I decide to dedicate the entire day before the reaping to Annie. I'm not sure I'll ever see her again and if I do, everything will be different. I'm praying that she doesn't come in the arena with me. It would be better for her to stay here. I would like to stay too, but that would be unfair. I have better chances than anybody.
I head over to Annie's house kind of late in the day, around eleven o'clock. I know she wakes up earlier than that because she can't sleep through the night. Sometimes she takes sleep aids. I used to take them, but I hated them. I think she does too.
I let myself in and head upstairs to Annie's room. Nobody's going to care and I don't actually think anyone else is here right now. I find her setting on her bed with her hair brush, but she isn't brushing her hair.
"Hey," I say, sitting next to her. I wrap my arms around her and she leans into me, resting her head on my shoulder.
"You're leaving, right?" She asks, but she says it as more of statement. I'm so shocked that I don't say anything for a while and I don't even know what to say.
"Don't lie," she whispers again.
"Yeah." She looks up at me, her eyes as blue as the ocean.
"Are you coming back?" Her hand reaches up and finds itself on my chin. I probably look like a wreck. I haven't shaved in weeks. I want to say yes, but I remember what she said about lying.
"Maybe, but let's forget about that. You want to go down to the beach?" I ask her. She nods. I take her hand and help her off the bed. We walk down the stairs and then take the shortcut through the backyard of some other houses in Victor's Village to get to the main beach. We just walk for a while, until we come to the fence that locks us in. I can hear the hum of electricity.
I lead Annie over to one of the palm trees and we sit down.
"It's hard to forget," she says, before staring blankly out into the ocean. I just sit, watching her hair blow in the wind and the way that she twists her fingers. She laughs randomly, splitting up the silence. I don't know why, but I don't really care. Her laugh has a nice ring to it. It sounds like a fairy might.
Even though the day consists of pretty much nothing, it is one of my favorite days. I spend the entire day at the beach with Annie. When it gets darker, I make a fire and cook up some fish that I caught in the ocean. I've learned how to catch with my hands.
After we are finished eating, we stay there for a little while. Annie turns her head toward me and then slowly moves forward, pressing her lips against mine. She leans back and gives me a small smile, one that reminds me of all she's been through.
"Good?" She asks. I smile.
"Amazing." And that's when I realize that I'm absolutely one hundred percent in love with her. Not the fake kind that I'm told to be in during my stays at the capitol. Not the love when you first meet someone. The real love when you want to spend the rest of your life with someone.
"I love you." I tell her.
"I love you too." She says. I wrap her in my arms again, give her one more small kiss, and we watch the sun go down over the ocean. I take her home when the sun is almost set, right before curfew. I give her one last hug before she leaves. It might be the last.
Then, I run across the street just as the head peacekeeper walks down the street, tapping his baton in his left hand, willing to use it on anyone who is still daring enough to refuse the law. I might have stayed out just long enough to get a warning, but I duck inside instead. I'm not ready right now to stand up because I know that when I do, it has to set the world on fire. And District 4 is not the place for fire.
He walks down the beach, slowly, still tapping the baton against his hand. When he gets to the fence, he notices something slightly different. He walks over to the pile of ashes and fish bones. Just to the left is something someone must have written in the sand with their toe. He crouches down to look. It is a heart and in the middle is the letters F and A. Finnick and Annie. He looks around to see if anyone is watching before he rubs the heart away with his boot. Behind him, a bird flies into the fence and lands on the sand. Dead.
He walks back going through his route, stopping at the front of the Odair house. Looking up, he can tell Finnick is fast asleep. That's good. Let the boy have a final full night of sleep before the big day. Then, he remembers who he is. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and begins a message to Plutarch, the new head gamemaker.
"Finnick and Annie. It's real. I saw." He types with his thumb. He reads the message one more time, considering sending it. Eventually, he hits the cancel button and the message is deleted forever. He'll be dead anyway. He walks back down the street and enters his own empty home.
Hey! I'm so happy with the castings of Johanna and Mags. They are both so perfect and I'm really excited to write about Mags knowing what she is going to look like on the movie screen. Hopefully you liked this chapter and if you did (or not) please review! I thought I'd try something new with the end, just for fun. I've wanted to write more about capitol people and that was my attempt. Well, that's about it and remember to review because they make my day!