Okay, I apologize to everyone wh ohas waited long for this chapter. I wrote it a while ago but never found any time to type it up. I would like to send out a special shout out to COWSCOWSCOWSCOWS, your story alert ,like, made my day because I have this obsession with Cow and Cows and Cows a video on youtube that is like really creepy.
I've also gotten a new beta, HowLynn, she's an amzing writer who is making this story like ten times better and so much easier to write. Check out some of her stories.
Also, I can see how many people view STTC, it's over 600, and if I had all those people reviewing I would be SOOOO happy. Even now I have 24 people who have only alerted/favorited my story. So please review.
APOV
Why? Why had it happened? Why did he do it? How could he change? Just, why?
Because he hates you, that's why he hurt you.
I feel as if I have something physically ripped inside, though I know it has no corporal cause and it is as if there is a spectral mental tear within, yet the pain seems as dreadful as any bodily laceration I can imagine. I had given this man, a man who I adored, everything. Me, my love, myself. I'd laid myself bare and for what? At first, the time with someone who I'd loved forever, but was that enough. I wonder if he can imagine what I gave him or if it is even a shadow of regret to him or did he consider my bare soul and pure adoration beneath his notice. Could he have simply deemed my admiration to be without value? The time with him must have meant far less to him than it did to me. I need him more than air, yet he has abandoned that truth and left my soul screaming for help. Why did I allow him such power over me if this is the reward? My love for him is forever, yet now it is a useless adornment as hideous as the decorations on a tributes coffin.
And what did he do with you? Even after your first time, he ripped it aside like it was nothing and then threw you away like you were too. The voice in the back of my mind whispered. But was it true? Would Finn really do this to me? I thought back to the aforementioned first time.
What did he do that could have lead me here? He frankly cast me aside after our first time together, as if the moment meant nothing to him. The unfriendly voice in my head mocks me with my foolish actions and the way my heart has let us be strung along against all obvious truths. Yet I try to justify my mistake to that voice of logic.
He was so gentle. He cared about my needs. He seemed to want nothing for himself and only my encouragement had prompted him to lose himself in passion. I thought he cared because he only responded, never demanded. He would have been more selfish if it meant so little, wouldn't he? How could he seem to change in such a drastic way? Did he change, or did I misunderstand something because I closed my eyes to what was real?
But in my heart of heart I knew that he wasn't the Finnick that I'd fallen in love with, or the Finnick that had taken me. He was changed, and drastically at that.
Very drastic, maybe a little too drastic.
FPOV
I walk Annie out to the car. She is still in that ridiculous leather corset.
"Well," Annie started. "I have to go. Snow ordered me to report to him after our sexual intercourse, for deactivation." Deactivation, the word echoed in my mind. What in the world was she talking about?
"Annie?" I asked, wanting an explanation. She flinched, head-twitching to the side, and suddenly she stands stiff as a board.
"I am Annie… Annie… Annie" She echoed, and her voice had changed. It is abruptly fake, monotonous. "Prototype model, level 1 code 1453."
What? My mind was racing with questions about what is happening to her. It had to be Snow. This bizarre display reeks of the capital. But, why? What is his plan? How does this behavior benefit him at all? To have me have sex with someone who looked exactly like Annie, and was really a mutation, has no conceivable purpose I can figure out. It isn't right. I don't think that I'm the main focus of his plot. I don't think he means this for some punishment or he would have made certain I knew it to be a retaliatory gesture for some error I have committed against his wishes. It would make no sense to hide his anger toward me and take a chance I would miss his subtle emotional lash. So, what did he want? Was this done to keep me out of the way? Out of the way of what?
Annie.
Annie.
That's what Snow was after.
She could be in trouble right now.
As the thought sinks in, I realize the severity of what it could mean.
Annie needs me at this very moment and I am not there. I am wasting my time with a copy when the original is in trouble. I may have failed my Annie and if the penalties of it prove factual, how do I live with it?
I needed to find her immediately.
I raced off, shoving the fake Annie away, my heart hammers double time to my feet, fear charging my strides ever faster until the surroundings blur and my only clear focus is getting to the hotel.
APOV
"What do you want Snow?" I said, my voice unwavering. On the outside I appeared aloof, but on the inside I am on the verge of tears and was completely broken. But I had to keep it together, if President Snow sensed the depth of pain, he may do something that would hurt not only Finnick, who deserved it after his actions, but me as well. When the call came from President Snow, terror seeped into my heart and froze there because I had no hope of enduring his games. I have never been strong like Finnick, but now I suddenly have to be.
It is his fault that Finnick acts the way he does. His life is bound in torment, yet he is still strong, fighting unseen battles I see pieces of but don't know how to help or explain in any way other than intuition. I am certain of this truth, without any need for confession or deliberate proof. His eyes tell me more facts than any words ever will.
I don't know what Snow does that could've changed Finnick's morals so much? I do know that Snow is to blame for making Finnick heartless. He has damaged him, but I know the President is going to damage me too and he's a monster to the point that he obviously no longer feels even a drop if remorse for what he's does or who he hurts. He sits there, evilly composed as always. No, worse, he seems smug as if hurting others is the only joy he has left.
"My dear Ammi." I roll my eyes at his continued warping of my name. "It has come to my attention that Finnick has used physical violence on you to obtain sex. The technical term is rape." I stare at him, thoughts whirling around in my head. I have no idea what he wants yet, so I remain silent.
