Off the Deep End

Stormy Seas ahead (I)

Chapter 3

I sit quietly on the train as the escort rambles on and on about all sorts of stuff that none of us care about right now. For the first time since we left the District, Atlas finally makes some sort of eye contact with me. However, I am not in the mood to deal with this, so I leave for my room. It is the only place that I can go to get any sort of peace. I hear my door open and I hear quiet footsteps behind me.

"Annie? Are you alright, dear?" I turn around to see Mags. She has always been like a grandmother to me. She's always been there for me, loved me, and she taught me everything I know. I am the strongest swimmer in District 4 because of her.

"My parents never came to say goodbye." I answer, timidly. Mags sits next to me and hugs me tightly.

"I know, sweetheart, I know."

"They are the most important people in my life and they never came to say goodbye. The Peacekeepers wouldn't let them."

"Your father tried to get someone to take your place. But you know how it is. They have to volunteer willingly."

"I'm not going home am I?' I bow my head. "I don't want my friends to watch me die. I don't want my family to see me die." I say coldly.

"You don't know that. You could walk away the Victor." Mags encourages.

"I can't kill anybody, especially Atlas! He, Finnick, and I grew up together."

"I understand. But that's just a part of the Games that the Capitol doesn't care about. They just want the entertainment." She looks away from me and takes a deep breath. "I had to kill my own brother."

"What? Mags, are you serious?"

"He was 12. I was 15. We were in the final 5 and he knew he wouldn't last much longer."

"So what happened?" I move closer to her.

"I wanted to fight to the end, but I made a suicide pact with Ryan. We found a Tracker Jacker nest and were going to disturb the nest. The plan was that we were gonna die together." She runs her hands through her hair. "I left him. I shouldn't have gone. But I did."

"Why?" Mags is trembling and on the verge of tears.

"I thought that if I was going to die, I might as well kill one more time. So I ran off after a girl from District 8. Jeannette, I think her name was. She was older, but she was injured, so I knew I could take her down. I chased her to the beach, we wrestled, and I dragged her to the water." She wiped a tear away from her cheek. "I held her under the water until her Canon went off. About a minute later, I heard Ryan scream. I found him covered in Tracker Jacker stings."

"He didn't wait for you?"

"He said he thought that the Canon was mine. So he went ahead and messed with the nest. I wanted to stay with him until he died, but after hours of waiting, he was still alive, but suffering. He was hallucinating and having seizures. I couldn't bear it."

"He asked you to kill him."

"He handed me his knife and I, uh, stabbed him in the heart. He was dead within a few minutes."

"Mags . . . I am so sorry. I had no idea." I am stunned. I have never heard how Mags won the Games, led alone that she had a brother.

"It has been 60 years, and I still haven't forgiven myself for it."

"It's not like you had a choice, Mags." I tell her.

"It seems impossible to do until you are forced to." Mags answers coldly. "You're never the same after it." I walk slowly away from her towards the window.