Chapter 13

                                    

                                          
"God girl, are you an idiot?" Johanna burst in through the trees as I fell to the ground. "I thought you were him..." she said, kneeling next to me. She pulled out another knife and began to cut deeply into my arm. 
                          
I winced and screamed out. "Peeta!" she shoved her hand over my mouth with such force, my teeth dug into my lip and I was now bleeding a dangerous amount from my stomach, arm, and now my mouth as well.
                          
"Katniss?" I heard Peeta's boots stomping as he ran toward us. Johanna yanked a small piece of metal out of my arm, threw it into the woods, then stood and went towards Peeta's voice.
                          
"No!" I sat up to tried and grab her, but a clenching pain in my stomach forced me back down as she went after him.
                          
All I could do is sit and listen to their fight.
                          
A loud thud. Peeta's screaming. Another crash. A cannon. The world was fading slowly around me. I wasn't dying, no, that much I knew. But I was losing a lot of blood and I'm sure that was the cause of this fuzzy confusion around me.
                          
Peeta came back to me. "Peeta..." I stared off into space as I said his name. "I'm so sorry." my hand gripped the knife in my stomach.
                          
His eyes widened at the sight of me. "Just do it." he whispered, holding my hand, his eyes squeezed shut. He was waiting for me to kill him. But of course, that's not what happened. The berry was out of the locket and into my mouth before Peeta could notice.
                          
My veins reacted instantly, closing themselves off, slowly stopping my heart. I lied there, gasping for air, when Peeta finally opened his eyes and realized what I had done. "Katniss, no!"
                          
"I love you," I choked out with much difficulty, my words heavily slurred. My eyes closed, and my heartbeat came to a rest.
                          
Yet I still heard Peeta's cries. What was happening? I couldn't move, I could only hear; but I wasn't dead. I realized then what the dark purple berries I'd eaten must have been. Not poison berries, no. Chokeberries.