Stay with me? [Finnick Odair]

27

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Chapter twenty seven: From a whisper to a scream
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Midday was approaching quickly, hours had passed and we were still hidden in the cave on the mountain, no doubt the other tributes were lining up around the cornucopia getting ready for their meal. I hadn't told the others that I had planned on heading back there alone, I just got ready, made sure everything was in order and shoved at least ten knives into my belt. I left my bag, assumed they would need it more than I did, and headed towards the exit.

"I'll be back before sundown, I'm going for more food," I mumbled to them as I stood at the exit, not bothering to meet their eyes, they both looked up at me and Oliver practically shot out of his seat.

"I'll go with you—"

"No," I cut him off. "It'll be better if I go alone."

"But—"

I didn't bother to wait for his arguments, I just left without another word, heading in the direction of the cornucopia and not daring to look back. I knew the chances of me returning were slim, especially considering the other tributes that I was going to be up against were far better than me, but I had to try, I couldn't just sit in that cave any longer when I knew there was food just waiting for us at the cornucopia.

It was a few hours walk from where we were set up, but that didn't bother me, I just kept walking no matter how tired I got. I eventually got to the outskirts of the large field, skimming my way around until I reached the trees, I watched the cornucopia for any movement. I saw the bags. Just sitting there out in the open. Each bag was labelled with a number, one for each of the remaining districts, five bags, labelled 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10.

My eyes were on the 4 and 8 bags, one full bag for Rosalie seemed a little too much, but I didn't bother to argue considering there was nobody to argue with. There was no telling which districts still had both tributes left, but considering there were five tributes besides us, there were at least two districts still standing. I kept my eyes peeled as the girl from 5 ran through the field only to fall on her face, a blade sticking out the back of her head, the cannon went and a boy followed her movements— getting the bag and getting out of there before anyone could get to him. One by one, the tributes came out and grabbed the bags of food until there were only three left.

I didn't want to wait any longer in case someone found me, so I ran out as fast as I could despite the tiredness to grab the two bags with 8 and 4 labelled on them, I managed to grab them, but then something knocked me to the ground with a thud.

I look up, it's the last tribute to come out and grab his food, he was large and definitely seemed unfriendly.

I shuffled backwards cautiously, eyes locked onto his, he snarled down at me and I grabbed the two bags and went to run away when he slashed at me with his sword— catching the back of my thigh and making me collapse, screaming out at the sudden pain in my leg. I turned my head, tugging one of the knives from my belt and throwing it at him; it caught in his neck.

He struggled to get it out, but that only make things worse, dropping the knife to the ground, he clutched at his neck in a feeble attempt at stopping the thick red blood from pouring down his neck. I couldn't take my eyes off of him. He was staring down at me with wide eyes, shocked and terrified, blood coming up through his mouth and staining his lips red, I swallowed the lump in my throat as he collapsed on the ground.

The cannon went off.

That's what snapped me from my state of shock, the sound of the cannon blasting through the air, I scrambled, picking up the two bags and my knife before cleaning it off on my pants and sprinting back in the direction of the cave; hoping that Rosalie hadn't gone insane and turned on Oliver while I was away.

It was another few hours before I had made it back to the cave, even with me running, the pain in my leg and the blood loss had finally caught up with me and I was moving a lot slower, I could tell that if I didn't find something to fix my wound soon I would be dead before the next day. The sun had went down when I got back, I climbed into the cave and instantly froze when I saw Rosalie but not Oliver.

She looked up at me, eyes scared, I dropped the bags on the ground and stepped towards her.

"Where's Oliver?" I asked, anger rising in my entire body. "Did you—"

"I didn't kill him," she cut me off, shaking her head and rising to her feet, her eyes widened at the blood running down my legs but she didn't bother to say anything. "He left to find you, said you were gone too long, he got worried," she explained and I let out a heavy sigh, closing my hands into a fist until my nails dug into my palms.

I groaned so loudly that my voice echoed off of the walls, picking up one of the bags of food and throwing it with all my strength, though it didn't help much since the effort it took to throw the bag made me collapse. I sighed exasperatedly, rolling my eyes at how weak I became within the few hours I had since the cornucopia, I grabbed the bags and tossed them towards Rosalie.

"There's food in those, not sure about water," I mumbled, pulling myself towards the wall and slumping against it, I watched as Rosalie scrambled for the food, tearing through the bags like a hungry wolf and shoving whatever food she could get her hands on into her mouth. "Don't eat it all, we don't know how much longer we'll be in here." She looked up at me with a bottle of water in her mouth, gulping it down like there was plenty to share, rolling her eyes, she tossed me a bag and I didn't even wait for anything.

I opened the bag, grabbing a bread loaf and some dried jerky, eating them like someone was about to take them away from me.

"We have to go out and find him, we can't just leave him out there," I mumbled through a full mouth, washing it down with water, Rosalie nodded in response and we packed everything away; deciding not to set off until morning, getting some rest would hopefully help with the tiredness we both felt...