The Winner Takes it All

Casualties

I put immense pressure on my leg as I try to get out of that part of the river, pretending I didn't hear just hear my own humming emanating from a tree. Did those asshat Gamemakers release some hallucinatory gas into the arena?? As if I didn't already have to enough worry about, now I'm hearing things. I sob a cry of relief once I see Cato and Clove starting a fire.

"Guys, a little help here?!" I snap at them.

"Where do you want this?" Cato asks, as he throws my bag over his shoulder.

"By the fire." I say as Clove takes the fish from my hand.

"I'm so glad you caught something." Clove says, smelling the fish and gagging. "Because I was not in the mood to skin a rabbit."

"I also found something else." I say as I pull out small stone from my pocket and the small bowl plants from my bag.

"Great, now she's starting a rock collection. You really know how to pick em Cato." Clove grunts as she slumps down on a log.

"It's not a rock collection, I'm grinding up some coriander that I found." I say mockingly, as I crushed the plant and just toss it aside. "Well at least what's left of it can be used medicinally."

"I was going to tell you that crushing it wouldn't of had done anything." Cato says, as he sits next to me.

Does he just have multiple personalities?

"Where are Marvel, Glimmer and Peeta?" I ask, looking for either of them.

"Looking for other caged food." Cato answers , flashing me a genuine smile instead of his usual cocky smirk. "Or rather Marvel is looking for food, and Glimmer's babysitting our friend from 12."

Clove helps me cut up the remaining coriander, once I realize I'm an idiot for forgetting about the knives and Cato begins cooking the fish when the other 3 come back. Glimmer scowls at her meal while Marvel happily digs in and is the first to finish. Once all of us finish, we go back to hunting for other tributes running excitedly through the area that I heard my humming yesterday.

"Guys, I think I see someone over there." I say, seeing a girl limping to a tree and begin climbing.

We pick up speed just as the girl from 12 scrambles her way to the top of the tree.

"How's everything with you?" she asks casually.

"Well enough. How about yourself?" Cato responds nonchalantly.

Is this really happening??? I scan the area for a possible trap she may have set but don't see anything and just return my focus to her.

"It's a bit warm for my taste. The air's better up here. Why don't you climb up and join me?" she asks in a mocking tone.

Cato smirks and looks at us. "I think I will."

"Here, take this, Cato." Glimmer says she offers him her bow, only for him to push it away and gesture towards his sword on his belt.

"No, I'll do better with my sword." Cato says as he begins to climb the tree only to fail and fall down.

Don't laugh, keep a straight face Marin. I fail to hold back a smirk and watch as Cato looks at the tree in confusion.

"What the hell?" Cato says as he attempts it again only to fall off again while I keep trying to keep a straight face.

Glimmer pushes Cato aside and looks up at the girl. "Move over, idiot."

She manages to climb a few steps, but like Cato, falls off. She tries to aim an arrow at the girl's head, but it just ends up getting lodged in the tree. We watch as the girl simply removes it from the tree and mockingly waves it in front of us. The other four start arguing while I just shrug and look over at Cato who is getting angrier.

Peeta groans, "Oh, just let her stay up there. It's not like she's going anywhere. We'll deal with her in the morning."

Everyone agrees and set up camp again underneath her tree. Sitting down, I watch Clove just toss a knife at a lizard's back with a bored expression. While Glimmer tries to flirt with Cato and eventually getting him to laugh. I roll my eyes and keep hoping that Sereia will send me a needle and some thread but groan and slam my head down into my knees. Of course she won't send me anything, she saw me openly attack my own partner. Is Finnick punishing me too?

We all begin to fall asleep, and I watch Glimmer use Cato's arm as his pillow. Who cares, I sure as hell don't. Who needs him. I roll over and lay my head down on my pillow and close my eyes, soon finding myself on the beach next to our original home.

A 14 year old Finnick sits down next to me and smiles warmly as he hands me a roll that he got from the Valentine family's bakery. "Here, I managed to convince Sereia to give me this."

"I love you Finn." I say as I take a bite of my half the roll, and spit it out then wiping my tongue on my shirt. "It tastes gross."

Finnick laughs at my comment and waves a passerby. "I wish I had something else to give you, but that's all I could get. I just finished registering for more tesserae."

"Finn, don't do that?" I whimper as I crawl over to a tidepool and pull out a blue shell.

"I don't have much of a choice, we need food." He responds as he looks at the shell. "Wow, this is so pretty."

I hold it out to him and smile. "Here, it'll be your good luck charm."

Suddenly I feel a stinging sensation that quickly turns fills my body with pain as the stinging spreads throughout my body. I snap awake to find the remains of Tracker jacker nest on the floor and my fellow Careers screaming in pain.

"Tracker jackers!!" Clove cries out.

"To the lake!!" Cato and Marvel cry in unison as the rest of us try and follow.

I blindly run towards the sound of their voices and see the trees around me transform into waterfalls of blood. I try to maneuver around large humming bubbles, immediately stopping in my tracks when I see Finnick's mutilated corpse hanging from a tree and cry out in alarm as I slowly walk my way over to him. No, this can't...this can't be. This isn't real, it's because of the venom. Finn's safe, he has to be. I notice movement out of the corner of my eye and turn to see a lizard-like creature running at full speed towards me. I take off running, hearing a cannon fire and feel a sense of fear hoping it wasn't Cato.

I navigate my way around several blood waterfalls and then feel a tightness around my neck as I try to free myself from it's grip and feel relief as the pressure on my neck vanishes. Just as the horrific creature is about to reach me, my vision starts getting blurry and soon everything fades to black and my body goes numb...