Author's note: Enjoy the next installment!
Laying in my bed, my knees to my chest, my mind's racing more than I could count. Less then a week ago, I hated Finnick. Now, I think I might be falling for him. Tomorrow I go into the Games, and I will most likely, die. My chances of survival are very slim, even more so, since I am hardly skilled with weapons. I still can't sleep, I can't eat, and I can hardly think straight. I give up on sleep, and step into the elevator. I've hardly heard of the top floor, all I know, is that it's outside, and tributes are allowed to visit it. I click the blank button above the number 12, and the elevator instantly goes up. As the elevator opens, I shiver, as the cold air hits me.
It's quite up here, and my nightgown flutters in the wind, and I walk up to the railing. It's amazing how peaceful it is here. I sit down on my knees, and close my eyes, letting the breeze flutter my hair. It's a lot easier to think here.
I come to the conclusion that I do like Finnick, and it shocks me more than anything ever has. Well, besides the reaping.
I go back to my floor, and go into my room, and finally, get a little sleep.
"Morning, Annie," Finnick wakes me, with a sad smile on his face.
"Morning," I reply. with a half smile. He leaves the room, and I get dressed. Then run into the dinning room, and take my seat next to Finnick. I eat my breakfast in small bites.
"Goodbye, Finnick," I say, giving him a hug, in the catacombs of the arena. I can't imagine what he had to do to get down here though.
"Don't act like that, you'll make it," he says, with a slight bit of doubt in his voice. He lifts my chin, and lightly kisses my lips. I tighten the hug, and rest my head on his chest, while he gently rubs my back.
"Ten. Nine. Eight." A voice begins to count, and I loosen my grip on Finnick.
"Seven. Six." I look up at him, and he looks down at me, his eyes are filled with tears.
"Five. Four." I lean up and kiss his cheek.
"Three." He pulls me into a kiss, and I kiss him back. "Two." He pushes me towards the cylinder. "One." The cylinder door closes, and I wave him goodbye, as the tube moves up.
I gasp at my surroundings as I look around. There is trees, then a huge dam, peering over the last few trees in the distance, the other direction, there is a collection of hills, with tall, green grass, leading into a lake. The cornucopia is twenty yards from me, and I'm lucky enough to be the closet to the mouth of it.
"Ten. Nine. Eight." The same voice calls out, and I breathe in heavily. I prepare to run, as the voice reaches one, and the gong rings. I sprint as fast as I can, grabbing two backpacks, and running towards Clay, who is pretty close to me.
"Allies?" I say as quickly as I can. He nods, I grab his wrist and run. We just reach the forest when I hear Clay call out.
"ANNIE!" He screams, and I turn around to watch a career behead Clay.
"Clay!" I scream, on the verge of tears, but I see the Career runs towards me, and I run as fast as my legs will carry me.
I sit down on the grass, having run a good three miles, and the sun begins to dip under the horizon. Just as I sit, I take a drink of water, a cannon goes off and I jump, until another goes off, and I realize that's the bloodbath cannons.
Thirteen cannons. So many are dead. Then the sun goes down, and the anthem booms throughout the whole arena. Then the faces begin to appear. Both tributes from Five, Six, Eight, and Twelve. The girls from Three, Seven, Ten and Eleven, and Clay, who was the only single male tribute to die from his district. I evaluate the supplies in the backpacks. The first one, a silvery color, has a full canteen of water, rope, a sleeping bag, and a blanket. My other backpack, a blue one, has crackers, knives, and a water bottle. I shove everything into the blue backpack, and it fits, then dispose of the other pack. I keep one knife, and the blanket out, and I climb into a ditch, and fall into a light sleep.
I wake up to a jingling coming towards me. I open my eyes to see a silver pot land right in front of my hand. I grab it up, and untie the knot. It's a pot of broth, and it's pretty big. I realize I'm hungry, and begin to eat it. It feels so warm, warm enough to make me realize; it's cold in this arena. Grabbing my blanket, I wrap up, and take tiny bites of the broth. I leave a little more than half of it left, wrap my blanket around it, and stuff it into my backpack. I begin to walk, looking for edible plants. I only get so far, before someone grabs me from behind, and whispers into my ear.
"Well, well, if it isn't Annabelle Cresta!" The voice says in a harsh whisper, "Everyone's been looking for you! I can't believe I actually found you. Don't worry, I won't hurt you, too badly." the voice taunts in my ear. He's a male. Defiantly a male. No doubt about it. I get turned around, and am looking directly into the eyes of the career who beheaded Clay.
"You," I hiss through my clenched teeth, my skin itching at where my knife is tucked away under my sleeve.
