You Won't Drown: A Hunger Games story

Chapter Eight

Finnick POV

I can't tell up from down or left from right, much less make sense of what I'm doing here, or even where here is. It's been...some amount of time since I lost Annie, some amount of time since I'd seen her die. With no access to clocks or even to a window, it could be days, weeks, or even months that I've been imprisoned here. My reality keeps blurring in and out at the edges, becoming grainy and confusing like a really old photograph taken with a low resolution camera. I'm almost certain I'm getting drugged...there couldn't be any other explanation for why I'm quite this disoriented.

Taking shallow but steady breaths, I force myself up from the floor where I've been sitting. The least I can do is stand up, the least I can do is stay on my feet, stay somewhat sharp and alert. It's what Annie would want me to do; she would want me to be strong in the face of all this, if for no other reason than to prove that her death wouldn't be in vain. I can't let her death be in vain.

Looking around my cell, I do my best to get my scrambled brain to do something to cooperate with me. I try to remember what happened...why I'm here...even who I am. Except all of that feels out of my reach right now. It's like all that information and all those thoughts are trapped behind a thick steel door that I just can't open.

What was it that I was supposed to do? I was supposed to do something...wasn't I? There has to be something I'm missing, something I've overlooked because otherwise I wouldn't be trapped here. Otherwise...otherwise Annie would be alive.

Tears slide down my face as I strain my mind and memory to their limits...but still come up empty. It's like someone stole some integral part of me and now I have no way to get it back. Letting out an angry scream, I pound my fists against the bars of the cell and rattle the chains and locks that keep me contained. There has to be a way out of here, even if it means killing somebody, I'd find it. I'm not willing to let this cell become my tomb as well as my prison. Whatever it takes, I will see the outside world again. I'll breathe the outside air, feel the sunlight on my skin, and finally be free, even if it's only for a moment.

"HEY! HEY! LET ME OUT OF HERE! LET ME GO! I WON'T DIE HERE! I WON'T GO DOWN QUIETLY!"

Screaming that loudly burns my throat and makes me cough but, when nobody responds, I allow my voice only a few seconds of rest before taking another deep breath and continuing to scream.

"WHATEVER YOU WANT FROM ME, YOU WON'T GET IT! IF YOU WANT TO SILENCE ME THEN YOU'LL HAVE TO KILL ME! YOU'LL HABE TO KILL ME JUST LIKE YOU DID TO ANNIE!"

I hear the sound of a hoarse chuckle coming from somewhere not too far away, likely someone in one of the cells on either side of me. I'm not sure why anyone would be laughing though. Last I checked...pain wasn't necessarily something funny.

"Do you even know what you're screaming, boy? Do you even realize that it won't do you a lick of good, all the way down here, or have they already turned your brain to scrambled eggs?"

I turn in the direction that I'm pretty sure the voice is coming from, which takes a bit of figuring out since it's almost completely pitch black in here.

"Who are you? What is this place? Why is it so dark?"

Another chuckle, this one even louder than the first.

"Well then, I guess we all do have our breaking points. The great Finnick O'Dair, reduced to a blubbering madman. Some of us wondered if it would ever come. Although, I have to give you some credit. You lasted longer than most. But in the end you succumbed to the Capitol, just like everyone else has."

"I haven't succumbed to anything or anyone!"

"One with spunk...I'm surprised they haven't trained you out of that by now, especially with how good you've always been at following commands like an obedient little lapdog. Take it from someone who's been here a long time, your anger may fuel you, but it'll also kill you. Then again, Snow will probably want to bring out the firing squad for that instead. For all his flaws, the man certainly does know how to put on a show."