I do not own the Hunger Games.
Everyone thinks that Annie's the mad one.
Well, for a given definition of "everyone" that is.
Mags knows the truth of course. And the other Four Victors and Mamma. Some of the others probably suspect, they know what it's like after all, but they don't know for sure. Only a few people do.
And there are Finnick and Annie themselves.
Annie knows that she isn't the most watertight ship on the sea, she's never denied that. She knows she isn't quite right in the head. Sometimes the screams come, and the sounds of knives and spears and earthquakes and blood. Sometimes she has to hide until it all goes away. The sounds are really hard to block out.
But Annie gets to stay home in Four. She gets to hide in the scrub on Victors Island and her healing place in the cave behind the little inland waterfall. It isn't so much a cave as a little hole in the rock, but it is just big enough for her to curl up in and listen to the sound of the water laughing. Not deep dark water, but happy water full of light. When the sun rises it catches the droplets just so and it is like watching a curtain made out of rainbows and sunlight.
But Finnick doesn't get that. He has to go to the Capitol and pretend to be happy and smile those fake smiles that Annie hates so much and just wants to rip right off his face. And then he comes home and it is hard. Sometimes he flinches when Annie touches him and sometimes he goes away inside and it is something fake that looks at Annie from behind those beautiful, empty eyes of his.
Annie only wakes up screaming when Finn isn't there. Finn never wakes up screaming. He just wakes up and goes out on the balcony and stands and stares at the sea. Annie knows he is trying to remind himself that he isn't there right now. Sometimes she will get her guitar and his pipes and take them out and they will play until sunrise. Music helps. Yaya always used to say that music was a special kind of magic. Annie thinks that's true.
Annie is getting better. Finn isn't. She'll come into the kitchen sometimes and find him huddled on the floor of the pantry, rocking back and forth the way she sometimes does on really bad days. But Finn doesn't cry. He doesn't mutter, he doesn't beg the voices to stop like she does. He's silent, and that's the worst part.
She wishes that he didn't feel like he has to hide, even from her. Mags is the only person he'll cry to most of the time. She accepts it though, because Mags is for Finnick what Yaya used to be for her.
She knows that Mamma doesn't like Finn. At first she thought he's what the Capitol makes him look like. She still doesn't know the truth, but she does know Finn a little better. She still doesn't like him though. Annie doesn't understand it. She needs Finn. He keeps her grounded, helps her remember what is real and now and what is a memory.
She tries to do the same for him, but his Dark Things aren't just memories.
And she can't stop that.
Please leave a review and make my day! Bob is getting pretty hungry. You don't want a starved dragon on your conscience now do you?