"Got anything to talk about today, Finnick?"
He sighed as he sat back in the metal chair, closing his eyes to try and stop the room from spinning. First they secured his wrists and then his ankles to the chair; that was routine. As for how they would torture him: that was a guessing game he wasn't very good at. Maybe today they would surprise him and let him eat! Or perhaps allow him to have a wash? Even the thought of soaking in a hot bath was too difficult to conjure up.
"Finnick."
He opened his eyes and sighed, shaking his head. "Nope. I don't know anything." He laid his head back, waiting for them to cut him or shock him or do whatever they pleased to him.
"You do know that if you tell us anything, we won't have to hurt you," One of the faceless torturers said. Almost as if they were reluctant to do so. When he didn't answer they sighed. "Okay then. Bring her in."
Finnick felt his stomach drop; were they going to make him watch as they tortured someone else? He could handle them torturing him, he didn't care too much about his own pain. "Who?" He asked, lifting his head. The room was narrow and long, without any windows. The door squeaked when it opened and he was afraid to see if they had dragged Johanna out of her cell to beat in front of him.
The shorter torturer finally appeared, dragging a mess of a girl in by her elbow. Her hair was matted and some clumps were missing, but when she found the strength to raise her head a cry of anguish exploded from him.
The restraints barely contained him when he tried to jump out of the chair, the veins in his forehead bulging against his skin. How had they gotten her here?! "Let her go!" He snarled, feeling as much as a feral animal as he had to have looked. "Don't touch her!"
It appeared that they already had, and for some time. There were old bruises and fresh ones that covered her face and a recent bloody lip. She looked around fearfully, not seeing him, not seeing anything. Had they blinded her? All he could do was stare in horror, trying to figure out how they had gotten to her.
"I saw her to safety!" He yelled. "I saw her safe!" He pulled at his restraints, numb to the pain that bit at his wrists and ankles.
"Finnick?" Rini's head snapped up.
"Rini!" He called back, tears hot on his cheeks. "Bring her closer, I want to see her. Bring her to me!"
"That's not how this works," His torturer muttered from beside him. He motioned towards his assistant and nodded. "Hit her."
Before Finnick could voice a protest, Rini was crying out in pain and slumping to the floor. She held her cheek and rocked herself back and forth, bursting into tears.
"I'll ask you again. Tell me what you know about the rebel's plan of action."
Finnick's brain was spinning, trying to find the answers to his demands. His mind was going blank, he could not recall even an inkling of plans. "I-I don't remember," he swallowed, looking at the faceless man helplessly. "Please-"
"Hit her again."
"No!"
The short man bashed the side of Rini's head in with the grip of his gun and he heard her head bounce when it smacked the ground.
"Can you remember now?"
He flailed his legs in frustration, or tried to. "I'm telling you, I don't know! Stop hurting her! Give me a minute to think!" He begged, crying when the signal was given to hurt her again.
Rini was crying his name now, calling for him to come and save her. The room was heavy with the scent of her blood and the sound of blows landing on her skin filled his ears.
"Help me!" She screamed.
"Bring her here," The man to Finnick's side ordered in a sharp voice.
After a moment she appeared at his side and he choked out another sob. He lifted his hand to touch her but his restraint stopped him. Cool metal pressed against his temple and his heart skipped a beat. They wouldn't dare kill him. He swallowed and took a breath, his eyes not leaving Rini.
"The rebel plan. This is your last chance."
He was shaking, a chill set deep in his bones. "Close your eyes, Rini." Even if she couldn't see, it would make him feel better. The hammer clicked in his ear and he swallowed again, hard. "I don't know anything."
The man sighed and lifted the gun from his temple. Rini's head whipped backwards when he fired and she fell to the ground in a lifeless slump.
He woke screaming, as he did so often these days. His fingers throbbed and were wet with blood. Finnick sat up and held his pounding head, wishing he could blink his nightmare away. A light in his cell flickered and then resumed its hum of power.
"I'm doing a better job of torturing myself than they are," He mumbled, opening his tired eyes. Doubtless someone would be coming to take him to that damned room soon.
As if on cue, he heard footsteps outside his cell and for a moment he was terrified that his dream had been a premonition. What if they had somehow gotten to Rini? That was one sure-fire way of breaking him. The small flap at the bottom of the door opened and a tray slid through. The plate had a small pile of grain in the middle of it, a rubbery looking strip of meat, and a piece of bread that was best described as a rock. He fought back a bubble of hysterical laughter as he watched a bottle of water roll under the flap as well before it snapped shut.
Not only was Rini panting by the time she had found her way to the laundry, but she was behind schedule. The walls were lined with machines that were humming and thumping and Rini watched it all, trying not to panic.
A woman noticed her standing there and approached her with a smile. "Are you new?"
She nodded, heat rising in her cheeks. "I'm sorry I'm late, I got lost…" Her minor anxiety attack in the stairwell hadn't helped either. "I'm Rini."
"I'm Lelani," The woman smiled. "We were all new once, there's no need to apologize." She turned and motioned for Rini to follow her. "Laundry isn't too hard, there's just a lot of it. We're washing for the whole district, so there's always going to be stuff that needs to be washed. Our work is never done," She smiled over her shoulder and Rini gave a small smile in return. "The others don't really like it when people just stand around, so be sure to help out someone else or find more work if yours is all done."
Rini nodded, glancing up and watching as a metal chute opened and a pile of clothes fell from it into an awaiting cart. "So basically everyone does everything?"
Lelani laughed and she shrugged. "Do your own work first then find more."
