We didn't know how to tell Annie.
Finnick was gone. Whatever was left of him was now in a silver casket, along with just a few of his belongings. His pieces couldn't be put back together, not the way that Annie's could when the Capitol shattered them and Finnick took care of her. He was beyond repair, beyond hope. Nothing could change that.
In Annie's fragile state, we didn't know how she would handle it. But we took her to see him anyway, unable to figure out what else to do. This was hardly the reunion she had been hoping for, and I felt guilty.
But when her eyes first fell on the coffin...she didn't curl up and recede, like she normally did when things were bad.
She was calm.
Annie approached the box carefully, almost as if she forgot what it was...who was inside it. But then, as calmly as someone would crawl into bed, she lifted her knee and climbed on top of it, dark green eyes never leaving the surface. It was as if she could see right through the steel...like she could see Finnick.
Slowly, her fingers smoothed over the lid, and Annie lowered her body until she was lying down, her cheek cooling as it was pressed against the casket. As she closed her eyes tightly, I could almost see the emotion sweep over her...as if it suddenly manifested into a visible tidal wave from her and Finnick's home district, crashing down and consuming her and the coffin entirely.
We could hear the sobs now.
Annie wrapped her arm around the case, her lips moving just barely as she spoke to Finnick through her tears. I couldn't make out what she was saying, but I stopped trying to figure it out after a few seconds-both because I didn't think it was my business, and because I felt certain that the words I thought I did hear...just couldn't possibly be right. It wasn't until months later that I realized this wasn't just Annie's final hug with Finnick. Back then, I didn't know that between that metal lid and her body was their child, cradled between their souls. I didn't know it was a family embrace.
I didn't know, and I'm glad, because it would've just made it harder to watch.
