The Spark Of War ➳ Finnick Odair ²

7 | Hope

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Chapter Seven
HOPE
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Now I have pluatarch Heavensbee's attention. He stares steadily at me as the juice from the peach he crushed in his hand runs through his fingers. Finally he clears his throat and says, "You may go now, Miss Graves."

I give a respectful nod and turn to go. I don't really want to talk about my session with anyone, I don't really want to reopen those wounds. I'm not sure why I even chose to do that since that's exactly what I did, reopen old wounds. I find myself crying on the elevator ride, as it opens up on my floor I see no one around and I quickly rush to my room. I decided to go take a quick shower myself, since my hands are stainded from the paint. As I stand in the water, I begin to wonder about the wisdom of my latest trick. What happens in training is highly secretive, so there;s no point in taking action against me when no one will know what my transgression was.

As we all gather for dinner, I notice Nolan's hands are faintly stanined with a variety of colors, even though his hair is still damp from bathing. He must have done some form of camouflage that he has been practcing. Once the soup is served, Willow gets right to the issue on everybody's mind. "All right, so how did your private sessions go?"

I exchange a look with Nolan. Homehow I'm not that eager to put what I did into words. In the calm of the dining room, it seems very extreme. "You first," I say to him.

Nolan seems to be struck with the same reluctance I'm experiencing. "Well, I — I did the camouflage thing, well, not exactly camouflage. I mean, I used the dyes."

"To do what?" his stylist asks.

I think of how ruffled the Gamemakers were when I entered the gym for my session. "I got one of the dummies and painted a name on it and then stabbed it with a sword." he says, "I wrote Snow."

Gasps were heard all around the table, even I sucked in a breath, not expecting that response. "What did they do? How did they react?" I question him.

"They seemed shocked." He answered.

There was a long puase at the table while everyone absorbed this. "And what exactly were you trying to accomplish?" Willow asks in a very measured voice.

"I'm not sure. I just wanted to hold him accountable, if only for a moment," says Nolan. "For killing all of those kids."

"That sort of thinking ... it's forbidden, Nolan. Absolutely . You'll only bring down more trouble on yourself and Katniss." Mica says.

"I guess this is a bad time to mention that I painted Monty and Calyptus, my friends from my Games." I say. This has the desired effect. After a moment of disbelief, all the disapproval in the rooms hits me like a ton of bricks.