The Perfect Truth: A Finnick Odair Novel

Chapter 11

A/N: WELCOME THE JUICY STUFF HAS FINALLY ARRIVED AND I JUST REALISED AFTER I POST THIS IT WILL HIT 1K AND IM SO HAPPY AAAAAH

Warnings: kissing, swearing, mention of death, trauma, idek any more

Word count: 1261

I rip through a wall of green and emerge in a small clearing. Another of her screams rings directly above me, and I look above me, at the branches of the tree. And then I hear Prim's cries, and my searching becomes another level of frantic. And then it hits me. The screams are coming from the mouth of a small, crested bird. Slowly, I begin to understand. It's a jabberjay.

A small groan leaves me as I fall to my knees, clutching the stitch in my side. It's not real, I tell myself, but it sounds real. Too real. I hear Finn somewhere behind me, crashing through the jungle, calling my name. And then I hear a piercing scream. Not Kat's. Not Prim's. Not my mother's. It's mine. A cry surfaces over the trees, and it's Finn's, so tortured, so terrified, as he yells my name, over and over. I sprint after him, finding him circling beneath a tree, eyes wide in terror, crying my name, so I scale up the tree and shoot the bird. It falls at his feet, and I jump down and wrench his face so he looks at me.

'It's okay,' I tell him, even though it isn't. Jabberjays mimic what they hear. So where did they get my mother's screams? Prim's? Kat's? Somewhere they are torturing my family, and I'm helpless to save them. It's fine for Finn. He only heard me. He knows I'm safe now. I barely feel his arms around me, crushing me to him. A voice cries out again, and I go rigid. My mother. Finn catches me before I break out of his grip.

'It's not real!' He yells. 'It's just a mutt!'

Suddenly, I go limp. He scoops me up as a sob wracks my body, carrying me to the tree line, when he stops abruptly, his nose gushing blood. I raise my head as he sets me down and almost smash it into an invisible wall. I find that it's smooth and hard, but our weapons make no dent in it. Slowly, I realise that we'll be trapped in here, accompanied by screams, until the hour passes. The jabberjays perch on the branches around us, screaming and screaming. I give in at once, curling up with my hands over my ears, trying desperately to unhear it, sobbing. Finn's arms wrap around me, and he's whimpering my name over and over, because he's hearing my screams too. My - my screams? But -

Prim cries out again, and I do my best to cling onto my sanity. It isn't until I feel myself being lifted up that I know it's stopped.

'It's all right,' I hear Peeta say, but his arms aren't the ones clenched around me like a fortress.

'They're dead,' I gasp. 'They killed them. They tortured them.'

'No,' Johanna says. 'We're almost down to the final eight. They interview friends and family back home, remember?'

'It's easy to duplicate someone's scream,' Beetee adds. 'Our children learn a similar technique at school.'

But I'm not reassured until Finn crushes my hand in his and drowns me in his sea green eyes. 'I heard you, Ryn. You aren't dead, are you?'

I've barely started to unlock my limbs from around Finn when Johanna stands.

'I'm getting some water.'

'But the birds - ' I object.

'There's no one left I love,' she replies shortly, and I nod, knowing she'd hate the pity that would be in my voice if I spoke. Finnick takes to the water, just sitting there, and I want to join him, but Peeta speaks.

'Who did they use against him?' He asks.

'Me.' I say bluntly and turn away just as a cannon fires and a hovercraft appears over the six to seven o' clock zone. We watch as the claw dips down around five times to retrieve the pieces of the body. Peeta adds the appropriate sections to the new leaf, simply writing beast for the one at six.

Finn weaves another basket for water and a net for fishing. The moon is already rising, and I see the faces that appear in the sky. Two thirds of us are gone in a day and a half. This has to be some sort of record. A parachute drifts down with a pile of bite sized square rolls from District Three. So they're Beetee's. Finn counts them methodically.

'Twenty four,' he says.

'Let's each have three and whoever's left for breakfast can take a vote on the rest,' Johanna says, and I don't know why this makes me laugh but it does. By the time the ten o' clock wave has flooded in and receded, there's an unpleasant chorus of clicking from the jungle, like some sort of evil type of insect. Whatever it is, it stays in the confines of the jungle, so we stay on the beach. I volunteer for the first watch, mainly because my mind is too awake to let my body rest, so I let everyone else sleep while I watch the water lapping on the shore.

It isn't long before I hear movement, and I glance over my shoulder. Finn's tossing and turning in his sleep, his face contorted in terror. He murmurs my name, over and over, and I crawl over to him and shake him gently, knowing what it feels like to be trapped in a nightmare, unable to wrench yourself awake. With my name catching in his throat, his sea green eyes snap open, focussing on me. As soon as they do, he sits up and latches onto me, face buried in my shoulder. Stroking his bronze hair, I rock him, my mind buzzing. He heard my screams when the jabberjays attacked. Me. He was driven mad by my screams. Shit, shit, shit. He cares for me. He needs me. And I know this will make it so much harder for us at the end, but I hook a finger beneath his chin and lift it until his eyes meet mine. I lean in close, my eyes locked on his.

'You heard me when the jabberjays attacked,' I whisper. He whimpers my name like a plea and goes to hide his tear stained face in my shoulder, but I pin him down with my gaze.

'You heard me,' I repeat. 'I...'

Clear as crystal, I hear his breath hitch, and then he pounces on me, pressing his lips to mine. I taste the salt of tears on his lips, feel his soft bronze hair under my hands, smell his seawater scent, and my eyes drift closed as his tongue slips in, brushing against mine. I want him, want him so much, need him. And maybe it's like our first kiss because we're strangers again, or maybe it's because we aren't playing this time. This time, it's real.

The lightning bolt that hits the tree at midnight breaks us apart. Slowly, I untangle my hands from his hair and lightly touch his face, when a voice sounds.

'I don't really want to vomit as soon as I've woken up.'

I turn around and scowl at Johanna. She sits up. 'One of you should rest.' She arches a brow and looks at the way we're wrapped around each other. 'Or both of you.'

'No, it's fine,' Finn replies. 'I can't go to sleep.'

So I curl up on his lap and close my eyes. He leans down and kisses my hair, his hand finding mine, and I feel him squeeze my fingers just before sleep takes me in its arms.