How Annie Cresta Went Mad

Disclaimer: The Hunger Games and character all belong to Suzanne Collins.\

Please Review!

001. Finnick Odair's Eyes

He is back from his Victory Tour, looking even more polished than he did when he came out of the Games. There's something wrong about someone being so shiny. Something unrealistic. Behind the plastered smile, sun-kissed skin, and styled hair, she sees something else. He is roughed up, tired, somewhat beaten inside. His eyes give away nothing to the public, but give away his very soul to her. Annie Cresta can read him like an open book. Sometimes she wishes she couldn't.

He won't tell her what's wrong. He wants to shelter her from the conspiring world they both live in. He thinks that if he wraps her in his arms at night and sleeps with his trident under the bed, he can protect them from the monsters. But she can tell from the way he lies in bed that the ghosts are haunting him. And more than just the ghosts of the dead.

He still won't tell Annie. Won't tell Annie what's driving him to insanity. What makes his kisses and intimate moments together so soft and gentle. She knows that she's his refuge. His safe harbor, the only person he can go to. Yet he won't tell her what's keeping him up in the middle of the night, staring at Annie as if he's afraid someone else is lying there.

So perceptive, so easily can she see the pain that he's trying to hide. It drives her to insanity, knowing she can see these things and no one else can. No matter how hard anyone tries to look. Not that anyone actually does.

002. The Games

She never killed anybody. Yet she was relieved every time the canon shot and she was alive to hear it. She was glad that she was the only one able to swim, when the mighty tide brought the remaining tributes to a watery grave.

She knows there are things she will never be able to un-see. Things like arrows lodging into a tribute's throat. Knives thrown, planting themselves into vital organs. Blood, coloring the jungle of the arena. The Capitol citizens, no doubt glued to their television sets as the life abandons each tribute. The Capitol citizens at Caesar's interview, where they all seem to swoon over her just because she is the Victor. If the Games don't kill you, being a Victor will. Annie thinks it's worse. Sometimes, she wishes she had died in the jungle. Drowned in the flood. She can't take all the false niceties of being crowned Victor. How everyone is so ecstatic to see her, when just weeks previous they were cheering as they sent her off for slaughter.

Lucky bastards, those Capitol citizens are blind. They don't see what the rest of Panem does. They are fed, they are entertained. Why dare question the President? Sometimes Annie shuts her eyes, wishing she's blind too.

Bread and Circuses, she thinks. There's a reason the Roman Empire fell.

003. Seaglass

Finnick never lets go of her hand. They are joined at the hip wherever they go. Finnick can see that something is wrong with her, something is eating at her. He tries to do everything he can. He knows she's falling, falling down a hole that has no end.

This is one of those days. He takes her to the beach at the edge of District 4. They walk barefoot on the white sand, Annie's toenails painted a seafoam green that matches her eyes. Her dark hair curtains down her back in beachy waves, now dry from her and Finnick's wading in the ocean. Her big eyes, so innocent and knowledgable, seek his. There's sadness in his eyes again, but Annie can see it's different this time. It's not the usual regret and melancholy Finnick had worn ever since he had returned from his Victory Tour. It's something much worse. It's sadness meant for her.

They collect seaglass as they once did when they first started their courtship. Annie likes the green ones that have hints of blue when the light hits them - she says they remind her of his eyes. Finnick searches diligently for her favorite kind, as Annie just picks up whatever seaglass she can find.

They toss all the broken shards of seaglass into a net, take it back to Victor's Village. They melt all the seaglass and make an opulent vase, with a round belly and a skinny long neck. Annie's eyes light up when Finnick shows her the finished product. She touched by the sight of such beautiful glass, made from the natural bounty of the sea. But she is saddened by the sight of it. That seaglass is the only thing that she and Finnick still have. The only thing the Capitol hasn't corrupted.

She is sickened by the sight of the vase. She cracks, hurdling the vase against the wall. The beautiful madness is now shattered into tiny pieces that splay across the ground. She crumples to the floor.

Finnick hears the noise and runs into the room. He encircles Annie in his arms, his own living, beautiful madness now sobbing against his chest.

004. Katniss Everdeen, Girl on Fire

Finnick and Annie watch the Games from the comfort of their plush white couch. Annie's tucked her legs up, sitting on Finnick's lap. Finnick's got one arm around her shoulder, the other gripping a water bottle.

There's something so tragic about Katniss Everdeen. No matter how much prowess she possesses, now matter how much of a huntress she may be, Annie Cresta can spot a white speck in a sea of black ink from miles away. Katniss Everdeen is pure, the Capitol corrupting her. She radiates life, from the flames that lit her up on the chariot, to the fiery red nails. Forcing her to use her hunting skills on humans instead of animals. Forcing her to feign a romance with a boy who only hopes to have his love reciprocated just so she can survive.

Annie hates it all. How Katniss is just a tool in their games. Up until she holds out the nightlock berries in her hands. Annie wonders: Why didn't she think to question the Games? To challenge the Gamemakers as they had challenged her?

005. Peeta Mellark

He had the audience wrapped around his finger since his first moment with Caesar. He had Annie stringed since he shook Katniss' hand at the reaping. The assurance in his eyes, the way he shook her hand, Annie knew that he would sacrifice everything and anything for the girl from the Seam with the dark hair plaited down her back.

It drives her crazy, how she couldn't be that for Finnick.

006. The Noise

She doesn't want to hear it anymore. The ringing in her ears, the sound of the hovercrafts, the battle cries of the tributes, Finnick's quiet sobs at night, the screams of the dead. She can't take it anymore. The noise is just too overwhelming. The only sound she wants to hear is Finnick's soft voice, his soothing reassurances. So she covers her ears and exists reality, a place in which she wishes she never existed. She doesn't want to know anymore.