CAN'T REMEMBER TO FORGET YOU ✶ finnick odair / revising

i. ▬▬ stay with me

 ╭──────────────────────╮

001 ▬▬ STAY WITH ME
𓄲 ࣪˖ 𓏲 › 3.6K WORDS

it's not my arms that will fail me / but
this world takes more strength than
it gave me

─ HOZIER, ❛ blood upon the snow ❜

╰──────────────────────╯

(rewritten apr. 19, 2024)

66 ATT

Can't breathe.

Nerissa desperately kicks and thrashes around as much as the ice allows her. The tiny hole she managed to create for her mouth is the only thing keeping her alive.

The blizzard that passes leaves the arena in a thick blanket of snow with Nerissa Hong buried in it. Being buried alive, in the freezing cold, is a terrible way to die, but it's the only way she'll go if it means sending her partner back home. The only thing keeping her warm is her uniform (a black puffer jacket, gloves, and a snow boot -- the left one was lost while on the run from the mountains) and the thermal blanket from her sponsors which they would not have given to her, had it not been for her mentor, Finnick Odair.

Stay with me! - F.O.

She remembers grinning cheesily, waving the note in the air as a sign of thank you before storing it in her chest pocket. From time to time, she wonders how he's doing. That fifteen year-old boy scurrying around the Capitol to keep his sixteen year-old tribute, his first tribute since his Games, alive.

Nerissa recollects the first time meeting him. She volunteered while her partner, Davy Kumar, was reaped. They anxiously waited in the train after saying farewell to their loved ones. She vividly recalls the both of them sending worried glances to their choice of mentors. Specifically, one mentor.

The first was an elderly woman named Mags. She had a kind smile and an A-line dress in a lighter shade of ocean blue. The other was a boy. Yes, a boy. A green-eyed, bronze-haired boy that almost reached Davy's height. Finnick Odair, the youngest Victor that won last year. The youngest person in the train at that very moment. That worried them. What does Finnick know about mentoring?

Charmaine offered for them to choose their mentors, and Davy wasted no time to go for Mags, the woman with (clearly) more experience in mentoring. So, Nerissa was stuck with Finnick. He tried to cheer her up with a friendly smile and reassuring words, but his attempts go in one ear and out the other. Instead of discouraging him, though, Finnick found himself determined to prove Nerissa wrong. Considering the fact that Nerissa is in the final two, he definitely did that.

The Games draw to a close as most of the tributes have died from hypothermia, or the huge avalanche by the mountains. While buried under the cold, Nerissa wonders how the citizens of the Capitol are feeling. Are they bored? Do they need something to happen?