𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬 ☘︎ 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐇𝐚𝐰𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞

𝐌𝐎𝐂𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐉𝐀𝐘 ☘︎ 10

Finnick, Katniss and I all sit in a compartment. Finnick trying to think about anything but Annie. Katniss trying to think about anything but Gale. Me trying to think about anything but Austin.

Austin.

Is he dead? Is he rescued? What's going on? Is he still thinking of me?

Suddenly, Haymitch opens the door. "They're back!"

Finnick, Katniss and I don't hesitate. We run up to the hospital together. The people we love are waiting.

When we get up there, I hear a loud, indignant voice. "I don't want that!"

"Johanna..." I gasp. She's the only one that was taken that knew about the rebellion. And it looks like the Capitol got it out of her. As she rips all the medical wires and scanners off her, I see her shaved head, her scarred body and her eyes that have dark circles and blood around them.

She laughs sarcastically as she sees me and my hand covers my mouth.

"Finnick! Finnick!" A red haired girl with sea green eyes (bedraggled but not tortured in any way) also rips off her medical stuff. "Finnick!"

"Annie..." Finnick begins. And then they're running towards each other. "Annie!"

They collide in the middle of the room, clinging onto each other like there's no one else in the world. Their lips smash into each others and I grin. Finnick's finally found what he's been missing.

"We got all of them out, except Enobaria," I overhear Boggs saying to Beetee and Plutarch. "But since she's from Two, I doubt she's being held anyway."

"Gale!" Suddenly I see my brother. He's with Katniss but I run over anyway, hugging him.

"I don't get it," he tells us. "Every gun was back online and on us and we flew right past them. They let us go.

"He's in there," he looks straight at me and nods to a door in the hospital. "Gas we used on the guards knocked him out too but he'll be awake soon. You should be there when he comes to."

I look at him for a second before collapsing into his arms. Something about this just feels right. He's my big brother.

I slowly back away from him to give Katniss and him some time and then I walk through the door that he pointed through.

Two guards are taking restraints off his arms when I enter, but they leave when they see me. Austin is sitting on his bed and he has his back to me, but he still looks different.

But once I walk round the bed I realise that the differences I saw in his back are nothing compared to the front.

His once bright and baby blue eyes are dark, with dark circles and blue and red bruises around them. He looks broken, but I know he's in there somewhere.

I reach out for his hand and try to form a rational thought when his hands lock around my throat.

He lunges at me, knocking me against a glass cabinet that shatters instantly. He knocks me on the floor as I try to roll over, but I've never been able to beat Austin at strength-

I fight to get away as he throttles me, cutting off my breath very effectively. I know I will die in a few seconds-

"Austin! AUSTIN! AUSTIN GET OFF HER-"

Plutarch and Haymitch try to pull him off me, but he's to strong. He stands up, dragging me with him but not for a second loosening his grip on my neck. He then slams me back on the ground as I close my eyes, accepting death at the hands of the person who used to claim to love me.

I hear a slapping sound and feel my throat being released. I open my eyes to see Boggs above me, holding a chair that he's just used to knock Austin out.

I lie on the ground, my throat aching and my voice gone.

What have they done to him?

☘︎☘︎☘︎

I wake up in the hospital with a brace on my neck, I try to get it off but I can't speak. Boggs stands above me. "No, Willow, no, you're swollen. No, don't touch, calm down. You're okay."

A doctor appears at the door and Boggs answers without a question. "Tell them she's awake."

He turns back to me. "Don't try to talk. Austin's okay, I promise. I just had to get him off you."

I know. I know he did. But Austin's been seriously meddled with.

In a minute, Prim, Plutarch, Beetee and Haymitch come through. Beetee, Plutarch and Haymitch join Boggs on seats around the room, and Prim sits on the end of my bed. No one speaks for a minute.

Finally, Plutarch sighs and breaks the silence. "It's called hijacking. We don't know how long the Capiol's been doing this to Austin."

"It's fear conditioning enhanced with tracker jacker venom," Beetee answers the question I can't ask. "You were stung your first games, right?" I nod. "The venom puts the subject in a dissociated state, and they... torture him with shocks and beatings. To strip down his identity. And then, all of that suffering and fear is redirected and associated with other memories or a person."

"They can change his memories of Willow?" Prim asks in shock.

"To make her seem life threatening," Beetee nods solemnly.

Haymitch gives me the less complicated answer. "They've turned him into a weapon, Willow. To kill you."

"But you can reverse it?" Prim asks quickly.

"Fear is the most difficult thing to overcome," Beetee answers with a sigh. "We're hardwired to remember fear best."

"It's new terrain," Plutarch shrugs. "But we've put together a team. I'm optimistic."

If you'd been born in a district, you wouldn't be, I think savagely.

Because we know fear the best.

☘︎☘︎☘︎

There's no one else in my hospital room. Just me. Most of the population of Thirteen has gone to see Coin deliver a speech, but I was ordered to stay here.

I instantly decide to go and see him. He's been placed in a room with a two way mirror. So basically, we can see in but he can't see out.

I walk along corridors and through doors until finally, I see Austin's room. It's all white, with only a bed inside it. And he's attached to the bed.

He's flailing around, screaming in agony. I look at his face; the lips that once proclaimed to love me, the very same ones that kissed me the night we parted. The last time I saw him in person...

The last time that Austin was Austin.

Not some Capitol mutt.