Enchanted; A Finnick and Annie Fanfic ♥ (Currently Revising/Editing)

Chapter 23: What's Going On?

Annie's POV

I was told more than once that I radiated life after speaking to Finnick. I guess just the thought of him being safe wasn't enough. I had to hear from him as well. I spent the entire next day with Prim and Mrs. Everdeen, imagining how things would be when Finnick came back.

The next day, the hospital wasn't busy, so I decided to tell Prim all of those things that I had imagined.

"As soon as the Capitol falls, we'll move back to District 4. We'd live right on the beach in his old house, and that's where we'd raise our family."

Prim had Buttercup in her lap, and she petted him. "How many kids do you want to have?"

"I mean, it really depends on how many Finnick wants." I laughed and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "But I really want three."

Prim was just about to say something when an extremely loud alarm went off. I didn't even think--I just ran to Command.

"What's going on?" I yelled over the alarm as soon as I bursted through the door.

No one answered, but I heard the bits of what they were saying.

"All communication down."

"No camera signal either."

"I can't get a signal from Boggs's Holo."

I leaned against the wall and hyperventalated. After about five minutes, someone turned the alarm off. Almost imediately, another, softer alarm went off, and the Panem seal appeared on all of the giant televisions in the room.

The TVs cut to a shot of a Capitol street. There were people in District 13 soldier uniforms, running around, panicing. I noticed almost rightnaway that it was Squad 451. My heart sank, but my eyes were glued to the TV in front of me.

A wave of something black swept through the street, and the cameras were blotted out.

A group of Peacekeepers launched shells at the row of apartments on the blackened street. The only place the squad would have to hide in errupted, and they all collapsed in on each other.

Then the camera cut to a live feed. A reporter stood somewhere in front of the row of burning apartments as Peacekeepers tried to control the flames.

The reporter identified Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Boggs, Cressida...and Finnick by name. And they were all pronounced dead.

As soon as the word was announced, Plutarch ordered the TVs off. I saw that they began to replay everything again right before the TV was shut off. And all eyes in the room were on me.

At first, I just stood there, mouth open slightly in shock. I stood there like that for a while until what had just happened set in.

Finnick was dead. The Capitol killed him. He would never come back to meet his child. He would never come back to me at all.

I grabbed the nearest thing to me, a mug filled with some dark liquid, and threw it at the TV in front of me with a scream. The mug shattered, leaving some scratch marks on the TV. The dark liquid ran down the walls and strangely reminded me of blood.

I continued screaming. There was a desk in the center of the room, and I threw all of the things off of it and onto the floor. That's when I heard the others in the room talking about me.

"We've got to calm her down."

"I've got a medic on the way up."

"Someone grab her, hold her down."

"She's with child, I don't want to hurt her."

I pulled a chair out from under the desk and flung it at the TV. It fell to the floor, and the screen shattered. I felt a few of the pieces hit my leg, and I screamed louder when I saw blood.

That's when I felt two people grab my arms and start to pull me from the room. I screamed more and thrashed around, trying to get free of them, but they held me tight.

As soon as I was out of the room, I felt someone shove something into my arm, and whatever it was took me under.

When I woke up, I wasn't sure where I was at first. As my vision cleared, I started to piece together that I was in the hospital.

"Oh look, she's finally coming to," a woman's voice said. Johanna.

She was sitting on the edge of my hospital bed. I tried to say something to her, but my voice caught and my throat was on fire.

"Doctor says you probably won't be able to talk for a couple days. Your throat is totally raw." Johanna didn't have that usual crudeness to her voice. It was gentle and kind. I'd never heard her talk like that to anyone.

The TV in the room turned on automatically, and I flinched. "Don't worry," Johanna said, "Snow is making a speech. Well, Snow and Coin."

The alarm I thought accompanied the Panem seal turned out to be more of a beeping. After it stopped, the anthem played, and they began to show the faces of those who died. Just like in the Games. I buried my face in Johanna's lap so I wouldn't have to watch, and she played with my hair.

As soon the anthem ended, Snow began to speak. "Citizens of Panem, I would like to begin by congratulating the Peacekeepers of the Capitol for ridding our country of the Mockingjay. We believe that now, since the demoralized rebels have no one left to follow, the war will end in our favor. Who was the Mockingjay, really? Nothing more than a poor and unstable girl who caught the nation's attention with her antics in the Games. But she was necessary, so very necessary, because the rebels have no real leader among them."

There was a bit of static, then another voice took over. "Good evening, Panem. I am Alma Coin, the head of the rebellion. I would like to give my praise and thanks to our Mockingjay, who survived the Seam and the Hunger Games, then turned a country of slaves into an army of freedom fighters. Dead or alive, Katniss Everdeen will remain the face of this rebellion. If even you waver in your resolve, think of the Mockingjay, and in her you will find the strength you need to rid Panem of its oppressors."

I glanced up to see a picture of Katniss, surrounded by flickering flames. After a couple of minutes, control was given back to Snow, who looked like he was trying very hard to hold back his anger.

"Tomorrow morning," he said, "when we pull Katniss Everdeen's body from the ashes, we will see exactly who the Mockingjay is. A dead girl who could save no one, not even herself." The seal reappeared, the anthem played, and the TV went dark.

I hadn't noticed I'd started crying. Johanna wiped a few of the tears from my face then went back to stroking my hair.

I stayed in that spot for the rest of the night, awake and aching with pain.