Games are ending in this chapter! Yay!
THE SURVIVOR
Gloss wrapped his arm around my shoulder as we continued our trip to the desert, keeping me moving and steady. For the first time, I feel genuinely weak, like I can't move on. Meeting up with Velvet or Blair would almost make me happy, those two would make my death quick. The solid ground starts to shift as we make our way into the desert, the hard soil turning to sand.
After hours of searching, we decide that there is literally nothing here. Leucine probably isn't even here anymore, so we make the decision to stay the night. I drink the rest of my canteen, and Gloss does the same. We finish off the loaf of District 9 bread with Gloss commenting on how good it is. What does he expect? We are the grain district.
I set up the sleeping bag under the curve of a rock, covering it with sand after we crawl in. We should be fine if anyone comes tonight, the darkness combined with the sand camouflage should keep us safe and sound.
"We don't need a watch, Gloss. Just go to sleep." I whisper as I bury my face into his chest and let my emotions out. I came into this arena thinking I could kill the man laying beside me, but I know I can't. Not yet at least. He's kept me alive and warm and saved me from certain death twice. I can't kill him yet. I just can't.
The Capitol anthem starts to play throughout the arena, and despite me knowing who's going to be there, I look. Iris is first, her dark eyes and cold stare projected above us. Then Aletha, pin-straight red hair framing her face, a confident smile. She thought she could win, but that's what all careers think.
Katalina is next and I almost break down. Her brown hair and green eyes showing over the arena. Our similarities outweigh our differences. Both of us have uncharacteristically long brown hair, green eyes. We're both average height, tanned, and have the standard District 9 look. How easily it could have been my face in the place of hers, or even both of our faces. The anthem ends and I turn back to Gloss, still crying. I almost regret volunteering now.
He pulls me closer and starts to stroke my hair, trying his best to calm me down. "Shh, shh, it's okay. You're alright." I'm not alright, I'm having a mental breakdown. We're at the start of day five and there are only nine tributes left. The games are coming to a close and I can't handle it. I regret volunteering, let Byron be thrown in here and send me home.
"Why?" That's all I say, and Gloss doesn't seem to understand. "Why what?" He said, continuing to stroke my hair. "Why did you volunteer? Why did you put yourself in this situation?" I was starting to raise my voice, but that would mean a greater chance of dying today, so I stopped myself.
"I can't let sister dearest have all the glory, now can I?" He said while laughing. I know he's lying. I may be a little slow when it comes to survival skills, but I can read people like the back of my hand. I look up to call him out when I notice the look in his eyes. It's sad, almost desperate, so I stop talking. "Now just go to sleep, we need to rest."
I do as he says, cuddling with his arm and just letting go of everything.
Gloss' voice wakes me up a couple of hours later, I could tell by the position of the moon in the sky. He's speaking so low I can barely hear him, but there's probably a reason for that. "The old Cashmere is gone. If I win the games, I'll get her back." He doesn't have to speak anymore. I know what he means by 'gone.' I don't know Cashmere Melrose now, and I didn't know her before her games, but I can guarantee that something has changed.
"You won't get the old Cashmere back, ever." I say seriously. He shifts his body in a fidgety way, I can feel his facial expression change. "And what makes you think you'll stop me? You or any of the other tributes can't kill me!" He whispers fiercely.
"To be so bright, you really are dumb, Gloss. That's not what I meant. The old Cashmere isn't coming back. But the Gloss that entered this arena won't be the same that comes out." I leave out the part that he might not make it out, because I'm not looking to start a fight with my ally. "It'll be the new Cashmere with the new Gloss, and you'll live your mentally unstable lives out together. But neither of you will ever be the same."
He ponders this for a moment, looking as if he's about to cry. A cannon startled us from our thoughts. I wonder who it was? Have Velvet and Blair turned on each other yet? Or was it someone else? I don't know, but I don't sleep the rest of the night because of it, neither does Gloss.
Morning comes fast and we realize that we have nothing to drink. Karlyn said we should be able to get at least four gifts in the arena, so I decide to ask for some water. It comes quickly, along with another loaf of bread. We eat that for breakfast and head out to the woods, deciding it would be better for us if we were near a source of water.
We walk past a cave with fresh blood surrounding the entrance. The blood was scattered around the entirety of the cave, too gruesome for anyone of the tributes to do. The game makers have most likely sent out the mutts, this was probably the source of the cannon earlier in the night.