"And," he continued, "Without your consent, which makes our contract void."
I continued to stare, unsure of what his point is or what to make of his inquiry and statement.
"This means," He droned on as if he must break some unhappy news to me with all the kindness of a friend, yet his posture was alive with anticipation, "That you are no longer attached to Finnick, and…."' He trailed off and fixed me with his cold, fake sympathetic smile.
If I believe his carefully arranged face, I might leap at some hope of freedom, as if he would offer such a gift to me. No, he has no kindness in his eyes so that can't be it. The face hides the real meaning. I don't want to know the meaning that blazes in his eyes. What does he mean for me to understand, without spelling out his exact intention?
After several silent minutes of interpretation, my mind clicked through several possible interpretations until it settled on the one that was most horrible while both Finnick and I remained alive. It was both simple and clear, which is why it took so long for my mind to accept it.
Snow patiently watched me, a smile upon his lips and mirthful glee dancing in his eyes as he allowed me to comprehend his victory over any hope I could ever find in life. I now will be forced into prostitution, just like Finnick. Now, I would understand him and Finnick would finally hate me or himself enough that the last glimmer of who I loved would fade out of existence. I would fade out of existence. There would be no more Finnick and Annie. There would be two shells, whose owners we too enamored in memories of the past, that all they could do was twirl in the tides and be ravaged until broken on hopeless rocky shores.
He must've sensed that I understand what he is implying, or something he observed gave me away. "I am pleased you have put forth no argument. I hope you will be equally as docile, perhaps even honored, once you hear who your first client is?" He breathed a satisfied sigh and leaned back in his chair, smiling indulgently.
That was it, he wanted me. The only thing that had wormed out of his grasp for a while, the only thing he hadn't had. My lips cracked open. No matter why Finnick had done what he had, he hadn't told me why and I refused to give up on him before he had. Besides, I couldn't be Snow's.
"President Snow, it seems you have been misinformed." I stated calmly, speaking for the first time. "Perhaps you misinterpreted what you have been told? Or seen? I do believe I've seen camera's around the place and I do know you may enjoy that type of… entertainment." I stopped myself realizing I may have been too bold. This man, this sadistic twisted, evil man held the key to my life and the lives of my loved one's no matter how I wanted to tell him off I couldn't risk it. "What happened could be called no more than a game played by adventurous lovers" I quickly added in a soft tone.
Snow grumbled angrily. "Are you- but I thought-He-he had you, with other men, you gave no audible consent. You were depicted as a whore. You mean to tell me that you willingly offered yourself up to be used?" His composure had collapsed. He was wrecked, crazed. I caught a glimpse of the crazy that is usually kept locked inside.
Once I returned to Finnick's hotel room, I collapsed. It had been an act, all of it. I was broken too. I knew what Snow wanted. It disgusted me. But I still didn't know how he'd gotten Finnick to do what he did. How could he betray me? I don't cry no matter how much I want to, I knew I may be watched and if so I have to keep up my act. I break inward, but only appear tired or bored to the spies that might be watching. This entire thing disgusts me and worse, now I know that Snow wants to find some way to wedge his way into my bed as well. He somehow got Finnick to betray me already. Will he betray me again? Will Finnick pawn me to his master if the master pulls the right chain?
FPOV
I pushed open the hotel doors and stomped in. I needed to find Annie and I needed to do it now. I ran up the stairs too impatient to use the elevators. Whatever he'd was the final straw. If he harmed her or if she's dead… I don't know what I'd do without her. She was truly my everything.
I may never get over being used. Yes, I'd lost my virginity to the capital, and at the time it had felt as if I was violated and ruined I felt that no one would ever want me.
But that was nothing compared to how Annie looked at me that first day. It was nothing compared to how I'd loved her all my life and I'd been her first. I had loved her as long as I could remember. I wished to see my feelings reflected in her eyes. I was certain I did see something. I had been her first. Did it matter to her as much as it did to me? I wanted it to, so maybe I let my heart lie to me for a while. Whoever I'd become may be dead inside, but I can indulge in the occasional dream.
My sweet, sweet Annie, with her brown hair, lightened by District 4 rays. I loved her green eyes; they enchanted me in that they could flash seduction one second then exude innocence the very next so purely that it was as if her first expression was a figment of my imagination. She seemed oblivious to what a creature of opposing forces she seemed to hold within. Her small gestures and timid concept of her own power over me felt too natural to be intended. Other women attempted such coy deception, but never pulled it off to any degree of success. Annie was real. She hid so little that I had no defense to her openly offered charm.
I loved everything from the slope of her nose to the pink of her lips, to her petite body compared to mine. I loved her spirit, her realness, the way her eyes clouded over with emotion when she looked at me, her spark, her youthful spirit, the grin she saved for me, and she was absolutely perfect. She was mine.
I burst into my hotel room and caught sight of Annie crumpled on the floor in the fetal position.
"Annie." The word was barely past my lips when my throat suddenly closed at the idea that she might be hurt. The word summed up everything she is and everything she meant to me.
But she was hurt. What had Snow done to her? I must've uttered my question aloud because she answered.
I could see no physical wounds. What did he do? Her eyes flickered to me before closing, and she answered the question I had not yet asked.
"It wasn't Snow, Finnick. Snow may have added wood to the flames but you're the one who ignited my pain."
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