18

Johanna's bedroom is spacious. But then, it's not like witness protection is ever expected to protect crowds of witnesses at once.

Johanna opens the windows. There are three. Outside, the dusk is falling. The crickets and sounds of night have just commenced their dusk chorus.

Johanna wouldn't do this if she knew what to expect. But then, she wouldn't confess that if she knew that, would she?

"Call me sentimental if you want to," she tells Peeta. "But in many ways, I'll never remember the Hunger Games, or even the Quarter Quell, as crucibles."

Peeta's just a tiny speck on her bed. With that said, he's got no idea how she can see him.

He's probably getting bigger. But then, if only he could get bigger fast enough.

But not that he wouldn't rather do this. Even under Katniss's rule, Johanna's unmissable.

"As you might've guessed, Mr. Mellark, the fire pit was just a bluff in contrast to everything I have in store for you. By the time I'm through with you, you won't know me from Alma Coin from your goddess."

Peeta doesn't know what to say. He's not even sure she's giving him permission to talk.

"I know you already know how dangerous I am. You've leapt into the shark tank. Now prepare to get bit! It all starts when I take off my clothes."

One of the androids knocks on the door. "GO AWAY," Johanna shrieks.

Peeta's heart freezes in his chest as she screams. He knows he should be used to Johanna's screams, courtesy of their shared captivity in the Capitol. But down here, noises are sappier. Also, Johanna was in chains the first time; right now, though, the only chains on her are the androids', and they are not her captors...for the time being.

"We're all alone now, Mr. Mellark," Johanna says, with an evil smile. "Time to get dirty!"

A moth flies through one of the open windows. Johanna doesn't seem to notice.

She takes off her shirt. They always start with the shirt, for some reason.

She throws it on top of Peeta. It lands on Peeta like a deflated Zeppelin.

It stinks...and smells good. Peeta could get used to sex with Johanna.

It takes him a while to navigate through the labyrinth beneath her shirt. But when he finally gets out from under it, Johanna's in nothing but her cheap lingerie.

Cheap...but VERY revealing.

She closes her jewelry box; she'd loaded it while Peeta was buried under her shirt. She puts it away, and smiles down at Peeta.

"I thought about keeping you in my jewelry box," she admitted. "But I was afraid you'd suffocate."

Peeta would've been afraid he'd faint from low self-esteem. But then, that's kind of been the whole theme of his adventures in "bug world."

"We can try it tomorrow, though. I have NO plans of giving you up," she chuckles, "as I don't anything in my jewelry box."

She unbuckles her bra, and slides off her panties. She gets on the bed with him. Her knees create craters in the bedding that Peeta almost rolls into. At long last, there's nothing protecting Johanna from Peeta...other than the superior size and weight of her body.

"You're not going to take a shower first," Peeta says.

Johanna scoffs. "I would...but then I'd have to wait for this. And I'm paid to wait for everyone else back in District 7. And as hard as it might be for my manhunters to believe, I didn't come here to work.

"Now," she lies down on the bed, trapping Peeta in a canyon whose walls comprise her bare legs. "Climb to the top of my ass cheek, and don't stop adoring me until you pass out."

Without hesitation, Peeta does. It's a long climb, and he nearly falls a few times, but he does reach the summit of her ass cheek. Once there, he does what he's been instructed. It is a hard row for him to hoe, even if it is atop a ho's ass, but it sure is the funnest row he's ever hoed aback a ho.

I wouldn't recommend that as a pickup line, either. It's too much too soon.

When Peeta wakes, it's still dark outside. The night's noises are still loud, but getting dimmer. Peeta wonders how many moths have flown in since Johanna opened them. He's wondering if...

He hears Johanna snore. That answers his question; she's asleep.

He's back on her ass cheek. He has no memory of how that occurred. With everything that happened after he nearly passed out atop her ass cheek the first time, he should be on the bed smothered by her weight. And that's just if she really hates him that much...

But of course, men do this to women all the time in the bedroom. It's mean, but it's the only thing men know how to do when it comes to sexual expression, right?

Something moves out there. Peeta's heart freezes in his chest. He can hear the ground make noise as something approaches the cabin. Androids don't walk.

Every now and then, it stops. From there, Peeta enjoys some rest. But then he hears it again. It's getting too close.

Peeta can't take it. He abandons his comfy mattress, Johanna's ass cheek, and makes his way to the floor.

