puffs of smoke [marina oneshot]

this time,

this time

Marina breathed out the smoke of her cigarette. It was a bad habit, but one she had picked up in the recent weeks, nevertheless. Since Nixie left for the Capitol after being reaped for the Games, Marina had ended up gaining quite a few bad habits. It was her way of coping. Smoking was just one of them. She'd also been drinking more alcohol than she used to before all of this happened.

Her mood had been all over the place, too. She went from cheering on Nixie when it came to the tribute parade and her interview, where she showed herself to be confident and capable, to feeling lower than low when she saw Nixie's training score of a six. She knew her sister could do better than that, but she hadn't. Then, she was in panic mode as the bloodbath unfolded. She cheered on her sister as her attacks hit her opponents, and winced as a whip made contact with Nixie's flesh.

Marina's heart didn't stop pounding until Nixie was away from the bloodbath at the cornucopia and grouped back up with her allies, away from the other tributes.

Four cannons sounded: four dead tributes in the bloodbath. It was definitely more than usual, and none of their deaths seemed instantaneous like they often were at the very start of the Games when everyone charged toward the cornucopia. Marina was just relieved that none of the deaths that happened were her sister. There were both tributes from Six, the boy from Two, and Nixie's district partner, Anarchy.

Let's just say, those deaths weren't exactly the ones that Marina had expected. Her assumption had been that it would be lower district tributes, or perhaps just the younger ones, but she was wrong. Hopefully her confidence in her sister wasn't wrong, too. She believed in her. She'd seen how capable she was, back home during all of their training that they had done together over the past few years.

Marina paced around outside the front of her family's home, still smoking her cigarette. She'd needed to step away from watching the Games for a bit, after the bloodbath. Whatever she missed, she could get updated on from her parents or watch a recap of later. She just couldn't focus on it right that second. It took a lot of energy out of her, if she was being totally honest.

Although, it almost definitely was taking much more energy out of her sister. Nixie didn't look tired on screen as she comforted her crying friend and ally, but it certainly would've made sense if she were.

Chaos like that had to be exhausting and terrifying for those involved, especially when it was that way for those watching. Marina was glad she had never volunteered for the Games.

If it were her in the arena right now, she probably wouldn't have even made it out of the bloodbath.

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478 words

turning white

and senses dying