You Are My Sunshine // A Finnick Fanfic

Chapter Thirty-Two - Torture

   My eyes slowly pried open and the cold air hit me like a bullet. It felt as though it was snowing but then I looked around and it was. Snow littered the ground and trees stood tall above me, casting ominous shadows. I felt the fear creep up in my body as I stood on my two bare feet, the snow making me feel numb.

   I took a step forward and the snow crunched loudly beneath my feet. I looked around, my rapid breaths coming out in huge steamy puffs as my body trembled. The clothes I was wearing were a simple grey t-shirt and black leggings, which seemed like an odd choice seen as I was in snow. But I ignored it and kept walking, having no where to go but I didn't have much other choice.

The forest was so eerily quiet, as if the world had a volume and it was switched off. But I could hear my pulse echo in my ears and the crunching snow which made me anxious. I was already tense enough. As I continued forward my foot kept aching which didn't make sense, I hadn't done anything to it and it seemed fine when I looked down to it.

As I kept walking forward, a pinecone fell from the tree above me, making me yelp and jump back. But then, when I was calm, I squatted down, picking the pinecone up in my hand. I couldn't look at it without thinking of Cage, of his little smile and his little laugh. I smiled at his simple memory as memory seemed to be my only reminder of him.

I held on to the pinecone tightly, I don't know why, maybe it made me feel safer in this forest of mystery. Except it wasn't much of a mystery, was it? I knew where I was, I just didn't want to admit it, holding on to the hope that this wasn't what I thought it was. But how could it be? Five years later and the place hasn't changed? That wouldn't make sense, would it?

Except it did. It made sense, I didn't want it to but it did, and I got one rude awakening when I saw it. The thing that made all of this real. That brought my biggest fear to reality.

The cave.

I was in the arena.

The arena of the 70th Hunger Games.

I almost fell back from the shock, screaming out something I couldn't understand and my scream echoed throughout the forest. I could feel my chest tighten and I was holding my breath, looking at the cave that saved my life after the storm. The cave that I took refuge in with Cage. Over to the left of it I saw where I killed the girl from District 8.

   "Reef." I turned quickly after the name whispered in my ear, sending a shiver of fear down my spine. My trembling cold body turned to the direction it had come from.

   "Reef." It whispered again and against my better judgment, I followed it. It was probably going to be a mistake, but nothing was processing through my head.

   I walked through the forest, everything seeming familiar like the tree Cage sat in when Xena aimed an arrow at his head. I kept going and I saw the spear that Arlen threw at me and the knife that Lucia owned. But over and over again, I heard my name whispered in my ear.

It was hard to tell who's voice it actually was, it sounded like hundreds of people as I got closer and closer to where it was coming from. It felt like they were piercing through my brain, trying to break me, and they were. But even so, I continued forward, not even thinking about what I was walking towards.

   It wasn't long before I finally saw the person who had been whispering to me standing in the middle of an open field. I didn't think much of the felid before I began walking towards the person who had their back to me. Even though I knew where I was, I wasn't processing it, my curiosity getting the better of me. Maybe if I wasn't so confused, I would have done myself a favour and stayed back in the ominous forest.