Her body is too tempting to abandon, he knows. But it won't tempt another man again if its owner dies tonight.

That thing outside didn't sound big-from Johanna's POV. And yet, maybe it's because Peeta can tell the noises' maker is bigger than him that he's creeping to take these precautions.

And another thing: he remembers the owl carcass from earlier. Maybe he's too small to appreciate a normal snake bite for the minimum amount of damage it does, but...Peeta just can't help but get this feeling that the androids wouldn't be keeping Johanna out here if they knew about the owl carcass.

But that snake was definitely venomous. And if it gets in here...

Most of the cabin is the bedroom. The kitchen is small. The lounge is small. The closets are moderate...but more small. The halls are short...if even existent. And there's an outhouse outside.

At least there's no moonshine still. But then, with all the stress that Peeta's been feeling lately, he probably wishes there was one.

On the floor, Peeta looks around. It doesn't seem like there's anything inside to worry about.

In the kitchen, the window's open. Somehow, the copperhead mutt crawls through it. He crawls around the sink, across the cabinet, and lowers himself. He falls. He coils. He has a hard landing.

Peeta freezes. He felt the snake's coils' vibrations when it fell to the floor. He doesn't want to, but he creeps towards the epicenter of those vibrations. He trembles with every barely-advancing step...

Slowly, Peeta gets the eerie feeling he's being surrounded. The air feels more humid around him.

Near one of the walls, a night light flickers, and turns itself on. Once there, Peeta wishes it hadn't.

He's been surrounded by a copperhead's coils. Its head towers high above him. Its nose is pointed right at him. He flicks his tongue. To Peeta, it's like a bullwhip. The snake breathes heavily.

Down here, Peeta's too scared to breathe. He put up with some pretty scary things in the Hunger Games and Quarter Quell...but this beats everything.

He doesn't move. It's getting harder to by the nanosecond. The snake is big, and outguns Peeta. And it's given him nowhere to run.

The snake flicks its tongue again. It gets way too close to Peeta.

Peeta can't tell, but it feels like the coils are tightening. Or, maybe it's all in his head...

Peeta stares up into the snake's eyes. The snake appears to stare back...albeit Peeta isn't entirely sure copperheads can see well. He knows that reptiles can't see color. So, with the night lighting in the background, the copperhead probably sees all this like anyone else would watch the nighttime scenes in a black-and-white movies.

(Yes, a few of those are still kept in Panem's libraries. And, every now and then, a new one is filmed...but no one regulates that, I'm afraid.)

Peeta dares not move. If he moves too fast, the copperhead is sure to mistake him for prey.

Peeta's pulse is too fast. If the snake keeps this up, he might have a hemorrhage.

Peeta could just be hallucinating, but he thinks he detects female hormones coming from the snake. He thinks that maybe...

The room is flooded with light. The snake looks up. Peeta runs. He takes a chance, climbs over the snake's coils, and leaps over the other side.

As he slides across the floor, a gigantic ax blade comes down, and scars the floor, right where he was. Peeta's flesh misses the ax's blade by nths.

The blade is raised. The snake lies dead, on the floor, in two pieces. Johanna's just saved herself-and Peeta, probably. The night light must've woken her.

Peeta takes back what he thought about the snake's female hormones. Snakes are natural sociopaths; and even if the copperhead mutt were a female, the females of some species just don't fall for the little man.

Two androids barge in. One sees the snake's remains, and takes them away. One sees Johanna's dirty ax, and takes it from her. They leave her alone, and close the door behind them.

Johanna still stands tall, and naked, over Peeta. She kneels down before him. To Peeta, her knees are like cliffs. She lies her hand flat on the floor, near Peeta. She pinches Peeta by the bum, and drops him in her hand. Peeta's gotten really hard-first from the viper's suspense, and now from her nude giantess body.

Johanna's softer than she usually is. Peeta begins to worry.

"That snake was here for me," she tells him. "You saved my life."

With her thumb and index finger, she rearranges Peeta's drawers around his waist. This gets Peeta worked up. Alas, the drawers are fragile. For a part of it, his dick is exposed...

He wakes. He's still alone in the Appalachian woods. This time, it's late at night. Crickets sing the midnight chorus all around him.

Again, Peeta's most recent memories of Johanna begin to fade. As much as he doesn't like being in this situation, it's getting REALLY hard to tell the difference between what he dreams and what really happens...