𝙏𝙄𝙇𝙇 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙀𝙉𝘿 - 𝑯𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝑮𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔

Twelve

Katniss looked over at Sidney, watching her fidget with the ring around the chain on her neck. Katniss was curious. She had not yet seen this token and wondered if it was an engagement ring. Had she actually gotten married in secret?

"What is that?" Katniss asked Sidney, taking the ring in her fingers and inspecting it. It was a thick silver band with a wave carved into it.

"A ring from a girl I knew," Sidney replied, tucking the ring and the chain back under the collar of her suit, a sorrowful look on her face. "She's not . . ." Sidney swallowed. "With us . . . anymore."

Katniss' brows furrowed as she spoke, a frown across her face. "I'm so sorry,"

"I would tell you more but, y'know," Sidney gestured around them, referring to the fact that the cameras and with them, the Capitol was listening.

"I want to put as much distance to the beach as possible. Frying is not how I intended to go," Johanna joked, earning a laugh from Sidney, a smile quickly washing over her solemn expression.

Katniss nodded, dragging the coil along from behind Sidney and Johanna. Sidney heard a clanking noise from behind her. Both she and Johanna turned to see that the coil was stuck and no longer unwinding.

Katniss yanked on it, once, twice, and the third time the coil snapped and came flying back at her. No, it didn't snap. It was cut.

Brutus and Enobaria came out from behind the trees and bushes, but they hadn't yet spotted the three girls.

Johanna took the butt of her axe and hit Katniss over the head with it, confusing and momentarily stunning Katniss. Sidney quickly took out one of the knives and cut into Katniss's arm, taking the small tracker out and throwing it into the grass.

Katniss screamed out in pain. Johanna placed her hand over Katniss's mouth but it didn't completely muffle the screams. Sidney fumbled with the clasp on the back of the necklace, finally getting it undone. Sidney took the necklace off of her and placed it around Katniss's neck, clasping it on.

Sidney wasn't sure why she did that. Maybe it was for good luck for Katniss. Maybe it was because Sidney was worried she would die in this arena and she didn't want it going with her. She wasn't sure. But she had done it.

Brutus and Enobaria had now spotted them and they were advancing. Johanna threw her axe at them with might, but it seemed like more of a distraction that anything else. Johanna then grabbed Sidney's arm, dragging her as they sprinted away from the two careers.

They ran as fast as they could up one of the dirt hills, jumping over boulders and just hoping to outrun Brutus and Enobaria. Then a cannon went off.

"Sid, where are you?!" Sidney heard Finnick yell from the direction they had just come. Did he think the cannon was hers? Did he think she was dead? She wished more than anything that she could yell out to him.

Sidney glanced behind her and saw Enobaria getting closer, meaning the cannon was likely Brutus'. Sidney looked around before jumping behind a large boulder as a way to conceal herself. Sidney was unable to yell at Johanna to stop running and hide without alerting Enobaria where she was. So, she let Johanna go and hoped she would be okay.

Sidney took out her spear, and then she waited, but only after a few seconds she felt a large wave of guilt. It didn't take long for Enobaria to run past her, stopping right next to her to catch her breath. Sidney wasted no time to jump from behind the rock and up onto it to have an advantage from above. She jumped down, planting her spear straight into the ground to secure a safe landing.

Enobaria watched Sidney fall to the ground before she took off in a sprint, seemingly weaponless. Sidney didn't know where she was going. Sidney cursed under her breath before taking her spear back and running in the same direction Enobaria went.

"Enobaria, wait!" Sidney shouted. Enobaria was a victim of the Games and the Capitol too, she deserved the help she could get if the rebellion worked.

"Peeta!" Sidney heard Katniss scream, she thought Brutus' cannon was for Peeta.

Sidney continued to run, no sight of Enobaria. "Enobaria!" She called out again, attempting to hold her spear in the most non-threatening manner possible.

Sidney wasn't far from the tree, it still in her view. The thunder rumbled from above Sidney in the night sky, lightning flashing in the clouds. Sidney continued to run and came into the opening of the tree to see Katniss aiming her arrow at the sky, Finnick yelling at her to back away from the tree.

"Katniss, get away from that tree!" Finnick yelled. The lightning came down, striking the tree.

"Finnick!" Sidney screamed. Finnick turned his head and looked at Sidney with a mixture of emotions. Relief . . . fear . . . a goodbye.

The world seemed to explode. Sidney felt her body fly through the air, her back hitting a tree. Her body went numb and the only thing she could feel was the blood running out of her wounds.

Sidney wasn't sure if it was a day or only a second until she saw a hovercraft fly above her, reaching down and grabbing her in its claw.

Fire exploded around Sidney. The red of her blood and the red of the flames seemed to blend together. They blended together so well that Sidney could no longer tell the difference. She may as well have been a pile of ash, burned to the ground by the fire on her skin.

Sidney's eyes closed and her head fell to the side, no longer able to tell if she was dead or alive.

Finnick reluctantly opened his eyes. He didn't want to. His body didn't want him too. He knew that when he opened them, he would be in a world he didn't want to be in. A world he didn't know. But this was precisely why he had to open his eyes.

The room was dark. He had been laying on a medical table, strapped to it with a buckle. But the buckle wasn't to keep him in, it was to keep him from falling off of the bed.

Finnick sat up, ignoring his pounding headache, and unclasped the buckle that held him in place. He set his feet on the ground and stood. By the hum in the floor and the sway of the room, Finnick knew he was on a hovercraft.

Finnick opened up the door and walked out to see Haymitch and Plutarch talking to each other in hushed tones.

Finnick looked around the console room, trying to think where Sidney would be in the hovercraft.

"Where's Sid?" Finnick asked the two men, walking closer to them.

The second it left his mouth, Finnick knew that the answer to that question was not one he wanted. Haymitch stood a little taller while Plutarch glanced at him, nervously.

"Where is Sidney?" Finnick spoke louder, his hands balling into fists by his sides.

"You may want to sit down," Haymitch rubbed his eyes.

"I don't want to sit down!" Finnick yelled. "I want to know where Sidney is!"

"She's in the Capitol," Plutarch blurted straight out. Finnick's demeanor shifted, changing from pure anger to an emotion of sorrow mixed with fear.

"She's-she's where?" Finnick asked. He couldn't believe it.

"She's in the Capitol, Finnick," Haymitch repeated what Plutarch said. "After the forcefield blew, we got you, Katniss, and Beetee out. We wanted to go back for her and the rest, but we couldn't. They have her, Peeta, and Johanna."

Finnick stumbled, his world crashing down right before his eyes. He fell to his hands and knees on the metal floor of the hovercraft, unable to stand any longer.

Finnick rolled onto his side and laid down on the floor, silent tears sleeping through his closed eyes.

The bestest friend of his life, the one who was always there for him, was a prisoner in the Capitol. Finnick knew Sidney would be tortured and he couldn't stand the thought. She may even be killed.

The closest thing in Finnick's life had been ripped away from him. He was numb without her. Nothing but an empty shell of a human being.

Finnick could no longer hold back his cries as he sobbed.