Thank you Bigpapi, PainAndPanicReportingForDuty, QuinnDeRavensborough, Jamez S and HogwartsDreamer113 for reviewing! :)
So, I have two weeks of holiday now, yay! That should mean more writing, but I've had this new obsession with Game Of Thrones so we'll see, haha.
Also, I've come to the decision that I want to keep this story T so no one needs to search for it. Of course, there will be occasional parts where we go into Finnick's sex life, but nothing too explicit - I'll give you warning in the A/N at the beginning.
XXXV. Plastic Bags
The woman's body convulses beneath me. It's almost like she's having a seizure.
She drags her nails down my back painfully, leaving ribbons of red flesh behind and she clings onto me for dear life. Lyddia reaches her high, screeching, "Finnick!"
Her legs tighten around my torso, pulling me impossibly closer and archs her back as her full breasts flatten against my own naked chest. She releases a string of incoherent curses and whimpers, her teeth clamping onto the base of my neck while she swerves to hips in an attempt to make her pleasure last a little longer. Faking my own appreciative moan, I gingerly remove her legs from my waist and pull my flaccid organ out of her.
Lyddia' still panting heavily when she pulls her purple bedsheets over our bodies, slick with sweat. The wall we're facing has a TV screen, which broadcasts the Hunger Games live. I guess even in the Capital the screens turn on by themselves.
Unfortunately, neither Marlene and her alliance nor Thomas are on screen. There's only footage of a girl wondering in the desert and Caesar's recurring comments.
"I can't stay for long," I say, feeling desperate to make my way back to the Mentor's Room and to stay glued to my seat. It's the fourth day of the Games and so far, no deaths have occurred apart from the bloodbath. The Capital is impatient and it's only a matter of time before the mutts are unleashed this year.
She pushes her bottom lip out into an exaggerated pout and places a small, dainty hand on my inner thigh. "But I asked for another hour, didn't I?"
"I wasn't aware of that, sweetheart, but you know I have tributes to take care of… and you've tired me out," I reply, placing my hand over hers and offer her a cheeky wink.
Lyddia's not a particularly attractive woman, even by Capital standards, but her hair resembles so much like the appetising red velvet cupcakes that I come quite close to as delicious as sugar cubes. I can't resist the temptation to twirl a stray strand of her red hair around my finger, tugging on it lightly.
"Ah, yes," she giggles. "I also do know just how bothersome taking care of tributes can be. Gloss is also running around like a mad man these days."
So that's why she seemed so familiar.
"You escort District One?" I ask, exaggerating my shock.
"Yes, yes, such a lovely district. I even escorted District One when Gloss won - but such a troublesome, young man, he was," she sighs, shaking her head with a look of disappointment, which a mother often gives her child. "Now, he's so serious all the time."
I open my mouth to speak because I really do need to go, to look after Marlene. I've already spent the night with Lyddia and I can't afford to waste anymore time. Unfortunately, she continues on. "The man won't stop looking around for anything lurking around. Honestly, the year before your Games - so, Cashmere's games - Gloss found out that the reaping's were rigged and he threw a tantrum; a tantrum, I tell you…"
The fact that the reapings were rigged doesn't faze me the slightest - everyone mentor had their own suspicions. Nobody's happy about it but we can't do anything.
But it hits me. It quite literally hits me, as she exaggerates her hand actions a little too much and she hits me in the face. "Oh, sorry!" Lyddia squeaks, before continuing on with her monologue.
Secrets. Perhaps I didn't know all of Gloss' story, but it's not like that surprises me much. Scrap all those petty gold trinkets that the women offer me - they can give me something off more worth and something that can't be hidden forever.
"So what's your biggest secret?" I turn around and face the woman. She stares back at me, momentarily stunned and her red eyelashes flutter. Lyddia giggles a tinkering giggle and says, "It's called a secret for a reason, Finnick."
"Okay, what's a secret that you know? A rumour, perhaps?"
"Well, there is one rumour…" she replies. "Have you ever noticed that President Snow smells like he's used too much perfume?"
"It's uh, pretty hard to miss, if you ask me."
"Every once in a while, Snow will throw a party for his twenty most important delegates and occasionally, he'll throw in a few random people. If anyone does anything out of line, President Snow won't miss it. He uses a poison and sneaks it in everyone's drinks, and it takes about thirty-six hours for the poison to actually make an appearance in one's body, I think. Obviously, if he doesn't drink from his glass, it'd be rather suspicious, wouldn't it?"
Lyddia waits for me to respond and I nod.
"Well, he does drink the poison but Snow, apparently has this really enhanced immune system, where he doesn't die from the poison. He has sores in his mouth and to cover up the smell of the poison and blood he breathes out, he uses roses and perfumes."
"Wow, that's…" I trail off, speechless. Sure, I've always known that President Snow uses an exceeding amount of rose and perfume scents, but I'd never even assumed that it was for a reason even close to this. Unable to continue the sentence, I look over at the clock on her bedside and say, "It's been an hour, Lyddia. Is it alright if I use your bathroom?"
"Of course. Thank you for coming."
"No, thank you."
After I take a much needed shower and pull on my clothes from yesterday, I'm off once again to the Mentor's Room, which thankfully, is only ten minutes away. But even when it's ten minutes away, the walk there seems to take forever and a day.
"Has anything happened?" I ask, taking my place in the seat beside Joseph.
He lounges across three seats, with a burger in hand and shakes his head as he takes a huge bite. "Eight and Twelve: gone. Look for yourself," he manages to say whilst chewing the food in his mouth.
