back home.  What happens when they reach the final eight tributes in the Games?”  I take her chin in my hand and force her to look me in the eyes.  “What happens?  At the final eight?”  She has to focus on something or she might lose it completely.

     “At the final eight?”  She thinks for a moment, reacting much slower than normal.  “They interview your family and friends back home.”

     I give her a small smile.  “That’s right,” I say gently.  “They interview your family and friends.  And can they do that if they’ve killed them all?”

     “No?”  She’s asking, unsure.

     “No.  That’s how we know Prim’s alive.  She’ll be the first one they interview, won’t she?  First Prim.  Then your mother.  Your cousin, Gale.  Madge.”  I kiss Katniss’ forehead quickly.  “It was a trick, Katniss.  A horrible one.  But we’re the only ones who can be hurt by it.  We’re the ones in the Games.  Not them.”

     She looks at me pleadingly, as if merely my word can make it true.  “You really believe that?”

     “I really do.”

     She studies me, and then looks away, sees Finnick hanging on my every word.  “Do you believe it, Finnick?”

     “It could be true,” he replies slowly.  “I don’t know.  Could they do that, Beetee?  Take someone’s regular voice and make it…”

     Beetee interrupts before he can finish.  “Oh, yes.  It’s not even that difficult, Finnick.  Our children learn a similar technique in school.”

     I would have preferred it if he sounded completely convinced.  But there’s the tiniest hint of hesitation, and that puts me on edge, hoping it won’t set Katniss or Finnick off.  We need them sane and functioning correctly.  The thought is cold, but it’s the truth.

     Johanna cuts in, removing all doubt left in any of our heads.  I never would have thought Johanna a persuasive person.  “Of course Peeta’s right.  The whole country adores Katniss’ little sister.  If they really killed her like this, they’d probably have an uprising on their hands.  Don’t want that, do they?”  Suddenly, she throws her head back and shouts at the sky.  “Whole country in rebellion?  Wouldn’t want anything like that!”

     Leave it to Johanna to say something rash that will probably get us killed even faster.  I can almost hear the Gamemakers discussing the best way to kill us.

     “I’m getting water,” she says, making her way towards the tree line.

     Katniss catches her hand as she passes and pulls weakly.  “Don’t go in there.  The birds-”

     Johanna frowns down at us.  “They can’t hurt me.  I’m not like the rest of you.  There’s no one left I love.”  She returns soon and gives Katniss the first shell-full of water.

     Katniss nods her thanks, and Johanna goes to get more and collect Katniss’ arrows from the bodies of jabberjays.  Beetee plays with his wire, looking uncomfortable.  Finnick wobbles to the water and begins cleaning the blood off his face.  Katniss remains in my arms for a while longer, and I savor these moments of frailty.  She is the strongest person I have ever met, but it’s reassuring - empowering even - to know that even the great Girl on Fire needs comfort and shelter.