Blaze

Monkeying Around

I wake to a hand clamped down over my mouth and an awful searing pain encroaching my entire body. I let out a cry of pain as it continues. My vision is blurry and I can't figure out where I am. When everything comes into focus though, I find Peeta hovering over me. He's the one who has his hand over my mouth and I'm sitting in water. I can feel it. I don't know what's happening. I shout something into his hand.

"Yeah, I know. It hurts." He murmurs soothingly. I pull back from him and he removes his hand from my mouth. I move back out of the water, confused to why I was there in the first place but everything hurts. The small pain I had felt while submerged in the water was nothing compared to what it felt like out of the water.

"What happened?" I stutter out, looking down at my blistered arms and legs but I can feel the blisters on my face too. I shy away from Peeta and look at myself in a shallow pool. It's disgusting. Red raw bumps that look to be filled with white liquid cover nearly every inch of my face.

"Hey, it's fine. I had them too. So does Finnick." He points down at Finnick who is in the water five feet away. He's soaking in it from his neck down. Finnick looks just as bad as I do. "I'm glad you're awake though. I almost thought you were dead." Peeta whispers.

"Well, I can assure you I'm not." I told him inching myself back in the water.

"Finnick and I had to slowly pour water over you with seashells until you came to. I don't know if you remember that." I vaguely remember drifting in and out of consciousness. I remember not wanting to wake up fully because everything hurt. I nod my head slowly as the tingling sensation all over my arms and legs slowly dissipates. "You have to dunk your head under the water." Peeta murmurs. "Try not to drown."

I didn't know what he meant by that until I actually immersed myself in the water. I gasped at the pain, taking in water. Sputtering and chocking on the salt water, I popped my head back up over the surface. Peeta gave me a reassuring smile. I go back under. It hurt less this time and I could handle the pain.

Peeta tells me I have to breathe the water in, even drink some of it, otherwise I won't full heal. The thought disgusts me but I follow his instructions. When I pop up again, I feel so much better. I'm wringing out my hair when I finally realize what's missing. "Mags?" I question lowly, looking up at Peeta but he doesn't look down at me, he just continued to twirl the knife around in his hands. There's my answer.

"Im going to get you some water." He tells me lightly. I nod as I watch Finnick swim around in the water. I hand Peeta the spile I stupidly ran back to get and he heads over to a tree and begins hacking away at the bark to get to the softer parts inside the tree.

Finnick continues to spin and splash around. He's even more graceful in the water than he is on land. It makes me jealous. I can still hear Peeta behind me as Finnick disappears under the surface of the water. I wrap my arms around my legs and wait for him to resurface. Maybe half a minute later, I'm standing in the shallow end of the water, searching for him. He's been down too long. He could have drowned. Just when I'm about to dive down and look for him, Finnick emerges.

"Finnick." I scold lightly. He looks over at me and stands up in the water, walking towards me with a smile on his face.

"What?" He asks.

"You could have drowned."

"I'm from District 4." He says, shaking his head at me. I roll my eyes. Finnick turns around and I follow him but he stiffens. I can't see around him so I step to the side so I can see what he's staring at.

Peeta is still by that tree, putting the spile in, trying to get me water but that's not what's scares me. Right above him, hanging in the branches of the trees is a swarm of monkeys that wasn't there before. There has to be at least two dozen of them and they all look to have sharp claws and teeth. Finnick walks slowly and I'm confused on what he's doing until he bends down and picks up his trident. Copying him, I walk slowly to my bow and sheaf of arrows. I sling the arrows onto my back, grabbing an arrow out and string it in my bow.