We make it to a small spring eventually, setting up camp there. A bush of non-poisonous berries is near us, and this looks like the safest place in the arena. A tree had fallen near the spring, leaves still covering the branches. It provides adequate cover, so Gloss and I hide there.
Only minutes later, a girl with darker skin and curly black hair, whom I recognize as District 11, walks through our makeshift camp. She is heavily armed, two swords strapped to her back, a spear in hand, and three knives on her belt. Luckily she didn't see us, and after she got some water from the spring, she was on her way.
Only minutes after she had left, an awful feminine scream was heard through the woods. Gloss and I both turned around to see if we could see what was happening, but I saw no one. There was the clanging sound of metal meeting metal and then a cannon. I would bet anything that Celeste, the girl from 3, had just lost her life. The girl from 11 who just walked through didn't strike me as a screamer, and it didn't sound like Sabrina or Velvet.
Poor girl, she was almost as young as Mira. So that's two down today, seven left in the arena. Six more dead, and we'll have a victor. Gloss and I nibbled on some of the dried fruit for lunch, but that quickly stopped when a parachute came down filled with some kind of high quality meat and potatoes. He shared with me, and after that, I felt significantly better.
"I'm going to spy on the career's camp." I said out loud as soon as the thought came to my mind. "What? Are you crazy?" Gloss said from inside our tree hideout. "No, I want to see what they're doing. Stay here and keep our camp safe." I said as I picked up my chain and headed out.
This struck a nerve with Gloss, as he jumped up and grabbed his knife, immediately on the offensive. "Why don't you want me to go with you, District 9?" He asked in a suspicious voice. "Because I just want to go alone, I'm not going to come back and kill you, I promise." His angry stare grew even stronger when I said that.
One of Cashmere's allies had 'promised' her that they wouldn't kill her last year, and that they were just going to hunt. She believed them, and they came back to try and kill her. Of course, she killed them, but it was still a broken promise. Cashmere's best piece of advice was probably to trust no one in the arena.
He snapped. "I don't trust you, District 9!" Gloss started yelling, and quite honestly, this pissed me off. "Oh, you don't trust me? Then break the alliance, Glossy. We'll see what happens to this 'relationship' if you do!" He knew that I knew about his and Cashmere's plan when I called him Glossy. "You knew and you didn't tell me!" Gloss was now screaming.
"Of course I knew! Do you really think I would trust you otherwise?" I raised my voice too. He was, for probably the first time ever, at a loss of words, so I continued. "Why would I trust a career, Gloss? Do you really think that you 'charmed' me enough at the Training Center that I would just jump into an alliance with you? I heard you and Cashmere talking after the first day of training! I'm only in it for the shared gifts that she sends you!"
I shook my head and started to walk away when a blood-coated dagger with a silver hilt flew past my head and embedded itself into a tree. The shock on his face that he had missed was evident. He tried to kill me. Gloss Melrose just tried to kill me. I pulled the dagger out of the tree and threw it back at him with all the force I could muster. He turned enough to avoid a fatal hit, but it still landed in his arm. He isn't very fast.
Yanking it out, he charged me, a rage filled scream coming out of his mouth. "You were leading me on this whole time!" Gloss yelled as he slashed the knife towards my neck, barely missing. "I was doing the same thing as you!" I screamed as I tackled him to the ground. It wasn't a smart move on my part, as he was much stronger.
I was pinned down as soon as I had reached the ground. Gloss was sitting on my legs, holding down my shoulders with his elbows as he leaned in to my face. Bringing his knife to my cheek, he started tracing little shapes in my face. "Ya know, Varin, you actually are quite attractive. Too bad you just tried to kill me..." He shook his head as he started his 'artwork' on my other cheek.
The intensity was too much to handle. His glazed over, bright, blue eyes were staring right into my green ones. The sadistic smile that his pale pink lips formed was almost as bad as Aletha's or Barron's. I could feel the knife tug my skin along as he kept cutting.
I kept struggling, as hard as I could, but he was too strong. And if I upset his elbows, that could easily mean a knife in the eye or nose or mouth. And I don't want that. Reasoning with him wasn't going to do anything now, so I just stopped. I stopped moving, breathing, trying. I just stopped everything.
He moved his knife to my throat to end it. Against my best efforts, a sob escaped my mouth. I really don't want to die, and I was sure to pay for that. The pressure of the knife on my neck started to increase, just enough to break the skin. Then it all stopped, and there was no more knife on my throat, no more elbows holding down my shoulders.