"That's right," he hisses back "Wait until I tell the other careers!" He harshly whispers. He bends my arms behind my back, which just makes it easier to grab my knife, I drop the snake-skin cover behind me, and hold it in my hand.
"Hey guys!" He calls out, with his back turned to me. A fatal mistake. I stab the hand he is using to hold my arms behind me, and he howls in pain, removing me from his grip. I use this opportunity to stab his side, and remove the knife before stabbing his neck. Then the cannon booms, I grab the snakeskin cover, and my backpack, and run, breathing heavily.
I run for a while, and only stop as I hear two cannons go off. Then I double over, and breathe heavily, and climb into a tree, and look down, as what's left over of the career pack walks by underneath, talking about finding me. There is only three of them. I could kill them easily, with some help, of course.
"I call killing her!" The boy from Two calls out.
"I already called it!" The female from One shrieks.
"I want to do it!" Male from Two again.
"Wanna fight over it?" She says, her voice raised.
"Sure, why not?" The male shrieks again. Then she tackles him, and it's a flurry of blood, screams, and finally, a cannon booms, and the female walks away from her kill. The other female didn't notice the fight going on. She turns around, and sees her counterpart tribute dead on the ground, blood spewing from several wounds.
"MIKILA!" She squeaks, a knife in hand.
"He started it!" The other female shrieks.
"You killed him!" She yells, getting closer to Mikila. "You'll pay for that!" She yells, before stabbing the knife into Mikila's stomach, then twisting it, until Mikila fell to the ground, lifeless, and her cannon boomed. I grabbed my own knife, weighing the odds against myself. I decided just to drop it on her head, and it'll be a quick death.
I scoot over to the branch closet to her, but still far enough away from her not to notice me, and drop the knife, with my eyes closed tightly. I only open them, as her cannon booms.
Five left. I climb as high as I can in my tree, and fall asleep, with the brown blanket covering me.
I wake up to a cold liquid running up my leg. Jumping slightly, I look down to see water. Everywhere. I drop my blanket, and swim. Away from the trees, and with the current. I hear a few cannons, but I can't count them over the sound of water rushing.
"HELP!" I shout, my head falling under the water. I kick harder and harder. I feel like giving in, and I let myself slow down a little, my head going under the water, and I don't fight to keep it up. But I hear Finnick's voice. He is yelling at me to swim, so I kick harder and harder, my arms flailing under the water. I hear more cannons, and I swear one of them was mine. The water begins to die down, and I find myself on ground again. I gasp, and stand up, my legs wobbling.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I present you with the victor of the 70th Hunger Games," I hear Claudius say, and I stare, very surprised, "Annabelle Cresta!" He says with triumph. I fall to the ground on my knees. How did I possibly win the Games? I stand up, as the live cheering of the capitals. A screen presents it's self in the arena, and I see my mother and father cheering back home. Finnick, Mags, and Torendo celebrating, and then me live. I stare directly towards the screen, looking dazed, and tired.
A hovercraft comes, and I grab onto the ladder, gripping it as it moves upwards, into the hovercraft. Finnick greets me there, pulling me into a hug as soon as the ladder releases me. I start sobbing into his chest, and he soothes me.
"Finnick, how did I win?" I choke out, and he seats us down, and pulls me into his lap.
"You did great, Annie," he says, his eyes tearing up. We spend the rest of the ride in silence, apart from my sobs.
"Mr. Odair, Ms. Cresta, we are here," someone says, and Finnick stands me up, and I grab his hand. We walk into a hospital room, where Finnick releases me, I gasp, plunge back towards him as he walks away, and I get sedated.
When I wake up my scars are gone. Every single flaw with my skin is. I brush my fingers lightly over where my worst scars would have been. Instead, perfect skin takes it's place. It amazes me, but then again, the capital can do anything. My hand finds its way to my hair, and it's incredibly soft. I feel it for a while, admiring it at it's softest, gently stroking it. I must be dreaming. How else could my skin be so flawless, my hair so beautiful? Then a tray of food appears, and I eat it up, my stomach still demands more afterwards. I stand up, and stretch my limbs, feeling very tense.
This is the schedule for the next few days, until one day Finnick comes in, after I had eaten my meal. I was shocked to see him, and ran into his arms, and hugged him.
"Hello to you too, Annie," he joked, and I half laughed, half sobbed.
"Why are you here, not that it's a bad thing," I say, ever so slightly blushing.
"I'm here to prep you for you victor's interview, and crowning," he mutters, then lifts me chin to kiss my forehead. "I'm glad you survived." At that moment, those four words, made me the happiest I've been in forever.
Author's note: Please review~!