Chapter Ten


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


I watched Annie during training. She scored high, but that worried me. Now people would be out to kill her because she posed more of a threat.

She received a lot of sponsors. Because of her beauty, her personality, her scores… and then there was the fact that she was my girlfriend.

I watched her on the chariot rides.

She wore a backless, low cut, mid-thigh sparkling gold dress, with her flowing, waist-length hair pulled up in a messy ponytail. She wore 5-inch gladiator heels, with flashy bracelets half-way up her right arm and a heavy diamond necklace that fell past her collar-bone.

When the chariot rolled out, she smiled, and waved cheerily, even blowing kisses to the Capitol people.

I about punched someone.

Preferably her stylist.

The way those men looked at her… The way that they watched her with those hungry eyes…

Is this how Annie felt when I was in the Games?

Because I sure as hell didn't like this very much…

_l::l_

We had said our good-byes the night before she would go into the Arena, since I wasn't allowed to see her the next day.

I stood behind her at the window; my hands snaked around her waist, her head tilted back onto my chest. We stood like that for a while, staring out over the Capitol, in complete silence.

Suddenly, she pushed away from me, breaking my hold and moving from the window to the bed.

"I don't get it…" She whispered to herself, folding her hands in her lap and staring down at them. "I should be afraid. I should be a sniveling, teary-eyed, pathetic wreck. After all," she laughed humorously- a cold, heartless sound- and looked away from her hands, "I'm supposedly walking into my death, right?" I saw her raise an eyebrow, and she wrung her hands together, and she stared down at them again. "Is there something wrong with me? I shouldn't be fine. I shouldn't be happy. Why… Why am I like this? Why aren't I a weak, pathetic mess like that girl from Six? I mean, I haven't cried once since my name as drawn. I'm walking into the Hunger Games, and I, Annie Cresta, am completely. fine!"

She moved so suddenly that I hardly caught the fact that she was moving at all. All I saw was the blur of her hand as it flung out, and threw the crystal lamp that was sitting on the nightstand next to her. It flew against the opposite wall, shattering into a million shimmering pieces.

I merely watched the scene unfold in front of me, expressionless. When I turned back to Annie, her head was in her hands.

She wasn't crying.

"Maybe I'm not as okay as I thought." She whispered, more to herself than anyone else. "Maybe I'm not completely heartless. Maybe I'm just a stone-cold person with some kind of heat-source deep down to keep me going. Somewhere where no one- not even I- can find it." She looked up suddenly, "Is that it, Finnick? Is that why I'm not crying? Why I'm not upset? Why I'm just sitting here, throwing lamps instead of crying like normal people?" She stared me down, a crazed expression on her face, and she flung her arms out in every direction as she spoke. "Is that what this is, Finnick? Because if it is, I'd just love to know. Come on, then, tell me. Let's hear it."

I made my way silently towards the bed. I didn't say anything as I sat a ways away from Annie, at the foot of the mattress, and stared straight ahead, at nothing in particular.

"I don't think you're heartless." I began, whispering. "I think you're just scared. You're just scared, and you have no way of showing it, because you've never been as scared as you are now."

"Yes I have, Finnick." She snapped angrily, turning away from me and throwing her arms up once again. "There have been loads of times when I have been absolutely terrified when I've been with you. And even without you."

"I'm not saying that, Annie." I said quietly, pinching the bridge of my nose with my index finger and my thumb.

"Yes, Finnick. I think you are. I think that that's actually exactly what you're saying. You're saying that I've never been scared, so I don't know how to show it! HA! Well guess what, babe? You're dead wrong! In fact-"

"ANNIBELLE!" I yelled her name so suddenly, that even I was shocked at my own anger. "Listen. To. Me. I never said you've never been scared, Annie. Not once did those words come out of my mouth. DON'T!" I held my hand up, for she was about to interrupt me again, "Don't. Say. Anything. Just… listen. You're going to witness death, Annie. It's different watching death in person rather than from the other side of a screen. It's haunting. And you know that. You know that, deep down, you're not ready for that experience. You've never been scared to the point where you have no way of describing how you feel. To the point where you have no way of showing how you feel. How to react. What to do. That's why you're scared, and that'swhy you haven't cried. You're in shock, Annie. And you know that I can't be there with you. To protect you."

"Finnick. Please. I can protect myself. I've been training. People don't know it, but I have. It's going to be fine." She suddenly started crying, sniffing and practically clawing at her eyes to get rid of the tears. "It's going to be fine. Everything will be FINE." She stood, and threw her hands up, and then jerked them back down. She stood there for a moment, her back to me, and stopped crying. She instead laughed coldly. "I trained your sorry-ass, didn't I?"

"Yes. You did. And I'm not saying that you can't protectyourself physically. No. I'm talking about emotionally. I've always been there for you. To provide relief. To hold you when you've cried. To kiss your forehead, and tell you that everything will be okay. To laugh with you, to cry with you, to love you, to hate you. I've always just been there, and now, you're afraid. Not because you're afraid of dying, but because you're afraid of losing me. And that's why you're so scared." I stared at my own hands as they lay pathetically in my lap, blinking hard.

"How do you know that?" Annie whispered, looking down.

"Because I felt the same way."

"Finnick!" I heard Annie say, and she fell into my lap and wrapped her arms around her neck, sobbing.

I wrapped my arms around her waist, and held her head to my chest as she cried, rocking slowly back and forth.

"Well… You're crying now, aren't you?" I asked, and she choked out a laugh.

I smiled.


That took me a while to write, and to get it the way it is now, and I'm still not sure if it's exactly the way I want it. Heart-felt speeches are always the hardest for me to write…

And I realize I said "Annibelle"... Annie just didn't seem to fit at that moment, and I just thought maybe Annie could be short for something...

Review? =)

~Maddy