Forever Knight

#4: As soon as Haymitch told Johanna that Finnick hadn’t made it, she bolted to the hospital in 13. Johanna knew where the patients on morphling were. She had their room numbers, schedules, and names memorized. She ran into the room of an eighteen year old boy still recovering from the bombing of his district. Johanna knew she had to be quick, for Haymitch would come after her soon. She sat on the edge of the bed and lay her hand on the boy’s. “I’m just gonna borrow this for a minute.” she said to him. Johanna took the morphling tube from the boy and injected it into her arm. She leaned her head back in pleasure then looked at the boy and stroked his ash-stained cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Johanna!” she heard. Haymitch ran into the room and marched over to Johanna, his boots making scuffling sounds on the floor. “That’s it, Jojo. No more morphling for you.” “No, Haymitch!” She swat at his hands as he tried to take the morphling from her. She screamed and kicked, falling onto the floor. Haymitch stood over her, a massive giant with a concerned look on his face. Johanna felt dizzy and hoped that the hallucinations would kick in and take her to her dream world. Haymitch yanked the morphling cord and the tube jumped from Johanna’s arm. She yelped in pain and a hand flew to where the needle was. Haymitch carefully injected the morphling back into the boy and Johanna stared, scuttling backwards. Her back hit the wall and she folded in on herself, her body racking with sobs. Her best friend was dead. They had made promises. Johanna was going to live with Finnick and Annie back in Four. He said he wanted her to so he could teach her how to love the water again. He wanted to teach her how to swim. When Haymitch was done with the boy, he knelt beside Johanna. “Why do you do this to yourself, Jojo?” Johanna looked up at Haymitch. “Because it helps me,” she answered. “When I get hallucinations I’m in a world where my family is there and Finnick and we’re all right. It takes me back to the way it used to be. When it was just Finnick and me in the Capitol. The morphling gives him back to me. It gives me my best friend back. The one I made fun of and the one the made fun of me. I laughed with Finnick and cried with him. I’ve told him more about myself than I ever told my mother when she was alive! I’ve always needed Finnick. I still do.”