circus | finnick odair

dreaming

Pennia's POV

His hands grazed my face, his fingers delicately stroking my cheeks. I leaned into the unknown man's touch, my stomach erupting in butterflies.

The feeling is ecstacy, I could thrive off of his intoxicating scent and his heavenly touch.

I feel my hands run up his toned, bare chest. His heart flutters under my touch, making me giggle.

The man trails kisses up my neck and up my jaw, softly but lovingly. I feel myself running my hands over his sturdy shoulders, moving to the nape of his neck. I tug on the hair when I feel him place a kiss on my ear.

"Wake up, Pennia," I heard his velvet voice whisper in my ear before his hands fade away.

"No!" I whimper, desperately reaching out for him but I feel the ground beneath me collapse, taking me with it.

I jolt awake, letting out a yelp when I see my legs dangling below me. I look up to see Prim safely tucked away, dreaming of God knows what. I look around, seeing Issac rubbing his face and looking over in the direction of my noise.

Issac let out a loud cackle before jumping out of his tree and walking over to me.

"Not as slick now, are you?" Issac said, laughing.

"Funny, now get me down before someone kills us!"

Issac scales the tree easily, waking Prim before untying the rope. Before I realize it, he lets go of the rope and I'm falling to the ground. I let out a grunt when I land, glaring at my laughing friends.

"You good?" Issac says, jumping out of the tree.

"Yeah, perfect." I say, slowly standing up and shaking off the leaves and dirt.

I hear the others climbing down from their trees, much more gracefully than my fall.

"Have a good dream?" Bentley says, picking out a leaf from my hair.

"Yes, in fact I did." I say, a small smile creeping onto my face when I can almost feel the touch of the man.

"You're blushing; Penn's blushing?" Chase says, pointing to my cheeks.

I punch him in the shoulder before quickly covering my cheeks. "Shut up," I say, glaring at him.

"Let's look for water?" Prim says, grabbing our weapons and Bray before pulling us away from the guys.

"What was that about," Bray says, securing her arrows on her back.

"Nothing," I say, pushing two knives in my belt with my free hand while my other grips my spear.

"That wasn't nothing P, who was it?" Prim whispers, nudging my arm with her elbow.

"I don't know," I sigh, thinking about the dream. "I never saw his face."

"What happened?" Bray says, pushing a branch away from her head.

"I don't know, he was feeling my face and he smelt so good. I can smell it now, it was refreshing."

"Penn has a crush!" Prim squeals loudly.

"Shh!" I quickly cover her mouth, frantically looking around.

To my right I hear twigs breaking and heavy breathing. I motion the girls to hide behind the foliage as I crouch down behind a tree, my eyes trained on the direction on the sound.

Bray arms herself, pulling the string back, ready to let her arrow fly. Three tributes burst through the forest, only one is armed.

"I think we're safe here," the male says, panting. I think he's from District 10.

"Are you sure the Careers still aren't following us?" The small girl, District 10, says quietly.

"We lost them about two miles back, we'll be fine, Song." I flinch hearing her name, I remember her interview.

I look over at my friends, seeing them looking at me. I shrug my shoulders, looking back at the three winded tributes. Shaking my head, I slowly begin backing up towards camp.

Prim picks up a rock, throwing it to her right, their left, before getting up and running back to our camp.

Bray sends an arrow flying into the tree behind them before running after Prim with me quickly following suit.

I break through the bush that hides our camp seconds after the others, who are clutching onto the boys.

"We need to move out!" Issac says, quickly gathering our stuff.

"Let's go northeast, a diagonal line." I say, throwing my backpack on. "No running, we can't make noise."

"What about hunting them down?" Bentley says, picking up his daggers.

"It's the first day and eleven are already dead, we can't kill them all in one day." I say, stomping out the ashes to the fire and nodding towards the treeline.

"Let's move," Issac says, grabbing Prim's hand before leading the pack through the forest.

Issac and Prim are leading, Bentley and Chase are bringing up the rear with Bray and I in the middle.

I keep my spear ready, carefully watching my step. I hear birds chirping, I feel the suns rays on my bare arms; we all had stuffed our coats in our packs. This would've been paradise, if I wasn't in the arena, fighting for my life.

As we walk, I let my thoughts wonder. I instantly think of my dream, goosebumps appearing on my arm. I smile at the thought of the man and how gently he handled me.

Back home, the boys whistled and cat-called. But he, the dream man, wasn't like them. I felt like I knew him, like he knew me.

Everything I knew about my dream man, what little that was, invaded my mind. His scent was all I can smell, the warmness from his touch still evident in my cheeks, his soft and raspy voice in my ear.

The way he said my name weakened my knees, sped my heartbeat up, and clouded my judgement. The voice, so familiar yet unnamed, sent chills down my spine. His angelic sound had me falling, spiraling down an endless well.

I was too consumed in my thoughts to see that Issac and Prim had stopped in front of me. I only stopped because I ran into Issac's back. I looked up to apologize but I couldn't find the words to do so.

My breath left my lungs and I could feel sweat pooling on my forehead, the sun was ten times hotter than before.

We weren't in the forest anymore. There was no green, there were no leaves, no signs of life. The only thing that stood out was a silver box miles away.

Everything was beige, golden, and yellow. The heat was intense, the sun rays nearly blinding.

I held my hand up to cover my eyes and looked at what stood before us.

Desert.