A/N: Hi everyone, I just wanted to say I really hope that you enjoy this! I do not own the Hunger Games, or any of the Districts mentioned in this oneshot. These are, however, my own characters… :D
Everywhere I looked, there were bodies. Always bodies. They fought, they bled, they cried and they died. It was an endless cycle, year after year after year.
Blood was everywhere, staining the ground with a disgusting enthusiasm, an unbroken stream of it. More bodies. More people dead. And all I could do was run.
It was like sprinting through a crimson haze. There was sticky air that clung to my face as I tore through. There was the sickening smell of fresh blood. The dying screams of the others as they lay bleeding, completely helpless, drowned out all other noise. I look around as I run.
Already there were bodies strewn across the ground, their limbs sprawled out at awkward angles, their glassy, glazed eyes staring lifelessly at the empty space around them. Somewhere, a place that I have never known, parents were weeping as they simply watched their children's young lives be cut away. Their families were already tearing apart.
I dodge a knife that was carefully thrown in my direction, and keep running. It jolted me back into reality, back to where I must be on constant surveillance. I thought once more about those people who were forced to watch this slaughter. Slowly, I allow those thoughts to slip away, almost forgotten, and then leave them behind to be consumed by the bloody mist. I run to the forest.
Once my lungs began to crave precious air, I force myself to slow my pace to a brisk walk. I look around at my surroundings, paying strong attention to the underlying detail of it. I let the forest speak to me.
The woods are eerily beautiful, completely untouched by the annual massacre that raged at its borders. I climb up a swaying, snow-covered tree with ease, needing a chance to clear my lungs of that sickly sweet scent that chokes the air. I need a chance to think. I need a chance to listen.
I truly feel like a coward, hiding up here in a tree, but I'm hoping that it'll help me survive this ruthless society.
There are 9 of us left now. 24 people have entered the arena on day one and on day two 15 have died. 9 of us have survived the night. I am one of them. I never thought that I would be able to make it this far, but spending the night in my tree has kept me alive, though the openness of the upper canopy has allowed a bitter cold breeze to chill me. Now I cannot feel my toes, my hands, or my nose. The freezing weather drove me towards the warmer ground, but still I shiver.
A cannon blast is brought to me on the breeze, a very faint noise that causes me to question the size of the arena. With the sound comes a feeling of sadness; someone else has died. There are now 8 of us. We are their entertainment.
But how can I possibly be free of this wretched place when I can't even stand the slightest possibility of violence. How can I kill someone?
I sit down at a base of a pine, surround myself with the boughs, and think long and hard about the events sure to come. I notice that it's now beginning to snow and smile inwardly, believing in the beauty of this place. The flakes are soft and float down in lazy, carefree spirals, yet I hear footsteps fast approaching, carried along by the breeze.
I panic and leap to my feet, trying to scramble up into the safety of the branches. I am noisy and clumsy and make a lot of sound with my efforts; my heart thuds loudly in my ears in result. I cannot gain a grip on the slick branches and I turn to face my attacker.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the girl from District 7." A Career tribute sneers at me. I look at her with wide eyes, though I try to show no fear. "Can't climb up your tree to get away from Big Bad Sapphire?" I flinch at the girl's tone and try to look for any possible weapon to use against her. The girl smiles and looks up and down my body with a frown. "I could've sworn that I'd hit you with that knife of mine yesterday." She sighs. "It didn't even touch you. Not even a scratch."
"So it was you then. You can't kill me, even when I'm distracted like I was at the clearing yesterday, can you?" I say with sweet venom. The girl's lip curls into a snarl, but I continue to egg her on like a child. It was the fact that she actually missed her target that was getting under her skin. It was my only weapon, for now.
"For your information, 7, I haven't missed a target in years." She growls.
"It seems like you have now." I smirk, grinning from ear to ear. I watch as her hands curl into fists and notice how they are still polished and shiny. In fact, I notice that she has not one speck of blood or dirt on her. It hits me like a brick; I might actually have an advantage over her. "I can see that you haven't killed a single person Sapphire. What a waste of all that time growing up learning how to fight and not being able to kill a helpless girl like me." As I say this, a surge of adrenaline courses through my veins, despite my best efforts to remain calm. I do not want to kill anyone, not even a Career who can't kill me. Sapphire looks just as scared as I do, though she has her emotions well hidden behind her fierce mask.
I soften my tone "Listen, we don't have to fight like caged animals. I don't want to fight you, and you don't want to fight me, so why don't we just part ways and forget this confrontation?" It's a suggestion that simply slips from my mouth, and I see her reaction. She pauses, opens her mouth like she's about to speak, and then snaps it shut again when I hold up a hand to stop her.
I hear a very faint movement in the forest, and she must too, for she tenses. There is a twang and then the Career girl falls to the ground, dead. A strange spear protrudes from her back and once again the ground is smeared in crimson. I look up in horror, to see what monster could kill someone with her back turned and I am shocked.
