Scarred | The Hunger Games

15.

Halima plunges my head back under the water, as I hold my breath. I expect to see the dead corpses rotting in the water, all I see is the distorted view of Halima's face from under the water. When she pulls me back up, I cough up some water. 

"What a doll, choking just for me huh?" She taunts. I don't respond. It had been almost 3 months since the 73rd Hunger Games, before Halima scheduled an appointment, much longer than I thought it would be. 

My hand reaches out to try stabilise myself with the edge of the tub. Halima still keeps a knife next to the tub, sometimes wanting to stain the water a redish-orange. 

She reaches for the knife, tracing the blunt side along the side of my face. "Such a slut just for me." She smiles wickedly. "Imagine if Ottiline ever saw this side of her sister."

I freeze, sheer horror tracing through me. She knows. 

"Oh Novalie, don't look so surprised, Snow told me everything." Well, clearly not everything considering my name is Eulalia. "I wonder if your sister is like you. Submissive, quiet, sexy. Tell me, is Ottiline a doll like you?"

I feel my hands start to shake, anger quickly replacing my initial shock and fear. The games trained me to kill, Snow made me a murderer. So let be it. 

I flipped us, and pushed her under the water by her throat. Her hands darted around mine to fight for air. My hand gripped her wrist, pulling the knife out of her hands, my reflexes much faster than hers, trained to be faster.

"You'll never touch Otti." I slit Halima's throat.

The water quickly turned red, making me realise my actions. I had just killed my most frequent client, and someone clearly close to Snow.

My hands started to shake again, more violently than before, as I feared for Otti's life. But I quickly pulled myself together. 

"Death is better than Halima. Death is better than this." I whispered to myself in a mantra as I begun to clean myself up. 

***

"Do you remember when I tricked you into believing you were a real fairy?" I giggle as I cut Otti's cake. It was her 13th birthday. She is almost the age I was when Snow offered me the agreement, so Halima's words were too real to me.

She rolled her eyes, "you made me eat a leaf to 'unlock my true power'".

A bubble of laughter escaped me, "you were a nature fairy, it made sense!".

"And you were a liar!"

I placed a slice of cake on a plate, handing it to Otti, who quickly started eating it.

"Y'know, I told Johanna this story." I smiled, tying her braid. "She laughed so hard, she calls you Tinker Bell now. It's adorable."

Otti licked a bit of the frosting off her lip. "It's adorable or she's adorable?" She wiggles her eyebrows. Ottiline has created this theory in her head that Johana and I could possible ever become anything more than friends. 

I shove her lightly, "Neither, you are adorable." I kiss the crown of her head.

The first two months after the 73rd games I had shut down. Nightmares became more frequent,  as well as calls from Johanna. 

"Wait hold on- you told Johanna about me?" Otti was shocked, probably because we weren't supposed to exist, not legally. 

I sighed. "Some people know I have a sister. They don't know your name, and our little situation. Otto knew." Otti sends me a sympathetic smile. After I had told her about him, she felt like he was his twin in another lifetime. "Cece knows, Johanna knows, I think I might have mentioned it to Haybitch once when we got drunk together-"

"Novalie Tream? President Snow is requesting your presence." A peacekeeper said as he interrupted our conversation.

I tossed Otti a worried look as I get up. I immediately knew why. He found the body.

"You asked for me sir?" I asked softly as I entered his office. 

"Yes, sit down Miss Frane." The use of my real surname sends shivers down my back. "It appears you decided to add to your body count."

I scoffed. "Which one? My kill count or fuck count." 

"Watch your tone young lady-"

"Not young enough to be saved from being tossed into a death game apparentl-"

I flinch at the sound of his fist slamming into his table. "Do you want Ottiline to live?"

"Aren't you going to kill her anyways?" My voice become much softer, weaker. "You already know what I did."

"Yes I do." He nods. "Halima was a dear friend of mine. She will be missed, and she will be replaced."

He didn't say anything else. No consequences, no threats, no nothing. It was eerily peaceful. "I- that's it?"

His face dropped. "No. You will do me a favour, in exchange for the one that I am doing by keeping your sister alive."

There it is, of course. 

"You've gotten awfully close to Johanna Mason. You even mentioned your sister to her."

"How did you-"

"You will convince her to take on appointments." 

Johanna? She would never go for it. She told me Snow offered it to her, and when she rejected the offer, her family was killed. If she respected her self-worth enough that her family was murdered as consequence, why would she sacrafice that for me?

"Sir- she won't listen to me-"

"I don't care. You do this, or both Ottiline and Johanna Mason will reap the consequences. Afterall, neither of them has family that would care- well, Ottiline doesn't have a family that exists." He smiles sickeningly, leaning over to hand me a white rose. 

The rose he gives me is slightly wilted. He only ever gives perfect roses though? No. He knows. He knows. He knows that Johanna will never relent. He knows that it won't happen.

I look up at him, to see him looking back at me, chin resting on his hand, propped up on his elbow against his timber desk. "Good luck."

~~~

hey, koi here for your very first hunger games authors note/input(?)

this is NOT a finnick x oc book. there i said it. at this point in my book, my girl is 15, and finnick is 22. that is a 7 YEAR DIFFERENCE.

at this point, it will probably become a johanna x oc book, considering their age difference is 4 years. this still isnt what i would prefer, i know that it is quite a lot and can make some people uncomfortable.

but this is a book about children killing each other, forced prostitution, self-harm, and more, so please keep be less critical, and remember that this is FICTION.