HEY! Were back with another chapter! Yay! XD without futherado, go read it my little mockingjays~ w&c
Sixty
Fifty-nine
Fifty-eight
I survey the arena. In a strange way it's rather beautiful. The large golden horn known as the Cornucopia stands in a small clearing at te edge of a rather large looking forest that surrounds most of the grass patch. There's a lake nearer the woods, filled with what seems to be fresh water. I'm not going to be the idiot that takes the chance though. The small section of the outer layer clearing that is not surrounded by trees dips into a steep hill. Below it, there is grass, in places perhaps taller than me, for as far as the eye can see.
Fourty-one
Fourty
Thirty-nine
I'm stood in between the girl from District 5 and the boy from District 8. I give the boy a small wave and his face pales. When I point at him and drag my finger across my throat he almost faints from fright. I pray that he doesn't, the blast he creates when he falls off his platform might reach me, and even if it doesn't, I don't want to be picking bits of tribute off my clothes just yet. I got these today.
Twenty-five
Twenty-four
Twenty-three
Cato's seven places along from me, cushioned between Marvel and the hulking boy from 11, who is on the end. My mind reels from looking at him so i flick my eyes away. Lover Boy is four placers away in the other direction, with only the little girl inbetween him and Posidian. The boy from 9 blocks the District Four boy from Glimmer, and only two tributes seperate her from Fire Girl. Five spaces away from her is Alea, on the other end of the semi-circle from Thresh, the massive beast from eleven.
Nineteen
Eighteen
Seventeen
I study the items in the Cornucopia. There's weapons one can only dream of. Spears are ready for the taking by the mouth, a long katana sword was pinned to the wall. Most of the weapons and packs are spread around us but the real survival stuff is inside. There's a huge tent that could easily survive all types of weathers inside of the Cornucopia. I want that. I also want a long, dainty knife that looks wicked in the blinding light. The ten seond countdown starts and I prepare myself for battle. My fingers twitch, awaiting the moment they can close around a knife, only to throw to agian seconds later. I'm ready.
Ten
Nine
Eight
Seven
Six
Five
Four
Three
Two
One
The gong sounds. I'm the first one off my platform and race towards the Cornucopia. The knives are so delectably close to me that it's hard to believe that it wasn't planned. Random placement my ass.
I scoop up a collection a six in one fowl swoop. My eyes lock with the back of a boy's shaggy haired head. He's grappling for a backpack with non other than Fire Girl herself. I'd love to aim straight for her, but this idiot is in my way. With a quick flick of my wrist, the knife soars through the air. As usual I'm right on target and the point rips through his skull, sending him slumping to the floor.
I thought my first kill would carry some kind of guilt, that I would feel some kind of regret for ending a life. But all I feel is adreniline coarsng through my blood, seeping through my veins and arteries as my heart pumps at a thousand beats per minute. Check one off of my list.
Another knife leaves my hand, flying at the Fire Girl's neck, who's trying to escape with her now claimed backpack. She's as good as dead. My blade is only inches away from her flesh when she bumps up the orange pack. My knife gets stuck in it and I hiss. It was a perfect shot, and she fucked it up.
I toy with the idea of chasing her down, but quickly brush it off. Why make her feel special? We'll easily catch her later. No pun intended. Turning my attention back to the bloodbath, I fling another knife at the male tribute from D6, he stumbled around, and grabbed the knife from his back. It's amazing he's still running and seemingly healthy. I guess the knife must have hit a rib. I decided to make my mentor proud. I shoved my knife back into my pants, and spirited towards the boy. He was staggering towards the grass when I flung my self onto him. He fell back due to my slight shift of weight but quickly stood up. D6 was running away from me. NO! I lunge at him again, my teeth barred and ready to attack.
"THIS IS FOR YOU ENOBARIA!" I shriek as I shove him into the ground. His brown eyes wided and I come mere centimeters away from his face. I feel his heavy panting and his fear.
"You'll help me make my mentor proud? Right?" He tries to cringe away from me. NO! I extend my teeth near his throat. I force my mouth onto his throat and try to mute his screams. My teeth feel blood flow from his throat quickly. It leaves a salty taste in my mouth as I rip his tendons and arteries up. I didn't even feel the meat in between my teeth. I was hysterical. When if feel him die out I jumped, the bloodbath is still on. Over his dead and bleeding body, I see Alea sink a mace into the girl form 9's skull. Her whole head basically explodes, leaving Alea's face covered in blood and what I can only presume is pieces of flesh and brain. It looks like ribbons. For a moment, she looks shell-shocked, before she rapidly turns away form the body, swinging her mace once again into the boy from 7's stomach. He doesn't die, but instead tries crawls away, only to end up stumbling into Cato's path.
