THE SIREN'S SONG 𓇼 F. ODAIR

58 ~ the bombing

The moment Finnick and Fletch stepped foot into Compartment E, Marina rushed up to them, panicked with glossy eyes.

"What took you so long?" she asked. Marina held up two supply packs and practically threw them at both of the men. "I've been waiting forever for you two!"

"It's been five minutes," Finnick said. "We came here as fast as we could."

"We're fine, I promise," Fletch added, reaching out to put a hand on the woman's shoulder.

Marina's breath evened out through the touch. She shrugged his hand off and practically jumped into his arms. Fletch wrapped his arms around her, trying his best to calm her down.

Finnick looked at the two, feeling like he was being completely forgotten about. A wave of emotion coursed through him. He didn't think it was possible to miss Carolina even more.

"What's going on?" Marina asked quietly into Fletch's chest. "Are we going to get bombed?"

"Yes," Fletch nodded. "But we're miles below the surface. We are going to be fine."

"You don't know that," Marina shook her head. "We– we could..."

"We are going to be fine," Fletch said again, pulling away from their hug to cup her cheeks. "Trust me, District 13 has prepared for this."

When Marina didn't look convinced, Fletch turned around to give Finnick an apologetic look before leading Marina away. Finnick watched them leave with a sigh and looked down at the pack that Marina had just given him.

Inside, there was a thin mattress that gave Finnick a backache just by looking at it, two sets of gray clothing, a toothbrush, a comb, and a flashlight.

He unpacked the items in the bottom bunk bed he was assigned to and returned the pack to the Supply Stations. Once he was done, Finnick laid down on the bed and waited for further instructions, knotting and unknotting his piece of rope as he did so.

It wasn't until someone sat down in the bed next to him that Finnick looked up.

Finnick smiled at the sight.

"Well, it's nice to see that you're not dead."

Reef kept his head down, staring at his hands. When Finnick sat up to look closer, he realized that the man was holding two small photographs.

One was a school photo of Fiona.

The other was an old picture of Carolina smiling.

Finnick stared at the photo of her for a long moment. He recognized where it was from almost immediately.

It wasn't hard. His girlfriend was in the water, and she was smiling wider than Finnick had seen in a while.

It was from the summer before Charlie died.

"Lina," Reef said slowly, noticing that Finnick was looking at the pictures as well. "She wasn't in the interviews today."

"I know," Finnick nodded. "Fletch said they wouldn't kill her. The Capitol loves her too much."

Reef shook his head, still refusing to look up.

"That doesn't stop them from torturing her to the brink of death and then slapping makeup on her."

Finnick inhaled sharply at his words, causing Reef to finally look up. Reef's face saddened at the sight.

"Is that what you really think?" Finnick asked. "That they're torturing her that horribly?"

"I know that right now, hope is all we've got," Reef started. He turned to look at the photos again, his face cracking even more at the sight. "But we both know what the Capitol is capable of."