"What do you do, darling?" That was the first question I was asked after I said goodbye to my family. I didn't do anything, really. I wove baskets, and nets, and fished. That's what you did in District 4, I had no special weapon like Finnick, and I wasn't incredibly strong. I had no talent, I was going to die out there.
"I don't do anything" I admitted to the old lady staring at me, her name was Mags. We were sitting in the main room, I suppose you could call it the living room, inside the tram that carried us 200 miles an hour towards the Capitol.
"Everybody does something, unless you're suggesting that you sit at home all day and stare at the walls" Finnick said from the other side of the room. He was making himself something to eat, although I had no clue what it was. The boy who was reaped along with me, Miles Miller, was in his room no doubt working at different ways he could make traps and weapons out of common items. It was the only thing we could really do in this train, he tried knife throwing with the steak knives, using a particularly ugly painting as the object but was scolded and banned from kitchen utensils.
"I'm not a career. I don't have anything that makes me special" I said, trying focus on something else. Mags put her hand on mine, it was warm and surprisingly soft. She waited until I looked up at her to talk.
"Not every victor is a career, you know"
"But every one of them has something that makes them special. Like, Finnick can use a trident, people from two are raised with weapons, District three knows so much more as far as technology, they could take something and turn it into a robot with a little work. Even District 11 has a leg up, they spend their days in all sorts of different fields. They probably know everything that grows in nature and how to eat it or use it for medicine or something. I know none of that"
"Who say's you're going to be a forest?" Finnick said, adding a spice to his strange concoction that I suddenly realized was fish.
"I never said..."
"There will no doubt be water. You grew up in water, did you not?"
"Well I suppose..."
"You can identify multitudes of different sea life, you can weave better than any other district can, and you can swim. That's valuable, not many other districts know how to do that."
"Aren't you supposed to be mentoring Miles?" He shrugged and pointed his knife, which he was using to cut up some sort of greens, and pointed it at Mags.
"Mags, would you disagree?" She looked at me and smiled.
"Everything he says is true. You're dress was lovely."
"My Dress? How is that relevant?"
"You made that net. It was flawless, even glimmered in the light" Finnick said. I sighed, he was supposed to be helping Miles, he had the better chance at winning. He spent his life preparing for something like this, he could tie one thousand different knots out of almost any material with his eyes closed. He could hide, and fight. He could survive. I couldn't. Mags smiled a somewhat toothless smile before commenting.
"My words exactly." I sat down on the couch and turned on the television, looking at the replay of the reaping from each District. There were some scary competition this year, nothing I would be able to fight against.
"You can't believe that I can actually win against these people! Look at that one!" I said, pointing at a tribute from District 2, he looked like a bull. He had muscles bulging from every inch of his body, I could even see some in his face. He had a mean expression, one that said 'I can kill you with one touch'.
"Brute force doesn't mean brains, in fact it often means quite the opposite." Mags said, not bothering to move her seat. "Tell me, child. What type of food is Finnick cooking?"
"Easy, seafood."
"But what kind of seafood."
"I don't know, I can't see it over here"
"Then come over here" Finnick said, motioning for me to get up. I did what he said, considering he was a mentor and mentors had all the say in what we got as far as emergency supplies. I turned into the kitchen and faced Finnick, he took my hand and pulled me closer to the pan.
"Tuna. In some sort of spice, with a side of...garlic scallops with shrimp and little green trees. So what?" Finnick cut off a piece of his Tuna, which wasn't close to cooked yet and stuck it with a knife, putting it in front of my mouth, telling me to take a bite. I swallowed it, but didn't really like to. Sure, you can eat tuna raw, it wasn't a secret, I didn't mind raw tuna, but it had been cooked on the outside and raw on the insie, which was something I had never tried, and frankly disgusted me.
"God, that was disgusting!" I sad, pulling away from him almost immediately.
"Then why did you eat it?"
"Because you gave it to me"
"If I gave you a bottle of poison would you drink it?" I thought about that for a minute. I would have said yes, but I thought of my mother, crying silently when I was chosen. I remembered my brother, walking in with his girlfriend and soon to be wife while I was sitting in the Mayor's building. He told me to make District 4 proud, make something memorable about it. Not for him, but for his baby. I was the first one to know that they were pregnant, I didn't want to let him them down. Not just them, the entire district. I might not survive, but I won't be a disgrace.
"No. That would be stupid."
"Why?"
"Because it would kill me"
"And the fish wouldn't?"
