Broken Toys - Johanna Mason x fem reader

Chapter 22 - Dead

No one of us was able to sleep properly tonight. At least I was not freezing thanks to Finnick. I was drifting in and out of sleep, when I heard Peeta's voice: "The issue is that I don't know what is real anymore." 

"Then, you should ask, Peeta. That's what Annie does", Finnick suggested. 

Right. Due to Annie's mental state Finnick was great at dealing with broken people. Maybe that was why I felt so comfortable around him and somehow safe. I knew that I could trust him to support me, when I needed him. 

"Who should I ask? Who can I trust?", Peeta questioned. 

"Well, us for example", Jackson assumed. "We're your unit." 

 "You're my guards", Peeta shot back. 

"That too. But you saved many lives in 13. We don't forget such things", she proclaimed. 

Silence erupted, until Peeta addressed Katniss again: "Your favorite color ... is it green?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "And yours is orange." 

"Orange?", he wondered. 

"Not a bright orange. A muted orange. Like the sunset. At least that's what you told me", Katniss recalled.

When Katniss, Gale, Finnick and I returned from our propo the next day, Jackson had invented a game for Peeta 'true or not true?'. He told us about a memory and we agreed or corrected him.

We were divided into different groups for guarding him. Gale and Katniss were each put together with one of the other soldiers, while Finnick and me were assigned together to one. Of course that had a reason. Gale was an expert, when it came to Peeta's questions about district 12. Finnick and I could tell him about both his games as we had been mentors during Peeta's first games and his allies during his second. Although Finnick was a greater help than me, because I had mostly concentrated on Rue during the 74th Hunger Games. And Finnick had been together with Peeta almost the whole time during the Quarter Quell. The rest of the questions were up to Katniss, which was not an easy task for her. I could only imagine how Katniss was feeling by imagining Johanna in that state. I was extremely grateful that at least Johanna's memories were alright.

On the next day we were sent to a blocked off street district for more spectacular video clips. We were all wearing special protective clothing just in case. Gale was the chosen one to hit the actual pod, while the rest of us was shooting around aimlessly once again. Pretty frustrating to be a great sniper and to never hit a target at the same time. 

The explosion led us to throw ourselves onto the ground. Afterwards Cressida made us replay the situation over and over again to get a better shoot. Though it was difficult to stay serious as Mitchell was an even worse actor than Katniss. 

"4-5-1, get a hold of yourselves!", Boggs scolded us, though he was barely hiding his grin. 

He was still looking at us, when he stepped onto an orange brick and triggered a mine. Once again an illusion turned into reality. Our laughter turned into screams as Boggs' blood tainted the ground and the fake smoke was replaced by real. 

Another explosion erupted leaving me completely disoriented. I took a deep breath and carefully made my way through the smoke. I could not rely on my ears as the loud noise of the explosion had influenced my hearing. 

Finnick came into my sight first. He was desperately trying to revive Messalla, who had been flung against a wall by the explosion. 

I nearly slipped, when I approached Katniss, Homes and Boggs. The ground was covered in blood and parts of Boggs' legs. Nausea overcame me, but that was not new to me. Boggs had lost both legs and literally clung onto the holo. He had to be in a lot of pain. Considering the blood loss he would not survive.