Finnick and Annie

Odd Call

Nothing was the same after Katniss almost ate those berries. It was all people talked about. Some people were pleased, most victors like me, who hated the Capitol, were absolutely fascinated, but a lot of people also thought it were unfair.

            Katniss and Peeta’s interviews all revolved around how in love they were for each other. I still didn’t buy that… I believed Peeta was in love… I could see it in his eyes. I was madly in love, so it was obvious to me, when he looked at Katniss how much he cared for her. Katniss, however, seemed a bit false, in my eyes. I had gotten a pretty good idea of how she was, by watching her games, and though I didn’t know how to feel about her anymore, I knew she was just trying to survive. I didn’t blame her.

            I finally returned back home, and the victors returned to their district, and all was peaceful for a while. At least that was what I had hoped.

            I arrived at the train station, and found it deserted. Annie usually waited for me, but she wasn’t there that day. I felt disappointed, and a bit worried. I walked back home and dropped my bags in the living room.

            “Anne?” I called. No answer. I looked around the living room, and the kitchen, and then I went to the rooms upstairs, but she was nowhere to be seen. “Annie?” I called, louder, starting to panic. Then I remembered the place she always went to when I couldn’t find her anywhere else… the balcony.

            “Annie?” I asked, “What are you doing here?” She was curled up against the glass wall, crying. “Annie, what’s going on?”

            “You were supposed to be back yesterday!” she whimpered.

            “Annie, I called, but you didn’t answer, so I left a message.”

            “You were supposed to be here yesterday, Finnick!” she cried.

            “Annie, I’m really sorry,” I sighed. “I couldn’t leave.” She shook her head and continued to cry.

            “They tried to get me!” she sobbed. “They came for me, and they wanted to take me with them, and they wanted to cut off my head as well, and you weren’t here, and I called you but you didn’t answer.”

            Though nothing she said had made any sense at all, her desperate sobbing, broke my heart. Everything was real in her mind. She’d probably been out there a whole day, and I had been away, fucking other women. Annie deserved much better, she really did.

            “Annie,” I whispered, and sat next to her. “They didn’t get you, it’s fine. I promise. I’m here to protect you now…”

            “Don’t leave again, please,” she murmured. I simply nodded. Though I hated lying, I knew she would understand when she calmed down. She always understood, but she never remembered the reasons I had to go when she had one of her attacks.

            “Let’s go inside, honey,” I sighed, and I picked her up from the ground and carried her into our bedroom. All of her stuff was there now too. There was nobody else living in the house.

            Months went by, and the Victory Tour began. I knew how terrible hose were, and I felt bad for Katniss, though at least she had Peeta as company. They continued to play out their romance on the camera, but Katniss was a terrible actress.

            Everything was doing fine, at least as fine as those tours go, but then, in District eleven, all hell went lose. There had continued to be protesting, and small riots in several districts against the Capitol. Everything had been very spontaneous after Katniss had won the games.

            The Capitol had tried to keep these secrets, but us victors were well informed. The day Katniss and Peeta arrived at District eleven, they offered Rue’s family a portion of the food they got from every month, since it was a lot more than they needed.

            The crowd was quiet, until Katniss raised three fingers to her lips and then raised them into the air, a sign of respect back in her district. Katniss and Peeta were hurried off the stage as a man from the crowd, attacked a nearby peacekeeper. They grabbed him and put him on stage, then the screen went blank… but we all know what happened.

            They had tried to cut off the footage, but they hadn’t done it in time, the man had been obviously executed.

            I got a call from the Capitol a few days later. It surprised me, since I had just returned from my monthly visits two weeks ago, and nobody else called me.

            “Hello?” I said into the phone.

            “Finnick,” spoke a strange voice I didn’t recognize.

            “Uh, yes, who is this?” I asked.

            “Plutarch Heavensbee,” he said, with a thick Capitol accent. “We haven’t met before, but I’d like to meet you soon.”

            I sighed. “I’m sorry, Sir,” I said, “but there is a long waiting list, if you want to meet with me, you need to speak directly to President Snow, or one of his secretaries.”

            The man laughed. “No, that’s not what I want to meet you for,” he said. “Finnick let me ask you a single question,” he said. “Do you admire our newest victor?”

            “Admire her?” I asked. “Why would I?”

            “Her courage. She did what we all wish we could.”

            “What do you mean?” I asked.

            “Are you happy with the way this country is run?” he asked.

            “Aren’t you a Capitol citizen? I asked sarcastically. “Don’t you think Panem is perfect?”

            “Yes, I am a Capitol citizen, but no, I don’t believe it’s perfect.”

            “Is that so?” I asked. “Why do you hate it? Have they lowered your salary? Has the price of the caviar gone up?”

            “No need to be bitter,” he said.

            “You have no reason to hate the country. You are benefitted by everything we do, so why would you hate it? Are you trying to trick me? Did Snow set you up to ask me these questions?”

            “Shut up, Finnick,” he barked. “I know you have a lot of reasons to hate the government, which is why I would love to meet with you, to make a change. No, if you’re not interested, I won’t bother you again, and we can pretend this phone call never happened,” he said. “If not, I’ll be meeting with a couple victors in a few weeks. It should fall during one of your Capitol visits, so you won’t need to spend more time away from your precious Annie. Make sure to keep her out of this, we don’t want any of this information used against her, now, do we?”

            I opened my mouth to respond, but his voice was gone and replaced by a long, high-pitched noise that meant the call had ended.

            “Who was that, Finn?” called Annie from upstairs. I went back to our room, and lay besides her to rest for the night.

            “Oh, just Mags,” I lied.

            “What did she want?”

            “Well, I invited her over for dinner tomorrow, but she just called and told me she couldn’t make it.”

            “How come?” Man, she was persistent.

            “I don’t know, sweetie, let’s just go to sleep, ok?”

            “Alright, Finny. I love you, good night,” she whispered and kissed my nose. I chuckled and wrapped my arms around her and pretended to sleep, thinking about my conversation with Plutarch.