the lucky one | finnick odair

you're on your own, kid

-now playing "You're on Your Own, Kid" by Taylor Swift-

Cove Alora had been sleeping peacefully in front of the living room television, when she was suddenly awoken by the sound of screaming coming from it. She jolted upright gasping as she clutched her chest, trying to even out her breathing. The blonde looked at the Games happening, expecting the Careers to have found a random tribute, but not expecting to see her sister crying and begging for mercy.

Cove immediately started screaming for all of her sisters that stayed over to get downstairs. She ran to the television as it showed Coral on the ground cowering in front of the Career pack. Cove placed her hand right where Coral's face was, hoping to somehow provide comfort to her sister. The rest of the Alora family rushed down the stairs and stood watching in anxious silence.

"She's not supposed to beg, that's a weakness showing," Pearl whispered to herself as tears wet her eyes at the sight of her younger sister in fear, "they get more satisfaction when fear is shown."

Cove ripped her gaze from Pearl and back onto the television. All of the Alora sisters were praying. The ones safely in Pearl's home were praying for Coral's safety, praying she would somehow win the battle, four versus one. Coral was just praying to go home, wishing she would've never volunteered in the first place.

And in one swift moment, it was over.

The snow beneath Coral was turning a sinister maroon as the other children on the screen begin to run into the night, right as a cannon shot off somewhere in the distance.

Cove sank to her knees, screaming like a banshee, clutching the exact place where her twin had been stabbed, somehow feeling the pain in all it's glory. All the sisters sank to their knees and held onto each other as if they were each other's lifeline, each other's escape. An escape from the nightmare at Pearl Alora's home that one fateful early morning. The entirety of District Four will never forget the screams that echoed from the infamous Alora sisters as they had just lost not only their sister, but a future Victor.

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Cove Alora felt like she was drowning. Drowning in a deep-sea abyss that held no oxygen for her to breathe or any light for her to look for an escape.

Cove Alora felt angry. She used to think getting reaped was an honor to represent her district, but now she wanted to burn down the Capitol and every single person responsible for her sister's death.

This wasn't supposed to happen this way, Coral was an Alora. She was supposed to win. But at the same time, she knew she couldn't be mad at the Careers that had just murdered her twin, they were just trying to go back home as well. All of the Career districts were raised the same way, to accept what an honor it was to be in the Games.

Cove had sprinted out of her home and ran straight to the ocean that was only a small walk away from the Victor's Village. She had hoped that the familiar cold of the ocean would somehow make her feel closer to her sister, who laid peacefully on a pile of frozen scarlet snow. The ocean always had a way of calming her, maybe it was the salt water that somehow stayed stuck in her hair even if she washed it twice, or maybe it was because that was the place that Coral went to be alone sometimes.

Coral was an angry soul that was wrapped in a pretty bow. She was labeled as rude, arrogant, and abrasive, but Cove knew that deep inside, she was just a scared little kid.

Coral was still angry at the universe for taking away her parents and leaving all of the sisters to defend themselves against a cruel world. She was just a child who missed her parents, constantly feeling homesick with no home to go to, except the ocean. Coral practically lived in the ocean most of the time, as she said it was the only thing that felt like her mother's embrace. Whenever Cove asked why she was so connected to the ocean, Coral always said, "from water we were born and from water we will return," as if she was some mysterious poet who knew all the secrets to the universe.