Finnick and Annie

Back to Normal... Sort of

 I was glad to be home, and I couldn't wait for my life to get back to normal, but that didn't go as planned. We moved to the Victor's Village a week after I arrived at Four. The Major threw me a party, and a lot of reporters and important people were anxious to meet me, so I didn't have much time to spend with my family.

Our house in the Victor's Village was just in front of Mag's, which made me really happy. Shay lived three houses away, and there were a lot of other victors I didn't know as my neighbors.

The house was huge; it had two stories, with a total of four bedrooms, five bathrooms, a huge kitchen, a studio, and a very large dining room. My mother loved the house, specially the kitchen. My father complained that it was too big, and that it was further away from the docks. I had that problem too. Though I lived closer to Mags now, Annie was further away.

My room was the largest. I insisted that my parents should have it, but they refused because it was my house and they preferred something cozier anyway. I thought it was too big as well but it had a set of glass doors that lead out of my room into a wonderful balcony that looked out to the sea.

We brought most of our belongings to our new house, but it was fully furnished, so we gave away a lot of our old stuff. My closet was pretty big, and it looked very empty when I filled it with the little clothes I owned. Though I'd loved the space at first, after a while I just felt lonely in that huge house. It felt very empty, and I think it made my nightmares worse. That house was the result of my victory at the games, which I had won by murdering children. It was a constant reminder that my life would never be the same again, and I hated that.

"Hey, Anne," I whispered as I sat next to her at the beach. She looked at me and smiled.

"I thought you'd forgotten about me."

"I could never," I sighed. "Sorry, Annie, I've just been kind of busy."

"Finn, I know."

I looked at the water. The waves soothed me.

"So how have you been? How does it feel to be filthy rich?" she teased.

"It's alright, I guess," I shrugged.

"You don't like your mansion?" she asked.

"It's far away from the market, and school, and—"

"Me?" she asked.

"I was going to say the docks, but yeah, I guess you too." I teased. She smiled and shoved me playfully.

"Did you just push your newest victor?" I asked with mock severity.

"What are you going to do about it?" she challenged.

"Oh, you'll see what I'll do to you." She giggled and ran away from me but I caught up with her quickly. I tackled her to the ground and we both laughed. I held her back and tickled her. She kicked and struggled and tried to break free, but she wasn't strong enough.

"Stop it, Finn!" she shrieked. I shook my head.

"If you don't stop—"

"What are you going to do about it?" I asked.

"Finn!" she protested. I stopped the tickling, but I kept her restrained. She looked at me still laughing. Her bright green eyes were brimming with tears. I had missed her so much. I leaned over and kissed her cheek. She looked at me startled and blushed, and I stood up and let her go.

"You should come over and visit, Annie" I said, "My mother wants to see you. I need to go run some errands, but we'll talk again soon, alright?" She nodded and waved goodbye as I walked away.

"Just call me if you need something else, okay? Anything at all. I promised I would take care of her," I told Serena's mother. I visited her soon after I arrived at Four. Serena's sister, Eleanor, was nearly dead when I got her to the hospital. She had some strange disease, which was very expensive to treat, and her family had no money to save her. I kept my promise and took care of all the expenses, and her parents were very grateful.

"We'll pay you back, Finnick, as soon as we can," cried her mother.

"Absolutely not," I said. "Look, I promised her I would do it. I have way more money than I need, so you don't owe me anything. Just take care of her, okay?"

Mags was right, somewhat. Though the guilt was eating me alive, helping people did make me feel better. I'd just saved one life, and that had to count for something right?

I visited Eleanor almost every day to make sure she was doing fine. She was better and out of the hospital two weeks later, and by that time I had decided to return to school. I didn't pay much attention to class, not that I did before, but I could hardly stay awake during the day.

The nightmares kept me up most of the night, and they wouldn't take a break. I saw more of the same every time I closed my eyes, and I would only rest for a few hours. I had bags under my eyes, and the teachers had long since stopped scolding me for falling asleep in class.

I hoped things would go back to normal after I went back to school. The whole reason I was returning to school was that I wanted my life to go back to how it was, but people didn't seem to understand that.

Everybody wanted to be my friend. The friends I already had wouldn't leave my side, and people I had never even met, acted like they had known me all their lives. I was starting to get pretty tired of the attention because everybody was so fake. My only true friends were Mags and Annie, and the rest I could never be sure of.

"I don't even know why you went back to school, Finnick," said Annie. She sat cross-legged on my couch, adding beads to a string, and then knotting the bracelet. "If I was a victor, I would never set foot in that place again."

"Well, what else am I supposed to do? I don't want to just lay around here doing nothing all day," I said, "That gives me way too much time to think."

"Maybe you should find a hobby," she said.

"I have hobbies," I said. "I like swimming, and I used to do a lot of shooting practice, but I can't even look at a trident right now." She looked at me and sighed.

"You look terrible," she said.

"Thanks, Anne. I love hearing that," I mumbled.

"You need sleep, Finnick."

"You think I don't try to sleep?" I asked.

"What's keeping you up?"

"Nothing... I just can't sleep, okay?"

"You're a terrible liar," she said.

"I'm a wonderful liar, you just know me too well," I argued.

"Maybe. Come on," she said and took my hand in hers.

"Where are we going?" I asked. She ignored me and dragged me upstairs to my room. She made me lay down and she pulled the covers over me.

"Annie, I already told you I can't sleep." She sat on the edge of the bed and moved my hair out of my face. I looked at her and she smiled sweetly.

"When I have nightmares, my father sits in bed with me, and I feel safer," she said.

"I'm not afraid of anything, Annie," I said. She ran her fingers through my hair gently. I stayed still and didn't protest, and soon, my exhaustion won over and I was fast asleep.