My district partner puts a blade though his neck, ending him immediately. Studying his belt, he's obtained three swords and an ax already. He sees me and grimaces, before carrying on. I can't let him distract me, not now.
Glimmer is still trotting around weaponless, trying to avoid getting killed. Not like anyone else is doing any murdering. She looks like she's stumbling around and trying to kill the children at the other career's feet. No freaking way.
She lunges for a bow and arrow, narrowly missing Posidian's harpoon, that I have no doubt has been placed in their especially for him. It hits the girl from 6, who is trying to run away with two backpacks and a sword, in the leg, and he performs the same maneuver he did in training. Dragging her back across the battlefield, he pins her with his foot. Then, he just stares at the sniveling girl. I'm just about to throw a knife to finish him myself when Posidian hands the killing blow. That was slow enough.
A spear shoots across the Cornucopia, hitting an unsuspecting boy in the back. I'm not one hundred percent certain, but I think he's the one who almost peed in his pants, the one from eight. Marvel races around and plucks out his weapon, almost smiling at his kill. I've seen six people die so far, four boys, two girls, and the bloodbath shows no sign of letting up.
Cato kills two female tributes with one spin of his sword. The idiots obvisouly thought they were competition enough to go against us. I recognize them as 3 and 10. Stupid much?
Posidain runs off around the back of the Cornucopia, harpoon raised. I don't know who he's chasing, but they won't make it far.
I only see two more tributes that aren't in our pack left. The girl from 7 and the boy from 5. They seem to have made some sort of alliance, they're both attempting to sneak away into the grassy area unnoticed, hands filled with weapons and supplies. Glimmer tries to fire an arrow at them from the mouth of the horn, but she's desperately slow as loading her quiver and even when she does, the arrow just shoots of in a random direction, landing stuck up in the ground.
My theory for what she did in the private training session is becoming more plausible by the second. Marvel throws a spear into the girl, hitting her directly in the lower back. She screams in pain as she falls to the floor, only to be silenced by me embedding a knife in her head. Screaming? Really? Get more creative.
The boy realizes his mistake and drops everything, trying to run at the last minute. In his blind panic, he charges into Cato's outstretched blade. His eyes widen as the life is sucked out of his veins and his blood spills on the floor. How many tributes is that? Ten? Not bad for a bloodbath.
We all group around Cato. Alea is yet to get the remains of her first victim off her face and Marvel gives her a look of incredulous horror as he pulls a lump of flesh out of her hair. I grab all the knives out of the tributes at my feet, wiping them on my trouser leg. I could count them, but I see so many more littered around that I know I'll have plenty by the time we're finshed here. We wait a few seconds for Glimmer and Posidian to show up, but they don't arrive.
I'm just about to inquire when Glimmer's shriek echo's throughout the Cornocupia's clearing. We all race to her aid, but part of me hopes she's dead, or dying. But I'm never that lucky. We find her knelt in a pool of blood, and for a second, I think she's been cut, until I realise that it's not her own. Damn.
We reach her and see that she's helplessly trying to assist someone. Alea kicks her out of the way, her tone bored and passive. "Move it or lose it blondie, just let the idiot d..." Her voice cuts off as Glimmer's body inches sout of the way, making a clear path for Alea to see the body. She falls to her knees in an instant.
"Posidian?" District Four is lying out on the ground, soaking in a puddle of deep red liquid. A sharp blade is protruding from his chest, just to the right of his heart. Judging by the way the blood seeps out of his mouth it's got him straight in the lungs. He's despearlty trying to hold on, you can see it in is eyes, but the knife that is caught in his organs means nothing but death. He hears his name, and lets out a low moan. Alea's eyes are laced with tears as she grips his hand.
"Who?" she hisses. Posidian can barley move his thin, blooded lips to speak, but when he does he manages to force out two words.
"Lover Boy..." he says weakly. For god's sake, what the hell happened to district twelve this year? They've gone from zero to hero. Perhaps not the greatest comparison, but gone from zero to exceptionally good competitors in the Hunger Games does not sound nearly as good.