"No, everyone know's Tuna can be eaten raw or cooked."
"Not everyone" Mags added, smiling at us. I was confused, of corse everyone knew that, it was basic knowledge. "Annie, dear. People in other districts wouldn't know the difference between a river fish and one from the ocean. Half of them would think it's okay to just catch a crab and eat it."
"See? There is something you have against the other tributes." I was tired of this. I knew they were right, I realized that. But there was no gaurentee that we were going to be in an environment where there would be fish easily available. I forced my way out of Finnick's grip and headed off to my room.
The industrial glass door slid open and I found myself in the hospital of District 13. I hated the smell, I hated the smell of everything here, but the hospital ward smelled the worst. There were two large rows of stretchers, lined up with fresh white sheets on them. Thats where people with minor injuries go for help. Occasionally someone would trip during combat training and slice their hand open or something, this is where they were sent. Beyond them there was another door, still made of glass, but this glass was tinted. I had only been back there once, it was different. This room was open and you could see everything that was going on, beyond the doors it was just hallways with rooms. It was scary, I didn't like it.
"Annie, are you okay?" the little blond girl who wore her hair in french braids all the time asked me. She was Katniss's little sister, Primrose. She had checked in on me for the first few days I was here to make sure I was alright.
"Yes, Prim" I said, my arms crossed across my stomach. I must have looked horrible, I woke up today and didn't even bother to change. My mind was in a different place today, not that it isn't always, but today I couldn't help but think about everything, every past memory I had, every memory of Finnick I could think of. I needed to stay in the past, so I wouldn't be thinking in the future, where something bad could go on. The closest to the present I could get to was our wedding night, and that's the memory that brought me here. "Prim, is your mother here?" Prim finished changing a young girl's IV and turned to me. She looked concerned, as if she could read my mind.
"Stay here, Nicole. I'm going to help another patient" The little girl shook her head, as if agreeing and made herself comfortable in the thin sheets. Prim walked over to me and took my hand in hers, leading me to one of the beds and sitting me down. "Are you sure you're alright?" I didn't want to talk to her, I wanted to talk to her mother. Her mother would understand, or she could try to understand. Prim was just a little girl, there was no way she would be able to understand this.
"Can I see your mother please?"
"Annie, if you're in pain I can help you, you just have to tell me whats wrong." I was ready to cry. I looked down and saw my 'mentally unstable' bracelet. Something I would probably never get off. I held up the wrist that was trapped by the stupid words and pointed at it. Prim nodded and gave me a hug. "Stay here, okay? I'll get her" then she walked off, her braids bobbing up and down with every step she took.
"What are you here for?" The little brown haired girl named Nicole asked. She sounded like a mouse, she couldn't have been any older than nine, with dark green eyes. She looked like my brother, Jackson.
"I just have a few questions for a doctor"
"Prim is a doctor."
"Prim is a little girl, she wouldn't understand"
"You don't know that"
"What are you here for anyway?" I asked, trying to change the subject. Staying silent would just make me think about this situation even more. If I could change the subject to her than I wouldn't have to think about this anymore, but it wouldn't happen because just then Prim came through the door pulling her mother behind her.
"Annie, what's wrong?" The motherly voice said from behind me. I shook my head, tears running down my cheek. Prim walked around the bed and sat down next to me, her mother was sitting on the bed across from me, trying to look into my eyes.
"She wouldn't talk to me, mom. I'm really worried" Prim said, putting her arm around my shoulder. I broke down right then and there, just like I had last night. I was so overwhelmed, nothing was alright, nothing was going to be alright.
xx
My mom walked into the room, an obvious wreck. I was braiding my little sister, Ione's hair. Mom walked into the kitchen, where my dad was preparing a lovely dinner for the family. We were all gathering together to celebrate my birthday. It was the first time we really got to celebrate like this. We had money before, but now we had a lot of it. The Millers were going to come over, as well as the rest of the victors. Mags and Finnick were already here, Finnick was helping Dad with the meal while Mags sat down and commented on how lovely the braid was. I made it look like a basket, something of my own design. Since I was a victor and Ione wasn't yet in school, she leant me her hair to experiment with.
"Denise, what are you doing? Denise, NO!" My father screamed from the kitchen, where my mom had walked into only moments before. You could hear a struggle going on, but I was frozen in my spot, not daring to move. Finnick ran out of the kitchen and ran over to Mags and whispered to her. She got up to a phone and dialed a number while Finnick grabbed my arm and shoved Ione and I out of the house.
