Rachel:
I wait in my designated corner of the dining room. Saga comes over; Ginger goes over to my father. There's a new drill this year, tributes get an hour to talk with their mentors before they leave. I get Saga for half an hour, then I get to say bye to Ginger.
I take Sagas hand in both of mine.
"You're a fighter Saga, you can go far, you could win, if you really put your mind to it." I tell him, it's awkward since he's two years older than I am, but he doesn't seem to mind.
"What should I do first?" he asks
"Get a good weapon, get a pack. Than run for it, don't look back. And don't take part in the bloodbath, you kill someone you're an instant target."
"you took part" he points out; I swallow the lump that comes to my throat.
"I had other motives" I simply say. "I didn't plan to win, but others had different plans"
He just nods, his next question surprises me.
"What's it like? To kill a person?"
"much the same as killing an animal, the way you do it is no different. But after, that's totally different, they don't leave you, ever." I say calmly.
"Then how do you do it?"
"just let the arena take you for that fight, forget their a person, forget they think, forget they have a family back home, just become wild. That's how you win; that's what a victor is. Someone who could let themselves become one with the arena, let their instincts take over, let themselves become wild. But then be able to come back to themselves. Don't lose yourself. Don't let them take your spirit."
"thank you" he whispers, our half an hour together is over.
"Good luck Saga" I tell him, what I do next even surprises me. I put my hands on the side of his head and kiss both of his cheeks.
"Stay alive, that's your final advice" I grin. He stands and hugs me.
"thanks" he tells me
"no problem Saga, now scram"
He laughs and then goes over to Haymitch as Ginger comes to me.
She's nervous, clearly.
"I'm scared" she admits right away.
"I'd think you crazy if you weren't"
"that's good, so, what should I do first?" she asks
"whatever my father told you"
"okay. He said get a pack if I think I can, than clear out and find water." she informs me.
"Than do that"
There's a few minutes of silence.
"Do you have any letters?" I ask her. She nods and takes them out of her pocket.
She hands them to me; "I'll deliver them if I need too" I smile, not saying that I'm sure I will deliver these last goodbyes to those she loves.
"Did you write letters?" she asks
"yes, a lot of them" I remember that night on the train.
"To who?" she asks.
"Haymitch, the other victors, some old friends back home, and Peeta."
"old friends?" she asks confused. "Aren't you popular as a victor?"
"hell no, most of my friends either are scared of me, or their parents don't want them to hang out with me" I sigh.
"But you're not bad at all" she says gently
"thank you, that's, the nicest thing anyone's said to me in a while," I take her hands in mine. I see the other tributes going off to their stylists, who will be with them until launch.
"Cinna will take care of you until launch, remember, he cares, and we're all cheering for you." I smile at her. We both stand; I put my hands on both sides of her head gently and kiss her forehead.
"If you can, find Saga, he'll help you." I whisper.
"Thank you" she whispers, her voice cracks and I see a tear roll down her face. I wipe it away, "no crying, you don't want to seem weak" I tell her. She nods and hugs me. I wrap my arms around her.
Then I stand side by side with Haymitch, Saga and Ginger, along with all the other tributes, turn around to face us before going through the doors to the hovercrafts that will take them away. Simultaneously all of the victors in the room, including Haymitch and I, put three fingers to our lips and extend them to the tributes. The tributes all bow their heads, and then turn around, walk through the door, and are gone.
I watch from the couch as the screen shows the tributes rise into the arena. We all get our first look at it.
"Holy shit! What the hell is that!" I yell aloud, Haymitch pats my back. The arena mostly is normal, from what the tributes can see.
But there's a large river that runs through the whole arena. Various points hold whirlpools, at the end, a massive waterfall that drops hundreds of feet to sharp rocks below. Going in the river completely means certain death.
"Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the Seventy third Hunger Games!" Claudius Templesmith booms. I shudder; I haven't heard those words since it was me standing on one of those metal plates.
Sixty seconds, that's how long we have until 'play' begins, until innocent kids are murdered.
"What if we got them out?" I whisper.
"What!" Haymitch looks at me surprised.
"What if we broke them outta there somehow?" I ask
"impossible" he shrugs. I guess it is, where would we take them?
