Finnick's POV
I see her fragile body through the screen of the bar Johanna wanted to go, Danieka is right next to Kellen, who is lying on the ground, bleeding to death.
"Goddamn it, Finnick!" Johanna exclaims pulling her hand away from mine, I have grabbed it long ago without even realizing it, and by the looks of it, I had been squeezing it way too hard because Johanna just keeps rubbing it with her other hand.
"I'm sorry." I murmur.
"She will be alright." She says to me, I only nod at her.
Some more minutes pass but nothing happens, Kellen is still lying on the ground, probably unconscious by now, and Danie is just by his side. She closes her eyes for a few seconds and her head jerks to the front but she opens her eyes again and tries to keep her head up, as if she is trying not to lose consciousness.
"Don't give up Danie!" I say softly, probably only Johanna hears me, if she hears me at all. "You are too close to give up now."
I feel how my heart skips a bit when I see her body slowly slipping to one side, the people in the bar gasp as her body falls to the ground, her head lands on top of Kellen's upper stomach. I don't realize it, but a tear has fallen down my face. Some more minutes pass, I don't know how many, they feel like eternity, as I see the boy from my own District, dead, and another Career tribute and Danie lying unconscious on the floor, both are only minutes away from death. A canon is heard, and for a moment I feel like I'm empty inside, I feel like everything I care about is gone, like all the happiness has slipped away from me.
"Ladies and gentleman, may I present the winner…" Claudius starts talking.
I'm too afraid to hear who the victor is, both, Kellen and Danie are lying on the ground without moving, either of them can be dead. What if it is Danie? I won't be able to bare it if she has died.
"Of the Seventy-two Hunger Games."
A hovercraft approaches them and quickly grabs and takes the two of them and Kade's body inside of it. Claudius still hasn't announced who has won, I hate when this happens, when the last two tributes are both slowly dying and either one of them can die, they usually take a while to announce the winner, mostly to make the audience grow impatience and anxious. They want to keep the excitement alive for a few more minutes. I have never felt this anxious about knowing who the
winner is, though. Most of the games I've watched like this, were about people I didn't care about, they weren't even from my own district so why would I care?
"Do you think she –" My voice trails off a bit. "– That she made it?"
"I don't know, Finnick." Johanna says sighing. "I really don't know, but she's a fighter. I have more hope on her than the boy."
While I'm technically having an emotional breakdown, the people around us and I'm sure most of the people here in the Capitol, are making bets of who has made it through. That's another reason why Claudius hasn't said the name of the winner, so people can speculate who has won and make bets with other people.
"This is sick." I think aloud, as I watch the people betting on either Kellen or Danie.
"I know." Johanna says. "If their kids and friends would be the ones killing each other they would not behave like this, I suppose. They are just heartless bastards."
The hovercraft is out of view and now we only see the empty arena for a while until they start airing some of the highlights of Kellen and Danie, starting with the reaping of each of them, the Tributes Parade and their interviews mostly, all this footage from several days ago takes about twenty minutes. Some ladies and even some guys shed some tears as Kellen's interview is showed right when he admits she likes Danieka, hmm, apparently they do have feelings.
I couldn't help but notice how beautiful Danie looks in both the Parade and the interview, she always looks beautiful but she looked a different kind of beautiful in those occasions, with all the make-up and the gorgeous gowns and her hair in such beautiful golden curls, there is no doubt she is the prettiest tribute. I also notice something else as I see the footages, I notice how much she has changed in such a short amount of time. The girl at the reaping looks scared and vulnerable, the look in her eyes is a reflection of pure fear but the girl at the interview looks totally different, no one would have guess she is the same fragile girl from the reaping. At the interview she looks really confident and strong, she smiles the whole time and she actually looks happy, even when she is about to go into the arena the next day. And just as the tributes are waiting for the countdown to finish so they can run to the Cornucopia to get supplies, the confidence and strength are evident in her blue eyes, somehow she had become a new girl, and I like to think that I got something to do with it.
"What if we go back to the Training Centre?" Johanna asks me, interrupting my thoughts.
"I rather stay." I tell her, not looking away from the screen. "In case they announce the winner."
"I understand." Johanna tells me. "I'll stay with you."
"You don't have to, you can go if you want."
"It's fine, I can use the time to drink a bit more." Johanna says and then orders a drink.
"Maybe I should drink something too." I say and order something as well.
I have never been the type to drink and get very drunk like some other victors, for example that man from District 12, Haymitch Abernathy. He's always drunk, every time I see him he's holding a bottle of liquor and a glass. It must feel good for a while, but I think it may be worse when you go back to reality again and again, and the hangovers must be horrible. I rather stay sober.