"Where are we going? Whats going on?" I demanded as he pulled us into the house next to ours, which belonged to him.
"Nothing" He grabbed a handful of rope and handed it to Ione. "Can she be left alone?"
"For how long. Finnick Odair tell me what's going on?" My body was starting to shake and my head was spinning. He put his hand on my arm and basically carried me to the back deck that overlooked the ocean.
"Sit down" He said, but I was already sitting in the sea foam green adirondack chair. He disappeared for a moment, leaving me, the sea, and my thoughts. I wanted to run, I wanted to jump into the ocean and swim away, but Finnick had answers to my questions and that meant I had to wait.
Finnick appeared a minute later with a pitcher of something and a plate of treats. He set them down on the table in between the two of us. He poured me a glass of what I now see was iced tea and handed it to me.
"I would have gotten you normal tea, it calms the nerves, but it's so hot out..I thought you might appreciate this more"
"Thanks" I said, my voice just above a whisper. My hands could barely grasp the cup, I was shaking that badly. Every possible thing that could have happened ran through my mind. I wanted to ask him but the words wouldn't come out of my mouth. We sat there in silence for what seemed like hours. My mind wouldn't stop thinking of the worst possible scenario. I didn't even know what the worst possible scenario was by the time Finnick spoke up.
"So you still don't want to do the victory tour?" I was surprised that was his answer. I was expecting it was something like 'your entire family is dead' or 'is going to be dead' or something like that. Maybe Rebecca miscarried and thats what was wrong. But I certainly wasn't expecting another talk about the Victory Tour. I told them plain and simple that I would not be going on the tour. Finnick and Mags tried to get me to go, but I couldn't look at the other families and act happy. Their children died, and I was supposed to go to their district and tell them to suck it up? The worst part would be the feast at home, where everyone would be so happy that we have another victor, when all I could think about would be Miles's head, rolling on the ground after a particularly nasty encounter with the District 2 tribute.
"I told you, I just can't do it." I put the beautiful cookie I had started to eat back on the plate and turned away. I didn't know what to feel, so I tried to turn it all off and feel nothing. Finnick got out of his chair and knelt down on the ground in my direction. He took my left hand, which was hanging down over my knee, and put it in his. I looked down at him, he was wearing an expression I had never seen on him before. One I don't think I had seen on anybody before.
"Annie, what did you think of me. Before you met me. What do people think of me?" I got angry, this wasn't about him right now. Something very scary just happened and I have no idea what it was or why. Finnick did, and he was asking about his reputation?
"What does this have to do with anything?"
"Just tell me. What do I look like to the public eye?" I sighed, trying to find words.
"I don't know. You're a victor, an attractive one. Because of that you...get around, you know. You sleep with a lot of different people, but you don't really care because sex is sex. Am I right?" He squeezed my hand slightly.
"I suppose, but I don't do it for sex. I do it because I have to"
"What are you talking about, you don't have to do anything."
"Annie, you don't understand. If I don't do what the Capitol wants, they will hurt, kill the ones I love even. I wouldn't put it past them, thats what happened to Haymitch." I still didn't understand what he was trying to say, but after I stayed quiet he went on, making sure I looked him in the eyes. "Do you know what your mother did today?"
"Isn't that what you're supposed to be telling me, what the hell is going on? God, why don't you just spit it out already, save the games for later." He sighed, standing up and moving to the railing, where he sat down on it.
"Fine. Your mom found Jackson and Rebecca. Dead. Their bodies washed up on the beach. They drowned. Get the picture now?" I sat there while the reality hit me, my brother and his wife drowned. Nobody drowned in District 4, we've known how to swim longer than we've known how to walk. The Capitol did this, they didn't actually drown, the Capitol killed them and made it look like something, all because I refused to go on the Victory Tour.
"And my mom?" I could barely make out the sound, my throat was closing as it tried to back off the tears.
"She...she tried to kill herself" the last statement hit me like a brick, this couldn't be real. This isn't. None of it is. My mother would never try something like that, and my brother would never drown. I would never have gotten reaped, the odds were completely in my favor, I had only put my name in the bowl when I had too. I doubled over, not being able to breathe.