Gloss leaned close to my face and pressed his lips to mine. He just left them there before he pulled away slowly, keeping eye contact all the while. "Go." He said in a commanding voice. I didn't move immediately, so he yelled again. "GO! Before I change my mind!" He yelled and threw a pack of dried fruit at me. I did as he said and ran off, stuffing the bag of fruit in my jacket pocket with the canteen and grabbing my chain.
I ran for I don't know how long, keeping up the same pace. I ran back to where I had when the games began, behind the meadow, straight to the same bush. I crawled in and just lay there. Eventually I work up the courage to test the wounds on my face. They were there, that's for sure. He had been drawing on my cheeks, but they weren't deep enough to cause any real damage. They all were the same shape though, just varying in size. I let my fingers linger over them for a while before I figured it out.
"They're hearts..." I mumbled to myself as the sun started to set. Gloss was the only thing on my mind until the Capitol anthem started to play throughout the arena. The first person to appear was the boy from 7. He must have died in the cave, no doubt it was a horrible way to go. But what shocked me more is the fact that Celeste had not preceded him in the showing of dead tributes.
The girl from 11 was the next picture shown. The one so heavily armed that I wouldn't dare take her on. A career would probably be nervous if she approached them. I don't know who or what killed her, but they are clearly a force to be reckoned with. The anthem ended and the sky went dark again. Seven tributes left, and I know all of their names. Gloss, Velvet, Blair, Celeste, Sabrina, Leucine, and myself.
I really just want to leave, to get out of this place. I'd rather when to get out, but I'm to the point where dying is just a better alternative than staying in this hell hole. The temperature is falling again and it's starting to snow. The bush was protecting me from most of the flakes, but it wasn't insulating my body heat. I tucked my legs and arms into my coat and zipped it up, letting the little extra warmth relieve my body. Sleep comes shortly after that.
For the first time in a long while, I don't have nightmares, my dreams are even pleasant. Gloss and I are back in the lounge of the training center, just sitting on the love seat looking out over the Capitol. I'm wrapped in his arms as we look at the sun setting behind some of the skyscrapers. Gloss starts to say something, but the shocking sound of a cannon knocks me out of my sleep. I look up to see that the sun is directly over me, signifying that it's midday in the arena.
Shortly after the cannon sounds, I see the hovercraft materialize very near to where I'm hiding. The claw goes down and picks up one body that I'm not at all expecting to see: Blair's. His limp body is covered with long, silver spear like things. They're too small to be spears though, but too big to be darts. They almost look like porcupine quills, just bigger. Whether this is a game maker trap or a weapon possessed by one of the tributes, I don't want to be near it. The physically strongest competitor is gone now. Only one career left, excluding Gloss. I guess I should include him now that are alliance is broken, though. He'll probably kill me just as quick as Velvet or Blair would have.
I eat more of the bag of dried fruit that Gloss threw at me and the butterscotch that Lucille sent me for lunch. Finishing off the canteen, I sit in the bush and wait.
I'll go out at night to get more water, or I could go back to the Cornucopia and scavenge the career's camp. Velvet has probably already abandoned it. Being the only career left, it would be too risky for her to stay there by herself.
The day is about three quarters of the way over when I head to the Career's camp. The melted snow has created some puddles in the indentation of where the lake was. I fill up my canteen, not worrying about purification. If that's the way I go this late in the games, I'll be very shocked.
I take my chance and enter the meadow when I near the Career camp. Crouching down, I just watch for about two hours, making sure no one is there. Just as I suspected, it was completely abandoned. I sprinted across the opening in front of the Cornucopia and into one of their tents.
It's still filled with a fair amount of food, so I fill my jacket pockets and head into the Cornucopia. I crawl as far back as I can in the golden horn, spreading my supplies out in front of me. A loaf of bread, an extra canteen of water, and an extra knife. I took what I thought was necessary, I can always go back if I need more.
Right before the sun was completely set, a voice boomed throughout the arena. The head game maker's voice, to be exact. "Hello, Tributes. This is head game maker Seneca Crane speaking," Why Templesmith isn't speaking, I don't know. He's usually the official announcer of the Hunger Games. "I'd like to invite you all to a..." He was choosing his words carefully, not wanting to directly lie to us, but not wanting to give us the answers, either. "Give away... at the Cornucopia. Be there tomorrow at sunrise, and your odds of winning the games just may increase. May the odds be ever in your favor."
My first thought is to leave the Cornucopia, someone will probably come in here overnight waiting on the feast and not even know I'm in here. I head back to the meadow and lie down in the flowers, finishing the loaf of bread as the Capitol anthem plays. Blair's face is the only one today. I really do wonder what happened to him.
