</.Spinning. ~Infinitely]\> {Rhino}

The polished cherrywood door shut with a bang behind her as she ran out of the house, shouts and commands reverberating from inside. Hot tears ran down the girl's face, a bruise already beginning to well on her left cheek, red from the extertion used in her escape. Strands of hair stuck to her forehead, clinging to the persperation leaking from her pores. With such clouded vision, the girl stumbled and fell quite a few times, quickly jumping back to her feet and resuming her frantic running.

Home had become hell, and she was sure one more moment with her beast of a mother and she would be put down for murder. Alas, it had been so tempting, the butcher knife she had lain down, interrupted from her cooking, as mommy dearest rampaged through the house, the kitchen her final stop, obsceneties flying from her mouth left and right, most aimed at the young woman herself. Finally shouting back, mother had firmly backhanded her with a wooden serving spoon, her chin snapping to the side, giving a cry of surprise. The kitchen had become deathly quiet, untill she had bolted, only after several twitches toward the blade on the wooden chop block.

Even now, Annalise Chambers did not feel safe, knowing her mother could easily pick up the phone the Capitol had provided, and call for the Peacekeepers, claiming her daughter had run away. She would feed them lies, she would make them beleive she was the bad guy, and there was nothing Anna could do to stop her. Authorities always beleived the older person, wether they emitted a string of lies or the cold truth, children could not be beleived. Or so they thought.

A bright flash of light brought her from her thoughts, and slowed her pace. Winded, she knelt over, hands on her knees, and continued to pant like a dog, all the while gazing out at the mass before her. The sea had always interested her, mainly because it would prove to be a mean of escape from the districts, but also because of the mysterious life enveloped in the murky depths. Aquatic life was entrancing, mainly because, with Panem in the state it was in about now, you didn't see much other than the bleak trout, salmon, and the likes. What she would give to come across the fabled shark, as was shown the last Hunger Games, or a krocodial, which she had only heard in stories, myths.

Wiping away the mess from her eyes, she strolled farther down the sandy shore, she found it impossible to avert her gaze, even to watch where she was going. The occasional stumble, over root and bark set adrift from the restricted woods, she was nearly brought down several times. Inches from the water line, her body gave in, the nerve-wracking cramps in her thighs and calves taking control of her legs, where once she pulled the reins, and she found herself sprawled on the beach, sand crusting into her skin, finding its way into wounds unknown to even her, spilling into her mouth. Wretching and sobbing from the pain, she drug herself into the ocean.

She felt nothing, at first, the water soothing to her skin, yet the same as if she were standing admist a calm breeze. Her bloodstream let go of the last bit of warmth it held, and the water temperature finally seized her. Muscles locked up, and panting resumed, this time from the freezing cold that had taken over her body, instead of tantalizing exhaustion. Yet, farther she went, untill she no longer felt the sting of the infiltrated wounds, and no longer cared for the bite of the cold. Feet found the muddy earth beneath the waters, and she stood there, arms floating above the water, half submerged in blue.

When trying to lift her leg, she found it submerged in mud, her shoes still on. Pulling and kicking, she managed wrench her feet free of the sandals, carefully laying it back down, only to bring it back up as a strange scuttling went across it. Dangerously off-balance, she toppled for a moment, hopping to and fro on the foot still planted on the earth. Her heel tilted, and the next minute, she was fully submerged in the water, the cold black enveloping her, pushing in on each side, crushing her under the weight. Paddling up, she broke the surface, a gleeful yell on her tongue, afraid to open her eyes in fear of the salt water making its way in, yet happy all the same.