𝗕𝗟𝗢𝗪 𝗔 𝗞𝗜𝗦𝗦, 𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗘 𝗔 𝗚𝗨𝗡
─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
chapter 012 , focus on me
Finnick sat on the floor, his gaze empty and hollow, as if he was just a shell of the person he used to be. Nova carefully squatted in front of him, placing her hand on his shoulder. But there was no reaction. Finnick's eyes were still dilated and he seemed to be lost in his own world.
"Finnick? Are you okay?" Nova's voice was soft, afraid to startle him. She had no idea what he heard, but it didn't seem to be anything good. The question echoed in the air, a foolish phrase that hung heavy with the weight of the unsaid.
His eyes fixed on a spot on the floor, Finnick muttered, "Screams. I- I heard screams."
Nova looked back into his eyes, her hand still resting on his shoulder. "Mags. Annie. Agonized, their screams sounded through the jungle, like they were right here."
"Annie is in district four, Finnick. She's not here. Annie is safe. And Mags is...," Nova's voice trailed off, unable to continue.
"I know. I know that, Nova. But these birds imitate what they hear," he barked in a raised voice, his anger startling even himself.
Finnick was not one to show his anger. He always swallowed it and punished others with silence instead. But not now. Not when his mind was haunted by the screams that echoed in his ears.
"The screams stopped for a moment and I thought you were dead," he rambled on, his eyes darkening with each passing second.
Nova noticed that his body began to tremble. He avoided eye contact and bit his lower lip. "I thought you... I thought you were in danger. I thought you were dying."
Finnick buried his head in his hands, his voice choked with emotion. "I was just waiting for the cannon shot that would announce your death. I-"
Nova interrupted his chatter. She lifted his chin and pressed her lips on top of his. It was a short, but powerful kiss, filled with the taste of salt water and blood.
Finnick stopped talking and finally looked at Nova. "I'm all right, okay? I'm sitting in front of you, alive."
Finally, the traumatized boy seemed to understand the meaning of her words. He reached out and put his hand to her neck, feeling her pulse. And with that simple gesture, the world seemed to right itself again. But the memory of those screams still lingered.
Peeta attempted to console Katniss, but her disbelief was palpable.
"Your fiancé speaks the truth," Johanna chimed in, offering support to the young girl. "Your sister is loved by the entire country, Katniss. If they truly killed her in such a manner, they would surely incite a riot. And they wouldn't want that, now, would they?"
Johanna threw her head back and let out a maniacal laugh. "The entire country in turmoil? That would be quite the spectacle, wouldn't it?"
She picked up a few conch shells and declared, "I'm going to fetch some water," before disappearing into the dense jungle.
Katniss reached out to grab Johanna's hand. "Don't go in there. The birds..."
"They can't harm me. I'm not like you people. I have no loved ones left here," Johanna said, impatiently shrugging off Katniss's grip.
Nova turned to Finnick, studying his twisted expression with concern. "Are you going to be alright?"
Finnick grunted, his voice rough. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll be fine."
Nova tenderly squeezed his shoulder before following Johanna into the jungle. No one should venture into the wilderness alone, not in these uncertain times.
As Nova approached, she found the girl by a tree drawing some water. When Johanna noticed her, the corners of her mouth twitched.
"So you just... did that, huh?"
Nova tilted her head, confused. "Oh my God," she muttered then, her cheeks growing hot as she realized what she had done.
"I kissed him?" she asked, more as a question than a conclusion.
Johanna nodded with a playful smile. "You did," she confirmed.
Nova groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "No. No no no."
Johanna took the spile out of the tree and handed it to Nova so she could carry the filled shells herself.
"What am I supposed to do now? I can never look him in the eye again," Nova whined.
"Calm down, pretty girl," the older girl grinned reassuringly. "He seemed to have enjoyed it. At least he was speechless afterwards."
Nova frowned in embarrassment. "Yeah. He didn't talk *because* my lips were on top of his."
"At least you got him calmed down, or he would have talked his head off," Johanna pointed out, trying to lighten the mood.
Despite her embarrassment, Nova couldn't help but smile at the older girl's words. She had a way of making everything seem better.
When they were back with the others, Johanna handed Katniss and Finnick a conch shell full of water.
Johanna collected Katniss's arrows that she had shot at the birds in desperation. Beetee fiddled with his wire and seemed distracted from Wiress' death.
Katniss laid in Peeta's arms, still too agitated to do anything productive, and Nova just stood there, her arms crossed in front of her chest and her foot tapping against the vine-covered ground.
"Will you accompany me?" Nova didn't have to look to know who asked. She nodded and followed the bronze haired man to the shore. They walked in silence, and Nova was perfectly fine with that.
There was no way she wanted to talk about the kiss, if it could be even called that. Just the thought sent goosebumps down her body. Maybe now was a good time for the Game Makers to shoot a fireball at her. Or the ground would be friendly enough to swallow her down.
