All of us go into the house. I still refuse to look. Peeta and I sit on the couch and my dad sits right across from us. Peeta and my father are just staring at each other, probably trying to figure each other out. I stare down my father. Who is this man that he has become? I don’t even know him anymore. He’s changed too much. I miss the old him. Then out of the blue Peeta is starting to talk. And I can tell he’s mad, and he’s never mad. Ever. And when he is, it is only for a little while. By the look of his face, it looks like he’s been holding in this anger for a long time, even though he’s only known about my father for five days.

“Sir, you have made my wife and your daughter very upset because of your actions. You were her only family left and you walked out on her, or as you had everyone thinking, you ‘died’. Katniss has been telling me that you were her best friend and now you seem like a… completely different man. It hurts her. She feels like she has no family, so I have to be her family now. Your wife is dead and she didn’t even know you were alive. That was very rude and disrespectful. If you were trying to make things better by staying hidden you made it worse. I hate seeing her so upset. I also don’t know why you won’t accept me into your life. I love your daughter, she is my life. We’re each other’s life. We’re each other’s family. If you don’t accept me then you don’t accept her because family sticks together. If you feel that I’m just saying a bunch of shit, please leave because I don’t want a person like you in our house,” he says. My dad stands up and reaches out for Peeta’s hand. Peeta puts out his hand and my father shakes it.

“I have never met anyone that is as devoted to my daughter as you. She is my little girl and I know by what you just said to me that she is in very good hands being with you. I’m sorry I rejected you when we first met. I knew my little girl was going to get married but I hoped it would be after I showed her that I was alive. I know it’s too late but I would’ve given you my blessing to marry her. You’re a good man Peeta and I know that my daughter is very happy with you,” my dad says. I run up to my dad and I give him a hug.

“I love you dad,” I say. He kisses my cheek.

“I love you too sweetheart,” he says. I’m starting to cry. But for the first time in a long time, they’re tears of joy. My dad finally accepts me and my decisions, and I finally have my family back. I have two men who I love unconditionally and I could never be happier. I eventually go back into Peeta’s arms and he wipes away my tears.

“Sir you won’t be sorry. I promise I will take good care of your little girl.”

“I know you will, and you can call me Gunner.”

“Thank you Gunner. And I’m sorry if we did anything to upset you. We were just happy with our lives and what they are going to be.”

“I’m still not thrilled about you guys being married so young but I’ll cope through it.”

“Thanks Gunner, you know you can stay here if you don’t really have anywhere else to go.”

“Thanks Peeta but I think I will stay in the Capitol, just in case there is a spark of another uprising anywhere.”

“It would be our pleasure for you to stay. Plus we can catch up on things,” I say.

“Well I guess, but I won’t stay permanently.”

“Stay as long as you want, you’re always welcome,” says Peeta. Then the rebel that took us here barges through the door.

“Sorry to barge in but you have been here too long. We must go back to the Capitol right now, you’re not even suppose-to be here,” he says. Peeta and I give each other a look. Right when Peeta about says something I cut him off.

“We’re not leaving. Bring Paylor to Twelve I will kill here then. I will not leave Twelve ever again because every time I do someone always gets their life threatened. Now bring Paylor here tomorrow at noon. I will take care of her then and execute her in front of the citizens of Twelve,” I say.

“I will get fired if I do that. Commander Everdeen, you can’t let her do this. She’s not even suppose-to be out of the Capitol.”

“Neither am I. Now go get Paylor and I better see her here tomorrow at noon or else you’re cut off of the rebels,” he says. The rebel nods his head and runs out the door. I hear the hovercraft take off and he’s gone. “Well I’m give to give myself a small tour of Twelve because a lot can happen in eight years.” He starts walking towards the door when he jumps back. The door opens and Greasy Sae barges in. She runs up to us and gives us a hug.

“I missed you guys so much. It’s been almost one whole month since I’ve seen you two,” she says.

“Who is that?” my dad asks. My dad’s face looks very confused and afraid. I would be afraid to if so crazy old lady comes barging through your door hugging you daughter and son-in-law.

“Dad, meet Greasy Sae. Greasy Sae meet my dad,” I say. My dad’s face turns into a smile.

“Greasy Sae?” he asks.

“Gunner?” she asks. They run up and hug each other. Then it hits me. My father has been to The Hob by himself way before I started going. Him and Greasy Sae must’ve been friends then.

“What on earth are you doing in my daughter’s house?”

“I cook and clean for her because I love her so dearly. I don’t do it for pay, I just enjoy seeing her and Peeta’s smile every day. What are you doing alive?” she says crying. She hasn’t seen my dad since everyone thought he died. This is still new news for her.

“It’s a long story.”

“Well then I guess you two will be seeing a lot of each other. Gunner is moving in with us,” says Peeta.

