❝maybe it's the past that's talking
screaming from the crypt❞

ONCE THEY GIRLS STOPPED LAUGHING, THEY SIGHED. They were clutching their sides in pain, and they looked up at the Odair man and Mason woman who were looking down at them like they were completely insane, which they probably were. Finally, Johanna rolled her eyes and began walking back to the cornucopia. "Let's just get what we need and get off the bloody island."

"So besides Brutus and Enobaria, who's left?" Katniss questioned when they reached the beach again. They were sitting in a circle, and Lexa was leaning against one of the rocks, glancing over at her shoulder every once in a while. It needed medicine or proper first aid, but she was going to have to stick with wet leaves.

Isla went through all of the districts in her head, trying to remember everyone that she saw had died the night before in the hologram show in the sky, plus the people that she had seen die since. Both people for District 5 were gone since one was stabbed by Lexa and the other was mauled by a lion. "Maybe Chaff. Just those three."

"They know they're outnumbered," the Armada woman pointed out. Even though the Careers were skilled, they knew that they would be no match for seven people, five of which were pretty skilled with a weapon or two. "I doubt they'll attack again. We're safe here on the beach."

"So what do we do? We hunt 'em down?" Peeta questioned with furrowed eyebrows, looking around at them. They could not just wait and hope that the others would starve and die. Isla hated to think about what happened after that. There could only be one Victor, and chances were that it was going to be one of them. It had to be one of them. The only question was who? Finnick had a fiancee, Katniss and Peeta had families, Beetee had a job, and she was not totally sure about Johanna. The married couple was going to have a baby.

And then there was Lexa. Isla knew almost nothing about her or her life. She did not know how she won her games or who she had waiting for her at home, but she knew that she did not want her to die. She did not want anyone to die, but when she looked at the Armada woman, something felt different.

Lexa knew that Katniss had to be the victor, and the rest of them were only getting out if they were able to somehow get them out without compromising the Girl on Fire. She agreed to the plan, she agreed to sacrifice her life for the cause, but she was having doubts as she watched the blonde girl beside Finnick play with the sand between her fingers. Lexa was still prepared to risk her life, but not for Katniss. For Isla.

They all whipped around when the sounds of screams filled the air. It sounded like a little girl being tortured, and she cried the Everdeen girl's name. Katniss jumped up immediately, bow in hand as she began sprinting into the forest, shouting, "Prim! Prim! No!"

"Katniss! Katniss, wait!" Finnick called after her because the chances were that that was most definitely not her sister. He ran off into the forest after her. Without thinking, Isla raced after him, not wanting to get separated from him again.

Lexa tried to get to her feet to go after the blonde girl, but the pain was too much. Johanna and Peeta helped her up, and they, along with Beetee, all hobbled after the three. However, they only made it a few yards into the trees when they ran into some sort of barrier. It was like they had hit a wall, but there was nothing there.

Once the two blondes reached the brunette girl, she was staring up at the sky. "Katniss! You okay?" Before the girl could answer, the familiar voice of Annie filled the air. She was shrieking Finnick's name and begging him for help. Both he and Isla looked around with panicked expressions.

"No! It's not her," Isla assured him as she saw a bird flying above their heads, its mouth moving with Annie's voice, but that did not seem to calm Finnick down one bit. He continued shouting for Annie and searching for her frantically.

"Finnick! It's not her," Katniss insisted, grabbing his shoulder and forcing him to look her in the eye so that she knew that he was hearing her. She explained, "It's just a jabberjay. It's not her."

But Finnick was not having it, and he brought up a point that made all of their faces drop when they realized that he was right. "Well, how do you think they got that sound? Jabberjays copy." Katniss looked absolutely terrified. That meant that Snow had Annie and Prim.

"Isla! Isla, help, please!" The bloodcurdling scream made the Angler woman freeze completely as her stomach dropped. Both people in front of her shifted their eyes to her, but she was not reacting. She was just staring at the sky in shock and horror. "Isla! Isla!"

