They were walking down a street that appeared to be empty, but they knew better. They knew that something was in front of them, waiting to attack. One of the men that I had never met walks forward and a swarm of Tracker Jackers burst out. Everyone ducks and takes cover while they wait for the next pod to break open. Soon a noxious gas is pouring through the streets.

"Masks on!" Gale yells in the distance and everyone struggles to pull on the masks that will protect them. After waiting for minutes that seem like hours, the buzz of the Tracker Jackers end and the smoke seems to clear. Finnick pokes his head up, smiling under his mask as he sees that although the gas is still there, the tracker jackers were gone and he wasn't stung.

"Is everyone alright?" Finnick yells out, waiting for responses. People start to sit up, Katniss grabs Gale by the scruff of his neck. He wasn't stung, but had hit his head a little too hard when he was diving for cover and was terribly dizzy. The cake decorator, Peeta, was there. He was acting as if he had been stung, but nobody had been unfortunate enough to be hit. He was thrashing around and screaming, calling people names and growling, as if he were a mutant of the Capitol. Someone, an Avox boy had taken him and pinned him against a wall while Gale and Finnick forced Katniss back.

They tried everything they could to make him quiet, but nothing would stop his voice from carrying. A camera hidden in a streetlamp turned towards them. Nobody noticed it, but it happened. I know it did. They would be on the Capitol's news broadcast soon and peacekeepers would be sent to find them. A button was pushed and the microscopic trackers embedded inside random things in that block of the capitol were activated. All someone would have to do is step in the wrong puddle of mud and they would be easily tracked.

After Peeta had calmed down, which took a while, they decided to go into the nearest building for shelter to rest and make sure nobody had sucked in the building was small, but had many levels. They set up camp in a room on the third floor. It was just big enough for all of them to pile into somewhat comfortably and had some used furniture in it.

They forced the Peeta boy into a corner and chained him to a bedpost, to control any possible outbursts. Gale was laying down in the opposite corner while someone rummaged through a first aid kit to fix his headache. They got him some pills and he was forced to swallow them dry. The Avox boy was sitting up against a wall, communicating with what looked like his brother. Everyone else was in the center of the room, making a plan.

"So, if we leave on the south side we can sneak down this street. It would be a more direct path to the Capitol." Katniss said, huddled over a map with multiple people I didn't know.

"It sounds good, but we will have to be more cautious. The will have more surprises for us. They will be ready for something like this." One of the men in the group said. He had a nice face and brown hair, combed to the side. He had probably never left District 13 in his life. His skin was pale and his eyes were the color of metal.

Finnick was sitting by the only window in the room, looking out cautiously and occasionally putting his opinion in the conversation about the next plan. I don't know what he was looking at, the view was quite boring, just capitol buildings all surrounding themselves. Far away in the distance was the Capitol building, but it wasn't visible from where he was. Maybe he was thinking about the secrets he learned, the people he had to sleep with to learn them. Maybe some of them were exchanged around here, in this neighborhood even. A crackling sound came from below them, the Avox was the first to hear it, but Finnick was the first one to speak up about it.

"Do you hear that?" He asks. Everyone stays silent and all of their faces change to panic. There was a fire starting underneath them.

"What do we do?" Peeta asks. Nobody had an answer. A few of them, one of the boys from 13, the Avox, his brother, and Finnick decide that they will venture downstairs to the second level and see if there is any sort of escape route. They walk down the stairs, that have no signs of of a fire and into the main living quarters on the second floor. Besides it getting increasingly warmer and a little smokey, there was nothing resembling a fire yet. The District 13 boy kicked open a door and smoke billowed into the room.

"Masks on!" He yelled, but everyone was already working on it. Everyone except Finnick, who forgot his upstairs in the heat of the moment. He took his shirt and put it over his nose and mouth and they continued to finding another way out. After many attempts they found the stairway. It was surrounded by flames, but seemed to be somewhat stable. It was their only option now.

"Come on" The Avox's brother shouted and headed down the stairs. The boy from District 13 followed him, then the Avox, and finally Finnick. Four steps down, Finnick swallowed a lung full of smoke. He started coughing uncontrollably. He comes from District 4, water was what he was comfortable with. Fire was the opposite of water, it was a scary thing for the fishing district. It wasn't scary because we were ever really in danger, but because it was something so different than what we knew. Seven steps down and the stairs gave way, leaving Finnick fall into the flames.

"FINNICK!" I yell, waking up tangled in my sheets again. Images of his face as he was falling flash before my eyes. I look around for him, but he isn't here. He is in the Capitol. I press my hands up against my ears and rock back and fourth. I wanted so badly for him to be here, to wrap his arms around me and tell me it was all a dream. I needed his chest to lay on while he strokes my hair and lulls me back to sleep. I need his steady heartbeat and kind words to encompass me, but all I can think is: He's not here.

He left yesterday, on a special mission to the Capitol. He didn't tell me until he was leaving, said he didn't want to worry me more than he needed to.

"Annie, don't worry." He said brushing his hand against my cheek, brushing away a tear that had escaped from my eyes. "It will only be a couple of days. We're just shooting another propo. Just a couple of days and I'll be back home." I sighed, not wanting to let him go, but I knew he needed to go.

"Promise me you'll be safe. Promise me you'll come back" I said, trying to choke back the flood of tears that were trying to force their way up.