"Begin!" Claudius announces as the gong sounds and the tributes sprint off of their plates. I watch in utter horror as Ginger hesitates and is last to leave. Ninety-five percent of the time the last to leave the plate dies as one of the first.
Ginger is no exception, I feel the blood rush out of my face as a Career takes his sword and decapitates my tribute. Boom! The cannon fires, it shows her face, a smile of her lips. The career stabs her body again, then takes off to go find his next victim.
Now is not the time to mourn for her. Saga is still alive, he's doing just as I told him, he has a pack, weapons, and is off running through the dense woods.
"Good boy Saga," I mutter.
Haymitch nods next to me, clearly unphased by Gingers death; we knew she was a bloodbath. I still have her letters in my pocket.
Saga seems safe, for now, so I stand and go over to the mailing station.
"Put these with my tribute" I instruct as I slide the letters across the countertop. The avox on the over side nods and goes off to do what I instructed.
Before I turn another avox comes and hands me a note, it says I am to meet with Zapher tonight at six. Wonderful, I get to see the bitch. I tear up the note and trash it, I will be there though.
I see Finnick watching me; I just glance at him, than look away.
-Finnick:
I wanted run to her when I saw what that boy did to Ginger. I had looked seen her face turn white. But she didn't scream, she didn't do anything really. I watch her as she goes over to mail the letters Ginger wrote back home. She glances at me, than looks away. It kills me inside; she's still angry at me, she has every right to be.
Later I leave to go to the hotel for another 'meeting', I hate them. Even more so now that I know Rachel goes through it too. It's harder for her, because she fights it. I just let it happen, this way I don't get hurt.
I slip out of bed, leaving a rather ugly lady alone and walk downstairs. I'm about to walk out when I turn, hearing a pair of feet pummel down the stairs, no one takes the stairs. My eyes widen as Rachel bursts out into the lobby in nothing but her bra and shorts. A muscular black boy follows her and roughly grabs her shoulder, I stiffen.
"I don't have to with you friends bitch!" she yells in the boys, who I'm guessing is Zapher, face. Zaphers eyes widen in anger, I snap at what he does next.
He grabs her shoulders and, without hesitation, he knees her in the gut, making her double over. Then he brings his fist hard down between her shoulder blades. She falls to her knees and he slaps her across the face.
I run over and punch Zapher right in the face.
"Finn stop" I hear her mumble, I don't stop, no one treats my girl like that.
Zapher goes to punch me, I easily grab his wrist, which makes me realize. Rachel doesn't fight him, she lets him do this, she could easily stop him. I twist his arm until his back faces me. I kick him in the ass and then shove him into the wall as hard as I can. There's a cracking as bones and plaster break.
Zapher falls to the floor and I give him one last kick, "asshole" I spit at him.
I go and pick up Rachel, her face has begun to swell. She wraps her arms around my neck.
"Thank you Finn" she cries into me, I can feel her body heat on me. Surprisingly it doesn't bother me seeing her in basically just her underwear.
"Anytime" I tell her. She's asleep in my arms by the time we get to the car.
-Rachel:
I wake up, then panic when I feel arms around me. How did I end up back with Zapher? I start to get up.
"Stay," a voice moans. I instantly stop moving and settle back into the arms, they belong to Finnick.
"Always will" I whisper.
"Good" he says sleepily, he tucks me closer to him. That's when I remember I don't have a shirt on, oh well; I'll have to borrow one of Finnick's tomorrow morning. I relax in Finnick's arms.
"Finn?" I ask
"yeah?"
"Sorry I've been so mean to you"
"its okay, you were right, it's harder for you" his answer surprises me.
I drop the conversation there and settle back into his arms. Knowing they would never hurt me, they only mean comfort. They mean safety.
Finnick wakes me up early the next morning.
"Do you want to go watch?" he asks.
"Yeah, Saga is still alive," I nod and climb out of bed. Crap, I don't have a shirt.
"Ugh Finn?"
"yea?" he turns to face me.
"Can I borrow a shirt?"
He grins at me and goes over and grabs one of his own from a drawer and tosses it at me.
"Thanks" I thank him as I put it on.
When we walk into the victor's room together I immediately decide that wearing Finnick's shirt wasn't a good idea. Everyone stares at us, they raise eyebrows.
