Battle Cry ➳ Finnick Odair ³

3 | Repeating Days

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Chapter Three
REPEATING DAYS
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It had been an entire month since I first woke up in the hospital wing of the Capitol.

There had been many days when I had been taken to a special torture room and on other days I would be left in my cell and beaten on the hard stone floor. The people that tortured me like to do different things on the tributes. Peeta gets injected with Trackerjacker venom, and Johanna gets electrocuted and drowned. I got whipped and burned.

They would sometimes use fire. Lights that they held against my skin. Sometimes they would just use hot surfaces and stick my body to them. I also got whipped fairly often, making long gashes across my body that made the monkey claw markings look like scratches.

But the worst torture of all came only to Johanna and me. About once every week, both Johanna and I were dragged into our separate bedrooms and left with a Capitol man. This was our new reality. I felt bad for Johanna because it means that her family had died for no reason now, she was still being forced to do this. And the sad thing is that this was normal for me.

Within the past month, the around-the-clock torture and lack of food had already taken a toll on me, Johanna, and Peeta. All of us were very skinny due to malnourishment. Johanna's head had been shaved completely and they all bore new scars and bruises daily.

Me and the other two tributes had not been beaten for two days, which was a new record. This is because they were filming a propaganda commercial.

The Peacekeepers had been careful not to bruise up the tribute's faces or arms too much, sticking mostly to the back and stomach, and chest. This is so that the makeup artists of the Capitol wouldn't have to work so hard to cover up the injuries.

Laying on the cold floor, I traced small patterns of flowers against the concrete flooring. The floor was clear of blood, much like the rest of the room. But the same couldn't be said about me, I was drenched in blood. My clothes were stained in a disgusting ruby red. My skin was coated in a layer of blood. Not to mention the slow aching feeling that was starting to spread throughout my body.

Everything hurts. The slightest movement sent small waves of pain throughout my body. I could tell that both Peeta and Johanna felt the same way I did. Maybe it was the lack of sleep or lack of food that made both of them act like this, no matter what it was. I could tell that we were all slowly losing out energy. And Piece by piece we were losing our fire. I could feel the flames slowly getting dispersed every time that television turned on.

Johanna's fight started to leave. It left the moment the water in her room started to rise above her ankles. When the floors and walls started to buzz with electricity. Peeta's fight left him when those Trackerjackers stung him repeatedly, only stopping when his television turned on. Then the cycle would continue. Sting, play a video, sting. It was a cycle they had us on. If their plan was to break us down, it was working.

Now it was late at night, I only knew that because no one was around at night. The Peacekeepers didn't bother guarding our cells. I sat up against the glass wall staring into the darkness, listening to anything that I could hear. My mind was wondering how I could unlock the door and escape.

Standing up, I place my hand on the lock, a part of me wants to push on it to see if it is actually locked, but I know it is. "Hey," I hear a whisper coming from behind me.

I turn around and see Johanna against the glass that separates our cells. "Hey." I greet her.

"You have to get out of here," she tells me.

I shake my head, "No, not without you or Peeta. I can't leave you guys here to be tortured because I escaped." I shrug my shoulders, "Besides, I don't even know how to open the door."

"I have been studying them. I know how to open yours," she says.

"Why don't you escape then?" I ask.

"The locks are different, your lock is powered by the wires by the door. Cut one of the wires and it should open. Mine needs a key, and there is no way I am getting ahold of that key. And Peeta's is a pin but it can only be accessed from the outside." she explains.

"I don't want to leave you guys here."

Johanna lets out a sigh before nodding her head, "Well, if you ever change your mind, let me know." she says and then lays down on her thin mattress on the floor and tries to go to sleep. I do the same and I eventually find sleep.

In my dreams, I am back in the arena frantically searching for Finnick. I hear the clicking of the insects in the distance as I run through the jungle shouting his name. I find him at the lightning tree with a hovercraft behind him. The other victors are boarding it. I run up to them. "Finnick!" I shout.

He looks up at me and his eyes darken as if he doesn't even recognize me. "You're not coming, Ember. We don't want you," he says coldly.

I looked at him in shock. "What?" I ask in confusion. "I was a part of the rebellion with you and the others, why am I not wanted?" Tears build up in my eyes.

"I don't love you," he says and then picks up his trident from the ground. "Everyone would be better off if you were dead," he says and then I feel the impact of the trident hitting my chest.

I wake up with a scream and tears falling down my face. There are wires connected to me and Peacekeepers surrounding me. Were they controlling my dream?

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Hey guys, thank you guys so much for reading this chapter I hope you enjoyed it and if you did then don't forget to vote and comment.

Since it's my birthday today I decided to go ahead and publish this chapter even though I I haven't written anything in a month. So enjoy to the few people that read this.