44 | PROPOS AND GUNFIRE
SONG SUGGESTION: World On Fire (feat. Ashe) by Louis The Child
Holding a gun was strange for Greyson. The way she only had to aim and pull a trigger made her feel deadly. She felt her fingers itch to feel the coarse string from her bow as she forced an arrow in between her fingers. She hated guns, not because of how dangerous they were – anybody could be dangerous, with not only the weapon they wield, but with their words. She hated that it made killing just that much more easy. She believed that if you were willing to take a life, innocent or poisoned, you had to work for it. Pulling a trigger made it seem like she was a Peacekeeper, even if there was no peace in the shattering glass that flew everywhere as each bullet hit the windowpanes.
When she was done, she gave her gun to Pollux and told him to do whatever he wanted with it. Her bow was where she left it, sitting there and making her feel as if she abandoned a lost puppy. Finnick walked beside Gale and Katniss walked alongside Greyson, all of them remaining quiet as Cressida was watching the footage she shot with the camera team.
At that point, Greyson couldn't have cared less about what they shot. She only cared about seeing Snow in a jail cell, and possibly executed; if she was lucky enough.
Greyson could see Peeta sitting with a group of soldiers from Thirteen, Jackson among them. She knew they were talking, about what, she didn't know. Katniss had told her that Jackson had created a game called 'Real or Not Real', to help Peeta understand the difference between what he was forced to believe and what was true, that was usually followed by a short explanation.
"Most of the people from Twelve were killed in the fire," Peeta assumed.
"Real. Less than nine hundred of you made it to Thirteen alive." Jackson clarified.
"The fire was my fault." He spoke lowly.
"Not real," Jackson shook her head, "President Snow destroyed Twelve the way he did Thirteen, to send a message to the rebels."
Greyson glanced at Katniss for a sign of emotion, but she knew beforehand that Katniss was the master of hiding her true feelings, no matter how much she was breaking on the inside.
The game was played quite often with Peeta. Everyone was given a shift with him, Greyson and Finnick were accompanied with a Thirteen soldier, as were Katniss and Gale. During their nighttime conversations, Greyson would occasionally explain to Peeta what Snow had done to her and why he had done it, but most of the time he would ask Finnick and her about both of his Games. Greyson didn't know much about the first besides what she saw on the television, and it was obvious that she knew a lot more about the Quarter Quell.
A heater was sat in the middle of the circle to resemble a fire and Peeta was inside his sleeping bag, staring at the sky. It had been some time before he asked them anything, and Greyson thought he would fall asleep, but his voice rose above the low hum of the heater.
"You saved my life after I hit the force field in the arena," he was talking to Finnick.
Her husband's shoulder had become a comfortable place to rest her head on, though now that Peeta was speaking, she decided to listen in and lift her head up. Finnick peered over at the dark figure in the sleeping bag, "real. Your heart had stopped beating."
Peeta was silent for a brief moment. "Why didn't Katniss save me?"
"I was there when it happened," Greyson added, "you flung back into me and I hit my head on the ground, but I could still hear her crying out loud that you weren't breathing."
"Katniss," Peeta whispered in a hollow voice. He sounded as if he couldn't believe the words she said, that possibly Snow had lied to him and twisted everything he ever knew, right down to the basic, personal characteristics. Greyson could tell he was fighting a battle inside his head.
Finnick said in a calm voice, "I had to force her off of you to perform the chest compressions."
It was quiet again, and Greyson hated the anxious feeling that gnawed at her. She just wished Peeta had never gone through what he had gone through, but he had, and she knew baby steps were the only way to go.
"I lost my leg by Katniss," Peeta changed the subject.
Greyson listened to Finnick tell him about the dead boy named Cato and the Tracker Jackers and the Mutts. She listened with an empty heart, right until the very end, when Finnick explained how Cato had Peeta in a headlock and he trusted Katniss enough to shoot an arrow at them. He didn't go into detail about how Cato died Peeta knew how it happened and so did Greyson, the Capitol made sure to show the boy getting eaten alive right until Katniss ended his life.
Greyson remained silent for the rest of their shift until someone else replaced them. They crawled into their tent and laid down in silence, Greyson too tired to open her mouth. Curled up against Finnick, sleep came, but so did the nightmares.
* * *
She felt something soft run over her cheek. In her dazed state, she slapped it away, but missed and hit her bare skin. Greyson groaned and rolled over to find that Finnick wasn't beside her, but hovering over her with a wide smile on his face.
"Was that slap meant for me?" He chided teasingly.
Greyson growled in a rough voice as she narrowed her eyes into slits. "No, but the next one will be."
Laughing, Finnick ran a hand through his hair and leaned down to kiss Greyson, but instead kissed her cheek when she abruptly turned her head to the side. She pushed him over and crawled out of the tent, peering back in only to laugh at his befuddled state.
Her focus went onto the soldiers around them, all of them were gearing up and strapping guns to their belts and vests. Confused, Greyson stopped a rambling Cressida. "Hey, what's going on?" She asked.
Cressida finally looked at Greyson and lightly pushed Greyson back towards her tent, "Gear up, we're shooting another propo. This time, I want it all; guns, active pods, bow and arrow, the Mockingjay suits. Tell Finnick the same."
The words came out so rushed that Greyson had a hard time understanding her. However, she nodded and pushed Finnick, who was just emerging from the tent, back into it. She was able to sit upright, as the tent wasn't small but it wasn't large either, as she put on her suit.
"What was that for?" Finnick asked, rubbing his neck.
"Gear up," she repeated Cressida's words, "we're shooting another propo."
He sighed and slipped his shirt off, revealing all the battered scars that ran over his chest and torso. Greyson flittered her eyes away in anger as she untied her boots to be able to put her pants on. Each of her fingers trembled as she attempted to unlace them. Hair fell loose from her bun as she threw one of her boots in frustration, her chest heaving up and down and her eyes watering. She began to struggle for air as she hunched herself over, her skin crawling.