"I promise" and then he pulled me into a hug. I could hear his heart in his chest, beating perfectly. His arms held me close, with little room for wiggling away. But I didn't want to wiggle away, I wanted to stay there forever. After what could have been a few seconds or what could have been a lifetime he let go of me and twirled a piece of my hair. "I love you, Annie Odair." I smiled, loving his name as mine, but I soon remembered that he was leaving me. His army clothing already on.

"I love you too." He kissed me on the lips. I loved the feeling of his against mine. His were soft but powerful, fitting into mine as if it were meant to be. Every time we kissed, I wanted to melt like butter, into a puddle on the floor. Every time we kissed I forgot everything, all of the worry and pain, it was just us. That's how Finnick Odair made me feel. "You left me one, don't you do it again."

"I returned once, don't you think I won't do it again" and then he left. I spent the rest of the day in my room, watching whatever the television would play but not paying attention to any of it.

I remember when I first met Finnick Odair in person. I stood in the huddled crowd of people, the smell of the ocean carrying heavily in the air around us. Finnick Odair had won the Hunger Games five years before.

"Ladies first" Boomed from the speaker. The large bowl filled with names stood there, on the left side of the stage. It was different than the other District's, ours was built as part of the building, as to where the others were generally removable. Ours wasn't really a bowl, either, it was a large fish with his mouth gaping open. The one on the left was orange and many details were painted on each scale with a shiny metallic paint that never chipped or faded. The fish faced the opposite side of the stage, where a blue fish with the same pretty details that glimmered in the light stood, facing the orange one.

I wasn't looking at the speaker, I was staring down at my shoes. They were new, meant only for special occasions like weddings and reapings. They were golden sandals, used, but they didn't look like it. My dad had gotten them a few days ago. He had to trade a fair amount of what he caught that day to get them for me. It was sort of a birthday present in advance, he said. My dress was made out of an old floor length skirt of my mothers. It was a dark green color. I had knotted it at the top, entwining a freshly made net into it the fabric that caught light at the same time my shoes did. My mother had taken my hair and parted it deeply so that my hair flung off to the right side of my head. I then braided the left side carefully and put a flower from the bushes out back in my hair.

"Annie Cresta!" the name boomed over the speakers. I didn't realize it at first, but someone behind me hit me in the shoulder and said.

"Isn't that you?" I was completely shocked by the fear and took my name being called a few more times before I could move. As I stepped into the aisle where the peacekeepers escorted me up to the building I catch a glimps of my mother standing in the crowd. Her cheeks were red with sunburn, but there was more than that, tears were silently streaming down her face as she looked straight ahead. I walk up the stone steps, where they mayor and previous tributes await me. I shake each of their hands with particular stiffness. Finnick was the last one to shake my hand, he saw the fear in my face. He didn't say 'congratulations' or 'good luck' like the rest of them had, instead he looked me in the eyes and said:

"Are you ready?"

I let out a cry. I'm not the careless teenager, or the fighting tribute anymore. I am a mad girl locked up in her room in District 13. I try to steady my breathing, the first thing that people tell me to do when I freak out. Is this real? I think. There was no reply.

"Is this real?" But the darkness stays silent. I remember that I'm alone and try to mimic Finnick. "Is what real, sweet heart?" I take a ragged breath and start the regimen that they taught me. Only this time it was different. After each statement, I wouldn't get Finnick's reassurance that what I just said had truth to it, this time I had to prove to myself that they were true.

"My name is Annie Cresta...no. Annie Odair.

I am the victor of the 70th annual Hunger Games.

I am married to Finnick Odiar, victor of the 65th annual Hunger Games.

I love him.

He loves me.

I come from District 4.

We fish.

I am not in District 4.

I am in District 13.

District 13 does exist.

It's all under ground.

They took me from the Capitol.." I shuddered saying the word 'Capitol'. It held so many bad memmories, but I kept going on. I needed to keep going. If I didn't continue than I would break down again, maybe going completely crazy. I played with the 'mentally unstable' bracelet they gave me shortly after I got here and went on.

"They saved me from the Capitol. For Finnick.

Finnick is not here with me.

He is in the Capitol. Fighting for our freedom.

He will be alright" I had to tell myself this, if I didn't then the nightmares would completely encompass me.

"He will be alright.

He promised.

The government will protect him..." But I didn't believe that. The Capitol had done so much damage to so many people, they didn't care about protecting anybody but themselves. I know this wasn't the Capitol, but I couldn't help but not trust them. They would let him out into truly dangerous parts, let him blow up something that he wasn't supposed to. Something that could hurt him, or even kill him.

I couldn't keep up this charade anymore. I couldn't continue to say things that I didn't fully believe in hopes of tricking my mind that everything was okay. Everything wasn't okay, everything was horrible. My husband was out at war and I could do nothing about it. I know how the Capitol works, it will be hard to fight against them, they are a tricky people. Evil people. I hugged the pillow next to me as tightly as I could, willing it to turn into my only love, but nothing worked.

"Finnick. Please be okay, Finnick. Please." Tears rolled down my face and into the pillow, but I didn't care. I only cared about Finnick right now, how brave he was, but how scared I was for him. "Please Finnick, come home. I need you. I need you now more than ever." I held my stomach tight and cried myself back to sleep.