Borderline T/M for gore descriptions and possibly other triggers...
When you've got nothing,
you've got nothing to lose.
Annie stands up straighter and flicks her hair behind her ear. She runs her eyes over the paper, her hands shaking as her gaze rests upon a blood stain next to a white rose emblem. She runs a trembling finger over the stain. "It's Finnick's," she says softly, tears streaming down her face. "Oh, Snow... I knew you were a disgusting man, but I never-" her quiet tears were interrupted by the door slamming shut behind her.
"Annie Cresta, my darling."
She always remembered Snow's voice as being cruel, dignified.
"I-I'm an Odair now," she chokes.
Snow's laughter comes deep, cutting into her back as she whirls around in alarm. "Oh, no, your darling Odair has... well, you'll see for yourself in just a moment now."
On a large white wall, a projector begins to play. Sounds begin to overwhelm Annie's sanity as the prominent sound of a sword being lifted out of a sheath. Finnick's cheerful flirtations rapidly morph into screams. The gruesome stick of a blade is the final sound. A bloody blade is the first image, then it runs across the ground to reveal Finnick's grotesque arm, crisscrossed by multiple scars. Blood still leaks from the wounds, the skin matted with dried blood.
The shot moves to Finnick's chest, two cuts dug deep into his chest. Blood still spurts from the deeper cut, soaking his chest with blood. Another substance begins to root its way out too.
The penultimate shot, kept on the screen briefly, showed Finnick's head, twisted to the side. His face was bruised and dirt-streaked.
The last one was simply a full-body shot, showing Finnick's mangled upper body, his emaciated and bloodied legs.
"That was Finnick Odair, born the year of the fifty-first Hunger Games on February eighteenth," Snow said crisply, reaching forward with one finger, twisting Annie's vibrant hair. "He's dead now, quite obviously. And you're a widow. And my wife was slaughtered a while back..."
Annie gasps, looking back at his smirking face. She shakes her head slowly, gaping.
"Yes, Cresta, you will marry me."
"But- Finnick was everything to me- I have nothing. And if I'm going to have something... I don't want it to be you!" she whispers hoarsely, choking back tears. The president snatches the back of her shirt, smirking to her.
"You said you had nothing without him. If you have nothing, you have absolutely nothing to lose," he says reassuringly.
Annie nods, still unassured.
"I suppose...I don't have anything to lose. You're right. But I'm not marrying you."
He raises his eyebrows just in time to see the door lock and the sobs escaping.
"You have nothing, Annie Cresta!" he reminds her in an angry voice.
Between sobs, she adds, "And I have nothing to lose!"
A/N: Estoma's prompt; when you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose.
For the Caesar's Palace September monthly Oneshot Contest.