"Sorry Alea, I tried, I really..." His voice fades off as his head drops back down to the ground. The sting of D6's blood is still in my mouth. His canon doesn't go off, but we know he's dead. They need to count the bodies in the bloodbath to know how many died. Plus, it's not over yet. It's never over.
Alea gets up, her eyes filled with a fiery vengance. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a bush rustle and a flash of blond hair. There's only three people in the whole arena left alive with blond hair. Cato, Glimmer and Lover Boy.
Alea must have seen it too. She sends a vicious battle cry vibrating through the air and all the birds in a ten mile radius fly off in fear. And so does Lover Boy, but his seems more out of fear than anything else. I see him zip into the woods, followed rapidly by Alea who is still screaming like a crazy person.
I'm quick on her heels and since I'm much faster than her I pass her without much effort. Sprinting through the trees, it takes me only a minute to catch up with District 12. He's running and huffing like there's no tommorow. I pounce at him, sending him crashing to the ground. My hands fumble for his neck while I grapple to keep my knife. I hope I stashed some in my clothing. We end up rolling down a steep hill, trying to cling onto one another as we spin around and around, plummetting downwards. When we land, it's him that ends up on the bottom.
His blond hair looked like a lightning bolt zapped him and his eyes were ridiculously wide with fear. I don't think I'm that scary. Then again, I have got veins stuck in between my teeth.
I take a moment to regain my breath before I lean into him, my face teasing and my teeth barred. "Hey Lover Boy..." I breathe, blood from my mouth dripping onto his pale face. I hear the sound of four pairs of feet skidding to a halt. Nobody wants to come down the hill. Alea debates it for a second, but then abandons the idea. I'm already down here anyway.
"For God's sake Clove, are you going to kiss him or kill him!" she screams, still angry about Posidian. I hear Marvel guffaw at that until Cato elbows him in the ribs. Turning my attention back to Lover Boy, I take the knife I've been holding and place it to his neck. No need to drag this out for any longer.
"Nighty night Lover Boy..." I whisper, beginning to press the blade in. I can hear Alea laughing as Glimmer and Marvel exchange glances. Cato just stares at me, smiling. Then, suddenly:
"Stop!" The sound comes form Lover Boy as he cowers beneath me. "Please, no! Don't kill me!"
Begging for his life. How pitiful. Now this is how district twelve should be. Weak, spineless, and totally at my mercy. "And why shouldn't I?" I tease. I see he sees how blood stained my teeth are, and gulps.
"Because... because I can help you find Katniss!" he yells. I don't believe him. He loves her, I can tell. She doesn't love him back, it's obvious by the way she acts around him, but he loves her. Desperately and with all his heart. He'd never harm her. He's lying.
Don't fuck with me 12!" I hiss. "You wouldn't raise a finger against..." But I'm interrupted by Cato's footsteps thundering down the hill. He slides to a halt next to me, his face right next to Lover Boy's. My heart stops.
"Katniss?" he asks. He's usually no good with names, but I know he remembers her. 12 nods, straining away from Cato. He's no need to have fear of him though. He's convinced him."Well, well Lover Boy, hasn't someone had a change of heart. Clove, get off him. He's coming with us."
I look up at him. He can't be serious. "What'd you mean he's coming with us!" I shriek. Alea hears me cry, and starts too.
"Cato, what are you doing! Just kill him!" I know she's regretting not coming down herself, but there's no way she could finish him off now Cato's down here. If he wants him alive, that's how he's staying.
"No! We want Fire Girls head on a platter, and he's going to help us find him! Besides, he's pretty handy with that knife, wouldn't you say Alea." Alea looks like she's just been sucker-punched in the back of the head. Her face pales and her eyes fill with betrayal and hatred.
"You're sick." she spits. By this time, Cato's already back up the hill. He leans into her face.
"I'm just playing the game Alea." he says. She thinks he's being sarcastic and mean. I think he's being truthful. "Come on. We're moving on!" I'm still sitting with Lover Boy at the bottom of the hill. He gets up and surprisingly offers me a hand. Gingerly I take it, using him to yank my body off the ground. I straighten myself up, but as soon as I put weight on my right foot, a pain shoots though my whole leg.
I stumble, if only for a second, but it's long enough for Cato to notice.