The anthem ends and the darkness returns in full. The lunar cycle has brought us to a new moon the night before the feast. The complete lack of light, other than the dim, fake stars in the sky, is going to make it all but impossible to be stealthy tonight. I know exactly where I am, but tributes in the woods and desert will have to worry about making noise as they make their way to the Cornucopia.
I can just make out a figure running through the darkness across the lake. They stop just before the ground levels out and lie down on the slope, making them impossible to see from the Cornucopia. Twigs snap occasionally from the direction of the woods. You can barely hear it, but the sound is there.
Once an eerie silence returns over the arena, I allow myself to think about what Seneca Crane said about a 'give away.' Usually they're called 'feasts,' but he didn't say that this time. Maybe there will be no food, or maybe the amount will be so miniscule that he wouldn't call it a feast. Whatever it will be, most of the tributes are here, surrounding the very center of the arena.
The game makers are obviously messing with the time, as the sun is peaking over the horizon now. I crawl back into some of the knee height flowers as to avoid being seen. I can just make out Velvet hiding in a tree about 200 yards from where I am. Her golden blonde hair is shining through some of the leaves and branches.
A head covered in short, black hair can just be seen from the valley where the lake was. Celeste. That's who it was running across the lake last night. I drink water as I wait for the 'give away' to begin. The sun is nearly all the way up when the ground before the Cornucopia opens.
Five tables rise above the ground in a perfect circle. On the tables are bags labeled with our District numbers. There are two bags on the '1' table, and just one bag on the rest. No one ran out of the Cornucopia to grab their bag as I had expected them to do, but Velvet was scaling down the tree at a very fast rate. She sprinted across the plain and made it to her table in probably record time, grabbing her bag and turning around to run back, but she never got the chance.
The silver quills bore into her body as soon a she had took one step back towards the forest. One after another, the lodged themselves in her body. There were strange sounds accompanying the needle-like objects. It was like the cannon, but on a much lesser scale. Velvet fell over and her cannon sounded. A metal clanging came as shuriken spilled out of the bag she was holding. The game makers were giving us more weapons.
I scanned the area around the Cornucopia to see if I could see where the sound and quills came from. It wasn't from the woods, or the desert. I looked over to the lake and found Celeste standing up, a long tube-like thing in her hand that had something like a pump on the end. It was an air gun. That must have been what was in the box. She took the two strongest tributes in this years games with a weapon I had the opportunity to have.
It was Celeste's turn to run across the arena now, and she did. She made it to the table labeled '3' slightly slower than Velvet had reached her table. She let out a slight, happy laugh as she stopped to pick up her bag. As she reached out to grab it, a figure appeared on top of the Cornucopia.
Leucine threw his spear at Celeste just after she saw him. She had just enough time to react, dropping her bag and diving out of the way. She ran back almost half way across the plain in front of the Cornucopia, air gun at the ready.
Leucine jumps off of the top of the Cornucopia and grabs his bag off of the table, starting to leisurely walk away. As he grabbed his bag, something happened. He froze for a second, and then started flailing around, trying to get away from the table. The a section of grass in front of the Cornucopia started to rise off of the ground, having a grip on his ankle.
At first I thought that this was a mutt, but that's not the case, Leucine wouldn't be that lucky. Sabrina has camouflaged herself to look exactly like the grass surrounding the Cornucopia, the only outstanding feature that is still hers is her flowing black hair. She pulled out a knife covered in some red substance and stabbed him once. She distanced herself from him immediately afterwards.
Leucine doubled over in pain, but this was not a kill hit. She had cut is arm open, but it was not very deep, something that probably wouldn't even require stitches. Celeste had raised her weapon to kill Leucine, but Sabrina spoke before she even had the chance. "Have fun." she said with a sickeningly sweet smile as she ran back to the forest. Suddenly, Celeste laughed and ran back to the lake, disappearing from sight as she went down the slope.
I had no idea what had just happened, but I decided to take my chance and run for my bag. Leucine had turned around and was far enough away from the Cornucopia for me to think I had a chance, so I took it. Running out, I made it to the table quickly. The bag was a bit heavy, but not too bad. I wouldn't dare take the time to open it here, I saw what happened to Velvet and what almost happened to Celeste.