She felt herself being pulled into someone, a clothed chest, not a bruised and tattered body that haunted her every time she closed her eyes. It was warm and comforting, it was Finnick's, not the tortured one he kept hidden away from everybody. "You're okay," he murmured, lifting her head up and wiping away the streaks of tears that made rivers down her cheeks.
She pressed her eyes closed. "I'm sorry, I don't know what happened."
He brushed back the hair from her face once she stopped shaking, untied her hair and started braiding it as far as her short hair went down her back. The soft feeling of his fingers running through her hair calmed her, and she managed to dress the rest of herself once he was done. "Thank you," she mumbled, unable to look him fully in the eye.
He kissed her forehead, the soft gesture startling her to a short extent. "Don't say that," he objected, "I don't want you to think I comfort you because I have to, I do it because seeing you in pain is just as bad as what they did to me in the Capitol, more so even."
Greyson wiped at her nose, peering up at him with red eyes. "You're too good for me, Odair."
He smirked and grabbed his trident out of the case it was in. "I know."
Greyson rolled her eyes as she followed him out of the tent. She watched Boggs give Peeta his gun, but declared loudly so everyone could hear that it was full of blanks. Peeta shrugged and said something, holding the gun with delicate hands.
They neared closer and Greyson found herself standing next to the girl who was dressed in similar attire. Katniss glimpsed at her. "Nice braid," she commented lowly.
Greyson hid the smile that threatened to break across her face. "I could say the same for you."
Greyson looked forward to see that Peeta was staring at Pollux, intensely staring at him, until he started to speak in a haphazardly voice. "You're an Avox, aren't you? I can tell by the way you swallow. There were two Avoxes with me in prison. Darius and Lavinia, but the guards mostly called them the redheads. They'd been our servants in the Training Center, so they arrested them, too. I watched them being tortured to death. She was lucky. They used too much voltage and her heart stopped right off. It took days to finish him off. Beating, cutting off parts. They kept asking him questions, but he couldn't speak, he just made these horrible animal sounds. They didn't want information, you know? They wanted me to see it."
She felt the air grow stiff as everyone stood with stunned faces, besides Johanna and Finnick. Greyson looked up at Finnick who was staring off into the distance, his eyes void of every gleeful emotion.
"Real or not real?" Peeta asked, "real or not real?" He shouted when no one answered him, his jaw constricting into a teeth grinding sharpness. Finnick closed his eyes briefly.
"Real," Boggs answered grimly. "At least, to the best of my knowledge . . . real."
Peeta's shoulders sagged, "I thought so. There was nothing . . . shiny about it." He walked away from the group, rambling on about fingers and toes to himself.
Greyson grabbed Finnick's hand, sliding her fingers through his. He held on tighter. They move onward, down streets of broken glass and rubble, until they landed on the block they were looking for. Everyone gathered around the Holo Boggs always had in him. The street lit up with small pods, Boggs explaining that they needed to set off a few to make the shots look 'interesting'. Greyson could tell just by the way he spoke that he was not at all thinking that was a good idea.
Greyson was pulled over to Messalla, who dabbed makeup under her eyes and over a few red marks that came with not washing her face ever since she left Thirteen. Beauty was not on her priorities list when it came to taking down the president.
She blinked over to Katniss, who appeared as though she was about to ask something, when Cressida called, "action!"
They all move slowly down the street, all assigned a section of windows to break. Greyson pulled out her bow and grabbed an arrow from behind her, nocking it into the bowstring. Finnick was behind her, gun in hand and his trident strapped to his back. She knew that Gale had the real target: the pod.
Her hands grew sweaty as the anticipation ate away at her, right until he hit it and a shower of bullets rained down on them, the sound crushing her ears. It was as if it was raining and someone had turned up the volume inside her head.
She flung herself into a doorway while others flattened themselves out onto the bright cobblestone road. Finnick was beside her, his chest heaving from the sudden burst of shots. When it was over, she heard Boggs yell out for them to continue to move forward. She slowly walked out onto the street, finding holes in the ground and crumpled bullet shells littering the sidewalks. She never let go of her arrow.
Cressida suddenly stopped them, saying that she needed shots of them reacting to the firing bullets. Greyson found this amusing, especially when Finnick dove to the ground, covering his head with his hands and screaming in a high pitched voice, even though Cressida told him that it was definitely not making the propo.
Greyson found herself with tears in her eyes as she herself attempted to reenact flinging herself into the doorway. The only thing that truly unsettled her was the fact that it didn't take much for her to act being afraid.
At the end, everyone was laughing so hard that Boggs had to calm them all down, saying loudly, "pull it together, 451." Even though as he told them to, Greyson could see him trying not to smile. She brushed off her knees as she saw Boggs trying to locate the next pod, taking a few steps back too far trying to get the right signal, and triggering the bomb that blew off his legs.
A/N: rip Boggs, I was just starting to build his character, damn Suzanne. I'm giving you guys an extra long chapter to make up for how long I've left you all hanging. I cannot believe that this story almost has 200k reads, that's insane to me. I really can't thank you all enough for supporting my stories and I, you guys are the reason I love to write and make my crazy fantasies readable. School is starting up again for me so I'm not sure what my schedule will be like but I know that I will make time to write. If you haven't, go check out my profile and see my other stories, i've got them all across the board: got, hp, marvel, werewolf, you name it. (don't name it bc i only have the ones i listed heheh) if i'm honest, i would be a horrible advertiser XD. if you read this, comment 'school sucks' because nobody wants to deal with homework and social interacting!
thank you for reading, i'll see you all in the next chapter! xx