Dead in the Water | An Odesta Fanfic

Chapter Twenty-Six

Annie Cresta should have died.

It had been the plan all along, from the moment she had heard Kai's name at the reaping. At first, when it was only her standing on the stage, alone in front of the town square and all of District 4, Annie was already calculating her odds of survival, determined to come home. But then Kai's name had been called, and all of that had vanished in the blink of an eye. As she met Kai's nervous gaze, as she watched him walking up onto the stage beside her, as she squeezed his hand in her own, only one thing mattered. Keeping Kai alive. If that meant Annie would die a gruesome death in the arena, then so be it. Only one of them could go home.

So why wasn't she dead?

Her eyes opened in a room that was almost too bright to see. White blankets were pulled over her chest, blazing fluorescent lights shone down from the ceiling, and machines surrounded her bed, blinking and beeping at her. She might have thought she was dead, that this strange room was the afterlife she had been sent to, if not for the aching pain that tore through her body with every movement.

No, she was most certainly alive.

But Annie wasn't supposed to survive the Hunger Games. Was this just some part of the arena that she had never seen before? Annie racked her brain, trying to remember how she had ended up there. She could remember the countdown. She remembered running towards the cornucopia. She could remember flashes and glimpses of the games – the weight of a spear in her hand, the burning of a parched throat, the strange shadows that the trees cast on everything they touched, Kai's chatter at night as they curled up together for warmth, wind rushing through the wreckage of an abandoned house, the force of water crashing against her, her brother screaming her name as the waves pulled him away.

The memories were faint and cloudy, as if she were watching them through a foggy window. It was like a distant nightmare, like grappling in vain at the memory of a dream after you wake up. It was more of a feeling than a memory at all. A rush of panic. A jolt of fear. A quickening heartbeat. The feeling that something had gone horribly, horribly wrong –

But she couldn't remember what.

Annie was alone, but there were voices outside. A low chatter, a humming whisper, some quiet laughter, and then the name she wanted to hear most in the world.

"...Kai, they won't tell her..."

"Too harsh, if you ask me..."

"... what else are they supposed to do?"

The chatter didn't make much sense, but she didn't care for any of it, except for the name.

Kai.

Where was Kai?

Annie struggled to sit up, only to realize that her arms and chest were covered in wires, connecting her to the machines. There were tubes running all around her, down into her veins, sending strange liquids churning through her body. She stared at her arms, at the needles and tape that were patched up against her skin, listening to the beeping of the machines that pulsed with the heart thundering in her chest.

What was in the tubes? What were they filling her with? It was making her heart beat faster, louder, pounding in her ears until it drowned out all the whispers in the hallway. The beeping on the monitor sped up as her hands started to shake and her breathing came out of her mouth all coarse and raspy.

Was it poison? Was that why no one else was around? Were they just waiting for her to die? The voices in the hall came back – too harsh, if you ask me. What was too harsh? The death sentence she had been given? Were they going to leave her in this strange, bright room until the poison filled her veins and flooded her heart and made it burst? And what about Kai? Who was going to find him if she was dead?