The Careers have split off into pairs for the day. Corbin and Topaz mark their area around the Cornucopia, wondering around to keep the other tributes away. Lance and Dee have decided to scope out the icy tundra behind the mass of trees, while Marlene and Orion head the other direction and explore further out into the desert.
"So," Orion says with a cheeky grin, attempting to make conversation, "Got a boyfriend back home?"
Marlene barely casts a single glance at him and rolls her eyes. "No. I assume you don't either."
"Why would I have a boyfriend?"
"You look like you roll that way," she shrugs. "You flirt so much that it's like you're hiding the fact that you're gay."
"Shouldn't I be saying that about your mentor, Finnick Odair?"
"Please, Finnick likes anything with two legs and can walk."
"That's not true!" I protest, and my outburst follows with a chorus of laughter.
"Shh," Cashmere hushes the room as Marlene and Orion freeze. Checking the main projector, I realise that Thomas is barely fifteen metres away with his alliance, the pair from Six.
"Did you hear that?" Orion asks.
A sudden rush of rapid footsteps pound against the sandy texture of the desert and the two of them are instantly sprinting after their victims. Joseph shakes his head with a sigh and together, we watch the two predators chasing after the other three. Thomas ends up hiding behind a rather thorny bush, leaving his two allies to stop and wonder where he's gone.
Such fools, I think to myself.
Their hesitance allows Orion and Marlene the amount of time to catch up to the pair from District Six, who wield only a dart gun and three knives, as opposed to the large number of weapons their opposition carry. All four of them are panting, sweat dripping down their foreheads and drenching their shirts. The heat has evidently taken a toll on all of them. Orion stumbles forward with a devious smirk as he targets the larger of the two - the girl - and swings his sword up. Marlene, on the other hand, freezes, her face paling rather significantly.
The boy from Six already has his right arm reared back and charges towards Marlene, weapon poised in hand. She stays frozen on the spot, swivelling her head around looking for something, and I want to scream, "Kill him!"
And apparently, I do, as many other mentors turn to stare at me for a moment before returning back to their screens. As usual, the mentors for Six are high on their drugs and are twirling around on their wheelie chairs.
At the very last moment, Marlene raises her sword up and almost instantly disarms the boy. Within seconds, he crumples to the ground like a rag doll with Marlene's sword sticking out of his chest. The girl fairs better than the boy but that doesn't stop Orion for taunting her. "Come on, little girl. Is that all you've got?"
Unfortunately, Thomas chooses this exact moment to come out of the bushes and into the opening. Orion notices immediately and gives up toying with the girl, swiping his blade into her neck and slices her head off like a knife through butter. The cannon booms twice, signalling the deaths of the pair from District Two. Orion laughs a bitter, yet amused laugh and turns to Marlene. "Your own District partner, Marlene. Would you like the honour of killing this weasel?"
She responds with utter silence as the three of them stare at each other. Thomas has his eyes wide open in horror, his feet rooted onto the spot. Rather subtly, she glares at the puny boy to make a run for it and he either notices and can't seem to move, or he actually is too dense to understand her gestures.
Orion throws his head back, laughing sadistically. "Come on, Mar. Give the audience a show, will you?"
"No," she denies, her tone strong and firm. "If you want to give them a show, then you do it."
"Fine by me," he shrugs. Orion runs his finger along the bloodied blade of his sword and swings the weapon around, effortlessly. As he advances towards Thomas, Marlene screams, "Run!"
Finally, he runs.
Marlene lifts her own sword up, intercepting Orion's strike and the boy from One stares at her in disbelief. "Are you serious?" he demands in rage. "What'd you do that for?"
"He's my district partner."
"He's going to die anyway! I could've-"
"Just leave it," she barks. "If he's going to die anyway, you can come back for him later. I'm sick of all your yabbering."
That night, the head shots of the girl and boy from District Six appear up in the sky, followed by the Capital seal. Even though Orion takes the first night shift, Marlene stays awake. Her eyes are wide open and she's turned to the side, pretending to be asleep. Two or three hours later, she sits up, rubbing her eyes and faking a yawn.
"You can take over my shift," Orion tells her. He lays down in the desert region and clutches onto his sword as he crawls into the sleeping bag. As soon as his head hits the soft lump of his sleeping bag, he's knocked out.
Marlene makes her way out of her sleeping bag, reaching into her pocket and brings out a plastic bag and a small bottle. A few tablets drop out into her hand when she takes the cap off and Marlene manages to creep over to Orion, quietly enough and drops pill by pill into his mouth.
A few seats to my right, Gloss bangs his fist onto the table. "Damn it," he curses.
Orion's breathing slows down and in a few minutes, Marlene slips the plastic bag over his head. His eyes snap open and he panics, waving his arms around, but Marlene's quick to pin him down. Her knees press into his lower abdomen, and her feet dig into his knees, stopping him from moving. She presses her hands against his elbows, pinning his arms down and he moves his head around in an attempt to nod the bag off. The plastic bag fogs up and his eyes widen, as he struggles to breathe. I would think that a Career would have learnt to stay calm in such a situation but I guess I've been proven wrong, as Orion continues to thrash around despite Marlene's constricting hold.
"Shut up," Marlene hisses at him, as if it'll make him shut up. It's amazing that none of the others in their alliance have woken yet, but I assume that the hot climate has worn them out during the day. His limbs finally fall limp and his eyelids droop. Marlene quickly moves off of him and back into her sleeping bag.
Only seconds later does Orion's cannon sound.
A/N: Who do you guys think is going to win the Games?! :O