Cold, grainy, feelings beneath my feet, my hands. Air smells like fish, like salt, pushing against my skin, lifting my hair. Why why why. Clank Clank the battle axes wait. No, wait. Just tridents spearing dinner. Oh my, oh my, where has the time gone? How long till he comes back for me? He always comes back for me.
Annie gasped as hands curled around her waist, pulling her from the hazy world of safety she so often came to visit when reality poured too much onto her frail shoulders. A voice whispered into her ear. "Hey, beautiful."
Finnick
Annie's shoulders relaxed and she giggled as Finnick's breath tickled her ear. She turned to meet his gaze. A smile was playing at the corners of his mouth.
"Got dinner." He said. A stupid grin spread across his lips when she wrinkled her nose at the smell of the offering, hanging from a rope by their gills.
"Tuna again." She murmured.
"I thought it was your favorite," He retorted.
"Too many favorites, darling. Why must you always resort to favorites? What about those things you neglect, don't they deserve a passing thought too?"
"Are you alright?" His face darkened with concern as he gently lifted her chin to meet his gaze. Those sea green eyes pierced through the last remains of the haze in her vision.
"I haven't been alright for many, many years."
He grinned. "That's alright, neither have I. We can be not alright together, okay?" He pulled her into an embrace, kissing the top of her head lightly. "I love you," He said quietly.
"I love you too, Finn." She murmured in response. His lips met hers with a gentle kiss that gained no fire the longer it lasted. Passion wasn't what either of them needed. The comfort that was the others warmth was enough.
They lay back in the sand together and listened as children's laughter spun harmonies with the cacophony that was their little strip of beach. Gulls squabbled, captains yelled, and mindless chatter wafted on the breeze. Annie closed her eyes and focused on listening for the easy rise and fall of Finnick's chest.
Her eyes shot open as she was jerked up into the air and dragged away from him. He was kicking and thrashing, screaming her name as the white suits attempted to hold him still. She cried out as a needle jabbed into his arm and his whole body went limp. It was then that Annie began to loose herself.
Gloved hands holding me back, screams pour out of my mouth. The haze threatens to make its return. Not this time not this time. Scream again, I won't let you take him from me.
They laid him out on a bed with a crimson goose down comforter and stripped him of his shirt. A screech cut through the air like a knife and a bouncing, pudgy little thing topped in lime green hopped up onto the bed and kissed him on the mouth, giggling as she came up for air, her tittering little voice spilling secrets into his ear. Twice more she planted kisses on his mouth till the white suits dragged her off.
A tail flicked from out of a fur-lined ensemble that slunk up onto his bed. He shuddered as claw capped fingers traced lines down his stomach and ran themselves through his copper curls. Lips met his mouth and cut off his already labored breathing. She bit his lip and purred into his ear before leaving him gasping for breath.
One by one they came and cut off his air. A parade of paint and dyes, wigs and surgically altered faces joined him on the bed and took a little more of his life from him. His chest would heave up and down as he would gasp to fill his lungs, pulling in air past white lips. Annie's sobs had long ago lost audibility though she could not tear her gaze from he who needed her so desperately.
Sickeningly sweet, the scent of roses, just as altered as their makers, preceded the entrance of Finnick's next visitor. The buds are the little mimics of the capitol's version of perfection; garish to those who know what scent their fragrance is meant to cover.
President Snow sat lightly on the edge of the bed and put his hand on Finnick's head, stroking it in a painful attempt at fatherly comfort as his pockets clinked with Capitol cash and Finnick's chest rose with a gasp under the weight of his secrets.
"Poison." The paralyzed slave gasped, looking with the eyes of a petrified sacrifice into the reptilian gaze of his master. Snow threw back his head with a laugh and spun to pin Finnick's arms to the bed. Blood dripped from those puffy lips onto Finnick's face.
Snow's back began to arch and his spine cracked and split. Annie watched in terror as the smart shoulders contorted into sloping masses of scales and his white hair spread down the tail that was forcing its way from his spine. His cackling grin turned into a snarl that slipped through bared fangs.
Snake eyes snake eyes.
Claws gripped Finnick's arms and threw him from the bed. He landed on he ground with a thud a few feet away from her. Annie resumed struggling to reach him as he pushed himself up on numb arms. The creature was on him before Finnick could get his legs under him. Claws wrapped around his neck, strangling his cry for help.
A sharp twist. A sickening snap. The strangled sob that forced itself through Annie's throat as she watched him fall to the ground. The air would not return to her lungs. Someone was screaming Finnick's name.
With a gasp she shot up straight in her bed and let loose another blood curdling scream. "Finnick!"
Feet pounded down the hallway and those wild, sea green eyes burst through the door. Within seconds his arms were around her and he hushed her screams. Sobs wracked her body as she clenched her eyes and teeth in an attempt to shut out the nightmare.
"It's okay. It's okay." He whispered and let her run her shaking fingers over his neck so she could be sure it was sound. Little by little she released the rigid hold she held over both of them and opened her eyes. A head of brown, mussed hair was pressed against her.
Adrian.
Annie's son looked up at her with his father's eyes and gave a faint smile. His name was not Finnick, but when his mother woke in the middle of the night screaming, or when she was in one of her hazes, he didn't hesitate to answer to his father's name.
"Are you okay, mom?" He asked. She nodded, still unable to make any sound beside a strangled little whimper. "I'm going to go make breakfast, okay?"
At sixteen, Adrian had been forced to often take on the responsibilities that were his mother's when she fell into her episodes. They usually didn't last long, but he made sure she was never hungry when she was unable to care for herself or him.
While he was frying leftover fish and eggs she shuffled into the kitchen and shooed him out to go get ready for school. Finnick wouldn't have wanted her to succumb and leave their son on his own for who knows how long until she felt she was ready to emerge again.
Adrian returned fifteen minutes later and they sat down to eat.
"How long?" She murmured.
"Two hours." He responded. That was how long it had taken her to open her eyes again after the nightmare. "Should I stay home today?"
"No." She replied firmly, planted a kiss on his forehead, and pushed him out the door. Adrian was all she had, and she was determined to do right by him.