"That's an odd way to settle a fight, but I guess it works" Brutus sneers, clearly suggesting that I slept with Finnick last night, well, that we did more than sleep. Which we did, just not with each other.
I go and sit next to my father, Finnick takes the empty spot next to me.
"How's he doing?" I ask
"see for yourself" my dad motions to the side screen that will always show Saga. He's on the move, and he's eating. But as I look at the other screens I notice the Careers are hunting and their coming closer to Saga. I want to yell at Saga to run, to move faster before the Careers get to him.
-Saga:
I trudge through the forest as I chew on a fish I caught. The water has an unbelievably strong current, but I managed to get a fish.
I'm glad I've made it to the second day of the Games. There's only eighteen players left now.
Ginger was killed yesterday, which my only thought was its good I didn't talk to her much that would've made things harder. But still, she was from home.
As I come to a clearing a hear a branch crack, weird I didn't step on one. I whirl around to see the whole Career pack barreling towards me. I take out one of my knives and hurl it at the District One girl. It lodges into her stomach but she just grins.
After I stand there in shock, I'm going to die, I'm going to die.
I feel the sword pierce through my body; I feel it be pulled out. Boom! I wonder who that could be for.
I feel arms go around me gently.
"Your safe now, no more worries" I hear a boy say. I turn my head, and see Peeta Mellark.
-Rachel:
I bury my face into Haymitch as Sagas cannon goes off. His arms go around me, Finnick pats my back.
"I'm sorry" he tells both of us.
"Oh well, he was going to get killed sooner or later" Haymitch grumbles. Get killed. Without comment I stand up and walk over to the phone. I dial a number quickly.
"Hello?" a voice answers.
"Can you tell Snow I'd like to meet with him, to talk about something?" I ask.
"Yes, we were going to send for you, someone will come and show you the way."
"Thank you." I say before I hang up. I feel arms go around me in a warm embrace.
"Hey Finn," I say softly.
"Hey, why do you want to see Snow?"
"I want to see if I can go home, just for Friday, just so I can, you know." I don't want to say it aloud that I want to visit Peeta the day it's been a year without him.
"I understand, want me to come too? In case, you need someone to explain for you?"
I just nod. A minute later someone comes over and tells me to follow, Finnick follows us too. Damn I feel like I have a bodyguard.
When we arrive at the door the guard pokes his head in to ask Snow if Finnick can also come in. Apparently Snow agrees because we are both told to go in. We take seats in front of the huge desk that Snow sits behind. Peacekeepers stand along the walls, and the flag of the Capital is draped behind Snow.
"Hello, now let's get right to business. Would you like to speak first or shall I?" Snow inquires.
"I want to go back to Twelve, just for Friday, just so I can" I stop, a lump forming in my throat.
"So she can visit him." Finnick finishes for me.
"Ahh yes, I'm sure that can be arranged, you can leave Thursday night and come back Saturday morning. And Mr. Odair, that was quiet a stunt you pulled last night, beating up Zapher like that. So Rachel, to continue your, shall we say, services. You now will be open to anyone who wants to, you know, spend an evening with you." Snow grins at us.
I feel my face go white. "But, they'll, they'll kill me" I stutter.
"No, not if you do it right. So if this is settled, I believe you two can go." He smiles and we stand. Finnick leans over to me, "I want to ask him something, I'll meet you out there soon" he whispers in my ear. I nod as I'm lead out.
A few minutes later Finnick comes out, he looks, almost happy, but scared too.
"You okay Finn?" I ask him
"Yeah, I'm fine, let's go back."
-Finnick:
I think about what I just did as we sit in the victor's room and focus on the Games.
I asked Snow if I could go to Twelve also, just to make sure she didn't hurt herself. He agreed to that, so I get to go to Twelve now. I want to thank Peeta anyways. The other thing I did, oh I feel like she'll either love me for it or hate me for it. Is I bought her for the next week. For the three days until Friday and then until the Tuesday after that, she'll be safe with me.
I just will have a lot of quick explaining to do when she opens the room door and I'm in there. I'm not going to have sex with her. Hell no, I mean, like, I would, no, yes, no, wait. No, what am I saying? I won't use her, there, I just bought her so she won't get hurt for a while. Yeah. I'm protecting her, cause that's what I do, I protect her.