Annalisa "Annie" Cresta, District 4

"Well, what is this craziness?

This crazy talking?

You caught some small death

When you were sleepwalking."

Joanna Newsom, Only Skin


Finnick Odair didn't like mentoring girls.

He'd only done it once before, with Arethusa Levinn in the Sixty-Eighth Games. She'd come third but any joy that Finnick might've taken from that had been dampened by the fact that she'd had one of her allies at knifepoint and the other two fast asleep and she hadn't killed any of them.

And the fact that her only kill had been Lumas Taffeta's best friend.

And the fact that Arethusa had apparently been Finnick's 'biggest fan' and undressed him with her eyes whenever they were in the same room. He'd kept one eye over his shoulder while he'd been showering that year.

But, since he did that every year anyway, it wasn't that big of a deal.

However, this year, Sirena had begged him to give her the male tribute, Loam Morgan. Finnick knew about Sirena's ill-fated relationship with Loam's older brother. He was willing to let her mentor Loam.

Besides, the girl that Finnick ended up mentoring was Annalisa Cresta.

Annalisa Cresta, who everyone called Annie, was one of the best students that Four's training academy had ever produced. Finnick had heard of her before he'd even won, which was impressive, seeing as she'd only been thirteen. Now she was volunteering age, strong, agile and gorgeous. She only had one weakness.

She'd been dating Loam Morgan for as long as Finnick could remember. According to Sirena, she'd been dating Loam Morgan for as long as she could remember, which was impressive since Sirena had known Loam since he was three.

At least Finnick had a guarantee that neither of them would kill the other.

He also had a guarantee that Annie wouldn't hit on him.

It was only when the tributes came onto the train that Finnick realised that District 4 would need a miracle to win this year. Annie and Loam clung to each other. She sat on his lap and whispered in his ear all through the reaping recaps. Watching them tangled together like two strands of seaweed, Finnick was temped to yell at them to get a room.

"You do realise that you're going into a fight to the death, right?" Tempest asked. "One of you is going to die."

"We know," Loam said. "We're making the most of our last days together."

"So you knew you were going into the arena together," Sirena said, astonished. "And you still chose to volunteer?"

"Well, the academy chose both of us," Annie said. "I'm not going to say no to an opportunity like that."

Finnick fought the urge to groan. Surf Depthell has chosen Annie and Loam as this year's volunteers the day before he'd died and everyone had been too busy grieving to argue with his choices. That had been a mistake. Annie and Loam both had perfect test scores but there was no way they'd win unless they dropped the star-crossed lovers act.

"Are you going to entertain the Capitol with your romance or..." Finnick trailed off, not quite sure what to ask.

"No," Annie said.

"That's just our little secret, right Annie?" Loam wrapped his arms around her waist and she giggled. It was only then that Finnick realised that Annie wasn't as madly in love with Loam as she'd first seemed. That laugh was obviously fake.

It took one to know one. If Finnick hadn't been faking relationships with people for his entire life, he probably wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.


Finnick missed Annie's interview. He was with a client. He managed to pull free from the Capitol woman's grasping fingers in time to make it back to the Training Centre and sleep alone but, as he took the elevator up to the fourth floor, he doubted that he'd have time to say goodbye to Annie. She was probably asleep by now.

But the elevator doors opened and she was standing there, looking gorgeous in a shimmery, dark green dress. It must've been her interview costume.

"Annie!" Finnick cried, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"I couldn't sleep," she said. "Are we allowed on the roof? I find it easier to think when the sky's above me."

"Yeah," Finnick said. "Technically it belongs to Twelve but Haymitch doesn't mind if other people go up there. Lumas told me that it's only because Haymitch puts recording devices up there to spy on people but he was probably just messing with me."

Annie laughed and stepped into the elevator. "Do you want to come up with me?"

"Sure," Finnick said. He could smell the ocean the moment Annie joined him. It took him a moment to realise that it was her hair. Tempest had once told Finnick that there was a sea-kelp shampoo option in those Capitol showers but he didn't tell Finnick how to find it because he was annoying like that. Finnick had been searching for it for five years and he'd never found it. And he'd taken a lot of showers over the last five years.

Finnick briefly considered asking Annie how she'd known which button to press but he also realised that there was no way he'd be able to say it without sounding creepy.

So they rode up to the roof in silence.

Finnick wasn't surprised at all by the sight of the Capitol from the roof. He'd slept in enough penthouse apartments to know what it looked like. He also wasn't surprised that Annie was completely awed by it. She walked to the edge of the roof to get a better view. With all the city lights on her skin, she looked like a ghost.

"What's eating at you?" Finnick asked, noticing the worry in her blue eyes.

"Loam," Annie said. "He's not cut out for this. He's such a big softie."

"He did the hardest part," Finnick said. "He volunteered."

"Yeah, he did," Annie looked out over the city. She wouldn't meet Finnick's eyes. "Is it bad that I want to outlive him?"

"Why would you want that?" Finnick asked.

