Depths Deepen

Finnick and Prim stood in blinding light, completely unaware of what's laid for them, and so completely shocked when it just hit them, when they thought they were going to reach the place where there is eternal happiness and freedom, or what they say, heaven, and when the bloody, incredibly vast and somehow familiar place were spreading against everything in front of them, they had no idea what to do. Although there were millions of emotions and feelings that took over them, shock was right on top of the list.

"Finnick, is this heaven?" Prim asked in pure terror as she looked around at her surroundings.

"Prim, this doesn't look good." Finnick answered trying to act calm but his face towered with fear.

There wasn't any door between heaven and hell, there was this nearly invisible line in between and a narrow stream in front the line. The minute they decided they should go on, and then stepped over the invisible line, Finnick suddenly disappeared and then reappeared, still as Finnick, but 10 years younger. Finnick turned 14 again. He's the same age as Prim, but he shrunk an inch or two or more. He just looks shorter, but still tall. His bronze hair became shorter, but his eyes were still a beautiful piercing bright green. His face looks so much younger, his cheek- bones look not as deep, but still, overall, ever so good-looking. Finnick realized the pure shock on Prim's face.

"What?" Finnick asked. His voice came out a little uneven. Prim stared into his confused eyes.

Then they observed the place around them. It was all misty and blurry, quite chilling too. There was something across the stream, but they couldn't make out what it was. Prim continued staring.

"Oh my god, what?" Finnick asked again. When she had no response, he knew that something was wrong.

"What? Is there dirt on my face or something?" With no response apart from small gasps, he ran to the stream and stared at his own reflection.

"Oh my god." Finnick gasped. "Bad memories."

Prim was about to open her mouth, but stopped when she saw Finnick squatting down, holding his head, screaming, screaming and screaming, with agony and pain.

"Finnick?" Prim asked. "Finnick!"

Finnick opened his eyes. Prim sees all the memories flashing through his beautiful eyes. Himself, people, killing, deaths, and most of all Annie. The Hunger Games. His Hunger Games, when he was just a boy, about to turn 14, the year where everything changed.

When his flashbacks are over, Prim went over to make sure he was okay.

"What happened?" Prim asked.

"No idea." Finnick replied shaking. Then, the mist around them disappeared a little, and they could see what's across the stream. It was 12 perfect platforms, proudly standing there.

"Let's go." Finnick said.

"What?" Prim asked, surprised.

"I want to see what's going on." Finnick replied sternly.

They jumped across the stream and on the platforms. They can feel the change in temperature as they rose up, to the scene that all feared most. They both knew what this was the minute they laid eyes on their surroundings. It was the Hunger Games, the arena, but an arena that's made out of all the arenas over the past 75 years. You can see forests, then deserts, then Snow Mountains, all cramped up together. This place was almost bigger then Panem, no bigger, much bigger. They knew where the arena ended, far far away, because the arena cut off to just, plain nothing. In the middle stood the Cornucopia, with no supplies.

"Ouch." Finnick said holding his head as it throbbed. The arena widened.

"What?"

"I just contributed to the arena." Finnick gasped. "You see that?" Finnick said while pointing to some thing at the far end.

"Yeah?" Prim replied.

"That was my arena in my Hunger Games, when I was fourteen."

Finnick and Prim walked further into the arena, and at first they don't see anyone. Then, they started seeing all kinds of people. Some frantically searching for something, some who were just sleeping, some, all beat up and bloody, some just walking, scared and tired.

Then, he saw him, sitting beside a little girl, under a tree. The girl had bruises and cuts everywhere, and her face was pale and sick. Rue. The man beside her was looking not as bad, Cinna. Prim didn't recognize them at first, but then after a while, she knew who they were.

"Cinna?" Finnick asked not believing his eyes.

"Finnick! Prim!" Cinna exclaimed, while trying to stand up.

"Cinna, why are you here? Why are we here?" Prim asked. "Is that Rue?"

"Yes, I arrived here with Portia and found her." Cinna said.

"Where's Portia then?" Finnick asked.

"She went off to explore the arena." Cinna answered looking down. "She still hasn't come back."

"What happened to Rue?" Prim asked, while kneeling down to touch Rue's face.

"Are you okay Rue?" Prim asked. Rue turned a bit to face her, she slowly opened her eyes.

"Katniss?" Rue asked.

"No, I'm not Katniss, I'm Prim, Katniss' younger sister." Prim said.

A tear rolled down Rue's cheeks.

"I miss Katniss." Rue said looking pained.

"I do too." Prim said. She then sat beside her, examining her cuts and bruises. Prim felt weird because she was talking to Rue like a little girl while they were the same age.

"Cinna, answer me, do you know why all us ended up here and why I turned into this?" Finnick asked Cinna, while pointing at his 14 year-old body.

"I don't know why you look younger, but as far as I know, what my angel told me was-" Cinna started explaining.

"Your angel?" Finnick asked.

"Yeah, everyone has an angel; they will appear only once, at any time to tell you something." Cinna said.

"How do you know this?" Finnick asked again.

"Rue's angel told her." Cinna replied.

"Where did my angel go?" Finnick asked.

"Hey angel! It's about time you appear!" He shouted to the air. Prim would've laughed but she was too scared to death.

"It'll come sooner or later Finnick." Cinna said not wanting to explain more.

"Alright, I'll wait. So, what did your angel tell you again?" Finnick asked.

"This is a place between heaven and hell. This is the Hunger Games. It started when the 1st Hunger Games in Panem started, when the tributes died and came here. They couldn't forget the horrible memory, and so they left it here, haunting them forever. Their Games were the worse, they were the first to experience the Games, then when the second, third, fourth, fifth Hunger Games started, the dead tributes all contributed to this place, and soon, this was what's created." Cinna said.

"Doesn't God do something about this?" Finnick asked.

"For the first half of the Hunger Games, he kept on destroying this place, but whenever he destroys one part, a tribute will put it back in again. Soon, there were so many memories, and so many arenas that's so hard to destroy. Fear overwhelms power." Cinna said.

"So, we stay like this forever?" Finnick asked.

"No, we don't stay like this forever. There's a path to heaven and hell, you just got to find it. We have no idea how to find both the paths. Second, try to not hurt yourself, as you know, we're already dead, so, we don't die again, whenever we get hurt, we'll just feel the pain, we'll just suffer, but we won't die. It takes everything for you to recover, but it's so easy to get hurt."

"This is bad." Finnick said glancing at the pale Rue.

"Trust me, things can get even worse." Cinna said before the thunder roared and the lightning struck outside the arena, which means the lightning hit somewhere on earth and after a while; they witnessed the arena expanding again, another tribute dead.

"Why are you guys and Prim here?" Said Finnick.

"I'm not sure, I thought only tributes would go here after they die." Said Cinna wiping all the blood and sweat off his forehead.

"Wait, doesn't that mean everyone dead from the past 75 Hunger Games will be in this arena?" Asked Prim eyes open wide with fear.

"Yes." Said Finnick