Something Worth Living For [THG] // Finnick Odair

Chapter LVI

I stayed in my bed all the next day until Carlyne enters my room. He has a new dress in his hands that I'll wear for the final interview. Out of routine I undress and let him help me put it on, but I'm not really registering anything of what I am doing. I'm numb. I feel numb, if I actually feel something at all.

This dress is different from the others, it's simpler. It's a grey colour and it's very short. It has a black belt around my waist with a flower on the right side. But as the other two dresses, this one only has one sleeve too, it's very pretty and I would have actually enjoyed wearing it if I weren't be feeling like this, so empty inside.

This time I have no prep team to beautify me, to make me the gorgeous girl I never thought I could be. This time Carlyne himself does my make-up, which is quite simple, just some blush on my cheeks, black eyeliner and some pink lipstick on my lips. He also makes my hair, he curls it and on my right side he braids a strand of my hair and makes a kind of half diadem. Again, the outlook is simple but it's enough. Somehow, it's just perfect.

"It's almost over." Carlyne says to me with a big smile on his face. "You are very strong."

'It's just the beginning.' A voice in my head says, I nod at Carlyne nevertheless.

The interview will be right here, down the hall. I walk slowly to the living room to meet Caesar, I shake his hand and greet him. We sit in different loveseats and get ready for the interview.

At first Caesar is funny, he makes jokes, talks to the audience that is watching it through a screen to get the right atmosphere, but then he gets more serious and starts to ask questions. Questions I don't want to answer.

"Are you anxious to see your family again?"

"Yes." I lie. "I can't wait to see them again."

"So, Danieka, how do you describe your relationship with Kade Weiss?"

"We were friends." I say to Caesar, my heart aches as I use the past tense because he is gone. "We only had each other in the arena so we got fond of each other quite quickly. He was the only person I could rely on, and he could only rely on me, maybe he was the only reason why I didn't go insane in the arena."

"Lots of us thought your feelings were growing toward something more than a friendship." Caesar says. "Did you like him?"

"He was a very handsome guy. I might have had a very small crush on him but I'm too confused to know for sure."

"How hard was it to go separate ways?"

"It was one of the hardest things I've ever done." I say. "But it would have been harder to stick together and have to kill each other at the end, I wouldn't be able to kill him."

"Speaking of which, I wasn't sure at first, but you really didn't kill anyone and you won, how did you do it?"

"I actually think I caused some of the deaths and I feel responsible for almost every death but to answer your question I think it was pure luck." I say. "I'm only fourteen years old, I wasn't ready to kill someone. My plan was to keep alive and try to prepare myself to kill the last tribute if I ever got so far."

"But you didn't kill that last tribute."

"No, I was lucky. If it weren't for Kade and Kellen I wouldn't be here right now, either of them would and I want to tell them, thank you because they saved me."

"It's good you brought Kellen up." Caesar says grinning. "During his interview he admitted he liked you and during the games he showed us he actually did, he saved you like you have said."

"I thought it was my end. Divya was going to kill me right there, I made a terrible mistake and I almost paid for it with my life but Kellen stopped her, and as he took me away I thought he wanted to kill me himself but he let me go."