"Loam's been my best friend since we were babies," Annie said. "When he asked me out, I couldn't really say no. But I should've said no. It's not that he's a bad boyfriend or anything. He doesn't hurt me. He's just so... nice. I want to leave him because I want to be able to experience life without him constantly clinging to me like a limpet but I can't bring myself to do it. I love him as a friend but... I don't love him. I don't want to hurt him but I don't want to be Loam Morgan's girlfriend for the rest of my life. I want some space. I want to have my own adventure."

Finnick smiled at Annie. "There's nothing wrong with wanting to live your own life. When you win the Hunger Games, you learn to make the most of the freedom you have."

Annie laughed. "Sometimes I wish I could be like you, Finnick. You're wild, like the ocean. You belong to no woman."

"I'm not like that," Finnick said, sadly. "I belong to every woman. I'm like a fish in an aquarium. Swimming around in circles. Everyone wants to keep me around because they think I'm pretty but I just want to go home to the sea."

Annie seemed to understand what he was saying.

"Maybe I'd rather be like myself," she said.

"There's nobody better to be," Finnick said. "I can't remember the last time I felt like myself."

"I'm sure you will, one day," Annie gave him a small smile. "You won the Hunger Games when you were fourteen. You can probably do anything. Now I need to get some sleep. It's a big day tomorrow."

She yawned and began to walk away.

"I think I'll stay here," Finnick said. "May the odds be ever in your favour, Annie."

Finnick watched the city lights flicker for another couple of hours. He felt troubled and he wasn't sure why. Maybe it was the thought of twenty-three doomed children sleeping somewhere below his feet, like they were already in their graves.

Haymitch could really capitalise from putting bugs on the roof. It was a good place to share some secrets.

Finnick Odair only realised what'd been troubling him at the sixteenth birthday party of a Capitol girl named Andromeda.

He was in love with Annie Cresta. She was the one like the ocean. She was the wild, untameable one. He didn't expect her to fall for him or hold him or touch him. He didn't even expect her to love him back. He just wanted her to live.

But he also wanted her to be free...

Then Saorise called him to say that the alliance had lost their supplies to an earthquake and split early. Loam was dead. Annie wasn't hurt but she'd been traumatised by the loss of her district partner.

Finnick only really understood why when he watched videos of Loam's death on the way back to the Control Centre. Loam's head had landed right in Annie's lap. That was enough to really disturb someone, even someone as strong as Annie.

He wasn't sure what he could send her to help.

So he sent her a box of chocolates and watched her eyes light up as she opened it.


Even a week after Annie's victory, Finnick couldn't believe how lucky District 4 had been. The arena had flooded and Annie had been the only one good enough at swimming to survive. Now she was recovering in the Remake Centre.

"Finnick!" She cried, the moment he stepped into her hospital room. She looked like a baby bird in a tangled nest of sheets. "You have to get me out of here! They're telling me I've gone mad."

"You're not mad," Finnick said. "If they want to judge you, they should go through the games."

Annie laughed, hysterically. "But I think they're right, Finnick. I'm crazy. Loopy. Utterly round the bend. A danger to myself and others. They'll have to let me go home, to the sea. No aquarium for me, Finnick. No swimming round in circles for me. I can just swim and swim and swim and swim with the sky above me."

Something flashed in her eyes, something mischievous. Finnick knew that, whatever damage had been done to Annie's mind in the arena, there was enough of her old self left to come out fighting.

She had a way out of it all - mentoring, victor prostitution, all that attention. As long as they thought she was crazy, the Capitol would leave her alone to be herself.

Annie knew it. Finnick could see it in her eyes. Maybe she'd even known it in the arena. Now, Finnick knew that Annie would exaggerate everything. She'd convince the Capitol that she'd completely lost her mind when, in reality, she'd just lost it a little.

Annalisa Cresta had a brilliant plan, the perfect escape.

Finnick Odair had never loved anyone more.

"Oh, you poor thing..." Finnick winked at Annie, while putting on the most patronising voice possible. "Let's get you home."

Annie smiled. She knew he was in on it. It would be their little secret.


I hope you enjoyed my version of Annie. The series portrays her as an innocent damsel in distress but, given that she's from a Career district, I thought she'd be prepared for the games, both physically and mentally. With that in mind, I knew I had to make her really close to her district partner for her to be very affected by her death. Being decapitated is quite a quick death, especially compared to some of the things that other victors (Obsidian, for example) have to watch their district partners go through, so I made Loam her childhood friend. I also made him Beck's younger brother, to give Sirena a reason to choose him over Annie.

Then I realised that there was a possibility that Annie exaggerated her madness to get the Capitol to leave her alone (maybe even to convince her opponents that she wasn't a threat) and that seemed like it would be fitting for my more dangerous version of Annie. She's still suffered a lot of trauma, especially during her imprisonment in the Capitol, so she's not completely sane but she can probably recover enough to look after herself and her child without Finnick's help.

Up next is Johanna. It's time to find out if she was really telling the truth when she said that there was nobody left she loved.