𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋 | Hunger Games

xxᴠɪɪɪ

EACH DAY THAT PASSED WAS hell. Finnick wouldn't deny it. With every day Aella spent as a hostage in the Capitol the hole in his chest cleaved larger and larger. He stopped thinking about when he would get her back and started wondering how much of her he'd get back—if any at all. They had made no further contact, aired no further interviews to say she was alive or anything of the sort. All he had to go on was hope, sheer hope that she was still fighting like hell wherever they had her. That they weren't chipping away at her walls with every passing second.

She was still so fragile when hit in the right spots and he knew without a shadow of a doubt they would be exploiting her every weakness—Snow would be ordering them to do so. He just hoped she had enough function left inside of her to pull herself out of the shell she curled into whenever she was attacked. It had taken him hours in the Games, sitting on that jungle floor after they'd used both him and her brother to ignite fear in her, to try and drive her to the edge of insanity...

What if they had already done it? What if there was no clawing her way back anymore. If she was stuck forever.... What would he do then if he could never get her back?

It plagued him. It kept him awake at night while his hand laid across her side of the bed. It had his thoughts racing when he held her pillow in his arms and inhaled her fading scent. It made him wonder how he'd coped all those years not having her... made him wonder if they should ever have gotten involved before the war had been won. But even then, if she had been captured by the Capitol he'd of still gone mad. The only thing he wouldn't have was knowing what her lips felt like against his, knowing how she kissed, seeing that pure joyous gleam in her eyes whenever she smiled... hearing her infectious laugh.

He missed it, every damn day he missed her so much it physically hurt to breathe. He hadn't known when he'd become so dependent on her but he hadn't cared that he had. Perhaps it made him a lesser man.. that he couldn't function without her by his side but it was something he had accepted. He didn't want to live in a world where she wasn't by his side and he had made that choice that night they spent in his apartment quarters within the Tribute Centre the night before the Games.

The world continued to move on. The rebellion—the brewing war—continued to rage in their favour. The propaganda video they had released of Aella had gone down better than a fresh catch back home. The Districts were rising each day and reports of rebellion were flooding in at such a rate they couldn't keep on top of them all.

Finnick was so proud of what she had done yet he only wished she were there with him to hear what her actions had sparked. He wished she knew just how much she was turning this war in their favour. Allies were forming everywhere and it was all down to Aella and Katniss.

He had been called up to Command for the latest update nine days after they'd released Aella's video—nine whole days of no news, of wondering and waiting—and even then it wasn't the update Finnick was expecting to receive. He thought he was walking in expecting to hear development of where Snow might be keeping her, that Beetee might've narrowed down the possibilities even further but it wasn't. Beetee had no news on that regard. Instead, Heavensbee had been the only one who had shown up and he had told them that they had received word that District Seven had launched an attack against Peacekeepers the night prior.

Finnick struggled to bring himself to be enthusiastic over it. He couldn't really feel anything other than the pounding disappointment in his heart. Didn't particularly care in that moment in time that it had been Aella's actions that had spurred them into it. He'd barely listened as Heavensbee told him that workers had rebelled against the new Capitol laws and had laid out traps among the forests in which they worked. When the time had been most opportune, midway into the citizens—now rebels—escort to work by the Peacekeepers they had scaled the trees and set land mines off killing hundreds of Peacekeepers before fleeing North to a resistance that was rising within the boarders of District Seven.