Prologue
Everything in the arena was washing away, the dam had broke. I tried to run from the water, but it was hopeless, I was engulfed. I never learned how to swim. I coughed and searched for the surface, but I couldn't find anything. I was panicking again, Oh my god I'm going to die. Seb. Jake. I started to breathe in the water, unable to hold my breath any longer. I was giving up and accepting the inevitable and then I felt pressure on my arm.
Someone was pulling me up. I was started to fade when we finally reached the surface. I coughed immediately finally able to fill my lungs with air and came face to face with Four. She was keeping me afloat.
"Nine it's okay, it's okay, stop flailing your arms, just kick your legs," she was making her way to a tree. "We n-" and she jerked to the side and took a deep breath. Then she was bleeding and the water started just disappear like bathwater down the drain.
"Four!" I didn't know how to, but I tried to keep myself afloat and Four seemed to still be helping me. "Are you okay?" Why was she helping me? We were allies, but still I just didn't understand. Finally the water was shallow enough for me to stand and Four just floated in the water.
"It's okay. You're okay, you're okay," I wadded through the water towards her. There was blood so much blood, and the water was just spreading everywhere. I found her hand, the one with her token on it and grasped it tightly. I looked at her wound in her stomach and repressed the urge to vomit. She was also completely disemboweled. How was that even possible?
I looked around for my bag, i had bandages and herbs, if anything they could make her comfortable. I heard her take a breath and even that was a struggle. I knew she wasn't going to make it, and it was going to be painful and long. "Shhh... it's okay. You're going to be o-okay, Four," but for once my smiles and positive thinking failed me. She was dying and I was going to be alone. "Why didn't you just let me drown? You would be going home, Four?"
"M-my name is Annie, please make it stop," her voice was barely above a whisper, I didn't like it, but I knew what she was asking of me. "Take it," she tried to gesture to her token. It was an unbelievably simple bracelet, a brass coil with one charm on it, some weird animal.
"Okay, okay," I slipped it off her wrist and and tucked it into my shirt pocket and got out the scythe that had been given to me by some scary sponsors. "This is going to be quick and I won't leave your side."
"Thank you," she was so at peace with dying, she even smiled.
I took a deep breath as she nodded, "I'm so-," slit her throat "-sorry." It was easier than cutting wheat for the harvest, but it felt worse, so much worse. Her cannon sounded right away and for first time since I was reaped, I cried. Her body floated away into the water and was taken by the Capitol, but I couldn't stop crying. I cried and cried for Annie, for my family, for Three and everyone in this game. And then I stopped.
It was time for these games to end and it was time for me to go home.