Dying is easy, living is harder

Part 18

By Day Ten, they realized that there was something more going on with Annie other than her mourning someone who was clearly more than just an ally but an actual friend.

Annie just wandered in a daze as she had since she stopped crying. She automatically did things like drinking water and sleeping but she was clearly not all there in the head. You could see it in her eyes. She was too skinny and her skin was sickly and sallow. It was concerning.

Caesar Flickerman had an interview with District Eight's mentor and they spoke briefly of Annie and she wanted nothing more than to reach through the screen and tell him exactly where to shove it when he referred to her as "the mad one".

As if Sadie and Grayson are saner than her. At least she wasn't a psycho, she was just... struggling.

They were right to worry because Grayson found Annie. Everyone in the living room froze. He found her and she didn't make any move to escape or even seem to care.

Astrid had lost most of that already small glimmer of faith that Annie would somehow be okay sometime around day nine.

She was sure that this time Annie wouldn't get out of it. Annie would die because Annie had given up. She wanted to die.

And Annie always does the extreme, of course she found one of the most vicious killers to do it for her.

How are you, Annie?" Grayson asked silkily as he moved closer to her, sword still dirty with dry blood. Just make it quick, please. I'm begging you.

"Those of you who don't want to see this, leave now." Gobber commanded. He didn't look away from the screen and didn't bother to try to convince them more then that. He had too much on his plate at the moment.

No one left.

They couldn't abandon Annie here. Not now. Not again.

"I'm so glad that you've lasted until now. I was almost afraid that somebody would kill you off before we got to spend any time together..."

"No," Stoick let out a tortured groan. "Not this..." he begged.

"But you look intact." He dragged his sword across her chest, cutting straight through her jacket and revealing a bit of her chest. A thin line of red appeared on her skin.

Annie just looked at him, eyes dead.

"Physically at least."

That's when the camera switched to the girl from District Eight.

"What the hell," Astrid cried. "Go back! Go back!"

Was this their method to avoid showing sexual assault? Because they all knew what this was leading up to.

"She's there," Ruffnut hurried to say. Astrid didn't understand what she meant at first. "Astrid, she's there with them."

The shot changed to show from high in the tree the girl from District Eight was sitting on as she stared wide eyed as Grayson taunted Annie with what he'll be doing to her body before he killed her.

District Eight took out her blowgun, dipped the darts inside some ziplock bag full of crushed flowers and some juice and aimed.

Grayson felt his neck and seconds later, his eyes rolled back as he fell to the ground unconscious.

"Yes," Snotlout jumped to his feet.

The girl from District Eight, unexpectedly ruthless, quickly climbed down from her tree. She kept her blowgun at the ready to shoot Annie but Annie, ripped shirt and slashed chest, just kept staring at Grayson's body on the ground.

District Eight took Grayson's sword and stabbed him with it multiple times.

She couldn't lie. She felt some pleasure at seeing this particular person die. She was sure that after the Hunger Games, she would never look at herself the same. Here she was wishing real people in mortal peril, deathlet them all die.

The girl looked at Annie who still didn't bother looking at her and cautiously took Grayson's things — backpack and sword — and ran.

"That girl was," Fishlegs started.

"A godsend." Stoick interrupted.

They nodded in agreement. She was proof that you could still do good in the Hunger Games. The Capitol may try to take away their humanity but human kindness can be found anywhere even in the darkest of places.

"I'm hungry," Annie noticed softly as she placed her hands on her stomach.

I bet you are. She hadn't eaten since Percy died having not had the time to grab her backpack in the rush. She hadn't felt like expelling the effort with gathering food like berries so she didn't.

"She needs to eat. If she doesn't, she'll be too weak to fight," Gobber said. No one bothered to say the obvious would she even fight?

As if an answer from God, a silver parachute landed at her feet. She opened it and found hot stew and a long bandage. Annie's stomach growled but she didn't immediately start eating in a daze. Instead, for the first time, they saw a hint of alertness in her eyes as she looked for something in the cylinder.

Annie took out a note. There couldn't be more than one or two sentences on that piece of paper but Annie pressed it to her lips like a most cherished heirloom.

"Thank you, Finnick," she whispered.

"So she really likes this guy," Fishlegs looked down to his feet.

"Don't worry. we'll find you a girlfriend, Legs!" Ruffnut wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

Annie stood up and a few words from a... friend already made all the difference. While she wasn't back to normal she was more aware of what's going on around her than before. Astrid just hoped it would last.