A/N: Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, favorited, and over-all supported my first oneshot, Good Night. Your wonderful words really meant a lot to me. So, I wrote this for you all! I think the first one was better though, tell me what you think in the reviews! Thanks a lot, again!~Lyka
I wake up to the anthem playing in my ears, and a light, pleasant pressure on my chest. I scan my surroundings, checking to make sure that no one has sneaked on us while we were asleep. Marvel, Clove and Lover Boy are still sleeping, but the boy from Three I ordered to look after our supplies is still awake, dark rings under his eyes, and his position and posture screaming 'I'm tired'.
I pay him no mind, he would do as we ask or he dies. Simple as that. I look down to the girl sleeping beside me, and I allow a small smile to grace my lips. She really is beautiful. She's tucked securely within my arm, her head leaning on his chest. Her lips are slightly parted, her eyes closed, magnifying her long, blonde eyelashes. Her hair, which she gathered into a ponytail the day before, is fanned over my shoulder.
I'm concerned over the question she asked me last night. I know that when the time comes, I won't hesitate to kill her, no matter what may be between us; but I told her nothing but the truth then. I would try to kill her as fast as possible so she wouldn't feel any pain. She doesn't deserve that. It's the only thing that I can do to show her… to show her I care.
I shake my head. No need for such thoughts. Today is the day we're finally going to get rid of 12. Both of them. Pity, Lover Boy was actually skilled with that knife of his, he could've been a valuable ally. No matter.
The anthem finishes, but a strange, unusual buzzing sounds replace the gap it left in my ears. What is that? I look around me, narrowing my eyes at the spaces in-between the bushes where someone could be hiding. I find nothing. I look up towards where the 'Girl on Fire' is. Too late…
I see the downward falling motion of the hive as if it was in slow motion. Hundreds of tracker jackers hovering outside the hive, flying downward and spreading out, reaching for us. The nest hits land and shatters into pieces on impact, and all the tracker jackers inside buzzes and swarms around us like crazy, the ground suddenly became toxic. We have to get away, as fast as we could. It's not safe here anymore, and it's all because of that b*tch. I jump up, grabbing my backpack, my sword, all the weapons and supplies that I can, cursing under my breath all the way. The lake's the safest place for us right now, we'll take care of her later.
"THE LAKE! EVERYONE TO THE LAKE! THE LAKE! Go, GO! RUN! Go to the lake! Take what you can and GO!"
I can feel the tracker jackers swarming around me, stinging every part of skin they can reach. I try to ward them off with my hands, but I know it's no use. They taught us about different creatures that the Capitol has generated back home, and I try to make sure that everyone in our group is heading to the right direction before the hallucinations kick in. I run as fast as I can, the adrenalin pumping furiously through my veins. I clutch my sword tightly in my hand, and shift my backpack closer to make sure it's there. A particularly violent sting finally causes the first hallucination. Everything's duplicating, the trees, the sky, my feet. I see my mother, pushing me to my limits at the academy, telling me she was proud of me… Her anxious face as I volunteered… The first time I saw her cry, when she said goodbye… I continue running, but manage to keep track of my allies. Clove's running: one. Marvel's running: two. Glimmer's…
My stomach fills with dread, and I can feel my blood run cold. Where's Glimmer? I look back, trying to drown out the sounds of thundering footsteps and buzzing jackers, and I can hear her terrified screams. No, no, not Glimmer…
She's still by the tree, covered with the wasp-like bugs. Her left arm's already swelling, and she's kneeling on the ground, bow and arrows still held tightly in her hands. She looks up at me, her eyes, beautiful eyes welling up with tears. She opens her mouth in a silent scream, and falls to the ground…
NO!
Another sting, another hallucination. My vision of her is obscured as countless swords, knives, and spears I used to train with back home slashes through everything. Everything I see shatters… the sound of breaking glass… a foggy vision… another sting… red, bloody clouds against stark, grey sky… more stings…blood, so much blood… everywhere… pouring out of the trees… the bushes… bleeding, black and blue and red… stings, in my arms and legs, and face…screams… Glimmer's and mine…more screams…
I try to scream, to call out her name, to pull her back to safety, with me, with us, where she belongs. But I can't, I can't, I can't. I'm much too exhausted, everything's spinning, and I can't keep track of where I am. Up from down. Left from right. I close my eyes but I keep running. Running, running. Away from her. Farther and farther. I couldn't save her. I couldn't protect her. Not anymore.
Her screams grow steadily softer and fainter, softer and fainter, soft and faint…
Then it's gone.
BOOM!
No, no, no. She's gone. Forever. She's not with us anymore.
The lake… Clove grabbing my arm… Marvel in front of us, still running… a high-pitched laugh… more screams… the familiar sight of beatings and whippings and floggings… I thought I had left that behind…
One last jacker… one last sting… one last hallucination… please…
The boom of the cannon rings around my head, over and over, mocking me.
Glimmer smiling at me after I cut off the head of a dummy at the training center… The kiss she blew me just as we ascended from the cylinders… Her laugh as we killed tribute after tribute… Eyes watching over me as I slept…
Then came the worst of them all, her screams… sounding increasingly louder… louder and more terrified… more desperate…
I somehow find myself in the water, trying to ease the pain of the stings with Marvel and Clove. It's no use. No pain can ever compare to that of losing Glimmer right before my eyes, and being too cowardly to save her.
I close my eyes and lower my head into the water, letting the cold numb me of all feeling.
She's gone. I failed. Failed to give her that one wish, a quick painless death.
That was the day I promised myself that I would kill Katniss Everdeen, in the slowest and most excruciating way possible.