"Oh god" I whispered, salty tears flowing down my cheeks like rivers. No, like waterfalls. I don't really remember much after that. I had gotten to such a point of hysteria where Finnick had to pick me up and carry me. I had cried so hard I vomited on him. I remember his house, the room overlooking the ocean, where he opened the window and let me listen to the shore and the seagulls to calm down. I remember the smell of his sheets, it smelled like the ocean. Not in the dirty, sticky way you feel after a day in the salt water, but the smell that you first get after not smelling it for a long time. Only a smell that people who have been away from District 4 would understand. A smell only Finnick and I would understand. I remember fingers brushing through my hair, although I'm not positive that is an actual memory or just something I wanted to remember. It comforted me either way.
I wake up and I'm in a hospital bed in District 13. The lights were dimmer than usual, we must either be really far underground or it's night time. I look around, I'm still in the room with rows and rows of stretchers. I'm not behind the tinted glass doors, so I must be alright. A damp cloth touches my face and I realize for the first time that Prim is sitting next to me.
"Hey" she said in a quiet voice "Are you feeling any better?" I tried to sit up, but my arms felt weak, forcing me to lay down again. "Don't. You're still weak."
"What happened?" I asked, my voice sounding distant. It was hoarse and weak, like I had used it all up.
"You came in here and burst into hysterics. We couldn't calm you down, you kept saying that 'nothing will get better' and 'they are all dead'. We had to put you to sleep. Even then you were pretty violent." I don't really remember much of it. I remember wanting to see Mrs. Everdeen, and starting to break down once she got there, but everything else was too fuzzy to remember anything else clearly.
"Your mom."
"Will be here to check on you later. For now you need to rest."
"But..."
"No butts, now, have you eaten at all today?" I thought as hard as I could to remember what had happened today. As far as I could remember, I hadn't. But I wasn't really hungry. I shook my head anyways and she stood up and walked away. I looked around a little bit more, there was a boy who had been admitted. He looked like he had just turned a teenager. He was sitting upright in one of the stretchers with a cloth up to his nose, where it was bleeding heavily. At least, it was at one point. The girl with the IV in her arm was still there, but the IV was gone. She sat there, writing something on a piece of paper.
"what were you dreaming about?" they boy with the rag up to his nose asked me.
"Jacob, it's none of your business. Why don't you do something productive like me?" The brown haired girl said.
"You're doing your homework early, who would want to do that?"
"Someone who cares about their future"
"And I'm not one of them. I care about what this girl was dreaming about. Sounded scary"
"It was" I told him, but at the same time it wasn't. I don't really remember dreaming, I just remember the day Finnick told me my brother died.
"What was it about?"
"Jacob! she probably doesn't want to talk about it!"
"Talk about what?" Prim asked walking in with a tray full of food.
"Nothing Prim, just forget about it." She sat down, glaring at Jacob for a second and then turned around and put the tray in front of me. There was a type of beef soup in a large bowl. There was also a side of vegetables, two slices of bread, a few slices of cold turkey from the day before, and a large jug of water.
"Doesn't it look delicious?" Prim asked me. It did, but I wasn't sure what to make of it, it was so much more food than I had ever seen in front of me before. That is, while I was here in District 13. In District 4, after I became a victor I could afford to eat as much of almost anything there was. The house was always full with some sort of food, but I rarely ever it.
"It looks great, where did you get so much?" She smiled.
"Don't tell anyone, but I messed with your charts a little bit so I could get you more food. You looked like you needed it." She smiled at me before she took hold of the spoon in the soup.
"It's alright, I can do it." I took the spoon from her hand and started to eat it. It was fantastic, something Finnick would make, or want to make. He always loved to cook, that is when he wasn't in the water. It was sort of his secret obsession.
Before I knew it I had finished the entire bowl of soup, the side of corn, and was working on the mixed vegetables. Half way through my devouring of the turkey slices I saw Mrs. Everdeen walk in from behind the blackened doors. She was wearing what the rest of the staff wears, white shirts and slacks. She wore her hair down today, although she sometimes puts it up in a bun.
"Annie, good to see you up and feeling better" She said, beaming a smile at me. I could tell it was fake, she was worried too. Her child was out in the same mess that my husband was in, she must be just as worried. She sat down on the side of my bed and took my food tray away before speaking again. "What had you all upset earlier?" she brushed back a piece of my hair that was hanging in my face as she said this. I got a knot in my stomach, I had actually forgotten about all of that for a moment and having all of those emotions coming back wasn't a fun or easy thing to do. I swallowed hard, and tried to regain any composure that I had lost.
"Could we, um. Speak in private?" I asked her. She looked confused, but wasn't going to argue.
