oceandust + finnick odair

.4

        "Chin up, eyes bright," she tells me, green eyes popping against her magenta cat-eye, "this is a live broadcast, just like the first time. Caesar will guide you through it, you just need to be your usual charming self."

        Tessie Denair has been District 4's escort for an odd five years sum now, having landed the job with family connections. There was a widespread notion that District 4 tributes weren't helpless, at least not like some of the other districts, because of how young our children begin learning the trade. This came to a head especially after Finnick won his Games, having trapped the other tributes in handwoven nets and killing them with a sponsor-gifted trident. His skills had been acquired from working the docks. Since Finnick's win, however, District 4 failed to replicate that same success for four years in a row. Xander was our first tribute in years to show any real promise, scoring well in training relative to the other Career-district tributes. I had been mostly overlooked, expected to die brutally and quickly in the Bloodbath, but Xander taking me in as his ally kept me alive longer than anyone could have expected. At least, until he couldn't anymore. Until I let him die.

        After the events that transpired by the stream, with me killing both District 2 tributes in cold blood, I couldn't necessarily be overlooked anymore. And when I killed the girl from 1 after she tried attacking me down by that same stream-- that's when people really started to care. The girl who killed more than half of the Career pack. I'd have stayed by that stream for the rest of the Games, sitting by the place Xander's body had been taken away; where they had collected Brennan and Katia's as well. I would have killed the rest, too, if they had come to me. Anger and remorse coursed through my veins. But then the dam near the Cornucopia broke and flooded the arena. I was only one of two tributes left that could swim, and so I kept my head above the water and scaled a tree until the cannons stopped sounding and I stopped crying and I knew I was one of two people left. One person stood between me and getting home. District 1's male, Lux, found me shortly after, and we fought a long, drawn out battle to the Capitol's joy. In the end, my ease in the water outmatched his speed with a machete, and they pulled me from the Arena, shaking with shock and my body torn, but a winner of sorts.

        Tessie is happy. Though I'm not the Victor she'd originally hoped for, I was still her Victor. It was better than having two more dead kids on her conscience for another dud year. District 4 would be shrouded in prizes of food and financial support for the full year, even if we didn't need it, and district pride would be at its highest since Finnick's win. I was their Victor, and Tessie did her job well. After an extensive stay in a Capitol medical facility, I was forced to meet my prep team and stylist for one more twirl onstage before I could return home. I felt like a doll, being painted and dressed. It's like they all forget that they'd watched me kill people. Or maybe that's the appeal of it all... Seeing the two sides of bitter survival.

        "You hear what she said?" Finnick's voice is distant in my mind, but my gaze finally snaps away from the light panels that cast a cool pink glow over us to the people standing ahead of me.

        "No," I say truthfully, and that makes Tessie deflate and my stylist roll her eyes. Finnick is the only one who doesn't seem annoyed with me, forcing my attention to his sea-green eyes and holding it.

        "Hey, where are we?" He asks me, deep and gentle, and I blink as I think about his question. The answer should be fairly obvious, shouldn't it? I can tell that it is, because worry starts to knit his brows the longer I stall. Lights, a dress, the crowd cheering in the distance...

        "Interview, with Caesar." I manage, and it seems good enough of an answer for him. Mags had already left to sit in the audience, too tired to wait around backstage with me, my stylist Misty Pagan, Tessie, and Finnick.