The Capitals Flower

Chapter 6

Dahlia's Pov:

"Finnick! Dahlia!" Johanna's voice echos from behind some trees. I turn around seeing the second most comforting thing I've seen in these games.

Followed by less comforting things. Beetee and Wiress are in a way worse state then Joanna. Their covered in blood.

"Johanna! I yell running to her.

Finnick follows and I pull her into a hug. She tenses up but pats my back, I pull away and inspect Wiress who is repeating the words "tik tok" and Betee who's not even conscious.

"Whose blood is that?" I ask gesturing to Johanna's soaked body.

"I have no idea just started raining blood. It was awful." She says angrily.

"Well, let's clean everyone up." I say trying to stay optimistic.

Katniss gets Wiress well I start rinsing the blood off Beetee. Finnick and Joanna catch up and Peeta listens in. After a few moments of trying to scrub all the blood off of Beetee's limp body he is completely clean.

I preform an old fishing trick to get Beetee to become conscious again. He holds tightly to a wire that I had moved away to clean him up earlier.

Me and Finnick sit together as Katniss finishes cleaning Wiress. Johanna complains about everything to us and I listen contently until we're interrupted.

"IT'S A CLOCK!" Katniss yells running towards us.

"What's a clock?" I ask

"The arena! It's separated in 12 sections like hours." She says

"That would make sense. The lighting tree is the center." Beetee says pointing to the tallest tree in the middle of the arena that lighting hits every 12 hour.

Peeta makes a map, me and Beetee discuss the probability of it happening briefly and we figure out which hours we know so far.

I lean back on Finnick as everything comes to make sense. He kisses my forehead and I allow myself a moment to close my eyes and pretend everything is okay. Pretend we were still swaying to the harmonies of our music at home.

"I'm going to get water." I say before my heart can ache too much for the past.

"I'll go with you." Finnick says

"I'll be fine. It'll just take a moment." I say breaking away from him.

"Be careful." He says obviously not wanting to see me go.

"Careful is my middle name." I say with a smile as I disapear into the forest to get water. I just need to figure out how to use the spile.

Finnick's Pov:

I hated letting her go, but she can take care of herself. Plus one of us needs to stay with Katniss. She's struggling, I can tell even if she is trying to hide it.

I take a deep breath in as we go over the layout once more. She's been gone for a while now.

Before I can overthink what's happening a little girl's scream echos from the forest. Katniss runs after it yelling her little sister's name.

I'm the first to react and run after her. By the time I get to her she has shot down a jabberjay.

"Are you alright?" I ask catching my breath

Before she can answer I hear a scream I hoped I'd never hear again. Dahlia's scream was agonizing, she yelled for help. I should've never let her go alone.

"DAHLIA!" I yell

She wasn't just calling for help, she was calling for me. I ran faster than I ever had only to find another Jabberjay. Katniss killed it but my heart still raced.

"It's just a jabberjay." Katniss says

"Where do you think they got it from? Jabberjays copy." I say running my hand through my hair.

The scream starts again I follow it again because it could be her. She could've heard me and been looking, or the worst case senerio she's hurt.

I see Peeta, Johanna and Beetee waiting for us yelling something I can't quite here. No Dahlia though.

Katniss goes to Peeta but there seems to be a barrier keeping them apart. When I relize there is no escape for the next hour I sit down and bury my head in my hands as Dahlia's screams fly around me.

The first time I heard the screams my heart shattered and now my heart is being broken over and over again. I can't help but imagine her blue eyes brimmed with tears from the torture.

She could withstand a lot but just her pain hurt him. As the hour dragged on he found himself with tears in his own eyes. He wiped them away and tried to calm himself as his eardrums were being beat over and over.

As the screams slowed Finnick barely noticed. His mind raced with what could be happening to her. Was she caught in this hour too hearing his voice? Was she in the next hour about to get the next wave? Or was she waiting for them at the beach?

I hear Peeta faintly comforting Katniss. I stare blankly at the ground my mind racing.

"You alright?" Johanna asks

"Yeah." I answer and it takes me a second to shoot up.

"Where's Dahlia!?" I ask my heart racing even faster.

"She left to get water, so probably still at the beach." Beetee says as Johanna rants to the capital.

I jump up and race to the beach. Dahlia reappears from the treeline, she's covered in mud. Within seconds I've wrapped my arms around her.

"Are you okay?" I ask looking her up and down.

"Yeah, just got in a little fight with one of the tree rats. Are you okay?" She strokes my face. Concern is written all over her face.

"I am now. Please never leave." I whisper in her ear.

She wraps her arms around me again but Johanna interrupts us as the group returns to the beach.

"What happened?" Dahlia asks

"Jabberjays." Katniss answers

Dahlia just nods and I remind myself it was all fake. She is safe, and if we can pull this off we will both leave these games and go back to a much better home than we left.