8

The Dove

"What happened to you?" I asked, kneeling down in front of her. She looked so sick, so...thin.

"I tried to join the Careers," she explained in a raspy voice, "That's what all that stuff in Training was about. Right after the Cornucopia; they tricked me. They said I could join but as soon as my guard was down they stole all my supplies and left me for dead. It was all a big joke to them."

"Why did you want to join the Careers?" I asked gently.

"Tristan said it was my best shot at surviving. I was supposed to get some food and weapons and clear out once there were eight people left. I just never got there."

I reached out and brushed back the hair that was falling in her face. She closed her eyes and reached up to grab my wrist and that's when I noticed Annie's bracelet. It used to fit on Marina's wrist just fine but now it slid more than half-way down her forearm.

"You still have this," I smiled, touching it with the hand she wasn't holding.

Marina opened her eyes to look at the bracelet and gave me a weak smile, "Yeah, thank you. It gave me something to hold on to all this time." Her eyes were still the same blue, even if they were glazed over.

I nodded and then got up, taking the blanket from my pack. There was a ledge over her head and fire that was covering her from the rain, but she was still shivering like a baby leaf. I wrapped it around her shoulders and tried to get some water pass her lips, but the first dose made her choke and double over. I couldn't hide how terrible I felt, seeing her like this. I was so well fed...so hydrated...so warm. Her life was teetering on the edge of a knife and there was nothing I could do.

"Here, try again by yourself. I don't want to choke you," I urged her, gently putting the container in her hands. She shook her head tried to give it back.

"Don't bother Finnick. Don't waste it on me."

I shook my head and pushed it back, "It's not wasted."

She looked at me for a long time and then took a couple small sips. It seemed that was all she could really handle at that point anyway.

"So what happened, after the Careers took your supplies?"

She dropped her eyes to the tiny fire I was trying to restore and rested her chin on her knees.

"Well I ran for it. I didn't want to die by them. I hid in the bushes and made myself a rope of vines and then used it to climb the cliff. I don't really know what my plan was, just that I knew I didn't want to stay in the jungle anymore. I spent two days down on the ground after they took my things, begging for food or water or something. But it became very clear I wasn't going to receive anything from the Capitol." I shifted my weight uncomfortably, but she didn't or pretended not to notice. "On my way up, I got bit by something," she held out her ankle where two tiny punctures left dark purple swells and inflamed the entire area. I gasped and went to examine it, but she pulled it back under the blanket. "I don't know what it was, a snake or a spider or something. I can't really tell if it made me sick, I've been so hungry and dehydrated I haven't been able to feel much else...The only reason I'm alive right now is the first day it rained, it ran down the mountain in streams and I got to drink a lot. But I had nothing to contain it with...I don't know how long I've been up here, but nothing much has happened since...I've just been waiting to die quite honestly."

I watched the way her bones pushed against her white skin when she moved and felt sick. Why hadn't the Capitol helped her instead? I don't think I deserved it anymore. I wish they'd chosen her.

"I'm so sorry, Marina."

She shook her head, "Not your fault."

I pulled the medical cream the capitol sent me from the bag and scooped some out onto my fingers. She wasn't strong enough to resist, so I took her foot back and spread the cream on her bite. The poor girl let out a pathetic gasp of pain, almost like a starved kitten, before the burning resided and the pain was eased.

"There, that'll fix that so then tomorrow you should feel better and..."

"Fin."

I looked up at her miserably. It wasn't going to help.

"It's not going to help," she echoed my thoughts, "Whatever venom there was, it's already in my blood stream." She looked away, out into the open. "It's for the best I think," she then said softly, "I never could have killed anyone. And besides, one of us was going to die anyway; I'm just hoping it's not both of us."

I pulled back one corner of my mouth and lowered my eyes. She was high enough up on the mountain that I wasn't too concerned with anyone coming to get us tonight, so I let the fire blaze.

"Fin, I'm not going to make it to morning," she whispered in a flat voice. My heart dropped and though I didn't like it, I agreed with her. That bite didn't look good and if that didn't kill her, the starvation and lack of water would.

"Doesn't matter," I decided, sitting down next to her, "This is your life. You can die when you want to."