"Alright." She stood up and held her hand out to help me get up. Once I did, she walked me through the dark glass doors. We winded down long hallways that felt more like tunnels for what seemed like hours until we reached a small room, somebody's office. It was cramped, with a messy desk in the corner and a few seats facing the desk. There was a woman sitting behind the towers of paperwork who looked up as soon as we entered.
"Can I help you?"
"Rhonda, can you give me the keys to one of the rooms?" Rhonda looked at us skeptically for a few moments.
"Why do you need one?" I held up my 'mentally unstable' bracelet, wondering if that would help any. Mrs. Everdeen went on talking, her voice extremely calm.
"Her and I, we need to talk. Someplace private. Please Rhonda, we won't be long. It's the only place I know to bring her." Rhonda rolled her eyes and sighed. I thought she was going to say no, but she opened a drawer on her side of the desk and took out a plastic card. She scanned it on something next to her computer and typed random things before scanning it again. She took the card and handed it to Mrs. Everdeen.
"You have room 301 for 45 minutes"
"Thank you Rhonda. I'll re-pay you somehow. I promise" and then Mrs. Everdeen took me by the arm and we ended up winding down another pathway of tunnel hallways until we reached an end with an elevator. Before I had time to be afraid of it, I had been pushed in it and the number had been pressed. We were headed for six floors below where we already were.
This floor was like none I had seen in District 13. It was all either white or the grey color of cement. There were guards outside two doors that had to take our card and fingerprint samples before we could go through. Everything looked the same beyond the doors except for now there were doors lining the walls every few feet. They were red, with white numbers painted on them. Finally we got to room 301, where Mrs. Everdeen put her first two fingers on a pad. The doors unlocked and we were allowed inside.
The room was very nice, nothing like the hallways at the hospital or the rooms we were assigned to live in. Whoever designed this district must have been very creative. It wasn't much, but it was colorful. The walls were white and there were screens that generated the look of any type of environment you wanted. In the corner there was a large purple couch made of some soft type of material. Across from the couch was a red seat made from the same type of material. There was a table in between the couch and the chair that held some rolls and a kettle with hot tea in it. I sat down on the purple couch and watched Mrs. Everdeen pour herself a cup of tea and sit down in the chair across from me.
"So Annie, what did you want to talk about?" I thought for a moment.
"Finnick. I want to talk about Finnick"
"What about Finnick?"
"He's at war" She sighed and put her tea down.
"I know he is, he's with Katniss" I looked out the fake window, it was showing a scene of a meadow. There was tall grass with wild flowers everywhere, there were birds and squirrels, things you don't really see in District 4.
"Are you scared?" Mrs. Everdeen stood up and sat next to me on the purple couch.
"I hate it when she leaves. I'm always afraid she'll never return." I started crying lightly, thinking about never seeing Finnick again. She put her arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer. "But they are smart people, so I trust that they will come home with a few scrapes at the worst." I wanted to believe that, I really did. But the worry was just to high.
"Do you think you'll come back home?" Miles asked me after we got home from the interviews. He was wearing a ridicules tuxedo shirt and blue cummerbund with white dress pants. He ditched the sparkly blue tuxedo jacket as soon as he could. I was still wearing the matching blue fitted dress that flared out at the ends, making me look like a mermaid, with shells in my hair and glitter all over.
"No. But I think you could"
"Why do you say that? You could win"
"Yeah, if someone decided to put us in the middle of an ocean. I doubt that would happen" He laughed a little bit, the most someone who is about to be set into an arena with a high chance of never leaving.
"No, you're smart. You use your head"
"You do too. And you know how to work all those fancy weapons." he looked down at his feet, blushing a little bit. We were sitting on his bed, having one of the last talks we would ever have. His sandy blond hair with perfect curls bounced around regardless of what he was doing.
"Promise me something?"
"If you return the favor" He held out his hand and we entwined our arms into a strange type on knot, his hand facing me and my hand facing him. He put his lips up to my right hand, and I did his. This is what we did when we made promises to each other, it was sort of a secret handshake of ours.
"Don't be the one to kill me. Let one of the careers do it or something." I cringed at the thought of him dying. He had been my friend since we were little. We lived in the same neighborhood and were in the same grade. Our parents were even friends. I didn't love him as anything more than a friend, but the thought of loosing him was almost like loosing part of myself.
"Okay. Promise me you won't join the careers. I know it sounds like a good idea, teaming up with other stronger people. But it's going to turn you into something you aren't. Make District 4 proud, even if we don't live."