Leucine had seen me and was coming back to the Cornucopia. He was blocking my way to the meadow, and I wasn't about to take a chance at seeing who is faster. I turn to the woods and run, but as I make it a quarter of the way there, Gloss comes out, knife ready for the kill. He looks mentally unstable. The look in his eyes, the way he's moving, the death grip on his knife all point to the fact that he has gone crazy.
I realize I'm trapped, so I make the decision to open the bag. I'm enthralled to see something I use almost everyday back in District 9, a long, completely metal sickle. The staff was at least six feet in length, and the curved blade was about three feet long. Leucine was holding a brand new spear as I turned to face him. Gloss stopped about ten feet away from me, standing menacingly, waiting for one of us to make the first move.
Leucine went to throw his spear, but something strange began to happen. He lost control of his arm as it started to shake violently. His whole body started doing this and he fell to his knees. Blood-red vomit came out of his mouth between the seizures, staining his white hair a sickly maroon color. He reached out to Gloss and I in a last attempt to get help. Gloss had just stopped to watch in horror, and there was nothing I could do.
Leucine's pale, red eyes snapped wide open as he went completely stiff. Blood started leaking out of all the orifices in his face. The sight was awful, but I was unable to turn away. He coughed one last time and blood sprayed out of his nose and mouth. The cough was accompanied by his cannon, signaling that he was dead.
The sound of the cannon somewhat snapped me out of my trance, and I turned to face Gloss again. However, when I turned around, he wasn't there. I turned back towards the table in time to see him pull out a long, silver sword. Just the sight of it was intimidating. He charged at me with the sword above his head, ready for the kill.
I swung out the sickle and he stopped just in time. If he hadn't, I would have ripped open his stomach, and Gloss Melrose would have been dead. After the swing, I raised the sickle above my head and came straight down on him. He blocked with his sword just in time, the blade only a couple of inches above the bridge of his nose. I was pressing down as hard as I could, but he was stronger. He let one hand off of his sword and into his pocket, pulling out a knife.
He threw the knife at me and it lodged itself in my upper arm. The grip on my sickle was gone and I had to drop it. Gloss smiled at me before he hit me with the end of his sword, knocking me out. When I came to, we were in the Cornucopia. I tried to move around, but I soon found that that was impossible. My hands were tied behind my back with my own chain.
Gloss was sitting beside me playing with my hair, braiding and then undoing the braids, over and over again. He didn't seem to notice the glare I was giving him, or even the fact that I was awake. "What the hell are you doing?" I asked in a loud voice. He looked startled as he recognized that I was awake. "Oh, you're awake." Despite the way he looked earlier, he sounds completely stable.
"Why did you chain me up?" I asked, still keeping up the glare. "I didn't want to kill you, and if you're still alive and not chained up, you'll kill me." He said as if it was the most simple concept in the world. "I'm waiting on one of the other two to kill you, then I'll kill them and win." He's sparing me so I can either die like Leucine or Velvet did. Neither way seemed pleasant at all, but this is the Hunger Games and death isn't a pleasant thing.
"Why don't you just kill me now! I don't want to die like that!" I yelled at him. "Too bad, it isn't my job to keep you happy." He said as he turned his attention to his new sword. I just sat there and watched him clean and polish the thing like it was his child when I noticed my legs weren't chained. A plan started forming in my mind at that moment.
Gloss was sitting close enough that I could lean over and kiss him on the cheek, so I did. "What's that for?" He asked, not even turning to me. "If I'm going to die, why not have some fun before hand?" His eyes shot open, appalled at the fact that I would even suggest something like that. "We're on national TV..."
"And?" That was the only response I said before I kissed him again, this time on the lips. He deepened the kiss and now he was putty in my hands. He's not stupid enough to unchain me, but he is stupid enough to try and have sex with me, something that I wouldn't dare do when there are only four competitors left in the Hunger Games.
He scooted in front of me so he could have better 'access,' and that's when I took the chance. Before he could make a move, my legs were wrapped around him. One was wrapped around his back, pushing him forward, the other was pressing his chin backwards. All it would take is enough pressure to break his neck, probably not much more than I'm applying now, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.
We sat there in that position as the sun started to rise. He would eventually get brave enough to try and escape my grip, but I'll make my demands before then. "Unchain me, give me my sickle, and let me go. Now." I said in a calm voice. He tried to move, but I stopped him. "What do you think you're doing? You can unchain me from this position." He sighed as he wrapped his arms around my back and removed the knots binding my hands together and to the Cornucopia.