"Why do you think they are taking so long to announce the winner?" I ask Johanna, who has asked for at least two more drinks.
"They always take this long." Johanna tells me. "You just didn't really feel it was this long because you really didn't care, you weren't waiting for the answer like you are now, just give it another ten minutes or so, I doubt they will take more than another twenty minutes, the people will get bored of waiting and they don't want that."
"Twenty minutes? That's too long." I murmur, thinking Johanna didn't hear me.
"Just relax, have another drink." Johanna says, sounding a lot like Haymitch. "If you are not thinking about it, time will fly by."
"I just can't relax, okay?" I exclaim. "I can't."
"You really love her, don't you?"
Love. Something I haven't really thought about. I probably do, I know the way I feel about her, but I have been trying to deny it because I just couldn't feel that way for someone who could die in the following days, I couldn't let myself like or love her. Besides she's really young, it's kind of weird thinking that I do love her, I actually have loved her since the first time I saw her, it was like love at first sight.
"I guess you can say that." I shrug. "I really don't know what I feel anymore."
"Well it's kind of obvious, don't you think?" Johanna says. "I mean, you actually trained that girl three times daily, you cared." She says lowering her voice so no one could hear our conversation. "You haven't slept because you don't want to miss a single thing, you don't want to wake up to news of her death, and now you are so anxious to know."
"I don't want to lose her."
"What will you do if she survived?" Johanna asks me with curiosity. "I mean, once all of this is over. Will you tell her? You live in different districts and it will be hard to be together."
"I don't know, besides it's not like she loves me back…"
"So you do love her?" Johanna asks me, interrupting me.
"I guess." I sigh. "How bad is it? I have feelings for a little girl from another District."
"It's not that bad." Johanna says as she takes a sip of her new drink. "She's young but you are also young. If it's love, it will work out."
"I hope you are right."
Then the footage of the highlights of both Kellen and Danie stops and it's soon replaced by Claudius Templesmith. The bar and probably the whole Capitol and all Panem has gotten deadly quiet, no one dares to talk. Everyone's attention is on the screen, they all want to know who won.
"Ladies and gentleman." He says as he looks straight to the camera. Unconsciously I grab Johanna's hand again, and even though I'm squeezing it hard, she says nothing. She probably wants to be nice to me now or she's also too focused on the screen to notice or maybe she's already too drunk to feel it, either way, she doesn't remove her hand from my grip. "The victor of the seventy-second Hunger games is –"
"I bet it is the boy." I hear a man behind me say. "He is so much stronger than the girl."
"No way! That girl is a fighter, I told you earlier that she is the winner!" Another man says to him.
"But that snake is extremely poisonous, I doubt she'll make it."
Claudius looks down at his hands and then looks straight back at the camera again. "Is… Danieka Hadley from District 2."
"Ha! I told you! I think you owe me some money!" The man from a few seconds ago says.
As soon as I hear her name, I'm filled with an unexplained joy, I haven't been so happy in my life, not even when I won my own Hunger Games. I'm just so happy that she made it, that she's alive and well, maybe not so well now but she will be soon. Danieka is alive and that is all that matters.
"I told you." Johanna says smiling at me. "I think we should go to see her."
"Yeah."
But then the joy and the happiness are gone and they are replaced by guilt. What have I done? I was too selfish to let her die and leave me. For some unknown reason, I felt like if she died I wouldn't be able to go on with my life, and I made her win without realizing what I was doing. She won the Games but the true war is about to begin for her, she will soon realize what being a victor really means and it's all because of me. She's only fourteen years old, she will be horrified when she hears the stuff victors are made to do or when her family gets killed, and it will be all my fault.
It is not until this very moment that I realize it would be so much better if she had died. It's a harsh statement but it's true, she would be in a better place instead of this sick world controlled by the Capitol, where you are nothing more than a pawn.
"What is wrong Finnick?" Johanna asks me, noticing my change of expression. "Danieka won, you heard, right?"
"That's the problem." I say, and as soon as the words slip from my mouth she doesn't look as happy and she nods at me, she doesn't have to say it but I'm sure that she knows what I mean.
"Do you still want to go to see her?"
"Yeah, let's go."
Johanna grabs her stuff, including a brand new drink. I just look sternly at her and stop her from taking it with her, she argues with me but there is no way I'll let her drink more. I grab my jacket and we both leave the bar, Johanna complaining to me about wanting that drink. I let Johanna intertwine her arm with mine since she's a bit too drunk to walk correctly. On another circumstances it would have been fun but now all I care about is Danieka.
Guys I leave tomorrow to Connecticut so I won't be posting for 2 weeks.
I hope you liked the chapter though :)
please comment and vote! :)