"Clove?" Glimmer, Marvel and Alea all pause. They stare down at me leaning against a tree as I check my ankle. Not broken, defiantly not broken please. Just sprained, I tell myself. Just sprained. "Clove are you alright?" I peek up to find myself staring right at Cato. He's actually just come all the way back down that hill to check on me. Way to go Cato, make us both look weak. Have a bloody cookie. Idiot.
"Fine." I huff. I try to prove my point by standing up properly, but my ankle just gives way, causing me to fall again. Cato catches my arm, holding me up.
"Or not." he says. I grumble as he tries to re balance me. I try to shake him away, from his touch.
"It's just a sprain." I mutter.
"Well, you're not getting back up that hill with a sprained ankle." A horrible thought flashes through my mind. A thought of either, A, Cato leaving me here to die, or, B, finishing me now to save me the pain. Instead, he sweeps me up of the ground rather like he did when I was stuck on the Chariot.
I'm about to yell at him to put me down, that I don't need his help, when I see Glimmer's face scrunched up in vile jealousy, and for once in her pretty little life she actually looks ugly. For this reason, and this reason alone, I let Cato carry me to the top of the hill. The warmth I feel when I'm encased in his arms and the protection I feel it grants me to have him close has absolutely nothing to do with it. Because that would be weak. And I'm not weak.
He places me down when we get to the top, but he's still not content to let me walk on my own. Snatching a knife form my belt, where I stare at him for even allowing himself to touch me, he scales a nearby tree, sawing though a thick branch a few times before snapping it clean off. He hands it too me. He forces his voice to sound annoyed, as he thrusts the branch into my hand.
"Here. Use it as a cane. Try and keep up." I hiss.
"Don't you dare try and baby me Cato!"
"Well guess what sweetheart! You need it! Oh and nice make up." I grimace as Cato shoves the rough tree into my hand and stares at my face.
"Puh-lease!" Glimmer's whiny voice pierces the awkward silence."What did you do? Did you aim a knife so badly that the blood sprayed into your face?" Her voice annoys the hell out of me. On top of that she insulted my knife throwing skills.
"What did you say? I don't remeber you killing anyone today!" I shrieked, I'm just as ready to stand one legged and use this makeshift cane to cave her thick head in.
I haven't realized I was talking out loud until she complained to Cato.
"Cato! Tell her something! Did you hear what she said to me?" Cato looked down at her. To my horror she had her long arms around his muscular waist.
I must have gasped and started to fall because my right foot shot out before me out of habit. A pain shot through me and I swore so loudly Lover Boy filched as he came near us with his hands held back by Alea. She looked as if she could spit on him. I wouldn't put it past her. Her eyes were so angry I was expecting them to actually start turning red sometime soon. Marvel pushed the Lover Boy forward with the butt of his spear.
After I regained my composure and tried to ignore the plain fact that Cato was trying to get me jealous with Glimmer. Again.
I smiled and simply said: "No, Glimmer, I actually ripped someone's throat out with my bare teeth. Isn't that fun?" I bared my blood stained incisors proudly as she shied away from me, toying with Cato's hand.
I can hear Enobaria laughing it up in the Capitol. I imagine her bared her own set of teeth at Gloss, who is mentoring Glimmer this year, while his sister, Cashmere, has a break after six years of dealing with the prissy airheads from district one. She'll be doing the same to those druggies from 6, teasing them due to the death of their tributes.
"Do you think I should wash my face, or leave it?" I ask a zoned out Marvel with the spear ready in his arm. He ignores me, continued to stare off into the distance.
"MARVEL!" I scream to get his attention.
Marvel spazzes out, and threw the spear at me out of sheer reflex. I would have easily dodged it, but I like the reaction on Cato's face as Glimmer is dragging him away to the Cornucopia. The spear caught my right palm, which caused a semi-deep gash.
"Marvel!" I shriek, and put enough pressure on my right foot to make it look plausible. I topple over, planning to hit the ground, and to see Cato leave Glimmer stranded in the cave. Two can play at this game Glimmer. Since when have I stopped trying to make Cato jealous and started to try to make Glimmer jealous? Since when did I start to want to make Cato jealous again?
I look over to try to find Cato as I finally give my last stumble. Marvel jumps around panicking, even shoving Lover Boy in front of him for him to try to save me first. As soon as Lover Boy is a centimeter away from touching me someone grabbed me from his grasp. The person makes me lean into their broad, broad chest and carried me to the Cornucopia.
"Cato! Bu-but... I injured my ankle too!" Glimmer cried, trying to win his attention back. Pathetic.