Finnick rinsed off the dirt from his body, and Nova found herself entranced by his figure. The jumpsuit hugged his muscles, emphasizing his toned physique. His golden skin glistened in the sunlight, and the scabs from the fog had fully healed.
"I'm sorry," she said, her words tumbling out. Finnick lifted his head, and droplets of water cascaded from his hair onto his face. "It's alright," he reassured her.
But Nova knew it wasn't alright. "No, it's not," she exclaimed. "I shouldn't have done that. I was just overwhelmed. I didn't know what to do. And you- I was scared you might get a panic attack or worse."
"Nova, you're fine," Finnick replied, with a furrowed brow. Then he tilted his head. "Actually, I lied. I'm mad at you. Like, really mad."
As if to dispel the tension, Finnick playfully splashed water at her, a grin dancing on his lips. "So we're cool?" she asked, relieved.
"Yeah, we're cool," he said, walking out of the water. But before he passed her, he whispered in her ear, "In fact, I liked it."
Nova's heart skipped a beat, and she turned her head to face him, their noses almost touching. Her cheeks flushed as she caught sight of his charming smirk and felt his warm breath brush against her lips.
The air between them grew thick with anticipation. Nova's gaze drifted to his lips, and their bodies drew closer, so close that not even a leaf could fit between them.
As the sun began to set, the water gently lapped against the shore, leaving behind a trail of beautiful seashells and sparkling stones. The scene was almost too perfect, too romantic.
A cannon sounded, and both tributes instinctively reached for their weapons. Katniss, Johanna, Beetee, and Peeta emerged from the jungle, hurrying to see if it was one of their allies who had fallen.
A hovercraft appeared over the suspected sector six to seven. They watched as the grappling arm descended five times to pick up the various parts of a mangled body.
"Looks like they had a lot of fun in that sector," Finnick quipped, and Nova slapped scolding against his arm. "Shut up."
Peeta added to the map of the arena in sector four to five jabberjays and in the field where the tribute was shredded he plainly wrote beast.
The sun sank behind the horizon and the bright moon bathed the arena in a strange twilight. The anthem sounded and the faces appeared in the sky.
Gloss, Wiress, Mags, the woman from Five, the morphling, Blight, the tribute from Nine and the man from Ten.
Another eight were dead. Within a day and a half, more than two-thirds of the tributes were dead.
Then they went to sleep while Katniss and Peeta kept watch.
When Nova woke up, her back hurt. The coarse sand dug into her skin, the hot sun burned her skin and she wondered if she had sunburn.
She saw Johanna and Finnick talking to each other while Beetee continued to fiddle with his wire. Katniss and Peeta were still asleep, their bodies nestled together.
She joined Beetee and pulled the belt tighter around her waist. "How are you keeping up?"
He looked at her through the lenses of his glasses. "Good."
Nova dug her feet into the sand while watching Beetee's left hand shake. "What do you think they're talking about?"
Nova followed his gaze. Katniss and Peeta, awake by now, were sitting in the water whispering to each other.
"How they can get rid of us, I would guess," she said in a sarcastic tone, even though she knew it wasn't that unlikely. Beetee hummed, and then he smiled, looking at his wire.
He called the other tributes, who quickly gathered around him. Katniss sat down next to Nova, her shoulder touching the older ones.
"I think we can all agree that we need to kill Cashmere and James next," he said softly.
Those words hung in the air, heavy with the weight of death. Nova looked at the older man, feeling Finnick's gaze rest on her, waiting for her reaction. The truth was, Beetee was right. In order for Katniss to survive, everyone would have to die eventually. But the thought of James being on everyone's hit list was a hard pill to swallow. He certainly wasn't on Nova's.
"I don't think they'll openly attack us again now that they're outnumbered. So where are they most likely to be?" Beetee's voice sounded like a teacher trying to encourage his students to participate in class.
"On the beach," Peeta replied. "That's the safest place, after all."
Beetee straightened his glasses. "Then why aren't they here?"
"Because we are here. We claimed it," Johanna said impatiently.
"Exactly," Beetee said. "And if we left, they would come."
"Or stay hidden in the tree line," Finnick interrupted. "Which in just over four hours will be soaked with water from the ten o'clock wave," Beetee reminded.
The tension in the air was palpable as everyone waited for Beetee's next words. "Here's what I propose. We leave the beach at dusk. We head to the lightning tree. That should draw them back to the beach. Prior to midnight, we then run this wire from the tree to the water. Anyone in the water or in the damp sand will be electrocuted."
Johanna raised her eyebrows and licked her lips. "How do we know the wire's not gonna burn up?"
"Because I invented it," Beetee said confidently. "I assure you, it won't burn up."
Nova and Johanna exchanged a deliberative look, not entirely convinced by the idea. "Well, it's better than hunting them down," Johanna conceded, her voice sour.
