Third-Person Writing Sample

[peeta_bread]

Peeta Mellark flew up in bed, gasping and shaking. He instinctively reached out for Katniss and only felt air. Oh. Right. He was in Paradisa, not Panem. And Katniss was not here. It drove him crazy, not knowing if Katniss was alive or dead. And, if he had to admit it, his want for her was selfish, as well. Katniss kept the nightmares away. Katniss was the light in the darkness of his world.

He got out of bed, wiping the sweat from his face and sitting down on the stool in front of his easel. He stroked the half-painted canvas. It was the only time he could see her, through his paintings. He began painting the background. This was the first Hunger Games they had been in together. It was the moment Katniss had found him, battered and hidden away. She had been like an angel, flying down from the heavens to save him.
It had hurt so much, to give up on any kind of future with Katniss. But in the Hunger Games, only one survived. And that one would be her. He knew Gale was good for her, maybe even better for her than Peeta would have been. Gale wasn’t a constant reminder of the Hunger Games, the Capitol, or a forced future. Yes, he would spend his time peacefully in Paradisa, and then go back and die. He would kill the other competitors and then die.

Young, lovesick, and filled with nothing but misery, Peeta crawled back into his bed, his eyes heavy from lack of sleep. Hopefully, he could get a few hours’ reprieve before the nightmares began again. The nightmares that would never end.