I'll Know | Finnick Odair

two.

VENUS SENTREE IS beautiful. Everyone knows that. She could've been thrown around by the Capitol like I was the moment after her games were won, but with her leg injury, her inability to speak, and her history, Snow deemed her useless.

She's still the Capitol darling, alongside these new winners of the most recent games, but Snow doesn't find her,

how do I put it?

Sexy enough.

I could beg to differ, her jaw dropping beauty is something that captivates me every moment I see her. It's what garnered my intial sympathies. Now, it's what happens in the night that catches my eye. She thinks nobody notices, the peacekeepers think they're sly, rushing her motionless figure out on a stretcher to god knows which hospital within the Capitol. I do. I have.

Venus Sentree isn't much different from I, I've noticed. Not in the way she looks at others, not in the way she coyly rejects Snow's influence, and not in the way she suffers. It almost fascinates me to watch her dumpster fire of a life, and the burden that each and every pill she swallows leaves among her shoulders. It's been years since I've felt worse for another person than I have felt pathetic self sympathy and loathing when I look in the mirror, but Venus' life is truly tragic.

I feel terrible for what happened yesterday evening.

"Give her a basket, Finnick." Mags smiles sweetly, her wrinkled cheeks warping around her lovely grin.

I chuckle at her words, resting the ice bag against my forehead.

"She will have to forgive you, then."

Yes, I want to apologize. Will I give her a gift basket, as Mags suggests? No. But, I am not above going over and apologizing on her doorstep. It was all, I don't know, embarrassing? The Capitol woman I'd been sent last night asked me to drink, so I drank. When she asked me to move our conversation outside after fulfilling her needs, I did that, too. I just didn't expect anyone to be out in the central village at dinner time. Had I known the Immortal would be returning home, I would've taken the effort to move my escapades inside. Instead, I acted mind over matter.

"Thanks, Mags." I sigh, trying to sound the least hungover that I can.

She nods. Then she leaves. Now I'm alone with my thoughts.

I'm to apologize to this girl without making even more of an ass out of myself, of course. But how? It's not as though I could simply explain my lack of control over my own autonomy, and make excuses as to why I was presented the way I was. With her striking beauty, in another life she could've shared my experiences and possibly related with me at a deeper level, but to her own- luck? Misfortune? she was left well enough alone by Snow. For that, she couldn't possibly understand. I could almost envy her if I hadn't seen the things I've seen late at night through my master bedroom window.

Even on the stretcher, (which I can only assume is personally tailored to the curves of her stature with the rate of hospitalizations she's had), Venus stunned me as she was carried away. The first instance, her young sister had chased after her, her Mother clutching at her chest as though it was about to explode within her against their doorframe. Peacekeepers had left young Janey well enough alone to her premature grief.

The most recent, was shockingly almost the same. The only notable difference I could catch was her Mother's reaction increased tenfold. It was easier to see the pain and heartache she clawed at, as time progressed. Now, I could practically hear her desperation for the life she once had, the life she wanted for her daughters. It's safe to assume the lives they all had before Venus' games was less than desirable, but at the bottom line, it was their lives. The grief in the air was palpable even from my third story window. Horrific.