"That's great Glimmer, but I have more important matters right now." Cato jogs through the organized maze, grabbing a first aid kit from the huge stash that have been left and pulls out a long bandage.
Rolling it out, he begins to pull up my trouser leg. All of a sudden my mind snaps back to the bracelet around my ankle. I yank my foot back.
"It's fine!" I snap. "I don't need you help! Go bandage Glimmer, she obviously wants you too!" Cato just grabs my shin and forces my leg back down. Stupid strong bastard. I squirm around under his grasp, but he's too strong. "Cato! Let go!"
I shout and yell and kick and hit as Cato just sighs. "You finished?" he asks, when after five minutes of resistance I flop down in defeat.
"Whatever." I grumble. Maybe when he rolls to trouser up the bracelet will be forced up with it. But it's not my day today. As soon as the fabric of my tracksuit bottoms slides past my ankle, the small silver piece of jewelery begins to glitter in the sunlight. Cato slips his fingers under it, studying it in disbelief.
"I didn't think you'd wear it." he whispers. I stare him down.
"I said I would. And unlike some people, what I said in the Capitol wasn't just a pack of lies!"
"You never said. You just took it." Leave it to Cato to avoid the actual point of my statement.
"Here then, have it back." I say, unclipping it before he can stop me. "Your sister will be disappointed not to see you wearing it."
He shakes his head. "No. That'll leave you tokenless." I shrug.
"So? You're tokenless now, right?" Cato looks away slightly. Then he takes a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket.
I stare at it, mouthing the words as they flood my head.
Why are you ignroing me? You definatly weren't ignoring me last night.
"Why?" I ask.
"They say to take something to remind you of home. This reminds me of you. and you remind me of home." Does this kid have multiple personality disorder or something? One minute he's this blood thirsty murder machine, who flirts with anything with a pulse, then he's some sappy, sentimental idiot, who seems to have some kind of physical and mental attachment to me. I don't know which one I hate more.
I didn't want to look him in the eye. Not after a few days ago, not after what he's just said. I reach the bracelet to my other ankle and just lean back against the cold metal of the huge horn.
"I can do this myself you know!" I mumble as Cato smeared a firth layer of medicine on my ankle.
No you can't" I try to argue with him, but he's not budging.
"Isn't your girlfriend in pain right now?" I snarl, part of it being a female dog and part of it to hurt him from the pain he's cauing me right now.
"She's not my girlfriend Clove." Cato says whist looking into my eyes from below. He's taking a ridiculously long time to bandge my foot. I can't help but think he might be stalling.
"Then what is she Cato, a plaything?" No one could detect the under tone to my question. I stare into his deep blue eyes as he stands up, finally finished
"She's not a plaything... not yet anyway." Glimmer stands, trying to throw a spear at a shrub while Marvel dictated to her. He's directing her like he did to me. Even worse. It's one thing when she wants one guy, it's another thing if she wants two. Next thing you know her and Lover Boy will go at it at night.
Speak of the devil, 12 was standing around, a knife in his hand, whittling away at some branch. I guess he's thinking about Fire Girl of whatever. It's ok, those two idiots will be together soon enough. Together, burning in hell.
"Am I?" I ask finding a new, short knife that looks very much like a cleaver, I shove it inside my jacket, which has very handy had pockets installed to keep my knives in. I must thank Rox or Jerique for that when I get out.
Cato looked at me, picking up a short sword and a spear. He's never going to be able to carry all this.
"I don't know? Are you?" I shake my head. Never in a million years. "Then that answers that question doesn't it? Use this to get to Lover Boy, I told him to make a cane." I'm glad my mouth is shut, otherwise I would have bit down on my tongue.
"Hey Lover Boy!" I scream to get him to come over. I won't use anything that Cato gives me.
"I said go to him and get the damn cane! Don't defiey me! " Cato could easily kill me now. But I'm too weak to kill.
"I don't take help from those who say I defiey them." This takes a sting in his heart. Cato sucks on a short burst of air. He's the one who lied to me. The person who hated the capitol isn't the one here, right now playing the games.
" I. Don't. Care. Just go outside. We are going to hunt, Marvel found a fire and it looks like that idiot isn't moving."
I scoff, sling my pack, and wrap a belt of knives around my waist, my jacket is full, and use his hand to walk into the moonlight.
Let the Games begin for real.
