She made broken look beautiful and strong look invincible. She walked with the universe on her shoulders and made it look like a pair of wings.
| the hunger games |
| catching fire |
| finnick odair // oc |
| completed |
| book two |
Started: 10/2...
┌───── · ° ➶ ✧ ➶ ° · ─────┐ Chapter Nine THE 75TH HUNGER GAMES └───── · ° ➶ ✧ ➶ ° · ─────┘
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Nolan and I walk down the hallway before we part ways and head into our rooms. My covers are drawn back and I take a shower. I scrub the gold paint, the makeup, the scent of beauty from my body. All that remains of the design-team's efforts are the gold designs on my nails. I decided to keep them as a reminder of who I am to the audience. Perhaps it will give me something to hold on too in the days to come.
I put on a thick, fleecy nightgown and climb into bed. It takes me about five seconds to realize I'll never fall alseep. And I need sleep desperately because in the arena every moment I give in to fatigue will be an invitation to death.
Despite being tired, I can't fall asleep. I lay there for what must be hours, tossing and turning. My head is swarming with terrifying thoughts, as it did ten years ago during my first Games. I can't help but picture various ways of how I might die tomorrow. How friends turn against me. Then I see the face of those I killed when I eventually drift off to sleep. My sleep lasts maybe an hour before I'm screaming myself awake.
One hour, two, three pass, and my eyelids refuse to get heavy, I can't stop trying to imagine exactly what terrain I'll be thrown into. Desert? Swamp? A fridgid wasteland? Above all I am hoping for trees, which may afford me some means of concealment and food and shelter. Often there are trees because barren landscapes are dull and the Games resolve too quickly without them. But what will the climate be like? What traps have the Gamemakers hidden to liven up the slower moments? And then there are my fellow tributes...
The more anxious I am to find sleep, the more it eludes me. Finally, I am too restless to even stay in bed. I pace the floor, heart beating fast, breathing too short. My room feels like a prison cell. If I don't get air soon, I'm going to start throwing things. I run down the hall to the door to the balcony. It's not only unlocked by ajar. Perhaps someone forgot to close it, but it doesn't matter. The energy field enclosing the balcony prevents any desperate form of escape. And I'm not looking to escape, only to fill my lungs with air. I want to see the sky and the moon on the last night that on one will be hunting me.
I remember the first time I came out here, Monty was sitting where I am now. I wish I could have done more to save him. He deserved a chance to live. Letting out a sigh I set on the railing with my feet dangling off of it. The moon shines above me as the stars twinkle, reminding me that I barely get to see the night sky anymore since I am almost always on a train either to or from the Capitol and when I'm not I rarely leave the house. People talk, and they think I travel to the Capitol willingly, when I pass by them they alway send me a look of disgust before quickly covering it up.
I feel tears in my eyes but I refuse to let myself cry. I hear the door open up behind me but I don't bother to turn around. I figure it is an Avox coming to tell me that I have to go back to my room, but instead a warm arm embraces me. Turning my head to the side I see Willow standing beside me in her faded pink silk pajamas.
