𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕚𝕣𝕝 𝔽𝕣𝕠𝕞 𝔻𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕣𝕚𝕔𝕥 𝔽𝕠𝕦𝕣

18- The First Day in the Arena

Finnick and I woke up to our escort bawling his eyes out. Not wanting to deal with him I told him to let my stylist know I was awake before turning back to face Finnick. He looked at me like he was never going to see me again so I hugged him as tightly as I could and soon felt him hugging me just as tightly and kissing my temple before he whispered that he loved me. I told him I loved him too and we broke apart as my stylist came into the room and ushered Finnick out. An hour later I was finally finished with the prep and had gotten into the helicarrier that would take us to the dreaded Arena. The guard put a tracker into my arm. The only difference from this time versus last time was I barely even flinched this time around. I decided to sleep until we got to the arena so I would be well rested for the upcoming day.

As my stylist and I walked into the tube room as I called it I continued to fidget with my outfit. It was cooler but I didn't like the sleeves at all so I hoped I would be able to take them off at some point. I closed my eyes tightly and took a deep breath as I braced myself for the tube to drop down . I felt it close around me and the air get thicker as I started moving upwards. Not wanting to open my eyes I continued to keep them shut and my breath steady so I showed no signs of weakness. I finally felt a cool breeze and opened my eyes to see a vast amount of water and the outskirts of what appeared to be a jungle behind a beach. I looked around for Finnick but couldn't see him anywhere so I assumed that he was on the other side of the Cornucopia. The countdown began as I weighed my options.. As the count down ended I jumped into the water and swam as fast as I could, making me the first to reach the path by a long shot. I got to the cornucopia first and grabbed the two tridents that were leaning up against the wall of the cornucopia, knowing that Finnick would need one when he arrived. I quickly saw him as a tribute lunged towards him, so I threw the trident into the back of the other tribute, Finnick quickly spun around the tribute's falling body before pulling the trident out of his back and running towards me. We saw Katniss so we ran towards her. Me taking out another tribute and Finnick taking out two other ones as he was talking to Katniss. I ran ahead to see if I could find any sign of Peeta when I saw him fighting with another tribute. Finnick noticed right after I did and jumped into the water, leaving me to deal with a hysterical Katniss. I heard a cannon and instantly got worried that it was either my fiance or my brother so I panicked a little, before I saw their heads shoot out of the water as Finnick led Peeta back to the Cornucopia. We all decided to run to the beach so that we would be away from the careers but as I was about to dive back into the water a tribute caught me and stabbed a knife into my leg cutting it deeply. I screamed out in pain before grabbing my trident and stabbing the tribute in the head with it. I slowly got up and limped towards the edge of the water as I saw Finnick swimming back to me. I struggled to keep swimming and started sinking due to losing blood and the fact that I could only swim with one of my legs instead of both of them when Finnick grabbed me and helped me to the shore. Once we got up I sat down and used my sleeves to make a tourniquet of sorts so the blood would stop. Finnick said he would carry me until my leg got better but I protested. Eventually I gave in due to the fact that I didn't want to slow the group down so he helped me get onto his back and everyone started running into the jungle. Eventually we stopped and Finnick set me down and checked on my leg, luckily it had stopped bleeding. We heard Cannons go off and Katniss got pissy about Finnick's mindset to the games. Eventually we had to move again so Finnick picked me back up again and we continued onward. Suddenly Katniss freaked out and shouted Peeta's name right before he hit a force field and sent us all flying back. Peeta stopped breathing so Finnick did CPR on him as I held Katniss back and tried to stop her from freaking out and shooting my fiance with an arrow. I held my breath as Finnick continued CPR, worrying that I could potentially lose my brother when he gasped for air suddenly. Katniss immediately hugged Peeta making sure he was okay and I hugged Finnick before giving him a quick kiss and thanking him for saving my brother's life. He kissed my temple and pulled me onto his lap as Katniss continued to cry and kiss him. I wasn't sure if she was playing it up for the cameras or if she really did love Peeta but I was just happy he was still alive and in good spirits. I moved off of Finnick's lap so that he could help Peeta up and Finnick looked as if he was unsure about something. He helped me up and we all continued to walk, Finnick helping me down the paths so I wouldn't lose my footing and damage my leg even more. Katniss stopped so we all took a break and Peeta came over to me. I whispered and asked him if the baby bomb was actually real, wary of any potential cameras around to which he laughed and said it was only to try and stop the games. Katniss came back and told everyone that we were at the edge of the arena and that it was a dome so we discussed setting up camp. Katniss accused Finnick of wanting to kill everyone to which he got slightly annoyed and explained that he would've killed the two of them if he wanted to before stalking off somewhere. Katniss came up to me to talk and I asked her why she didn't trust Finnick. She shook her head before rejoining Peeta completely avoiding my question. Finnick came back and helped me up so that he could find somewhere comfier for me to sleep while him and Katniss took first watch. I laid down and tried to get as comfy as I could before kissing Finnick and trying to sleep. In the end I ended up keeping watch with Katniss and Finnick before the Panem anthem started playing. We all looked up at the sky to see the fallen tributes. I had known a few of them, Seeder and I had been good friends so it was a little sad to see that she had gone. Soon after we heard the familiar bell of a package arriving. Katniss rushed over to pick it up and it was revealed that it was a spiel. Thank god we had a means of getting water in the arena now. Knowing the other tributes we most likely had an advantage over a lot of the other tributes, who would most likely be as dehydrated as we had been before. We all took turns drinking the water, Finnick being kind enough to get some into a leaf for me so I would be able to rest my still injured leg some more. We suddenly heard a deep chiming noise, almost like a bell tolling. I counted 12 of them. Finnick and me jumped to the conclusion that it could be telling us the time was midnight but Katniss shrugged it off as the number of districts causing me to roll my eyes before meeting Finnick's who's held the same amount of annoyance as mine before we both let out chuckles at the situation we were in. Morbid? Possibly, but at least we HAD a sense of humor left after all of the shit we had seen. Suddenly we were jolted out of our laughter as we saw Lightning strike a tree. Finnick said he was going to sleep and told me to try and get some rest as well. I reassured him that I would try and he laid down and instantly fell asleep. Katniss and I ended up talking for a bit, recounting little tidbits of our lives before the games. I omitted telling her about Peeta being my brother due to the fact that it didn't really seem all that relevant at the time before I eventually fell asleep forgetting about being in the arena temporarily.

After a while I woke up to Katniss screaming at all of us to wake up. I looked around to see a fog growing around us as Finnick came rushing over to me, helping me up so that we could all escape. We ran through the jungle trying to avoid the fog as much as possible, I felt bad for making Finnick have to lag behind just to help me keep going but I pushed on through the pain as much as I could, not wanting to slow down or stop knowing that at any second it could gain on us. It started to enclose around us and soon we started to be enveloped in the fog all of us screaming out in pain as it hit us. Finnick and I fell over as it hit us as he helped me to get back up before running again. Soon though Peeta fell over and stopped moving. The realization of the situation hit me. Katniss said that she couldn't carry Peeta on her own as Finnick looked completely hopeless. I realized what I had to do. I shuffled over to Finnick and hugged him tightly, whispering in his ear to be strong and continue the games before reminding him what was at stake if one of them died. I pulled away from the embrace before kissing him one last time with as much love and meaning as I could and stepping away. I could hear Finnick screaming at me to stop and pleading with me before I told him I loved him one last time, limping into the fog before the pain took me over, screaming as my last thoughts were of my brother and the love of my life. Then the world went black.