Chapter Nine

Name: Finnick Odair
Age: 19
Year: 3103
District: 4
Current Hunger Games Year: 70

My heart stopped.

My stomach twisted.

My head pounded.

And I watched as Annie Cresta was Reaped for the 70th Hunger Games.

No.

No no no no no.

There was a mistake.

There had to be a mistake.

She was eighteen.

She had no tessarae.

I made sure of that…

She had…

She had what…

Nine slips?

Nine slips in thousands?

Why her?

Why?

She couldn't leave me.

She just couldn't.

We had only been back together for three years.

Three years.

She couldn't leave me…

But…

She was.

Annie walked past me, her head high, and stood on the stage, looking out over the audience.

Whispers flowed through the crowd, wondering how she had gotten drawn. She was dating a Victor! Couldn't something have been done? Not Annie! She was so sweet! It's a shame she's going to die…

I just stared, open-mouthed, as Annie shook hands with her long-time friend Sam Hasser, and marched off of the stage and into the Visitors room.

I was the last person to visit her. I gave the rest of her friends and family a chance to say good-bye first.

When it was my turn, I ran into the room, and pulled her into my arms.

"Annie…" I started to cry. I didn't care if cameras saw. I didn't care if anyone saw.

Annie was leaving me…

She was going to die.

And then I heard her laugh.

I looked up, and saw her eyes brimmed with tears.

"Finnick, calm yourself. I'll be fine. You're my mentor anyways. I'll live. I'll win. I'll be fine, and then I'll come home and we'll be together again. It will be okay."

God, I loved her.

She hugged me. She smiled. She laughed.

Even though she could be dying.

"But what if you're not okay?" I asked, and she rolled her eyes.

"Odair, look at me. I've taken your sorry ass down on more than one occasion. I know how to handle food and plants and shit, and I sure know my way around a weapon. I can win, babe. Stop worrying. It's me you're talking to." She smiled, and let go of me, and moved to the window.

"What do you think the Arena will look like?" She asked.

"Annie. It's not me you're going to go up against. There will be people from One and Two who have trained their whole life to kill people. What about them? I don't want to lose you, Annie. And those people are going to try to kill you."

"Finnick! I'll. Be. Fine. Trust me, babe! I got this!" She laughed again and looked back out the window. "You never answered my question, you know."

I sighed, and gave up on trying to reason with her. I moved behind her and put my arms around her waist, and rested my chin on her shoulder.

"I don't know."

"What if it's some kind of a place like the 50th? Where everything's beautiful. Except this time it wouldn't be poisoned, and it would be safe to drink the water and stuff. Or maybe it will be some kind of Ice place… with snow and ice! And maybe the Game-makers will make a mutant that looks like those things that because extinct like a thousand years ago… Polar bears or whatever. And those other ones… Penguins! Oh, Finnick. That would be so cool!"

I couldn't help but laugh at her excitement. Annie was going to her impending death, and all she could think about were polar bears and penguins.

That's so Annie…

I kind of ran out of interesting things at the end of the chapter, so I just put random stuff. Haha.

Next chapter's Annie's Games, and her insanity trip. :D Fun stuff.

Review?

~Maddy