Love at Sea (Finnick Odair)

Chapter 15

Sleep wasn't coming easy to her. She'd been awake staring at the ceiling for hours. Her mind was running wild with anxiety. She could feel it. There was something different in the air. Things were changing and she didn't know how to deal with that.

"What's wrong?"

"Hmm?" Taiya asked.

"I can basically feel your stress, Tay," Finnick groaned. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, go to sleep," she smiled softly.

"I can't sleep with you tossing and turning everywhere," he complained as he flipped over to look at her. "What's wrong?"

"I'm worried about Seneca."

"Not what I was expecting you to be thinking about in our bed," Finnick breathed. "What's wrong with him?."

"He just... he's become too headstrong. Too independent," Taiya sighed. "He's too confident. He knows how to put on a show. Create a Game that the Capitol people will like. They adore him for it. He's the most 'entertaining' Gamemaker they've had in years. But he's getting too swept up in it. He sees the Games as a TV program. Not a method of control. That's fine if you're a regular Capitol citizen, but not if you're a Gamemaker. I mean I thought for a while that he understood the Games from our perspective. But now I'm not so sure. I told him the other day that he needs to kill the girl on fire and we haven't spoken much since."

"You want him to kill the girl from 12?" Finnick asked confusedly. "Why would you want that?"

"Snow doesn't like her. He wants her dead. I just don't know how seriously Seneca is taking the threat. I feel like he's blowing it off. The people in the districts love an underdog. If this gets away from the Capitol, they'll use her as a symbol. She's breeding hope. Hope is Snow's biggest fear right now."

"Is that such a bad thing?" Finnick asked as he pushed a piece of hair behind her ear.

Taiya stuttered. "It's bad for us, right? We're safe at the moment. We comply with his requests and he likes that."

"But is this the life you want for us? For our children? You said it yourself, we can't bring kids into the world like it is now. It's up to us to make a difference. We can't just wait for things to change. We need to be at the forefront."

"Finnick," Taiya's eyes widened. "You're talking about rebellion!" Finnick gave her a soft smile and she shook her head. "No. Finnick. No. We have a good thing going here," she denied before turning over.

"I know it's a scary idea," he leant in to kiss the back of her head. "It's terrifying. But we can't pretend this world is ok. Things need to change, one way or another."

*********************

Taiya walked into the Gamemaker's centre the next day. She and Seneca needed to talk. After what Finnick had said last night she was more scared than ever.

"Sir," a lower-level Gamemaker spoke as she entered. "She is almost at the edge. 2 kilometres away from the nearest tribute."

"Hey," Taiya greeted quietly as she came to stand next to Seneca.

"Hi," he smiled, kissing her on the cheek.

"Who's close to the edge?" Taiya asked.

"The girl from 12," Seneca answered before turning back to his employee. "Let's turn her around."

"Can we talk?" Taiya asked.

"Yeah, of course," Seneca nodded and lead her through to a private room. Taiya let out a shaky breath as she sat down beside him on the couch. "Are you okay?"