"Yeah, why not. If it fails, no harm is done anyway, right?" Katniss said. Peeta nodded his head in agreement. "All right, I say we try it."
The eyes landed on Nova. She knew the plan needed everyone to work out. "Sure, why not." Her voice was distant, and her face looked anything but pleased. She rose from the sand and entered the edge of the jungle.
As she walked away, Nova couldn't shake the feeling that this plan was a bad idea. The thought of James, a person she had grown to care for, being electrocuted was heart-shattering. But what choice did they have? In this twisted game of survival, killing was the only way to stay alive.
Nova picked up a few nuts from the ground and threw them in turn against the highest lying branches. They landed on the ground with a thud, their hard shells cracked open. Her thoughts raced wildly.
- 𝗍𝖾𝗇 𝗒𝖾𝖺𝗋𝗌 𝖺𝗀𝗈 -
Exhausted from the hard training, Nova went home. Her mother had always told her to come straight home and not to make any detours.
The snow crunched under her shoes and the pattern of her sole remained in the white.
Her brown hair was pinned together in two braids and a lavander hat was on her head, sticking up in the air like a dwarf's cap.
Her cheeks and the tip of her nose were red from the biting cold. Her mother would say that she looked like Rudolph.
The snowflakes fell from the sky and gathered on the ground. Nova tried to catch them with her hand, but with the contact of body heat they quickly melted and left a drop of water.
The lanterns dimly illuminated the improvised path that ran through District Two. The wind brought tears to the young girl's eyes and she pulled her hat down further to protect her face from the cold.
Something hard hit her at the back of her head and irritated she turned around. A boy, about one or two years older than her, looked at her with wide eyes.
In his glove-covered hands he held small nuts, which he hastily stuffed into his jacket pocket.
Strands of his brown curly hair peeked out from under his colorful hat that had the initials j.c. sewed in the middle part and the lantern light dimly lit his pale face.
His cheeks turned pink and his mouth widened, showing his tooth gap. Nova bent down to pick up the nut that hit her in the head. She wanted to give it back to the boy.
She stretched out her hand, but the boy did not move an inch. It was as if he had been frozen by the cold.
Nova tilted her head, confused by the boy. She approached him, which made him wake up from his trance.
He closed his mouth and ran away, almost slipping on the smooth snow-covered ground, leaving the little girl bewildered.
- 𝗉𝗋𝖾𝗌𝖾𝗇𝗍 -
After about half an hour, Nova left the jungle. The small camp they had set up on the beach was dismantled and everyone shouldered their things.
"We're ready to go," Peeta said, as he noticed Nova.
Finnick and Peeta took turns carrying Beetee, who could not yet walk that well alone. Johanna led the troop through the jungle to the big tree and Katniss and Nova brought up the rear.
The constantly dense, warm, humid air was getting to Nova. She had been exposed to it since the beginning of the games and her craving for something salty was growing.
As they approached the tree, Finnick suggested that Katniss should take the lead, since she could hear the buzzing of the force field.
From a bush she plucked a handful of nuts and threw them against the force field. "Stay under the thunder tree," she then ordered, after noticing that the force field went around the huge tree.
Katniss went hunting nearby, Johanna tapped water, and the remaining three helped Beetee wrap the wire around the wide log.
The tributes gathered before the tree, their roles to be divided. Beetee, Finnick, Peeta, and Nova were to protect him in case something happened, leaving Katniss and Johanna to carry out the mission to the beach.
"I'll go with them as a guard," Peeta asserted.
Beetee shook his head, adamant. "No. You stay here to protect me and the tree."
"I need to go with her," Peeta insisted.
"I need guards," Beetee replied calmly. "Two from each side when I'm busy at the tree. Someone to watch my back."
"Why can't Johanna stay with them and Peeta and I take the coil?" Katniss proposed.
The air became unbreathable, thick with tension and the weight of their precarious situation.
"You all agreed to keep me alive till midnight, correct?" Beetee reminded them.
"It's his plan. We all agreed to it," Johanna interjected impatiently.
Nova tensed, suspicion glinting in her honey eyes as she looked at Katniss. "Is there a problem here?" she asked, her voice low and dangerous in the darkness.
Beetee narrowed his eyes at the District Twelve duo. "Excellent question."
Katniss's eyes flicked to Peeta, unsure of what to say. "No. There's no problem," she relented.
"Good. Let's go now, time is ticking," Finnick urged, ushering Katniss and Johanna away.
As Nova hugged Johanna, she whispered, "Be careful."
Johanna smiled tightly and pressed a kiss to Nova's forehead. "Always am, pretty girl. Don't wrinkle your gorgeous face so much."
"I'm gonna punch you,"
✰ 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 !! —
the first act is almost over :o
pretty sure this is how nova's brain works:
reminder for you to stay hydrated and take medications if you need any. take care of yourself honey xx
don't forget to comment below what you think of this chapter. feedback and votes are appreciated.
— 𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 !! ✰