"Don't speak that way Annie. You have to stay positive."
"Sorry, Miles. But it's not exactly a happy situation." He put his hand on my cheek, pulling me in close until our foreheads were touching and we could feel each others chest moving up and down.
"Just find water, stay hidden, and may the odds be ever in your favor." I smiled. Thats what he told me the best plan for any Hunger Games is, to stay hidden for as long as you can. Before I could pull away to go to bed he spoke again. "And keep your promise, the Annie Cresta I know does not brake promises." He let go of me and I walked out the door, only stumbling twice.
I did what he told me to, I stayed hidden. I even found supplies to weave nets and build traps for enemies stumbling along my territory, which was quite large. I was hiding in a bush waiting for something to come along that I could trap when I saw the same bushy haired blond boy walking towards me. There's no way he could see me. What is he doing? His foot was just about to trip the snare that would kill him for sure when I remembered his promise. 'Don't be the one to kill me' I wasn't planning on it, even if I hadn't thought about it, but those words ran through my head as I let out an ear splitting scream.
"Stop, Miles! You're going to run right into my trap!" He looked startled when he saw me. I must have looked so much different than the girl he knew in District 4. I hadn't bathed in days, my hair was beyond repair to even try to braid, instead it was frizzed out and holding many different types of sticks, leaves, and other parts of nature.
"Annie?"
"No shit. I almost killed you without even meaning to. Don't do that again!"
"Well, there's still time for that. Why did you have to go screaming like that?" I hadn't realized I screamed, but there wasn't room for talk. We both heard a branch or a twig break somewhere off in the distance.
"Shit, they are better at following than I thought"
"What are you talking about?"
"Listen, just run, go hide somewhere. The careers have been following me. I thought I finally lost them."
"What? What did you do?" But he never answered me. He did something really unexpected. He pulled out a knife and threw it at me, hitting me in the foot and then pushed me into the bushes where I hid perfectly.
I tried to scream out in pain, but couldn't. I checked the wound, it wasn't bleeding as fast as I thought it would be. I was too afraid to pull it out just yet, so I settled for sitting really still. The big career from District 2 came through the woods, a big sword already covered in fresh blood.
"Looky who we have here. If it isn't Mr. Mermaid"
"Come on, you know thats not my name"
"It doesn't matter. You're not going to live." Miles stood very still for a few moments before trying to run as fast as he could in the other direction. District 2 caught up with him, lopping off his head, which flung right into my snare. The net went up with only the bleeding head of my best friend in it. District 2 smiled, running his finger down the blade of the sword. I had to hold both my hands over my mouth to keep from screaming, even though I doubt a sound would be able to come out. District 2 wasn't moving, I think he heard my rustling in the bushes and started heading over towards me.
"Who do we have here?" He sad, rushing towards the bushes. I wasn't going to die right here. I wasn't going to let District 4 die out in one day. I pulled the knife out of my foot, doing my best not to scream, but a little squeal came out. District 2 heard it.
"Come on out, I'll make this quick and painless" he laughed, as if he didn't mean a word he just said. I held the knife in my hand, trying to remember how you throw it. I stood up, making myself clearly visible. He showed me his sword, blood running down it. "Oh, it's the friend. I would love to kill out a district within a day." I held my breath, this was it. I threw the knife and hoped it hit something. It did: his neck. He used all of his strength to throw the sword at me, but it didn't do much more dammage than a scrape on my right arm.
District 2 pulled out the knife, only making himself bleed more and ran away. He bled out later that day, or that's what I suspected because his name was in the sky that night. I fell down next to the body of my childhood friend, there was no way I could keep calm now. I grabbed the sword and cut the head out of the net and placed it where it should be on his body. I then kissed him on the cheek and ran off, tears streaming down my face.
"Annie? Annie! can you hear me?" I shook my head, snapping out of the memories. I was in District 13, with Mrs. Everdeen.
"Yeah, yeah I can hear you" I responded, but it was getting had to breathe. Mrs. Everdeen put her hand on my back and forced my head between my knees.
"Can you say it?" She meant the regimen that was supposed to help me distinguish reality from the memories and fears. I took a deep breath and started.
"My name is Annie Odair"
"Thats right"
"I am from District 4"
"And?"
"I am a victor of the 70th annual Hunger Games"
"Good"
"I am married to Finnick Odair, the victor of the 65th Hunger Games"
"Yes you are"
"And I think I'm pregnant"
