Dead in the Water | An Odesta Fanfic

Chapter Three

​Kai had been right. The chariots were ready, the tributes were lining up, and the brother and sister from District 4 were dressed like fish. Annie's stylist, Camilla, had seemed thrilled to dress her in an outfit of silvery blue scales, as if it were the height of fashion. And maybe it was, considering the outlandish way that the people of the capitol were dressed, with their rainbow of colors and odd fabrics. Perhaps scales wouldn't seem all that unusual. Still, she considered herself fortunate after looking around at the other tributes. At least she wasn't in District 12, where they seemed to be wearing nothing more than a layer of black powder – coal dust, Annie assumed, considering their trade. She tried not to look too closely, and kept Kai distracted, petting the horses at their chariot.

​Kai was still laughing over their own outfits, and seemed to find nothing funnier than seeing Annie dressed like a fish. "I wish Eric could see you." he said. "I can't believe he's missing this."

​"He'll be watching the program tonight." Annie told him. "With mom and dad."

Kai seemed distracted from the costumes for a moment. "I forgot about that." he said slowly. "I wish we could see them too."

"So do I." Annie tried to pull Kai into a hug, but the arms of her suit were stiff and she only managed an awkward half-hug. "But we can send a message to them through the cameras, to show them that we're doing alright."

"How?"

"Luna told us to smile and wave, right? When you see the cameras, pretend you're smiling and waving at them. We'll stand close to each other and they'll know that we're safe here together and that we're ready for what's coming."

Kai nodded up at her. "And hopefully they'll get a good close-up of you as a fish." He said, then laughed again. His laughing echoed through the room where the tributes and chariots all stood waiting, and seemed strange and loud in the tense silence of the room.

A couple of the other tributes looked over, not glaring or angry, but just curious and a little perplexed, as if they couldn't understand how someone could be laughing a day after the reaping. Annie looked back at them, at the sea of ridiculous costumes and colors. Even in those outfits, they looked like nothing more than a crowd of kids – sad, fearful, and confused, to be sure – but kids all the same. None of them seemed very frightening, except perhaps the career tributes up at the front, who towered over the others. Were they all really going to turn and kill each other in a few days? Would she have to kill some of them? Somehow it didn't seem possible that the games could go on. Maybe they would all leave the weapons in the cornucopia and refuse to fight.

​"I wonder which ones you're going to kill."

​Annie turned around to find Finnick there. "That's a cheery thought."

​"Don't try to act like that isn't what you were just thinking." he said. "I was in your place a few years ago."

​"Oh really?" Annie replied. "Is that what all those posters back in the district are for? I hadn't noticed."

​Finnick grinned. "Don't hate me just because I wanted to make it home and you don't." He looked her up and down, laughing as he saw the scales. "Nice costume."

​Annie found that she would rather have Kai laughing at her clothes than Finnick. "As if you got to wear anything better."

​"I'd like to think I pulled it off well. Although I was wearing something a little more like the coal miners over there." He waved over at District 12, but Annie didn't need to look again.

​"And you were fourteen?" she said, rather taken by surprise. Somehow, the capitol could never stop shocking her. "I think I'd kill someone if they tried to dress Kai like that."