A fate worse than death~~A Finnick Odair story~~

4. Glamorous living

"That was good, you guys were good." Mags was the first to speak. We had traveled in silence all the way from the parade to the lift. Now we were soon to be up at our floor, and I didn't know whether to be excited or terrified.

Ping!

We had arrived. The doors slowly open and I almost lost my breath at the sight. The doors opened to some kind of lounge, there was a big orange sofa and a screen that looked bigger than my whole room at home!

As I stepped out of the elevator, I also saw the giant dining table filled to the brim with food, and to my right was a corridor that led to a number of doors.

I barely had time to look away from the corridor before Evernis Grimsly came out of one of the doors.
"So!! What do you think, glamorous insentant?!!"
She sounded so happy, so excited, just like she couldn't think of anything better than to be here.

"Ohh let me show you to your rooms!!"
She walked up to us and took me and Jamie in each hand before pulling us to the doors.
"Here's your Elizabeth, and your Jamie is opposite."
She let us go and we stood there. We just stood there, silent without really understanding what we were doing.

"Well what are you waiting for? Open theme!!"
I was jolted back to reality by her words and carefully pushed the handle down.

Dear good god.
The room was gigantic, probably as big as the house at home, without really knowing what to do or how to react, I took a step into the room. It was so big! A whole wall of the room was just glass that looked down on the city outside!

Carefully I took a few steps towards the bed and sat down, it was probably three times as big and ten times as soft as the one I had at home!
Home.

"Well what do you think?!!"
Evernis stood in the doorway and looked as if she wanted to explode with joy, but I didn't know what to answer, only one thing came to mind. "Thank you."
She smiled at me, closed the door behind her and moved on to Jamie.

We had a small dinner. The supply of food was endless, but neither I nor Jamie were that hungry. As quickly as I was done, I excused myself and went into my room. It was still breathtaking, but now that the initial astonishment and shock had worn off, it gave way to sadness and loss. Tears began to roll down my cheeks at the thought that I would never see my family again.
I would never get to see my friends. Never get to see 4 again.
Never get to see the sea.
It was simply too much.

Knock knock knock.
The knocks were so gentle, almost as if they were afraid to startle me, so embarrassed I wiped away the tears and cried out.
"Come, come in."
Carefully, Finnick opened the door, stepped in and closed it behind him.

"How are you holding up?"
"Not great."
"Home sick?"
"A little."
He took a few steps towards my bedside table and picked up a small remote.
"Do you want me to show you one thing?"
I smiled slightly and nodded a little.

He pressed a button and at first I didn't understand anything, the TV hanging on the wall remained black, but when I looked at him questioningly, he just pointed at the windows.
And there it was.
The sea.
The tears I'm trying so desperately to fight back made their way and without a word Finnick walked over and hugged me.

We stood like that for a while before Finnick finally said.
"We have to talk."
I looked up at him before he let me go and continued.
"Do you want to win this?"
"I can't.."
"That wasn't my question."
"If your question is do I want to die, the answer is no, but, but I can't win!" "You can try."

"Finnick I'm 12!!"
God she's just a child.
"And I was 14!!"
God he's just a kid.
"No one will--."
"Well they will, if you give them something to remember, give them a show!"
Then there was silence for a second before he continued.
"Can you fight?"
"No."
"Can you handle a weapon."
"No, but I can clean fish and spear fish."
"Good, good, we can use thate."

He looked like he was thinking about something before continuing. "Tomorrow I want you to focus on using the weapons you are familiar with, learn to fight, if only a little, then learn survival skills, understood?"
I nodded.
"The Games are as much about knowing what's poisonous and how to make a fire as as thry are about fighting."
I nodded again.
"You can do this Elizabeth, you will do this!"

~~~

I didn't sleep much that night.
But despite that, I made the most of the day.

I threw spear at a target, Jamie taught me how to throw knives and then I practiced what could be poisonous in the arena.

Some things I already knew. Nightlock was obvious, but others were more difficult, it was also the damne buggs. In the arena there wasn't just berries and plants that could kill me, oh no, so could countless insects.
But shit be damned, I would learn them all.

"Hey Lizzy, you're getting good at that!"
It was Jamie
"Think you could teach me?"
He had the fighting and weapons down, but the survival skills, not so much.
"Sure."
But then I thought for a second.
"Or.."
"Or?"
"We could form an alliance.."

I bit my lip waiting for his answer, what if he said no, what if he thought I was just a stupid little girl, a girl who was only going to bring him down, an easy kill.
"If I teach you how to fight, you teach me this, and we can stay close in the arena, how does that sound?"
I smiled and nodded. I had gained an ally.

Truly, Jamie didn't know what it was about this little girl that made his heart skip a beat, it wasn't love, he was sure of it. Love was waiting for him at home, no this was something else, more of a protective instinct.
She was so small, so fragile and he just wanted to protect her.
So that's exactly what he was going to do.

He would teach her to defend herself, he would protect her, at least to the top five, he would do everything anf ennything, but he couldn't go too far. In the end it was a game, only one could emerge victorious,
and he knew he could never kill Elizabeth.