DESTINED ✧ F. ODAIR

[ 42 ]

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CHAPTER 42
❝ DEADLINE ❞

❝SECRETS.❞ That word was printed on the walls of the almost empty room; the white light was blinding and bright, shining straight into my irises when I woke up. A dull and throbbing pain spread throughout my whole body and my neck aches as I try to turn my head. My throat felt scratchy and dry from the lack of water, apparent from the headache hitting the top of my forehead over and over again.

My vision was blurred by the light; only the silhouettes of objects in the room were visible, but nothing was clear. My mind buzzed with a certain numbness that I couldn't seem to shake off. Beside me, I could see the faint shape of Peeta's hair falling off the bed where he laid his head, arms covering his face as he snored, sound asleep. The light purple bruise that cupped the area around his eye glared at me despite my fading sight. The quiet murmuring beyond the door kept me alert.

Who is talking?

I stood up carefully. My muscles ached and my limbs dragged along as if they didn't want to be moved according to my will. The dull pain made me wince but didn't stop me in my tracks. Spotting a syringe in the corner of my eye, I kept my sights locked on the door as I quietly grabbed the barrel to avoid being pricked by the needle.

The headache got sharper, the pain stabbing me across my head and towards my eyes. The door clicked, unlocking from the outside and the shadow of someone stepping in front of the door appeared before my eyes.

Clack.

The door slowly opened and I locked eyes with vivid green ones. His irises were wide. Dilated. The bags under his eyes were dark and only made his pupils look like an even brighter green, almost like those of sea glass.

I winced, the pain in my head growing. Finnick Odair. That name rang in my head endlessly but I couldn't even think properly to register it. I grabbed my head and felt myself fall back a step. Distorted flashed into my mind.

Cabel.

That name echoed in my subconscious.

Cabel.

"Cabel!" Johanna's voice screamed. My vision was blurred from the smoke, my hearing almost deafened from the explosion. Barely able to crack open my eyes, I squinted to get a better look.

Very quietly, almost as if the sound bounced off the walls of a tunnel in the distance, the air being pushed around by an aircraft pushed against my eardrums but did not make it through. I couldn't process any sound, the chills that reached my bones was hard to ignore. Pain. Almost like a hundred nails pinching my skin at the same time.

The same familiar sea green eyes filled with guilt and shame met mine. A trident that reflected the sunlight was held in his hand. Bloody.

At the other end, I could only make out the image of my brother's body disfigured by the sharp ends of the weapon. From one side of his chest to the other, the curved pitchfork-like weapon tauntingly stared back at me. The weapon was clean, with no blood in sight. The image of the cold and pale body that dripped blood onto the muddy jungle floor contrasted that of the stainless weapon that pierced right through it.

The hands of the man that stained his conscious with the murder of my brother was left spotless with no blood in sight.

"Don't forget, Persephone." President Snow's mellow voice spoke quietly in my memories. "The man that killed your brother."

Finnick Odair.

Rage.

"Finnick." I managed to choked out, my throat tightening from the lack of moisture.

His eyes shined happily, a spark flashing briefly with hope and he took a step forward. Then two. Three. I was quiet, letting him approach and I clenched my fist tighter around the syringe in my hand. The cold thin glass numbed my skin and I could feel my nails pushing into the palms of my hand.

"Sephy."

I could barely whisper a response, "Do..- me." He kept slowly getting closer, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion at my fragmented sentence.

"Sephy?" He reached his hand out for a second and as it inched towards me, I swiped my hand across and hid my face behind my arm. Blood dripped quickly out of the wound I managed to inflict on his hand. I took a staggering step back before I twisted my body to swipe again but at his neck when he stopped me and grabbed my wrist. My arm got pulled into a weird angle, a strangled cry of pain left my throat.

Reaching desperately over to throw a punch, my attempt was met with the face of the colourless boy's face. Odair's eyes widened and he brought his hand up to his reddened cheek.

A blonde man's face appeared in the doorway of the room, his hazy eyes squinted in confusion and the scrunch of his nose wrinkled his face. "What the f-"

"Sephy. What's wrong?"

Odair reached his hand forward again in an attempt to get close to me and failed again when I lunged forward and pulled one of the jars from off the shelf right beside us. I swung it despairingly at the man's head, the glass shattering around us in a rain of shards. Blood seeped out of his open wound and dripped down his face slowly and his mouth opened a little bit out of shock.

Drip. Drip.

His face loomed above mine as drops of blood fell from his chin slowly onto my face.

"You killed him."

My hand stung from where the shards pierced my palm, tears streamed from my eyes one-by-one.

"You killed my brother."

The hand that held my wrist wavered and the man couldn't spit out a word. His eyes shook with distress, his lips parting and closing as he struggled to form a response.

Pulling my wrist out from his weakened grasp, I tried to stab the needle into his neck when an icy sensation tickled my neck and I was met with a lapse of pain before my vision faded.

The last thing I heard before I lost consciousness was the voice of the blonde man from earlier.

"Something's wrong with her."