okeanios, finnick odair DISCONTINUED

t e n

| chapter ten — coming home | 

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as soon winter was out of the arena, she was brought to a shower and given clothes to wear. the long trip back to district four was slow. they had to stay a while in the capitol as the people wanted to see and meet the victor of the sixty-third hunger games.

they twelve year old sat straight faced, her long brown locks twisted into an almost crown like in the chariot parade. both craig and minty looked at the victor with concern but both parties decided to stay silent, knowing the young girl was in no way for talking.

when they arrived at district four, winter was taken out of the train and towards the stage where she once stood, around two months ago and had her name picked out of a glass bowl, her innocence still intact in an extent.

once winter was allowed, her ran down off the stage and into the arms of her sobbing mother, her fathers arms wrapping around her as well, their grips tight. winter let out heavy sobs as she gripped her parents with the same intensity.

"we have you, oh my girl, we have you." her mother managed to choke out as she pulled her only child closer. neither of winter's parents could believe it, their little girl survived the hunger games, won the hungers games, killed people, was in their arms right now. they had seen every state she was in whilst being in the games, they saw the bond between her, mason and aster grow. 

"i wanna go home, mommy i wanna go home." winter whimpered out as her father sent both craig and minty a pleading look.

minty cleared her throat, in an upset manner and walked down the steps, craig following close behind. "please follow me to your home in the victor's village." minty's capitol accent called out as craig and winter's father shook hands. 

when they got to the victors village, mags flanagan stood at her doorway. looking at the new victor and her family with sympathy, she had watched the whole and even when her name was mentioned, she still continued to root for winter surviving.

winter's mother entered the home after minty handed her the key, winter's father walking in before the door was closed. the house was beautiful, its white pillars matching with the pale blue, almost gray. the matching coloured furniture. it was an home made to be art but winter knew that no matter how long she lived there, all the house would do was send dark memories of the time she was in the hunger games at twelve, forced to kill others and watch or listen to her friends die and not being able to do anything about it.

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it was the night that winter returned from her victory tour, her body hurting from all the fake feelings she had to put on, but when she mentioned aster, genuine tears slipped down her face and onto the long forgotten cards.

winter was in her bed, her parents in the room nearest to hers. her eyes had closed in an almost peaceful sleep for the first time in weeks, or at least since she returned from the games.

suddenly, winter heard a gasp and spun around and what she saw made her shout.

"mason!" a career stood above mason, the blond haired boy now sported a slit throat. winter let out a cry as she flung a knife, hitting the career in the head. she ran forward, lifting mason head onto her lap, rocking his body back and forth. "mason. . . mason please, don't. . . don't leave me please don't leave me."

"mason! mason, please!" winter sobbed loudly as mason choked on his own blood, his messy soft blond curls stuck to his bloodied neck. "aster, help me!" winter screamed, but aster was nowhere to be seen as mason couldn't speak, the blood coming from his mouth making it impossible for him to speak, his breath catching making the blood bubble disgustingly. before he even had the chance to say anything, his chest stopped moving, he stopped struggling. mason was dead . a haunting canon went off and that's when winter completely broke down. "mason! mason, no! you're not dead! mason! mason!"

someone hooked their hands under winter's armpits and dragged the young girl away from his dead body. that kind soft spoken dorky boy from district four. dead. but instead of aster dragging winter, this time it was someone she didn't recognize, her feet started kicking as she screamed in fear. she clawed at the unknown figures arms before hearing a voice.

"winter, winter baby wake up, winter, it's just a nightmare, wake up!"

winter sat up in her bed screaming, tears running down her cheeks as both her mother and father wrapped their arms around her, her screams had stopped but her loud sobs and crying hadn't.

winter felt her mother stroke her hair gently. "it's okay, winter, it's okay, baby. you're home, you're not in the arena anymore, baby you're home with papa and i. it's okay." her mother kept repeating the same words to try comfort her child, but she knew it might not even help,

she couldn't imagine being in the games, especially not at winter's age. winter continued to cry as her parents rubbed her back gently, staying with her for the rest of the night.

—   

winter sat beside finnick, his sea green eyes concentrated on hers as she told him a tamer version of the yet another nightmare she had.

"it felt so real, finn, i couldn't breath--"

"shush winter, you're going to get yourself worked up again. you just need to remember that you're not in those games anymore, you're home, you're here in district four, with me and your parents. you just need to breath in and out every time you feel as though you're going to go into a panic, okay?" finnick as as his eyes never left winter's dark ones. "it's going to okay, you're not in the games anymore.

winter nodded as she hugged finnick. she knew that the nightmares were going to keep coming but was willing to take finnicks advice, one day she knew the night mares weren't going to be this bad forever, or where they?

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frick i'm late again oops, well i hope you enjoy and i'm almost on mocking jay part one so ye and this is where we break off for three weeks until the second book is published