Heart of Gold • Finnick Odair

-35-

ROSALIE POV

My tracker is injected into my forearm on the plane to the arena. And so it begins.

"The suits light, no thermal, I guess tropics or desert," Mikel tells me as he tucks my infinity necklace under my fitted jumpsuit. I also wore a padded purple belt though I may take it off in the arena, it's weighing me down slightly.

"Thank you, Mikel, for everything. Making me beautiful dresses, looking out for me these past few years, being there-" I tear up.

"Hey, I know, I know. No tears, okay. No matter what happens after this moment right here, stay strong. For me, okay?"

"I promise," I nod, worried for what his words may have meant.

'Ten seconds to launch."

I step into the glass cylinder and hear it seal. The rest happened so quickly.

Peacekeepers barge into the room, shoot him in the head, he falls to the ground, some of his blood splatters on the glass in front of me, and then my platform begins to rise as I bang against the glass. I don't cry though, I don't let myself, I promised him I'd stay strong. For Mikel.

I observe my surroundings. Each tribute is stood on their platform surrounded by water. The arena is shaped like a circle and is very small. The Cornucopia is on an island in a large, round pool of salt water. Encircling the water was a jungle.

Claudius' voice is heard, "Let the 75th Hunger Games begin. May the odds be ever in your favour."

10. I can't see Finnick, he must be on the other side. 9. Chaff is only two people away from me.  8. Then it dawns on me. 7. Chaff can't swim. 6. He nods at me, telling me to go. 5. I shake my head but he insists. 4. My eyes focus on a spear and belt of knives at the Cornucopia. 3. I'm lucky I can swim, I learnt as part of training for my last games as well as Finnick giving me tips over the years. 2. It's time to put those skills to test. 1.

The canon fires and I dive into the salt water below. I swim as fast as I can to one of the rock paths, it seems easier than I remember; my hips seem to naturally float ever so slightly, maybe it's the belt? I run as fast as I can without slipping. I get to the cornucopia and grab my spear and wrap a belt of knives around my waist, sitting just below the purple one. I hold my spear in hand, ready to fight.

"Good thing we're allies, right?" I see Finnick showing Katniss the gold alliance bracelet and make my way over. Katniss stares me down but makes no move to aim her bow, "she's with me. Duck."

He launches his weapon into the chest of an attacker. "Don't trust one and two. I'll look for Peeta, you hold them off."

Katniss shoots at Enobaria but she dives into the water too quickly. "Katniss, Mags found him. Over here."

Peeta is fighting with someone in the water. Finnick passes me his trident then dives in. A cannon sounds. Peeta emerges.

I look over to where Chaff had been stood to find he had obviously managed to slowly make his way over to a rock path using the purple belt that was somehow helping us float. He's now managed to climb onto one of the rock paths, having not realised who is aiming at him from the cornucopia. A spear pierces his chest before I can even warn him. I scream his name. The boom of a cannon sounds as his body falls back into the water, tinting it red. Blood red.

I vaguely hear Mags and Finnick come to the same conclusion about the belts being flotation devices. I hadn't even noticed he'd come out of the water with Peeta, let alone taken his trident back from my hand.

I have no time to think as I feel a strong but gentle arm wrap round my waist and pull me away from the sickening site, we start running to safety. Peeta leads with Katniss close behind, then Finnick with Mags on his back, and me at the very back keeping guard.

"Hold up, hold up," Finnick calls as he lets Mags down causing us all to stop.

"It's hot, we gotta find fresh water," Peeta states.

I don't say a word. Besides, I'm used to working under the heat of the sun back in 11.

Cannons go off and Finnick says something about not holding hands anymore. I'm honestly not really listening. The image of Chaff's dead body scarred in my brain forever.

"You find that funny?" Katniss asked, unamused and irritated.

"Every time that cannon goes off, it's one more I don't have to kill," Finnick's Capitol persona was shining through.

"Good to know."

"Want to face the careers alone? What would Haymitch say?" Finnick purposely annoys the teenager.

"Haymitch isn't here."

"Let's keep moving," Peeta offers to diffuse the tension.

Finnick helps Mags onto his back and turns to me, "you alright?"

I just nod without looking at him and he knows not to push it further. I don't want to talk about it, not here. I'm already on edge being so close to our little archer.

Peeta now leads followed by me, then Finnick and Mags, then Katniss who insisted she watch our backs.

She's got trust issues. Can't really blame her though.

"Peeta, no!" Katniss yells but Peeta doesn't react quickly enough.

The boys body knocks me back into a tree as he comes into contact with an electric wall. I feel an immediate ache in my back but am glad I didn't hear anything crack or break.

Peeta lies lifeless on the ground as Katniss approached him, "he's not breathing, he's not breathing."

Finnick moves to help as Mags puts a hand on my shoulder as if asking if i'm okay. I just nod and attempt to give her a tight smile.

Finnick pushes Katniss out of the way to start CPR on Peeta in attempts to start his heart back up but Katniss takes it the wrong way and loads her bow with an arrow. I'm immediately in front of her pushing her arm to redirect the arrow in case she lets it go, "no! no! he's helping, he's helping."

She must see the genuine fear in my eyes because she immediate puts the bow down, holding her hands in surrender as she looks at me (a second too long for my liking) before coming back to her senses and crawling to Peeta, now starting to sob.

Peeta gasps, taking deep breaths, and Finnick leans back, out of breath himself, to give them some space. I do the same thing, leaning my sore back against a tree for support, still in slight fright that Katniss' bow had given me.

He notices and moves to sit beside me, "you okay? what happened?"

"Probably just bruised, i'm okay," I reassure him but the look in his eyes tells me he knows there's something else.

Finnick places a kiss on my forehead and whispers, "I'm sorry about Chaff." I just nod, leaning my head on his shoulder as he wraps an arm round my shoulders in a side hug, gentle not to hurt my back, whilst we watch Katniss and Peeta. Maybe not everything about their little act is fake.