VENUS《 FINNICK ODAIR

Chapter 57. THE GAMBIT.

T/W: description of violence, panic attack.

MAYBE IT WAS BECAUSE IT WAS THE FIRST GAMES WITHOUT CANDY, JIRA'S SISTER VOLOUNTEERING FOR DISTRICT 2, THE FACT THIS WAS THE FIRST GAMES SINCE SHE MADE UP WITH HER FAMILY OR THE FACT HER BOYFRIEND WAS HIDING THE THING THAT STRESSED HIM THE MOST...

But Edith Scotch was in denial of how much the world was weighing on her shoulders.

That night she fell asleep to the rhythm of tired train tracks, she felt it in the press of her heart, the blood from the tattered sides of her nails, and in the longing to scrub her scars numb and replace her skin with gloves and stockings.

It was an ache in her bones, she knew she was stressed, every night in her dreams she was reminded of every single reason she needed to be so scared, and during the day was when nightmares became reality.

Maybe it was denial, and maybe it was foolishness - but it was those nightmares that did it.

Edith Scotch was playing hypocrite.

She cared to much about Johanna, Jira, Finnick and the rest of her little Victor extended family, so much so it tore what was left of her pummelled heart in two.

Edith knew that it was her worry for her friends and family that made her so wounded, but she was determined to twist that pain and devote it to her friend's these Games.

In her mind, she didnt matter, it was them who did.

And maybe her nightmares were a form of self applied fear conditioning, but with every nightmare, she felt a little less love for herself.

Little by little.

Ever since Edith's Games four years ago, the nightmares came every other night with corrosive tiger claws.

Usually, she took them as warnings - of who was left in her life to be undone like unravelling the frayed edge of something silly as a hair ribbon.

She could recount how each nightmare went like a memory - at least of what her mind allowed her to remember. Who knows what desperate warnings the stars gave Edith in her dreams knowing she'd never remember them come morning.

But from what she did remember, first came the starless night.

Those dark kohl tendrils of smoke and fog, like acid seizing up your throat, shredding you from the inside out. Sometimes the tendrils struck first, other times they waited like a second shadow for they knew Edith would recieve her dues either way.

Then it was her demon for the night.
Born from what was left from the carcasses of stars and comets, and drained of all sympathy and humility.

In the months after her Games, it was usually an amalgamation of the fallen Tributes from the 70th Hunger Games.

Cade carving out homes in her skin for forget me nots to grow.

Mila and Teo severing her with arrows, letting her indulge in the seige before ripping each one out in tow.

Meekah setting her alight; chemical corrosion, over and over and over until her corpse was as hot as pure sunlight.

And Annie fizzling out the flames, healing up the arrow wounds and plucking the weeds - all with that saccharine sweet smile, coaxing her into safety before turning a knife into Edith's heart and letting it sit there to rot. Edith would watch as Annie would walk away into dust, who knows where she disappeared to, maybe back to 4 with her family?

Or maybe Annie was leaving to take her place in Edith's stead, taking everything from Edith that she stole from Annie - the rightful winner. Maybe she was taking a hidden path between comets and littered stars to another world where there was no Siren. Making a Victor's choice.