Someone touched Rini's shoulder and she turned, her heart swelling at the sight of the old woman. "Mags!" She breathed, hugging her close. She seemed more fragile since the last time they were together and Rini feared that she had suffered another stroke. "I'm so glad to see you." Mags touched her cheek, smiling through the tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry, it's my fault that Finnick-"
Mags shook her head and patted her cheek, turning serious.
"Are you okay here? They're making you work?" That didn't sit well with her; the woman could barely walk! She turned her head to question Lelani, but the woman had disappeared.
The old woman shook her head and grunted, making gestures to the amount of people in the room and then herself.
"You'd rather be doing something than sitting by yourself all day," Rini deduced, smiling when Mags smiled and nodded. She couldn't resist hugging her again, planting a soft kiss to her wrinkled cheek. Her heart fluttered when Mags set her hands on her stomach, drawing the attention of a few people working.
"Finnick," she crooned, looking up at her to confirm.
She felt goosebumps appear on her arms and she nodded, swallowing. More people were staring now and Rini took hold of Mags' hand, giving it a small squeeze. "I think you'd better show me how to do things around here before we're kicked out."
The stares didn't stop when Rini started to work, as she had hoped. Come to think of it, she hadn't seen very many children around. She glanced over her shoulder, catching a dark haired man staring at her. He didn't look away from her, seemingly unashamed of openly staring at her. The hairs on the back of her hair stood on end and she turned away to grab more of the soiled laundry out of the cart. It had to be something wrong with her head; she was only being paranoid.
The room the soldier had taken her to was of decent size, with a long table in the middle of it. She recognized Plutarch immediately as he and the woman she did not know stood up.
"It's good to see you again," He smiled at her. "This is President Alma Coin, the leader of District Thirteen."
The woman held her hand out to Rini and she stepped forward to grasp it. "It's a pleasure to have you here. I trust that the wounds you sustained in the arena were taken care of?" Something about her voice bothered Rini, but she gave a small smile.
"Yes, thank you. They have been very accommodating. Everyone has," Rini tacked on at the end, unable to guess as to why she was meeting the leader of the District.
Coin nodded, satisfied, and motioned for her to sit. "Might as well get right to it. Plutarch mentioned to me that you were married to Seneca Crane, his predecessor. I was hoping we could talk a little about that."
Her brow furrowed and she glanced to Plutarch, who nodded in encouragement. "Okay. What exactly are you wanting to know?" She shivered and rolled the sleeves of her shirt down, covering the schedule on her wrist.
The gray haired woman gave her a tight lipped smile. "Why don't you just start from the beginning?" She folded her hands and rested them on her lap, staring at Rini intently.
"The beginning. Alright." Renata sat back in her chair and she gazed around the dim room thoughtfully, preparing herself. "I met him during my first Hunger Games. He told me of the fate that some victors had after winning and that he was certain I would fall into it." She paused when Coin raised an eyebrow at her. "Being sold as a prostitute. Not even sold, presented as a gift to people."
Plutarch shifted slightly in his chair but nodded for her to go on. Had he known of what they did to the victors? He had to have had some notion.
"Seneca proposed that to avoid that fate, he would buy the exclusive rights to me. My body, I suppose. All of this was up to me, he claimed. Either suffer being passed around or belong to him. So I went into the arena and came out alive. I lost an eye in the process, but…" She pointed to her eye that was a slightly deeper blue than the other, "…they were able to make me pretty again. That was what mattered the most." The room felt colder and she hugged her arms to her chest. "He took me from my home without warning and tried to play nice, but when I didn't live up to what he expected, he took me by force. That was the first time of many that he would force himself on me." Her hand wandered to the swell of her stomach and she held it, eyes widening for a moment like she had forgotten it was there. "He married me on my eighteenth birthday, effectively cutting me off from a life outside of him. I was kept as a prisoner in the house he had outside of the Capitol, but after some convincing, he brought me with him to the Capitol for the 74th Hunger Games."
Coin, who had been looking more and more displeased the more Renata spoke, perked up a little.
Rini pursed her lips and sighed. "I made an agreement with Haymitch to plant the idea of two victors winning into Seneca's head. I guess you know what happened after that."
The other two were quiet and her words hung in the air until Coin sighed.
"That's all very sad, but I was hoping you could give us some information about the inner workings of the Capitol." Rini's offense must have shown on her face, for the older woman smiled apologetically. "Forgive me, I don't mean to make light of all your sufferings, but the man is dead. We can't exactly use your personal life for information."
"Then why am I here?" Rini exclaimed, standing up. Her heart was pounding and she looked to Plutarch questioningly. "I told you everything! It's not like he was showing me every secret that the Capitol has kept! He didn't trust me! All that mattered to him was that I was complacent to open my legs for him whenever he desired me!"
"I have already told her everything I know, Rini. We just thought that with your experience, you would know something I wouldn't, that's all." Plutarch looked from Rini to Coin, wondering if he would have to play referee.
"You want information?" There was no telling just how many people Finnick had been given to in all his years as a slave. He learned early on that knowledge was more important than any amount of money, and that made him dangerous. "You should have saved Finnick." She got up to leave, relieved that they didn't insist on her staying. They could have waited longer, they could have saved him! They had to have made the conscious decision to leave him, as they did the rest of the tributes.
Before the doors shut, she heard Plutarch sigh and his chair squeak as he swiveled to face Coin. "I told you it was a long shot."
Hi there! Hooray for an update! I hope it was worth the wait! I'm working on this story and suffering through a class and working all at the same time, so please bear with me, I promise that this story is getting written! Thank you you lovely lovelies for reading and reviewing!
-Kelsey xx