Calm Before The Storm {Finnick Odair}

Elevator

That night, Hebe was not blessed with a full night's sleep.

She was first awoken because of one of her typical nightmares, horrifying visions of her friends and family in the games, the recurring vision of Finnick on the sofa, Luca with a hole in his chest, Ampere being devoured by his district partner.

Sitting up sharply, she struggled against the confines of her sleeping bag, so used to sleeping in the open she had forgotten it was there. There were small ladders in the fabric where she had been clawing at it in the night, and the seams already looked tired from what was probably her constant thrashing. Eventually she calmed, turning her head and looking at Gaia, who looked almost serene. Hebe envied her ability to sleep so soundly.

She then returned to her horizontal position, zipping the sleeping bag down slightly on one side so she didn't feel so claustrophobic. It was like she was entombed in waterproof fabric, like she was already dead and prepared for her coffin. With that comforting thought flooding her mind, she closed her eyes, turning over.

Hebe then fell into a kind of fitful sleep, drifting in and out of consciousness for what felt like hours, meandering between the darkness of the swamp and her waterproof sarcophagus, and her visceral nightmares. Sometimes her dreams felt more real than the arena, so vivid and well-defined that she struggled to differentiate between fact and fiction.

Until she woke up fully, roused by a low clicking sound in a bush across the clearing. At first she brushed it off, returning to her new ritual of tossing and turning. Then it grew louder, moving through the undergrowth on the edge of the clearing toward where Gaia and herself lay.

Hebe sat up straight in her sleeping bag, grabbing the axe from beside her, fingers latching onto the familiar worn, leather handle. She attempted to inch her way from her sleeping back as quietly as she could, wriggling out just enough that her torso was free to move independently. Then she twisted herself towards the sound, prepared to throw her weapon at whatever may emerge, be it tribute or mutt.

The clicking turned to rustling in the bushes, and it grew ever louder, ever closer. Until it finally ran out into the clearing, squawking wildly. Without even thinking, Hebe threw her axe with pinpoint accuracy at the bird's neck, the blade sinking into it with one loud thud.

When she finally regained hold of her wits, Hebe realised that it was another pheasant, the same one that had emerged from the bushes when her and Gaia had been with the careers. It was like they were following them or something, tracking their every move. Maybe they were equipped with cameras in their eyes or buried in their feathers. It wouldn't be unheard of for the gamemakers to do such a thing.

She let out a cold, brittle laugh at the idea of the gamemakers having to deploy new cameras because she kept decapitating them. One of the few things that brought her a twisted sense of satisfaction in this place was messing with the Capitol. It was one of the only things left she had control over.

Hebe fully unzipped her sleeping bag, standing and walking over to the pheasant, removing her axe and picking up the carcass. Tucking the handle of her weapon into a mesh pocket of her suit, she brought her face down to inspect the bird's eyes. She wasn't entirely sure what she was looking for, yet was pleasantly surprised when she noticed the rings of the lenses in its black pupil.

Satisfied with her discovery, she took the bird by the neck and threw it unceremoniously into a nearby bush, watching as it sailed limply through the air and thudded into the brittle leaves.

Then she turned back around and strode the 5 paces back to her sleeping bag, nearly forgetting to remove the axe from her pocket before she slumped back down. Her eyes stung with sleep as she dragged her hand down her face, most likely covering it in even more dirt that she had just acquired from her midnight caper.