Broken

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Annie's remaining time in the Capitol seemed to be a blur for them all

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Annie's remaining time in the Capitol seemed to be a blur for them all. Amara tearfully greeted her when she was escorted to the hospital, and stayed by her side the entire time she was healing.

In fact, since she won her games, Annie Cresta had never once been alone. One of them was always by her side, and most of the time, all of them were.

It was a good thing, too, because Annie would wake up screaming and thrashing in the middle of the night. When they would talk to her, there were times that she would zone out of the conversation entirely, and it was hard to pull her back in.

Like the others before her, Annie was a survivor of the games. She hated that she was part of an elite group of people that suddenly understood what Finnick was talking about when he said "no one wins the games."

She certainly didn't feel like a winner.

When she was well enough for her interview, Caesar had to pull answers out of her. She was practically dead silent. She refused to watch the recap of the games. She no longer had the strength to put on a show for the Capitol. She couldn't even plaster a smile on her face during her coronation.

And it remained that way for a long time. During her six months back home, Adrien and Finnick did everything they could to pull her out of her shell. Amara wrote her letters daily, and Mags would read them to her, but Annie was mostly unresponsive.

Annie lived with the other three victors, but it didn't seem to help at all. Both her parents and Adrien's parents spent a great deal of time with her. Adrien's parents spent most of their time reassuring her that Jack's death wasn't her fault.

The first time Annie showed true emotion other than utter terror from waking up in the middle of the night was in the middle of the winter. It was a month before her victory tour was set to begin, and she was with Mrs. Mackabee.

When she regaled the story later, Mrs. Mackabee insisted she had no recollection of what she was talking about, only that she was sitting next to Annie when the young victor suddenly burst into tears and his her face in the bottom of Mrs. Mackabee's skirt.

The world watched in horror as Annie Cresta became a shell of the woman she was. She didn't seem to be very responsive, and when she did have good days, she could easily sleep back into a zombie-like state.

Adrien, Finnick, and Mags helped her through her victory tour as much as they could, and everyone in the districts understood perfectly.

The Capitol was not as generous. They leered at her, and it only made Annie want to crawl further into herself.

It seemed Amara was the only one that was able to truly protect her. One deadly glare from her, and the Capitol elite quieted down.

By the end of her final night, no one other than the other victors would talk to her.

The Heiress {Finnick Odair}Where stories live. Discover now