Chapter 7: A Single Spark

I stare in horror as I see Lily standing in front of me, among the rest of the Careers. Maybe I had only talked to her once, but I don't want her to die. I remember how she told me she was determined to live so that her baby brother or sister would never know what hunger was. Now the others were ruining that for her.

"What do you think we should do with her?" Gemini hisses, flicking her knife towards her, making Lily flinch.

"I say we cut her up and feed her to the animals," Flint growls and she cowers away from him.

"Aw, let's have a little fun, shall we?" Cara jumps over to her and leans forward saying, "this scrawny thing won't be any fun if we cut her up."

They start laughing and I think I'm about ready to kill all of them. Topaz glances at me, as if she can see my anger at their words. Then Aidan looks at me.

"How about we let Flint and Finnick deal with her," He says, "I don't think we need to waste all on our energy on this wimp." He nudges Lily with the butt of his knife.

I stand up and say nonchalantly, "Fine, let's do it then."

Flint grabs Lily by the arm and drags her away from the others as I follow. I can't look at her in the eye, because I can see the betrayal in her gaze. Once we're farther than the others, Flint shoves her in front of us. He pauses though, thinking of what we should do.

I need to do something.

I look around and to my surprise I see a fallen branch. Lily isn't staring at me anymore, but looking at Flint, shaking with terror. I creep over to the branch silently as I move behind the other Career. I can just tell that Ebony is screaming at me while Mags is waiting to see what I do. I could risk getting kicked out of the Careers or even killed, but that's a risk I'm willing to take for the girl who just wants a better life for her family.

I take the branch in my hands and weigh it, feeling the heaviness of it. It's a large branch and maybe if I swing it hard enough, I'll be able to knock him out. So that's what I do. I raise the branch high and slam it down onto Flint's head. He falls to the ground unconscious.

Lily stares at me, half in horror and half in bewilderment. She's speechless and just stands there, not knowing what to do.

"Go! Run!" I hiss at her, "Before he wakes up!"

She stands there for a couple of seconds as if processing what happened. But finally, she nods and dashes off. Once she's gone I drop the branch where she was and take my knife. I slice my leg open and gasp with pain as the blood wells out. Then I lay there, as if knocked out.

After a while, I hear Flint groan and I drag myself over to him.

"What…what happened?" He asked, looking around for Lily and sitting up, rubbing the back of his head where I hit him.

"The damn girl had a knife on her," I say, "I tried to warn you, but then when you weren't looking she hit you in the back of your head then sliced my leg open so I couldn't follow."

"Damn it," He growls, struggling up as he rubs his head, "I'll make sure we get that girl, make her pay for this."

"We have time," I say as I get to my feet, wincing a bit at my leg wound but I made it so that it wasn't too deep.

"Let's get back to the others," Flint sighs, "Aidan won't like this."

And he didn't like it either. When we told him, he punched a nearby tree and swore at the girl. But he calmed down soon enough as I bandaged up my leg and Flint put some ointment on his head. Maybe I should've let Lily die, that way I could go home, but if I do die, I want her to win. She deserves it.

"We'll get her," Cara says, playing with her bow and arrows, "She can't hide forever."

"We should concentrate on others for a while," Topaz murmurs, "And finding water."

"Yes," Gemini agrees, "I say we rest tonight and then go find some water and some other tributes tomorrow."

The sun was starting to set anyways so we settled down and began to rest. The temperatures were dropping rapidly and I began to shiver violently. Thankfully, though, Topaz grabbed two sleeping bags from the Cornucopia so I took one as did she. We continued our work on the nets while the others ate.

We then ate and Aidan told us to keep watch. We did so and as we worked I kept wanting to ask her why she kissed me, why, why, why. So I just spit it out.

"Why the hell did you kiss me last night?" I dropped what I was working on and looked at her.

She dropped what she was doing too and shrugged saying, "I don't know, I just always wondered what it would feel like and if I wonder about things, I do them."

"So…what?"

"So," She continues, "it's not like I have any feelings for you, I don't love you or anything, sorry but I don't."

"I have to say," I lean forward and rest my head on my palm, "I'm a little hurt by that." I flash a smile.

She rolls her eyes and says, "Whatever, but let's just forget about it, ok?"

"Fine," I lean back and say, "But that kiss was nice, I have to say it was a very good kiss."

"I'm sure you've had plenty other kisses before," She says, waving her hand dismissively.

I think about it and say, "Only one. Athena Cartwright."

Topaz laughs and exclaims, "That doesn't surprise me at all! Athena's probably one of the most well known people in our school!"

"Hey," I raise my hands in defense, "It didn't actually mean anything, but it was a very, very nice kiss."

"And where does mine rank?" She leans forward, interested.

"Hm, I don't know," I lean back, "A tie I say."

She punches my shoulder and I laugh and say, "Ow!"

"That's what you get," She says, her voice light though as she turns back to her work.

I go back to my net also, this is my second one now, but a question is still hanging on my tongue. A question I've been waiting to ask ever since the Interviews.

"Do you miss your daughter any?" I ask her finally, looking down at my net as I work.