"Elliot!" she finally responded. She had not heard that voice in years. The sight of the boy hanging from her stairs, his neck bruised and broken, appeared in her mind, and she desperately wanted it out. She could not think or hear, and she vaguely felt has Finnick grabbed her arm and began dragging her away.

She stumbled along, the sound of her brother's pained screams following her. Lexa's face appeared, and she just told herself that if she could get to her, it would all be okay. She was shouting something that Isla could not hear. She thought it was because of all the screaming and her panicked state, but she soon realized that it was because there was a barrier between them.

She collapsed into it, and she could tell that the Armada woman was trying to calm her down. Tears formed in the blonde girl's eyes, and she began sobbing and covering her ears. She felt arms around her, and she immediately knew that it was Finnick. The sound of their loved ones haunted them as they screamed and cried as well.

Shut up.

Shut up.

Shut up.

Shut up.

Shut up.

Shut up.

Shut up.

Shut up.

《✤》

LEXA WAS IN PAIN AS SHE WATCHED ISLA CRY. Ironically, it was not because of her burn or how weak she felt, but something about seeing the pained expression on the blonde girl's face as she sobbed in Finnick's arms caused her actual physical pain. The relief that she felt when the barrier finally broke was like nothing she had ever felt before.

Isla fell forward sideways because she had been leaning on the barrier, and she collapses into Lexa's arms. Finnick released his friend and fell back, staring blankly ahead while Johanna went to check on him. Peeta desperately tried to calm Katniss down as the Angler woman just cried softly.

"It's over. It's okay. They're gone," Lexa murmured into the woman's head as she stroked her hair and hugged her to her body. Isla had never thought that that she would be going to the Armada woman for comfort, at least not until the games had started. She had seemed so cold until then.

Once the blonde girl stopped crying, she sat up, but the brunette kept her arm around her as they looked over to where Peeta was assuring his fiancee that her sister was going to be completely fine. "Okay? They won't touch Prim. All right?"

"Your fiance's right. The whole country loves your sister. If they tortured her or did anything to her, forget the districts, there would be riots in the damn Capitol," Johanna told the Everdeen girl, and they all looked up at her as she looked out at the beach and began shouting at the sky. "Hey, how does that sound, Snow? What if we — what if we set your backyard on fire? You know, you can't put everybody in here." Katniss stared at her in shock, but the Mason woman just shrugged. "What? They can't hurt me. There's no one left that I love. I'll get you some water."

Later, Lexa was sitting with Katniss, Peeta, and Beetee on the beach. They were all staring at the two District 4 people, who were just sitting in the water side-by-side, still traumatized from what was happening. Johanna joined them, handing Katniss some water.

"Thank you," the girl replied before taking a sip as the raven-haired woman took a seat next to her friend. "Who's Annie?" the Everdeen questioned after a few more moments of looking at the two blondes in the water.

Johanna paused for a moment, glancing at the Armada woman to see if she was going to answer, but she was too busy staring at the back of the Angler woman as the waves crashed onto her body. "Annie Cresta. The girl Isla volunteered for. She won, like, four years — five years ago."

"Is she the one that went a little..." Katniss trailed off, not sure how to say 'crazy' without offending anyone.

The Mason woman nodded in confirmation, knowing what she meant. She sighed and leaned back on her elbows. She shook her head at her male friend that was now lying down in the ocean, allowing the water to run over him. "Love is weird."

Amen.

"And who's Elliot?" Lexa asked, finally tearing her eyes away from Isla to look at Johanna, wondering if her knew. She had heard the screams and Isla muttering his name over and over again as she cried. She knew that it was an awful thing to think at the time, but she was hoping that it was not an old boyfriend or something.

"I think it was her brother. Snow hung him in her own house when she said no to him," the other woman explained, and she was spitting out the words angrily. She always did that when talking about Snow, and it made sense. He had done unspeakable things to all of them. "That son of a bitch probably recorded it as he screamed for his sister."

The Armada woman frowned, cursing herself for even thinking about the boyfriend thing. She did not know why she even cared. She sighed, feeling awful that Snow did that to Isla. She did not have too much time to think about it, though, because Beetee spoke up. "I have a plan."