L O C K E D- Finnick Odair

FOURTEEN

《'°•~Chaper Fourteen ~•°'》

"WHEN I SAW you in that arena, I knew you would be mine when the time came."

I glance to Finnick, and he has a look of surprise mixed with disgust. The middle-aged man before us tells the two of us about his "desires" he has for me, and as much as we're hating every second of it, we find it a little bit amusing.

The Capitol party we were sent to was specifically to honor the "young and beautiful" victors from Districts 1 through 4. That's at least what Snow said, but I'm not stupid enough to not know that this party was just for the people of the Capitol to throw their money at the victors they had crushes on.

Over the past year, I still hadn't completely adjusted to this new lifestyle, being loved and sexualized by so many people. I enjoyed the money part of it, but if it were my choice, I'd much rather be poor and not do this at all.

But in the country of Panem, individuals don't get choices.

"Honey, how about you come up to my room for a minute?" the man requests as he slides an envelope into my skirt waistband.

I would also never adjust to these outfits. Showing so much skin in the freezing cold was something I would never get used to.

"She's fine down here," Finnick grabs my arm to stop me.

I break his grip from me. "Don't tell me what to do." Another thing I hated about all of these Capitol parties was having to spend them all with Finnick. I hated being around him, and I had talked to him as little as I possibly could. "Let's go."

The man takes my hand and guides me into a ginormous lobby of a huge building. As we're about to get in the elevator, a hand pulls me back, but the man has already stepped inside. I can see him exclaiming angrily through the clear glass as he ascends to the higher floors.

"What the hell, Finnick!" I yell at him. "So, it's fine when you sleep with half the Capitol, but when I do, it's such a big issue?"

"What happened to you, Emmeline?" He says quietly as he stares into my eyes.

I glare at him and laugh. "Fuck you."

And then I leave Finnick Odair alone in the lobby.

Over the next two days, there are attacks among several of the districts. They tell me about it this time, there being derailed trains, graineries on fire, and an attack on the hydroelectric dam in District 5. This all must mean one thing, Katniss Everdeen is alive.

Peeta tells us all of this as he takes on his third interview. "I'm begging for restraint and decency." He stops talking, and the screen glitches, showing a video of Katniss singing in the ruins of a bombed district. I gasp because if Katniss is alive, that must mean Finnick is as well.

Peeta's face lights up with shock and sadness. "Katniss?" He asks, meaning he must be seeing it too. The glitching stops, and it's back to Peeta as he asks helplessly, "Katniss, are you there?"

"Peeta, please continue," Caeser interrupts. "You were telling us about these savage attacks."

Peeta snaps back to reality. "The attack on the dam was a callous and inhumane act of destruction." Then the screen goes back to Katniss, her singing being interrupted by loud glitches. "Think about it. How will this end? What will be left? No one can survive this. No one is safe now. Not here in the Capitol and not in any of the districts."