Allied Hearts - Finnick Odair

Chapter 23

A perfectly painted hand dug into the clear glass bowl, fishing for the correct piece of folded paper.

My heart sank into the pits of my stomach, I knew on the hundreds of pieces of paper there was only one name sprawled across it.

Alia Snow.

My father stood formally next to me, I'm sure he was grinning like a Cheshire Cat on the inside but he was a superb actor so distress displayed on his old features.

An audible gulp sounded from my throat. Snow had promised to make me pay for my birthday night antics and he was following through with his word. He was an evil mastermind I will give him that.

A huge plan was made to make the 68th hunger games fair. In order for this to happen the Capitol will sacrifice one of their own. Only a select few were in on the plan, sworn to secrecy. It couldn't be common knowledge that Snow was willingly giving up his daughter to death.

Slowly the hand withdraw from the dreaded bowl with a crumpled up piece of paper. It felt like a whole eternity had passed before the escort had unravelled the name.

A huge gasp fell from the eccentric mans mouth before he uttered the doomed words. 'Alia Snow.'

All eyes were on me, the crowd was still in shock, no one dared to move a single muscle.

'No, not my daughter! No please!' Snow began to perform a dramatic act, convincing the audience that he truly was in dismay.

No one knew how to react. It was so silent amongst the masses you could hear a single pin drop onto the hard gravel. If I hadn't of guessed my fathers sick plan all along maybe I would of been crying, sobbing in fact.

But I wasn't.

'You'll be okay father.' Coldly I reached my hand up to his shoulder and stroked gently. One last final act of love for the camera.

It was no secret to me that on the inside he was overjoyed, he had thought up the perfect plan to get rid of his disobedient daughter. He couldn't do it himself otherwise the Capitol would uproar, they had loved me from the second I was born. This way it looks like my name was so unluckily plucked from a bunch of thousands of Capitol kids.

The next couple of hours passed by in a blur. My father hadn't bothered to say a personal goodbye to me, only for the cameras. I was bustled hurriedly onto a train ready to set off to the accommodation at the training centre.

I tried to focus on the outside, looking out the window at the most glorious scenery but my mind drifted into the distance. I was living my last days and there wasn't a single thing I could do about it. Some could say I had no hope and it was true, I was no match for a career or even a normal district tribute. My secluded and pampered life was the opposite to what I was being thrown into.

'I bet you never thought you'd end up here Miss Snow.' Slurred Haymitch Abernathy. Already intoxicated by the free alcohol. The use of my name was emphasised with irony.

'I'm glad you've found amusement in the situation.' I scoffed making him raise a drunken eyebrow.

'She bites back, I like it.'

Of course my father would've sorted me out with the alcoholic mentor. Haymitch won the 50th hunger games and ever since he's been an awful drunken man. Aggressive and incompetent. Usually he would've been district twelves but I'm sure Snow took great joy in me getting no real counselling for the games.

'Haymitch, are you going to help her?' The escort whom I now knew by Elzaza wasn't impressed with the mentors antics either.

'What's the point? She's already dead.' Swigging out of a whiskey bottle he'd already decided my fate.

Anger built up in my stomach, even though I didn't believe in myself it hurt that no one else did either. I was pretty much a lost cause.

'Weren't you the least skilled in your games Haymitch?' I challenged. 'Oh, and I see why you were the least liked to.'

Haymitch had quite the reputation around the Capitol and most likely the districts. But his ferocious spirit and passion had been ripped from him by the hands of alcohol.

The rest of the long journey consisted of bickering between the escort and the mentor who couldn't manage to see eye to eye on anything.

My mind wandered to Finnick. I wonder if he'd heard the news now? Would he care?

Even though I knew my Fathers plan all along I hadn't let Finnick in on the know out of fear he'd worry himself sick. Or even worse, do something that would make everything one hundred times worse. My father wasn't mine or Finnick's biggest fan.

'Are you good with any weapon?' Abernathy pried me out of my own mind.

'I don't know. I've never had to use one.' My response was unhelpful but it wasn't a stretch from the truth.

'Knives. That's what you're going to focus on Alia Snow.'

A distant memory of Callissa swinging around the knives in the training room so many years ago popped back into my mind. I pushed it painfully back.

I don't know where the sudden change of heart came from but between the four hour train journey Haymitch became helpful, spewing all sorts of advice into my listening ears.

Hope, everyone in life needs hope and I think I was finding mine.