The Capitol Star • A Finnick Odair Story

Twelve

My eyes began to open and sharp pains shot throughout my body. I lost my breath and I tried to lift my head to see where I was but bright lights shone above me.

I began to panic, I was in a white room with nothing in it. The only thing next to me was medical equipment and an IV going into my arm with bright purple liquid in the bag. I couldn't move. I was strapped down.

The door to the room crashed open and a doctor walked in. He was holding a clipboard in his hand and a pen, a guard following close behind him.

"Don't try to move. You broke you're back and neck. You also suffered a fracture in you're knee. Your head was infected but don't worry we cleaned that up well for you. We stitched you're hand back together and it'll be A-okay in no time! You won't feel a thing soon once we give you something for the pain." He said and wrote something on his clipboard. I tried to shake my head no, I didn't want any of their pain medicine.

Where am I? I thought and tried to look at what was on my body.

"You might be wondering where you are," the doctor began and my eyes shot to him with a furrowed brow, "you're in the Capitol, you don't have to worry. We saved you from the rebels and you're safe here."

My breathing quickened and my mind raced. I tried to lift up my head, my arms, anything, but I hissed in pain and I felt hot tears drip down my cheeks. I thrashed what I could and the doctor looked at me, unfazed. Two doctors emerged from behind him and put something in my IV. I opened my mouth and cried out loud, my throat on fire.

—

I woke up, with hardly any remberence of what happened previously. A nurse sat by my bed. I breathed quickly and tried to move. She shot up quickly and looked at me.

"You're awake! Don't worry you're safe!" She smiled at me. "I'm Nurse L. Oh don't worry I won't hurt you." She approached me as she saw me panicking.

"Here, sit up darling. You've been out for a couple of days now. Your back is healing nicely and so is your neck." She pushed me up and I gasped out loudly, in severe pain. The large mirror in front of my bed reflected an image of a girl I didnt know. Her eyes were blood red, her head wrapped in bandages, her hair greasy and crusted over with blood. Her body was unreconizable. No fat was in her body, all Aria saw was skin and bones. A skeleton. Her cheeks were sunken in and her eye bags were a dark purple. Her big eyes bulged and her lips were crusted over.

"Am I the only one?" Aria said, her voice cracked and almost not there.

"Oh no darling don't worry! We saved Peta Mellark!" The nurse said as she ripped off Arias neck brace, earning a hiss.

Arias neck was bruised badly but she could move it slightly. Her back brace was still on and she couldn't twist her body.

"Try to stand." The nurse reached out her arm for Aria to grab onto. She hesitated before grabbing the nurses arm, pulling herself up with a grunt. She limped over to the mirror and touched her face. Her heart was sore and she felt bad for what happened to this girl in the mirror.

"Can I see him?" She croaked.

"No." The nurse said coldly.

Arias hand froze on her neck and her eyes frantically searched her own face in the mirror. Fear. She felt fear.

"Why."

"Because we need to interview you first. The rebels are dangerous and we need to see what you know." In the reflection of the mirror, Aria watched as the nurse stood up and began to walk over to her. Aria calmly straightened her back and walked over with the nurse to the bed.

Sooner than later doctors sauntered into the room with clipboards in hand and needles.

"Come with us."

They walked through the halls to a steel room, with a bathtub in the center. It had a metal cover and a cut out for a head.

"No, NO PLEASE!" Aria screamed, fighting against the doctors. They dragged her into the tub and placed her into the lukewarm water, closing the lid and leaving her head through the hole.

They sat down and began questioning her.

"Where were you when Katniss shot the arrow into the dome?"

"With Finnick."

"Did you know that Katniss was going to try to destroy the arena?"

"Absolutely not."

"Were you apart of the plan that would destroy the arena?"

"I said no. And that wasn't the plan."

"Wrong." The doctor said and walked over to the handles by the end of the tub and turned it rapidly. The water began to get hotter and hotter. Steam arose through the roof of the tub and she began to get hot and red.

Aria tried to scream out in pain, but instead a gargling sound arose from deep within her chest. She was being boiled alive.

Endless hours of torture and she passed out from pain.

—

My eyes began to flutter open as my chest ached for oxygen. I was on the cold concrete. I slowly lifted my head up to stare at the metal bars surrounding me. It was a dark cell, dimly lit by orange lamp shades that hung high on the ceiling. Tears crusted on my cheeks and my lips were bleeding from the cracking. My body ached, and my eyes searched my skin, finding bloody burns and bubbles that coated my skin. I shivered. My finger traced over the bloodied stitches on my palm.

A low grumble sounded next to me. My back quickly pressed against the wall on the opposite side of me, my eyes searching the cell next to me. I jolted as a bloody hand gripped the bars. Their face slowly came into the light and my lip trembled.

"Peeta?" I scrambled to the bars and sobs clawed out of my throat. We cried out for each other, our foreheads touching through the bars. Peeta's name escaped my mouth in surges of panic and relief.

"What happened what's wrong?" My eyes searched his face. His face was sunken in and his eyes weren't filled with the same determination and passion they were before. Love filled his heart, and you could tell through his eyes. Now? I couldn't begin to even see any of that. His body was bones, similar to mine. "Why are your hands bloody?"

"It's not my blood." Peeta cried, and his eyes fluttered to the cell next to him. Johanna laid on the concrete floor, blood surrounding her. "They beat her. Aria I don't know what to do I don-"

"Peeta it's okay, it's okay." I held his hands through the bars. His face was dirty, a reflection of mine. Memories of my time in the arena flashed through my head. Some didn't make sense.

"I don't know if anybody is alive." He sobbed.

"Don't think like that. Peeta we cannot think like that we can't."

"But what if they're dead." He cried harder, gripping my fingers.

"We don't know that Peeta. What do we know?"

"I don't know anymore Aria I don't know." Peeta slightly hit his head against the bars.

"Peeta, just try to remember okay? For me okay? Um what's your age?"

"I'm turning seventeen, in a couple of months." His breath slowed down.

"Okay okay good Peeta good. What colors your eyes?"

"Brown. Yours?"

"Uh," it took a second for me to think, "hazel, but more green."

"Yea Aria, they are." Peeta smiled at her and wiped his eyes with his dirty gown.

Throughout the night they reminded each other of things they loved, admired, things about themselves, everything they could possible think of.

Until they came for him.