“This is great!”

“I’ll make it feel like home.” Then we all just stand there in silence. No one not knowing what to say. Peeta can’t even bring up a discussion so I guess I have to.

“Well it’s been a long day, so I think I’m going to go to bed. I’ve been up since three in the morning and I feel that if I stay up for another minute I’ll just fall asleep. Wake us up when its dinner,” I say. I grab Peeta’s hand and we start to walk upstairs. When we get to our room I go in our closet, put on my pajamas and I climb into bed. The bed that I haven’t slept in for almost a month. The bed I thought I would never sleep in again. Peeta climbs into bed and puts his arm around me and we fall asleep.

In my nightmare I see my mom, getting murdered. But before the blade connects with her neck Peeta goes on a wild rampage. Venom. He doesn’t even know what he’s doing. He kills everyone. He lets the blade drop on my mother and takes one of the Peacekeepers guns and kills everyone in the arena, including Haymitch, Gale, Claudia, and Plutarch. I try to close my eyes but they won’t shut. Then Peeta comes up to me, drops the gun at my feet and says “Kill me, if one of should make it home, it should be you.” Then the hovercrafts fill the sky and my father comes out of one and shoots Peeta right in front of my eyes. We aren’t in the arena anymore. We’re in the meadow. Then a small little girl comes out behind from behind my dad. Prim. She comes up to me and gives me a dandelion and runs to go play in the meadow. I’m not in restraints anymore. Soon bombs fall from the sky and Prim and my father die.

I scream. I am drenched in so much sweat and tears, my clothes are clinging to my body. Peeta springs up. I get up and start pacing the room. I’m panting. It sounds like I just got done with hard core work out. I start crying again. Peeta comes up behind me, not caring about me being so sweaty. He wraps me in his arms and tries to calm me down. I bury my face in his shoulder and I hold him close to me. When I finally calm down, he wipes away my tears. I’m still very shook up.

“Are you alright?” he asks me. I shake my head and hide in his shoulder. I am in pain. This is the worst nightmare I’ve ever had. Since I’m not really calming down, he makes me go take a shower so I’m not drenched in sweat, also so I can calm down. When I’m in the shower, the warm water soothes my body. Soon I force myself out of the shower because tiredness takes over. I towel dry my hair, put on a different pair of pajamas, and come back out. Peeta has his lamp on and he’s leaning against the wall. When he sees me he walks over to me and takes me into his arms. He kisses my cheek and doesn’t let go of me for a few minutes. When he does he sits me down on the bed and kneels in front of me. He pushes a strand of hair behind my ear and kisses my forehead.

“How bad was it Katniss? I’ve never seen you like this.” I sigh. And I feel a tear roll down my cheek again.

“It was bad,” I say in a whisper. He wipes my tear away and starts to rub my back.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I shake my head. It was all too real. I witnessed two people die today, and I haven’t seen Prim since she was blown to bits. He wouldn’t understand, no matter how hard he tried to, he couldn’t. “Just know it was a nightmare, it wasn’t real.” I shake my head. It was nothing but real. It all happened. Well at least most of it was.

“But it was real Peeta. Too much of it was real.” His jaw drops open. I know he didn’t expect that. I wrap my arms around his neck and he slowly put his arms around me. I run my fingers through hair and his hands run up and down my back. I am so lucky to have him. No other man, not even Gale, could treat me the way that he treats me. He understands me. Every other man would tell me to be quiet and go back to bed. But Peeta knows what runs through my mind. He was with me in those Games. He’s the only one that gets me. I love him. I tell Peeta that I won’t be able to go back to bed. I’m so shaken up I couldn’t fall asleep if I wanted to. So Peeta makes me take some Sleep Syurp. Soon I’m comfortable in Peeta’s arms. I can feel myself starting to drift away. Before I fall asleep, I hear Peeta say something.

“If I’m with you, you don’t have to be afraid.” Then I go unconscious.

When I wake up Peeta is still sleeping. I look at the clock and it said it was ten in the morning. Morning? I told everyone to wake us up at dinner. I said that almost sixteen hours ago. I didn’t even realize what the time was when I woke up in the middle of the night. Paylor is coming to Twelve in two hours and I just woke up. Where is everyone? They knew that Paylor was coming at noon, why didn’t they at least wake us up then? I turn around so I face Peeta and I shake him.