She stops, unable to look me in the eye as she whispers, "Yes. I miss her all the time."

I look up at her and murmur, "Then why did you give her up?"

She sighs and shakes her head saying, "I don't know. But my father said it was the right choice, to let no one know. But when I told Ebony about it, she figured it would gain me some sponsors." She laughed hollowly, "Guess that whole, keeping it a secret thing went down the drain."

"I guess so," I smile a bit and then ask, "What was her name?"

Topaz smiles and says, "Aquaria. She has golden hair like mine, but her eyes look like the color of the sea."

I suddenly feel so bad for Topaz, the daughter of the mayor who had to give up her daughter and is now in the Hunger Games, that I rest my hand on top of hers. I think she's crying a bit, but it's hard to tell because she's making an effort to hide it. We stay like that for a little while until Topaz takes her hand away and continues her work, I do the same.

"Hey," Cara wakes up and says, "It's my shift now."

I nod and murmur, "Alright."

I set the nets down in a pile next to me as I settle into my sleeping bag. I now realize that the gloves reflect your heat along with protecting them from the rough vines, bark, and the stones. I close my eyes and feel myself falling asleep, thinking of Topaz and her young little daughter Aquaria.

I'm waken up around dawn by Aidan. He tells us it's time to get up, and I have to wonder who our next victim will be. I struggle up and Topaz and I stuff our things in her backpack (the small pack I got is basically useless). I keep some water with me and finally ditch the gloves, shoving them into the backpack as well. The heat is as unbearable as it was yesterday, but at least we have the shade from the trees this time.

"Did you finish up those nets?" Flint asks, the bump on his head not as noticeable as it was yesterday.

"Yeah," I say and put them over my shoulder, "Should we set them up now?"

"Might as well," Aidan murmurs as he takes the lead out of the forest.

We push through the empty terrain at a slow pace, drinking some water as we go along. The heat is unbearable and I only wonder what the other Tributes are doing without the bottles of water we have. Maybe they found a drinking source somewhere?

We reach the Cornucopia finally and Topaz and I lay out the nets. We take the few water bottles that there are left (I have a feeling some one took a couple) and put them in our bags. I take some smaller spears and slide the knives under my belt. I take my sword and start fiddling with it under the tree as the others look for anything useful.

"Come on, let's go already," Gemini tells them, "I'm dying in this heat."

"And we need a water source," Topaz adds.

"Alright," Aidan says, coming over with Flint and Cara, "let's go back into the forest, rest, and then find some tributes."

We do that and go back to where we had been before. We rest, drinking up our water and staying in the shade, until Aidan tells us it's time. Cara offers to scout ahead and Topaz goes with her as I stay with Aidan, Flint, and Gemini. We suddenly hear something up ahead and we quicken our pace.

We come to a small clearing with a small pool of water in it. Cara and Topaz has the two tributes cornered. I recognize one as Citrine, the girl from District 3. The other one I think is the girl from District 8. Cara is ready to shoot one of them with her arrows while Topaz has her spears ready.

"Oh look," Gemini says, her voice sounding like a dark purr, "some tiny tributes ready to be killed."

"What do you mean?" Snaps the girl from District 8, "I'm looking at them."

"Should we kill them?" Cara asks, poised and ready. "Or have some fun?"

"Just kill them," Aidan says, "they're not important."

"I think you're mistaken," Citrine says, her eyes glinting mysteriously.

"Oh? And why's that?" Aidan crosses his arms.

Citrine smiles and then says, "You'll see in three…two…one."

Right as she says one, the whole place goes up. I was at the end and I'm thrown backwards into the grass. Flames burst up from the explosion and smoke rises as Citrine disappears but the District 8 girl is killed in the explosion. I cover my head with my arms as something else blows up near by. My ears are ringing and I'm coughing like crazy as I try to see through the smoke, my eyes watering.

"Shit!" I hear a voice, I think it's Gemini but my ears are ringing so bad it's hard to tell, "Let's get out of here!"

I stumble to my feet and race away, my steps unsteady as I try to make it through the smoke and flames. I think I see Flint up ahead so I follow him. I feel something burn onto me and I screech as I feel the flames dig into the bare skin on my arm. I pat it out quickly, feeling the fiery pain reach up into my arm and hands as I race away.

Finally the smoke clears and I collapse on the ground beside Flint and Gemini. We're all coughing and I'm gripping my arm. It's not a real bad burn, just from the flames skimming against it, but it still hurts like hell. I lean back my head on the grass as I see Topaz and Aidan race out and collapse beside us. Soon Cara comes too, a bad burn on her leg.

One cannon goes off and I know it's the girl from District 8. We don't react much to it as we catch our breath and Topaz goes through the first-aid kit. She finds some kind of ointment and we rub it on our burns, sighs escaping our lips from the cooling sensation.

"There's two on my list," Gemini gasps.

"What was her name?" Cara asks.

"Citrine," I answer, "From District 3."

"Well," Topaz murmurs, "She certainly does make things spark."

"Yeah," Flint mutters, "tell me about it."

And I now realize what Citrine meant in her interview by 'anything that sparks'. There are more dangers in this Hunger Games than just the Careers now.