Heart of Gold • Finnick Odair

-46-

FINNICK POV

Caesar's face turned to confusion and slight worry as he too looked behind the camera before laughing it off and calling her, "Rosalie? Rosalie, dear, are you with us? Can you tell us what we received tonight? Rosalie?"

Just looking at Rosalie makes my anger grow, she is covered in bruises, she's skinnier now too, her eyes were empty and had deep bags. She looked exhausted.

As soon as Caesar had introduced the two, the camera showed Peeta as he and Caesar exchanged a few words, and then it showed Rosalie as Caesar attempted to make conversation.

Rosalie, however, had been looking at something else behind the camera with slightly watery eyes until she's finally been broken from her own world.

Katniss is sat at my side fiddling with the end of her braid as I tie knots in my worn rope.

"What?"

Her voice is tired and a little scratchy, but at least she doesn't seem robotically confused like Peeta does.

"It's alright dear, take your time, what did we receive just earlier?"

"Tonight, we've received reports of detailed trains, of granaries on fire, and of a savage attack on the hydroelective-," she squints here eyes slightly before correcting herself, "hydroelectric dam in District 5," Rosalie's eyes are off camera as if reading something.

She seems to be deliberately squinting a little and stuttering at times to make it more obvious that the information is being read. That she's being forced. She's always been smart. I assume Peeta is also being forced.

"We're begging for restraint and decency," Peeta says.

The camera, which was focussed on Peeta and Rosalie as he spoke and she sat completely still, changed to show our recent video.

Katniss is singing in the background as it shows different clips of destruction the Capitol has caused and also clips of Katniss.

"Katniss?" Peeta's eyes tear up.

A clip shows me and Katniss at one of the rubble sights from when I joined her and Gale, per Katniss' request, to visit District 8.

Rosalie doesn't say anything but I see her face twist into confusion, upset, and anger.

She whispers something under her breath.

"Snow said he was dead."

I realise she's talking about me and it breaks my heart even further. All this time, they've been telling her i'm dead? She thought I was dead...

Peeta continues to ask for Katniss until Caesar asks him to continue.

"You two were telling us about the savage attacks."

"Yeah, the attack on the dam was a callous and inhuman act of destruction..."

Peeta is cut off again when our propo replaces the screen.

"Think about it. How will this end? What will he left? No one can survive this. No one is safe now." Peeta continues.

"Safe now? No one was ever safe. Not here in the Capitol. Not in any districts," Rosalie grits her teeth as she speaks in order to stop her anger getting the better of her.

Realisation seems to hit Peeta at Rosalie's words. What she said must've triggered something within him because he tells us...

"They're coming Katniss." Rosalie's eyes are on Peeta as he speaks and she herself looks shocked at the news. "They're gonna kill everyone. In District 13 you'll be dead by morning."