“Peeta, Peeta wake up. Paylor is going to be here in two hours, we need to get ready.” He just moans. He usually gets up pretty fast so he must be really exhausted, probably because I kept him up last night, so I let him sleep. It’s only fair. I slip out of bed and into the bathroom. I get into the shower and I stay in it for a long time. The hot water running down my body sooths me, just like it did last night. When I get out I towel dry my hair and braid it down my back. I put on the clothes I usually wear when I hunt, including my father’s hunting jacket. When I come out of the bathroom Peeta is still asleep on the bed. I don’t know how to wake him up, he’s usually a light sleeper. So I go back into the bathroom, grab a cup, fill it with ice cold water and walk back out into the bathroom. Peeta is going to hate me for doing this. I take the glass of water and I pour it on his head. He yells and falls out of bed.

“What’s wrong with you?” he yells. I’m laughing so hard. I finally have something to be happy about that won’t bring back painful memories.

“You wouldn’t wake up,” I say still laughing. What I love about our relationship is that we can be ourselves and not care. We goof around with each other all the time. We are both really weird when we don’t have anything stressing us out.

“You couldn’t have just politely woken me up?”

“I shook you but all you did was moan.”

“So instead of just waking me up with a kiss or something you just had to do that?” I nod my head.

“You mad or something?”

“I’m not mad, but I am a person who loves getting revenge,” he says getting up. He goes into the bathroom and comes out with a cup of water. I start running towards the door but he beats me there. “Sweet, sweet revenge.” He throws the cold water in my face.

“Was that necessary?”

“Now you know how I feel.” He puts his arms around my waist.

“Are we even now?” He kisses me. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He leans in for another kiss when the door opens and knocks us down on the ground. We start to laugh.

“Well, what are you two doing on the ground? Paylor is going to be here in an hour, get up!” my dad says. We get up and Peeta goes into the bedroom. While he’s in there I go downstairs to see no one there. No breakfast has been cooked. Greasy Sae or her granddaughter isn’t here, and neither is my dad. How could he leave so fast? I just saw him a few minutes ago. I think they might be outside but when I look out the window not one citizen of Twelve is out. Usually I see people outside every morning doing their daily routine but I still see no one, not even a Peacekeeper. I run back upstairs to see Peeta combing his hair forward and he’s sees me in the mirror, he also sees in the mirror the worry on my face.

“What happened?”

“Everyone is gone, I don’t know what happened. Not one person is outside.” He runs up to the window and looks out it.

“Have you called anyone?”

“No.”

“Well, call Gale, he’ll probably know what’s going on. I’m going to go outside to see if I can find anyone or anything.” He starts to walk towards the door.

“Be careful, I don’t want you to go missing either. If Paylor is behind this you’ll be dead by the time I find you.” He comes over to me and sits me down. He puts his hands around my waist and puts his head against mine.

“I promise you I will be back in ten minutes. I’m just going to do a quick walkthrough of the town and I’ll come right back.” I nod my head. “I promise.” He gives me a kiss then walks out the door. I look out the window and I see him in the front yard. He looks up and waves at me. I wave back, and then he runs towards the town. I get up and I go downstairs to the phone in the kitchen and dial Gales phone number. He’s still in the Capitol so he should know what is going on. I keeps ringing, and ringing, and ringing and still no one picks up. Right before I hang up to call Haymitch, Gale picks up.

“Hello?” he asks in a whispered tone.

“Hey, do you have any idea what’s going on? There is not a soul in Twelve? I just saw my dad five minutes ago and now everyone is gone,” I say.

“Katniss, it’s Paylor. We don’t know how she escaped but she’s a rebel so she knows all the secrets. She probably has them all as prisoners. You and Peeta need to stay inside. Keep your door locked and try to stay either upstairs or in the basement. Some rebels are on their way from the Capitol right now to guard your house.” Paylor is on the run. She’s out to get Peeta. To get me. I ruined her Games. She is also a person who likes revenge. If she finds me, I will be dead. I need to find Peeta. If he gets caught, I don’t know what I will do. Odds are Paylor is in Twelve right now, thinking I’m in hiding. And if she isn’t in Twelve yet, she will be, soon.

“But Peeta just went outside to see if he could find anything.”

“He’s strong, he’ll be fine. You need to stay there until he gets back and then go into hiding.”

“Ok.”

“Don’t be afraid, everything will be fine.”

“I’m not.”

“Okay, Claudia and I are in hiding right now. Stay safe and I’ll see you soon.”

“Ok.” Then he hangs up. I sit down on the couch and just wait. Seconds feel like minutes and minutes feel like hours. It’s been thirty minutes since I’ve seen Peeta. I’m starting to get worried. I keep having to remind myself that he’s strong and that he can face anything. Thirty minutes turn into thirty five minutes, forty, forty five minutes, to almost an hour. He told me ten minutes and he’s been gone almost an hour. I cannot shake the thought that he’s safe right now. The only thing I can think of is that Peeta is taken.

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Isn't Paylor a snake? Comment what you think about her also what you liked and disliked. Vote if you liked the chapter!

Love, Bookjunkie001