Finnick's Story - By Aaliyah McLean

Leaving You

Finnick's POV.

Annie looks up at me with disbelieving eyes and smiles the smile that makes me suck in a sharp breath. "Okay. Where do you want to go?" She asks me and starts to walk closer to me.

"Why don't we go to the border?" I ask looking back at her as we step outside the little shop. She closes the door behind us with a bang and turns back around to face me.

"The border? I've never been near the border." Annie says.

"Well, come on, I'll show you the best parts," I reply and start walking in the direction on the edge of district four.

We walk around for a while trying to find a place where the electric fences are weak and/or turned off. Annie keeps asking whether she can climb over the fence, an ill be honest, if she wasn't so cute, I would have punched her already for being so annoying. We finally find a place where the fence is turned off and climbed through. I come down here often. I don't usually kill things, but I walk around for a while by myself, just trying to collect my thoughts. Even though I don't kill things I still keep a weapon on me throughout the whole time, you never know what could go wrong out here. It isn't protected by the peacekeepers so if something were to happen, the town would never find out. My trident is kept in a hollowed-out tree about a quarter of a mile down the fence. When I pull it out of the tree Annie shrieks behind me, I turn around and starts to back away from me.

"What's wrong?" I ask her, turning back around to see why she is so worried.

"W-what are y-you doing with that t-thing!" She stutters and keeps walking away from me. I take a few steps towards her.

"This is a trident, Annie. I just use this to make sure I don't die, animals are constantly walking around these woods and you can never be too careful. I'm not going to hurt you, I promise." She sucks in a shaky breath and comes closer to me. She grabs the trident out of my hand and swings it around like she has been using it for years. She finally slows down the frantic swinging and looks at me. "Are you okay now?" I ask her.

"Only if I get to use this for a while." She smirks and walks away from me. Once again, I am left smiling and completely speechless.

Two days later Annie and I head back out into the woods on the outskirts of our district. This time we didn't decide to walk through the trees with a weapon. We just found a nice grassy mountain and sat down next to each other. I sat with my legs crossed and picked some grass out of the earth whilst he spread her legs out in front of her and leaned back on her hands. She looks out into the miles of trees in the distance and I just watch her. How her expressions make the woods seem like the most magical place to be. "Tomorrow's reaping day." She states still looking out into the trees.

"Yeah, I know," I reply, not wanting to think about what I would do with myself if she was picked. We were quiet for a while just thinking about everything and anything.

I was about to speak again when she spoke just before me, "How many times is your name in the running?" I hate this, I hate this! Why do I have to tell her, I don't want her to worry and I don't want her to feel bad! My mother asked the same question three days ago. I hate this! I thought.

"32 times," I say grimly, she snaps her head to attention, looking at me with a wounded expression lying on her face. "It's not that bad, there are hundreds of names in that bowl, the chance is quite unlikely," I say sadly, looking down at my feet. She keeps looking at me though and when I lift my head to look at her again, I find her wrapped in my arms, embracing me in a tight hug. She's never touched me before, even though Annie's hugging me for a sad reason, I still embrace her as though this is the last time, I will ever see her.

"My sister's name is in that bowl 28 times, I wish I could do something to change that but I just... I just..." Annie stops and starts sobbing, letting her tears run down the front of my chest.

"It's okay, I know what you mean." I try to comfort her even though I am breaking on the inside. I hate seeing her sad, it breaks my heart. I rub her back slowly trying to comfort her.

She finally looks up at me and I stare into her perfect face and before I know it, I am leaning in. I kiss her before I know I am doing it. My left hand goes to her face and my right is still placed on her lower back. Her lips are soft but warm, she kisses me back with a slight urgency. I've never kissed anyone before, so I am breathing in all new experiences. She puts her hand to my face and starts kissing me harder as though we will never get the change again. I really hope we get the chance again, I don't want to leave her, ever. She pulls away slowly and smiles sadly at me. I brush a piece of red hair from her face and return her smile. I don't want reaping day to be tomorrow, there is always the chance that we will have to leave each other.

We file into the square at two o'clock in the afternoon. I search for Annie and find her already in the girls half about five rows from the front. I get to the front of the sign in line and the peacekeeper pricks my finger, I wince and then I am shooed on by another peacekeeper. I walk into my line about seven rows from the front. I can still see Annie, her red hair standing out from everyone else. I try to get her to notice me, but she is quietly whispering to the person next to her.

Finally, everyone is filing into the square. With the youngest eligible children in the front and the oldest in the back. The parents stand right at the back holding hands and sobbing for the chance that their child will have to leave. The escort, Poppy Little takes the stage, she is always so happy to pick children to go to the capitol and die. She walks over to the microphone in the middle of the stage. "Now the time has come to select one courageous man and women for the honor of representing district four in the annual 65th Hunger Games." Poppy recites. "As always, Ladies first!" she says as she skips over to the bowl containing all of the female people in district four between the age of 12 and 18. Poppy's hand floats over the little white cards for a while before she slides her hand in and grabs out one card. She walks back over to the microphone and says, "And the female tribute from district four is... "Ivy Grondell!"

I look into the stack of girls on the other side of me. I look over at Annie to see the girl she was talking to earlier shivering out of her skin. That poor girl! That must be Ivy. Annie starts crying and hugging the girl next to her as Poppy says again, "Where are you, Ivy? Come, come!" Ivy finally gets a hold of herself and slowly walks up to the stage with tears rolling out of her eyes. Poppy helps her up the stairs and centers her in the middle of the stage. "Lovely, and now for the boys!" Poppy shrieks too happily for comfort. She walks over to the other side of the stage where the bowl containing all of the boy's names. Once again, her fingers float above the cards for a while before plunging in and pulling out just one card.

I look over to see Annie staring right back at me. She looks so sad. I give her a reassuring smile when Poppy speaks again. "And the male tribute from district four is... Finnick Odair!"