He grabbed my sickle and sat it at the entrance of the Cornucopia, waiting on my to let go of him. I threw his sword outside of the Cornucopia as I stood up. He looked extremely relieved to be free of my grip. I grabbed my sickle and looked at him one last time, making a promise that I would be sure to keep. "If we see each other again, one of us is dying." My green eyes bore into his blue, and then I turned and left.
He stood at the entrance of the Cornucopia as I walked away towards the woods, just watching me. I made it to the woods easily and kept going, back to the cave we had stayed at when it had snowed for the first time. It was a long journey, but it would be worth it.
As I made my way to the back of the forest, the huge rock wall came into view, but something about it was different. There was a huge crack down the center, and water was coming out. Soon after I looked up, all hell broke loose in the arena. Jets of water started spraying out of the wall until the whole thing collapsed. A wave that had to be at least 200 feet tall was barreling through the forest.
"Oh shit..." I heard someone mutter from a bush not too far away from me. Sabrina stood up and sprinted back towards the Cornucopia. She surely was watching me, waiting for the kill. I guess I have to thank the game makers for the wave, as it did save my life, but it could just as easily be the death of me as well.
Sabrina got about a five second lead on me, so I just followed her through the woods. The water had caught up to me, but not too bad. I was running in water that was about two inches deep, and rising steadily, but I made it to the opening of the forest in enough time.
There was something vastly different, though. The Cornucopia had risen up, a rock wall was before Sabrina and myself. We both immediately started scaling it, the jagged rocks providing good hand holds. I was climbing fairly well, but Sabrina was not. I was about fifty feet up when she slipped and fell down to the raging waters below. The waves were too much and she was slammed up against the wall of rock multiple times, the water around her turning red. She fell under the level of the water, and her cannon sound soon after.
Only three left now, and I could very well suffer the same fate as her. I kept climbing as fast as I could, and I eventually made it to the top. Gloss was standing at the edge of the plateau that the Cornucopia was now on, watching the water rise above. He hadn't seen me at all, so I decided to make good on my promise. It was now or never.
Raising my sickle, I ran towards him as quickly and quietly as I could. I was nearly there when I heard the sound. The God-awful sound that's less than a cannon, but just as deadly. Gloss turned around and I felt the pain in my back shortly after. Celeste had just shot me with the metal quills from her air gun.
Gloss turned around, shock covering his face. He probably expected to get hit, not me. "You're next, District 1." I heard Celeste say quietly. The sound came three times, but no quills came out. The look on her face was a combination of terror and shock. Gloss charged at her, sword raised for the kill. She had just enough time to try and block the blow with her weapon, but the sword easily sliced through it, and Celeste was dead.
Her cannon sounded and Gloss was by my side instantly. The pain was almost unbearable as he pulled the quills out. She hadn't hit anything vital, but it would be a kill hit without medical treatment. I'd bleed to death, and Gloss isn't about to bandage me up while we're the last two tributes in the games.
Gloss looked on the verge of tears as he sat by my side. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he couldn't think of the right words, so I thought of words for him. "Are you going to keep the promise that I made?" I said with much more harshness than was meant. Gloss' eyes widened in shock at what I was asking him to do. I'd rather get stabbed in the heart or my throat slit and bleed to death fast than bleed to death slowly from those quills.
"Varin... No, I-I can't..." He held my hand as he said those words. "I'll make you." I said as I mustered all of my strength and reached for my sickle. He stopped me and held me down as I struggled to break free. "Don't make me do this, Varin!" He was crying and yelling now.
I kicked him off of me as I grabbed the sickle and tried to stand up. It took a lot of effort, but I managed. I raised the sickle and brought it down towards his head, but he stopped me in time. His sword stopped the blade and I dropped it, not being able to hold on any longer. I started to fall to the ground, but he caught me in time and laid me down.
"Do it now, Gloss!" I yelled at him. This hurt so bad, but I could tell I would be alive for a while if he didn't do anything. He pulled out his knife that he has had since day one and crawled on top of me. "I am so sorry, Varin..." He whispered as he pressed his lips against mine. Slowly he pulled away and looked me over.
Raising his hand with the knife, he finally did what I had been asking and brought it down on my chest, stabbing my heart. It hurt bad at first, but by the time the blood was trickling out of my mouth, I couldn't feel anything.
Gloss sat over me, still crying his eyes out. I may not have won, but he did, and he gets his wish. I guess that's all that matters.
Phew, that was hard to write. I changed my idea like, 10 times. That's why it took so long to write. I hope you guys liked it! (There's going to be one more chapter with Lucille and Gloss' POV. Just throwing that out there so you don't all think it's over.)