Pearls and Perils ・❥・Finnick Odair x Reader

Chapter 21

Darkness fades into light. I flung myself up, just to be restricted by silver cuffs over my waist. My first instinct was that I'm still in the games and the gruesome finale was nothing but a dream. But I accept the reality after my brain has time to absorb the sterile room. The walls are an eye blinding white, and the only contents of the room are myself and my bed. Tubes connect from my arms to a machine making a god awfully annoying beeping sound.  I desperately lifted the paper like hospital gown to inspect the gash on my stomach the girl from one gave to me. It is now nothing but a faint line. The ghastly scar on my thigh from the tussle with the girl from ten: completely gone. It was as if it had never happened. The deafening silence of the room and my many questions became too much to bear.

"Hello?" I called out, "Hello?" I repeated, louder and with more desperation. An avox boy meekly enters the room with a tray of food. He rests it on my lap and moves my bed to a sitting position. Some sort of soup and a glass of water are on the tray. Some victory meal. Still, I slurp the soup down and chug the water with my last breath. The warm soup running down my throat is a strange sensation.

"How long was I out for?" As soon as the words leave my lips I wish I could retract them out of embarrassment. He's an avox. He can't talk. Still, he flashes two fingers at me. It must mean two days. He briskly exits the room.

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The same dull routine repeats for what must only be a few days, but it feels like centuries. Trapped inside a sterile room with nothing but my thoughts. Over the days I thought about my family. Cora. My dad. I thought about Finnick. Each day my scars fade more and more. Sometimes I wake up from my slumber and notice things like my nails have suddenly been filed, or that all the hair on my body has disappeared. There was one time when I tried to get up and out of bed, but the tubes attached to me pulled against me-I passed out and was placed back in my original spot. Until one morning when I woke up, my tubes were gone and there was something placed at the end of my bed. I unraveled it with anticipation, only to be met by horror. The clothes I wore in the arena. I put them on grudgingly, trying not to even look at the articles of clothing. I sit down on my bed, unsure of what comes next.

That's when Fortuna enters the room.

Though I disliked her very much, at that moment I was through the moon to see a familiar face; or really any face at all since I had not seen anyone over the past few days.

"Fortuna!" I spring up from the bed.

"There's my victor!" She smiled as she approached me. "Now let's go, there's lots to be done." My smile fades, reminded that Fortuna is still Fortuna.

"Wait, wait." I say, trying to slow her down as she's practically dragging me out of the room. "Where's Finnick?"

"He's not here right now but I promise you'll see him after your-" her words trail off for just a moment, "preparations." She escorts me to an elevator. After a long upward ride, the doors open and I am greeted by my prep team- all of whom are squealing and congratulating me. When they finally step two inches away from my face, I notice the strange medical setup and staff in the middle of the bleek room. I look to Fortuna.

"What is this?" I ask hastily, cocking an eyebrow.

"Like I said, your preparations." She answers with a dry smile.

"But you already waxed me, manicured me, perfected me, while I was out. What more could you be doing? And what do you need that for?" I question, pointing to a terrifying medical tool in one of the doctors' hands.

"The gamemakers want you to get some modifications." Fortuna asserted. "It's like what I talked about when we first met."

"What? No! I don't want modifications." I retorted, anger seeping from my voice to my body. I turn back to the elevator, no use. I look around for any way out.

"It's non negotiable." Fortuna answers flatly. Sensing my opposition, some of the doctors begin to grab me by the arm and drag me towards the chair. I push their hands off me, but they are quick to take hold of me again with more force.

"No you can't do this to me!" I bark. I flail my arms and kick my legs, struggling to get away from the strange doctors. "You can't fucking do this!" I lock eyes with Fortuna, hoping by some miracle she will feel a spark of human connection and pity; but instead, her eyes are cold and piercing. Before I'm about to yell again, I feel a sharp twinge in my arm. I turn my head to the syringe sticking out of me. My swinging arms and kicking legs become completely frail.

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I woke up, this time, in the bed I slept in during training and before the games. Immediately, I stumble out of bed and rush to the mirror to see what on earth they've done. I clutch to my cheek as I soak my new face in, in shock. I'm sure to anyone else, they were small changes that weren't very obvious. But to me, the changes looked drastic. My lips were plumper, shaped into a permanent pout. I traced my cheekbones and jawline, in awe of how sharp they were. I stared at my nose, which looked like it had been chiseled down. I felt like I could barely recognize the girl in the mirror. I shifted my hyperfixation from my face to my body. I strip myself of my hospital gown as I anxiously stare at my naked body in the mirror. My starved body has been given a more curvaceous figure. The size of my waist has been kept the same, but my hips and chest have been accentuated. I slipped my hospital gown back on, delusionally hoping that would make it go away. Unable to cope with my feelings, I broke down. Crying in frustration at my inability to refuse the situation, I sank down to the floor, no longer interested in seeing the strange girl looking back at me. The room echoes with the symphony of my sobs, a raw and unrestrained expression. This violation cut deep, leaving scars beyond my physical changes. Through my muffled cries, I didn't hear that someone had entered the room.

"Y/n?" I lifted my head up, eyes puffy and red, not giving a care in the world that whoever it was would see me in this state.

Standing above me was the boy who got me through the games; the one who trained me, the one who believed in me so much that he gifted me a pearl heirloom, the one who I imagined in my mind to distract my racing thoughts, the one who sent me sponsors to keep me alive, the one who's words of courage echoed in my ears when I was sure I'd die, the one whose last words to me were I love you.

My mind cannot comprehend that Finnick is now just within an arm's reach.