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into my chest. She went without argument and I could tell I didn't say the right thing. Marina was always just a victim in this, the wounded prey, the dove on the altar. She didn't get to die when she wanted to or else she probably wouldn't be here.

I was holding her against me but even then her body didn't radiate back much heat. She was still quivering, so I held her tighter. This was the least I could do for her.

She was moving feebly and then the string of shells was slipped onto my wrist. "Marina..."

"Take it, it's yours anyway," she nestled back into my arms and rested her head against my chest, "Something to hold on to."

I don't know how long we stayed like that. I was trying to sleep, but I couldn't. I couldn't stop thinking about the way her body was trembling against me or the dark circles around her eyes. Or what the Careers had done to her. I pictured Celeste and her followers, laughing as they left her to die. Probably right before they went out in search of me. It made me so angry I wanted to go and hunt them down right then, but Marina's little body kept me on the ground. I owed her this last bit of comfort.

The fire began dying down and she started shaking harder. I rested my chin on top of her hair and began humming Mags' lullaby, making sure I didn't loosen my grip. The wind was beginning to blow and the damp air made it so cold. The arena was making angry noises from the volcano and the forest, so I decided to just start singing; even though it was quiet and maybe not even on pitch, it was still an improvement on the scary grumblings from below.

"Out on the sea my love

There's a gray ship of shining glass

A white dove is sitting, singing

On the crystal mass

And out on the sea my love

The ship is sailing fast

Back home to the shore

Home my love at last.

But 'til that day

The dove it comes it sails alone

Remembering the shore and land

How the breaking waves shone

It comes to sing its song

To tell us of its tale

The ship of glass is sailing fast

The wind is in its sail

So go to sleep and do not fear

For it glides on silver lining

The dove is coming for the shore

The ship it will be shining."

I drifted off to sleep after that I think. I didn't have any dreams, I wasn't even aware I was asleep until the crack of the canon woke me up.

"Marina?" I whispered, shaking her. It was dark and the fire had died. She wasn't shivering anymore.

"Marina?" I tried again, a little louder. She was completely still.

I don't know what came over me, but I laid her down on the ground and frantically checked her pulse. Nothing. I did mouth to mouth. The air filled her lungs but still no life. I couldn't get her heart to start again. I pushed against her chest over and over, but nothing happened. And then I started crying. Not sobbing, but tears were going in a steady stream as I continued my efforts to revive her. I couldn't control them and didn't try.

This was my fault. I killed Marina, and she knew it before we were even in the arena. And yet she was nice to me. I ran around the game getting bread and water and medicine in silver parachutes while she sat on top of the mountain and slowly starved to death. Her family must hate me.

I hate me.

Marina lay motionless in front of my knees, looking little different from when she was actually alive a minute ago. I stopped trying to save her, folded over, and rested my head against her silent heart.

"I'm sorry, Marina. I'm so, so sorry."

I knew that the ship would be waiting to collect her, and if I didn't clear out soon then they would clear me out. But I couldn't just leave her.

You have to go, Finnick.

I fixed her hair and laid her hands so the palms were facing up. This was the proper way to lay a dead person back home, it showed peace. Then I kissed her forehead and set out down the mountain with a hollow feeling in my stomach. I closed my eyes when the ship sailed overhead. I didn't want to see her unceremoniously yanked up by their metal claw. They did this to Marina just as much as I did.

I found a new place to camp; it actually had a tiny cave. I sat down and stared out into the darkness.

I don't want to play this game anymore.

There really was no point anyway. I didn't have a weapon, and no means of getting one. For all I knew, the supply that was provided got lost in the lava slide.

I closed my eyes and let myself wallow in my grief until I fell back asleep.

"Oh come on," her voice is escalating, "Come on! I see how this is going to be."

"What Marina, what's wrong?"

"It's him!" she shouts, pointing a finger at me. I back up and put out my hands, palm up. The room is steeped in blood red and the dark purple light, and Garcia, Mags, and Marina all towered over me with distorted, shadowy faces. Tristan is behind them, stumbling around and clutching a bandage over his eyes, a bandage soaked in black blood.

"What did I do?"I cry.

Marina stepped forward from the line and leaned over me so I was on my knees, staring desperately over her.

