My eyes push open, throat full of dust and lungs rusted at the brim. My mind has considerably gone in a state of complete scorn and I can't remember anything but the feeling of my hair stretching beyond my roots and falling down past the tips of my ears.

The Capitol no longer cares to keep me groomed and neat to the hints of pinnacle persuasion as I was a rebel, I am a rebel. With my luck, despite my odds of living, they've killed Annie in their last attempts of control. They've always yearned to kill Annie, yearned to slit her throat and watch her blood boil down her porcelain skin.

With the lack of breath slicing into the chambers of my heart, a struggle to stand up nearly knocks me over but, I'm taken by some strength and I stand completely. I recognize the place immediately and the pain of twisting my features nearly knocks the breath out of my system. District Four. I don't bother to reach up and run my hand across my neck where the Mutt nearly ripped it off, knowing my body will have a reaction unlike before.

Perhaps I've died and gone to a sweet heaven. A sweet heaven where the people are kind and their skin is sunkissed and their hair smells of sea salt.

No matter, I've woken up near the pier and without so much as reluctance, I sit back down and let the small waves crash against my feet, sometimes passing over and reaching my knees.

I must have died and gone to heaven. My eyes close and my body leans back, warm grains of sand cozying up to my back like a forgotten friend and I begin to either dream in memories or see more of the life I previously lived.

"I've missed you." I managed to breathe, watching intermittent goosebumps rise against her neck as I make sure to kiss it tenderly, my body behind hers carefully. And I have. I would always miss the girl when I had to leave her, when I had to venture off to the capitol where long nails would dig into my skin and beg me to quicken a pace I didn't even want to keep up with.

Instead of answering, she would take my hands and wrap them around her thin waist, pulling me against her just softly and smile such a radiant smile. She was so pure from the girls who threw themselves at me.

That was another difference between them and my lovely Annie. She never threw herself at me, often shying away from me or even gradually melting into the center of my skin as she would kiss the lobe of my ear.

But I laughed, hugging her close and kissing her neck once more. "Until you say it back, I'm going to assume you didn't miss me." And I would carefully lean in and pepper her neck with kisses as she echoed my laugh, leaning her head back.

"I never miss you and I can swim like a mermaid." Though her tone is joking and sarcastic, I can feel a tug at my heartstrings as a quietly kiss the cap of her shoulder. Annie could once swim much better than I could, often boasting at me when we were little and beating me at swimming contests.

Still, I brush hair behind her ears and kiss her earlobe where she trembles against me just softly. It was her small reactions that kept my heart beating as fast as it did. It was the dimples at the corners of her lips, the shine in her eyes when she would even think of something nice and the way her breath would hitch at the feel of my hands rounding out the small curves of her hips.

"I love you, my beautiful mermaid." I whispered faintly against her ear as the extent of the words nearly bringing me down to my pitiful knees.

Suddenly, a chill runs up my spine and I wake, the moon closer to the earth than it must have been in years and the fatigue sinking from my body as if the sand had seeped it out and sent the poison elsewhere.

I stand and it no longer feels like a dream, no longer feels like a vivid memory or even heaven. No, it can't be heaven because there's still the imperfections that only exist on earth. Like the stench of illegal poaching and the fact that the ocean didn't extend over every part of the earth.

Annie.

All I know is that I run for the miles it takes me to get to the streets, knowing there would be the carefree people wandering the streets that could only come from having been from a career district.

"Annie Odair." I say, gripping the shoulders of an elderly woman and bending my head down to look at her. I shake my head, realizing my own mistake. No one here knew of our marriage. "Annie Cresta."Do you know where Annie Cresta is?"

The elderly woman looked up solemnly at me, nodding as she searched my face. "Poor girl hasn't left their home since the girl on fire brought her home a few months ago. Can't stand the thought of being without that Odair boy."

Home. She was sitting in my house, probably found the letters that I left her under the bed. "I'm Finnick. I'm the Odair boy."

"No. He died during the rebellion. We had a funeral for him here when we got the news."

I shake my head, desperate for some reason. "I'm Finnick. I got attacked but they got called off before I died. I've been trying to make it home to my wife since then."

But the woman doesn't understand, only makes a face of pity and puts her hand on my face and leaves in a slow pace.

And I begin the run again, the amount of energy I gained from the run exuding from my feet and leaving me in such a fatigued state that my hand barely reaches the doorknob. She thinks I'm dead and gone with nothing but stained memories and a tattered name.

My body is in a state of immediate panic and has been. I struggle to open the door but the moment I step inside, I calm. Everything is in the way I left it when we left to go to the reaping and my throat tightens. When Annie's depressed, she just doesn't leave the house, she doesn't leave the bed or even the confines of a specific position.

My breathing deepens and I shake my head, pushing the door open to the bedroom before shaking my head. There she is, lying down with her eyes blinking to the ceiling. My eyes fade to the side of the bed, a pair of clothing fresh in blood and they widen exponentially but, I only move to her.

Climbing into the bed, I wrap my arms around her and shake my head. "Annie, I'm home." And it hits my all at once and I'm grasping her tighter than I didn't think possible. I could be dead, she could be dead.

And yet, there was no response from her, only her turning her head and letting tears fall from such beautiful sea green eyes. "I lost the baby, Finn. This morning." She lets out a sigh and turns her head back to stare at the ceiling. "And I was just thinking about how much I wanted to die and to be with you for just a little longer." It was almost a short, hysterical laugh that left her lips. "Usually no one listens to my prayers but they must want me with you an awful lot if they let me die so easy."

"Not real." I murmured, shaking my head and sitting up, staring at her. "Not real. I'm home and you're home."

"Yes." She says quietly, hands covered in her own blood. "We're home and there's no more war. Heaven is nice, isn't it?"