Skimming Stars (Hunger Games fan fic)

Chapter Four- Killing worms

Prologue- Hey people. Hope you like it so far. Comment, vote, eat, sleep, rave, repeat and again, and again and again and again and a few more times, and one for luck. 

Em xxx  

“I could kill a worm. You.” I scream at her.

She leaps back in shock, cupping her cheek. I feel someone grab me from behind but I stamp on their foot and twist out of there bear hug. I spin around and shove them hard. Cyan stumbles back in surprise. He wasn’t expecting me to fight back. Finnick grabs me around the waist and lifts me of the floor. I kick around with my legs catching Finnick in the knee. He doesn’t flinch. Instead he places me down with one hand firmly on my shoulder. Fliss steps forwards and scratches her long, sharp nails down my cheek.

“Save it for the games” Mags screams at me. She has evidently had enough of all of us. Fliss storms out. Mags collapses in a chair. Finnick bends down so he is eye level with my nose, checking the four long cuts from Fliss’s claw-like nails. My face begins to bleed. Cyan stands in the corner of the room staring at me in surprise.

Finnick grabs my wrist.

“We should take you to the train’s medic.” He concludes.

“This train has a medic?” I say in surprise.

“This train has almost everything”

Finnick pulls me through a maze of posh rooms until he comes to a dead end where he presses an almost unnoticeable button on the wall. I jump back as an invisible door slides open and a woman appears. She stands silently waiting for Finnick to tell her what he wants.

“We need a medic” he gestures to my face. She nodded once and left. A man in a blue uniform appeared so quickly that he must have been standing right next to the door.

“Sit please, miss” the way he asks made it sound like a command. He is obviously used to being obeyed. I sit in a chair as he examines my face. He snaps on a pair of rubber gloves before prodding the cut and spraying some clear, strange smelling, liquid out of a bottle from a sterile packet. He wipes it with a moist cloth from a packet. Then he puts a sticky bandage on it. I stand up.

“You’re all done. It won’t scar. You’ll be fine in a few days.”

“I won’t be fine in a few days. I’ll probably be dead in a few days.” I point out.

“mmmm” he say standing up. I feel Finnick stiffen next to me at the mention of my death. The medic snaps his medical case closed and looks to Finnick for a dismissal. Finnick waves him away and he retreats to the panel in the wall which slides shut behind him becoming once more invisible.

I turn to Finnick. I think I have really hurt him. I am probably going to die and I’m just taking it as a joke. I keep bringing it up when he just wants to forget it. I am an insensitive idiot. I sigh and smile at him sadly. He just stares at me.

“Sorry” I whisper

“For what?”

“Not taking the games seriously”

“You do take the games seriously. Everyone dose apart from the people in the capitol”

“No I mean when I’m in it. I… I keep on bringing it up”

“I can’t blame you for that, it is sort of a life changing thing for you”     

“Sort of, yeah” I sit down next to him on the plush sofa.

“We’ll be there soon. We should be going in to the tunnel any minute”

I sit next to him, shoulder to shoulder, staring at the opposite wall, the back of my hand touching the back of his.

“I think I’m cursed”

“Why?”   

“Bad things always happen to me and the people that I love. My parents, you. When I went in to the games I thought that it would be fine. I could win and be rich and happy. But it’s not like that. Well, not for most victors. It’s like you never really leave the arena. It’s always there in the back of your mind. Anything can make you think of it. A girl with the same hair a Colie, a boy who stands the same way as Drake. The way light reflects of curved gold reminds me of the cornucopia. Fragments of moonlight on water. Tangled vines like nets. Grey clouds.

And then there are other things out of the games. I thought I could leave and be safe but outside is almost as bad as inside. I feel like an actor. I need to play a certain role and there is so much pressure to get it right. In some ways inside the arena is better. In there you can only die.”

“Only die. What’s worse than dying?”

“Losing everything. Being crushed and broken and hopeless. And you, I don’t want to lose you. You and Mags, you’re the only family I have left. I don’t know which is worse at the moment. You dying or you living. I want you to live but maybe that’s selfish.”

“I don’t mind you being selfish.”

All of a sudden the train went dark. In the darkness I felt Finnick slide his hand into mine. I lean my head on his shoulder. How can someone so beautiful be cursed?

“You think I’m beautiful?”

“Did I say that out loud?”

Finnick chuckles, “Yup”

My cheeks burn red. Thank goodness its dark.