"Look at you! I know exactly how this is going to go. We all know that it comes down to one person in that arena and the Capitol people choose their favorite from each district to sponsor. No pair gets the same treatment. And look at you. So superficial, you won them over me because you sold your face to them. You're killing me, Finnick! MURDERER!"

The group behind her closed in around me, hissing her words.

"Murderer, murderer, murderer..."

I doubled over and held my hands over my ears, screaming.

"Finnick?"

It was Annie's voice. I was back on the rock in the middle of the raging storm on the sea. This time I was on top of the rock and Annie stood on a smaller one adjacent to it. She was looking at me with wide eyes.

"Annie."

Tears streamed down her face, and suddenly I felt my heart breaking for her.

"Why are you doing this to me, Fin?" she asked, holding out her hands with the palms up.

"Doing what?" I shouted over the roar of the storm. But then I looked down in my hands where a string of seashells suddenly appeared. I looked back up to see the other end tied around Annie's neck. She was crying and for some reason I pulled the string of shells and she fell into the turbulent waters below. I screamed and screamed, but she was gone.

A wave crashed over the rock and I was swept away with it. Under the water was Marina again, floating motionlessly with her eyes closed; suspended in the abyss like a ghost. She was starved like she was in the arena and blood was inking out from her ankle and into the water. She was so still, so calm, so weightless...

I washed up on the beach. Annie was standing there above me.

"Annie...but you fell in the water."

She shrugged.

"So did you."

"But..."

"It's not like you can't swim, Finnick."

She wound the string of shells around my wrist while I laid there helpless on the sand. "There," she said, straightening up, "something to hold on to."

The ocean began sucking me back in and I was powerless against it. Annie was waving good-bye, my parents suddenly behind her, but I was panicking.

"Annie! Guys, wait! Please-"

Too late. I was under water again until the entire ocean drained into an undecorated room with a lone bed, where normal Mags sat and stared at me.

"Mags?" I asked, scared of what would happen next. She smiled her sweet smile and gestured for me to sit with her. I did.

"You have to win now, hon," she told me, staring straight ahead.

"I can't, Mags."

"You can show mercy. Kill them quickly. Fish in a pool, either they die or you do."

"I don't have anything to fight with."

Mags sighed and continued to stare ahead, "You have your head. Your heart. Your skills you got from home. Use those. You can't give up, Marina would want you to win. She knew you could win from the very start."

"Mags..."

"Fight for her. Fight because she couldn't. Fight to get home. It's the only way out, Finnick."

I was going to say something but water poured in from the corners of the wall until they yielded to its force and the scene was sent spiraling into the depths. I swam up, hoping to breach the surface before I drowned.

I did. My head came over the waves and in the distance was something absolutely beautiful. A glass ship; sailing on the horizon. Marina was dressed in white, healthy again, sitting on the mass with a pointed and determined look to her. Her dress whipped around in such a way it looked like she had wings. And she was humming, I could hear it as clear as day over the sloshing of the water. The tune to the lullaby;

'...it glides on silver lining

The dove is coming for the shore

The ship it will be shining...'

I marveled at its beauty as it crossed the line where the sea met the sky, leaving behind a silver trail. Just before it faded away, the scene flashed and I was in the water right next to the ship. Marina turned to look at me, and a conquering smile stretched across her glowing face.

And then the water washed over my body and began pouring into my mouth. It filled me with rage, with fire, with burning determination so intense it ached. I felt like a volcano, ready to-

I woke up to the sensation of falling. Before I realized what was happening, I crashed into the ledge below and covered my head as several tiny rocks came tumbling after.

What the hell?

I guess I had forgotten to secure myself with a rope that night.

I laid there for a moment so I could try and get my wind back, and then stood with a newfound determination. I didn't feel any of the new scrapes and bruises I gained during that fall; I was going to win this game. I don't care if I had to do it with my bare hands. There was a tide pulling me home and I intended on letting it take me. For Marina. For my friends and family.

"Come and get me, I DARE you!" I hollered into the air. Let them find me. Let them climb. I'd drop rocks on them all if I had to. And that's when a large silver parachute came sailing down from the sky. The package attached to it was huge, and I had no idea what it could be. I caught it and opened the box eagerly, nearly falling over backwards when I saw what was inside.

There sat, perfectly crafted and shining in the sun, a trident.

These games are over.