"I thought you were talking that girl to death, so I ended her suffering of listening to you blabber." Ivan said with a smile.
I shake my head sadly. Another life was taken abruptly. "What do you want Ivan?" I say, stepping over the body carefully. He bends to remove the spear, but I turn away. There is a sickening, indescribable sound as it leaves its warm hold.
"I came to find you. I knew you would run into the woods as soon as I saw your face when the timer ran down, so I followed you in here. I figured you'd be up here, doing your listening-thinking thing in the trees. How right I was."
"I was avoiding you for a reason." I say, my voice thick with unknown sadness.
"And that reason?"
"Best friends don't kill each other, Ivan." I murmur more to myself than him, but he hears it anyway.
"That's why I tried to follow you. I want to be allies." He says.
I sigh sadly. "I know why you're actually here, so stop lying to me and get on with it. You know that I won't fight you or join you as an ally, so you might as well kill me."
He avoids my heavy gaze. "You know why I have to. Willow needs me, and…"
"…it's better me than you, since I have no one." I finish. "I have one request though."
Ivan nods in understanding. I can see in his eyes that he doesn't want to do it as much as I want to die. "Just, please, don't make it hurt." I whisper, a tear escaping down my cheek.
"Of course." He says in a hushed tone. His hand snakes out gently and grasps mine. He squeezes it lightly, a gesture meant to reassure me, though it does not. It makes me begin to dread what was beyond the unknown.
When people have a brush with death in my District, they claim to see a golden archway with a great curtain. They say that they can't see what's beyond that curtain, but only hear the voices of their passed loved ones calling to them.
I wonder briefly if I will be able to hear my mother and father again, or be able to see my little brother and sister that were so unfairly taken by that fire. I wonder if the dead tributes will be there too, sad and curious about what was going on in the world that they left abruptly behind.
One final thought flickers through my mind: I do not want to face the unknown. I open my mouth to call Ivan off, to tell him to wait, that I wanted to live a while longer but I do not feel Ivan's comforting hand drop mine nor do I see him prepare himself for the blow.
The thoughts shatter around me, cutting terrible grooves inside my scarred heart.
There is a sudden burst of inescapable pain that tears through my body, piercing my heart. It consumes me with wicked fervor and hunger. I cry out involuntarily, reaching for Ivan's familiar form. He eases me to the ground, sadness swimming in his eyes as I cry. He pushes my hair out of my face, so that all I see is his kind, grey eyes. A shudder courses through my body, an uncontrollable wave of terror. How he betray me! I didn't want to die so soon! I never got the chance to tell him that I didn't want this to happen!
"Can you forgive me?" He murmurs into my ringing ears. My vision is blurring around the edges. I scream from the throbbing once more. I only watch helplessly as Ivan winces at the sound as it echoes around the woods, making all the birdlife around us quiet.
I close my eyes as I feel my life force draining into the ground. I can hear my heartbeat sputter and slowly decline. My breaths become less strained, the pain is vanishing slowly, then a numbness begins to take over my body. My hand is going slack in Ivan's. "Please…. Don't leave… me…. Alone…." I whisper. It comes out in an unnatural tone.
I feel my own conscience slipping away from my body. I can hear my heart finally sputter weakly once more, and then grows silent. A light grows before my eyes, enticing me to step closer. Voices are speaking to me, calling out my name. In the song they sing, I distinguish my little brother's voice, as well as my sister's. Two children's hands reach from the light to draw me in and excitement courses through me. I peer through, seeing their unmarred faces grin at me.
"I'm so sorry Harmonie…" I hear from behind me. I turn around and see myself, lifeless on the ground with glassy, staring eyes. It is Ivan, clutching my hand with tears streaming down his face. The voices from the light beckon me to them once more, but through the peaceful lullaby there is the booming noise from the cannon. I turn towards the luminescence, the welcoming hands, and grasp them firmly in my own, stepping into the brilliance.
When I open my eyes, there is light. I am in my body, not in the Games. Looking around me in surprise, I see that Ivan's gaze locks with my own before the first name is drawn from the jar. A trickle of fear flowed into my heart, the fear of the unknown outcome. I thought about my daydream once, more, causing a flourish of relief to spread through me. I was not dead, but clearly alive. A shudder rakes my body, then, a bone-chilling feeling that you get when you know something bad or unexpected is going to happen.
I felt it then. It tore through me like a raging wildfire.
The games were going to happen; I had a premonition.
I was at the Reaping.
I was going to die.
A/N: I hope that everyone enjoyed the ending… :D So, please, please, please leave me reviews about the plot, the characters, or anything else!
I want to give huge thanks for my two best friends, Liv and Tak, for helping me out with the idea and for being the first readers and my editors. :D Without them, this wouldn't be published!
Thanks, for reading!
But please, leave me a review… :P