Day 53: Intercom, Dawn

[damned_intercom]

Although the day was sunny and warm, there seemed to be a strange tension within the walls of Landel's Institute. The nurses seemed a little more on-edge than usual, and they were already bustling to-and-fro in the hallways before the Head Doctor even made his announcement. It seemed that they'd all been roused early today by Nurse Lydia - but for

Comments

F33

[combustiongirl]

One small comfort to being in the arena--or in the Capitol, same thing at this point, really--was that, though Katniss slept fitfully and still had plenty of nightmares, they weren't the kind that woke her with her own screams clawing their way out of her throat. That didn't mean they were nice, though; far from it. But when she woke from a dream of Boggs disintegrating limb-by-limb into sticky black nothingness that creeped forward like jungle fog, all she felt was cold.

Instantly, everything felt wrong. When she'd fallen asleep, it had been on the hard concrete floor of an underground tunnel, with her squad all settled equally comfortably around her and the steady drip drip drip of water from an invisible leaky pipe in the background. But as she sat up, scratchy cotton sheets pooled in her lap and she could feel the supple hardness of a mattress pressing back against her hand. The room she was in was smallish, sparsely furnished, and it looked like the hospital back in District 13, only without the beeping equipment and morphling drips. She swung her legs off the bed and recoiled as her bare skin made contact with the cold floor. She looked and found a pair of shoes beside the bed. Generic, factory-made, and only moderately comfortable, but at least they would keep her feet from freezing. She slipped them on and stood up.

That was when the door swung open, and a bland, beaming woman stepped in, her smile too full of something--pity, maybe, or condescension--to be entirely genuine. She was too cheerful to be from District 13, but too mundane-looking to be from the Capitol, though when she spoke, her accent sounded more affected Capitol than District. "Good morning, Miss Pearce! I hope you slept well?"

Katniss looked first to the other bed, then back at the woman. "What?"

"Oh, dear," the woman said, her face pulling low in exaggerated concern. "I can already see you're going to have a difficult time adjusting. Can you remember where you are, Miss Pearce?"

Rather than answering--I remember where I was, Katniss thought--she said, "Who's Pearce?"

The woman sighed and pulled out a clipboard, jotting something on it before she answered. "You are, dear. Your name is Ava Pearce, and you're in Landel's Institute. We're a hospital for the mentally unwell."

The idea was so hysterical, she nearly laughed. Not because it was ridiculous, but because she was pretty certain a mental hospital was one place she definitely belonged. Hadn't she been wondering, only weeks ago, why Thirteen didn't have a doctor checking the state of her mind? But that thought brought up another one that stopped her short.

Coin. She wanted Katniss out of the way. That was why she'd sent Peeta to join them in the Capitol in the first place. Had she finally managed to do it? Was this her new plan, to present Katniss as the burnt-out husk of a girl on fire, broken by the Capitol's cruelty? But Katniss couldn't see how that would be more effective than setting her up to die as a martyr, especially after what Boggs had said about the sort of power Katniss had. He seemed to believe that so long as Katniss was alive, she was a liability to Coin. And anyway, if this was her new plan, why the name charade? There would never be any doubt as to who she was: Katniss Everdeen was universally recognized across all of Panem. And more importantly, where were the others?

So was it the Capitol after all, then? A thrill of terror ran down Katniss's spine as vivid images flashed through her mind: Johanna, small and stripped of her bravado in the hospital bed; Annie covering her ears and withdrawing from the world; the look in Peeta's eyes as he reached out to wrap his hands around her throat, and his frantic story of the Avoxes' guttural, tongueless screams. But if the Capitol had her, they would no doubt have executed her immediately and publicly. She was too great a threat to Snow and too strong a symbol of the resistance. Katniss looked up at the nurse, scowling suspiciously. Thirteen or the Capitol? (Real or unreal?)

F33

[combustiongirl]

"My name's not Ava," she said. "It's Katniss."

The nurse shook her head in an overdramatic display of sympathy. "No, dear. You're confused."

Mentally disoriented, Katniss thought. And definitely crazy. But I know my own name. She tried another tack. "Don't you realize who I am? I'm the Mockingjay."

The nurse made a hmmm sound in the back of her throat. "Yes, your file said you insisted on calling yourself that. Now come along, Ava dear, and let's get some breakfast in you, alright? You're far too thin."

A flare of anger pulsed through Katniss; she didn't insist on it: she hated it, she hadn't had a choice, and plenty of people had died because of her. She'd never really chosen to become the Mockingjay; it was just the only way she could fight, a means to survive. But Katniss became aware of something else, as well: she was hungry. Not just hungry, but starving. And if free food was being offered, there was no way she was going to pass it up. She'd think better on a full stomach.

One thing was certain: she had to get out of here, and fast. Because if Coin got to Snow first, Katniss would lose the one thing she wanted right now: her chance to put an arrow through Coriolanus Snow's heart.