I sit here, next to Daphne, counting away the seconds. Soon Suzie will be joining us for we have something important to discuss.
Death.
What a barbaric word for something so beautiful and masterfully sculpted, it sends shivers down people's spines yet it brings such pleasure along with sorrow, such celebration along with mourning. And whose deaths are we to talk about? We are to be talking about killing Kara Jaymond and Dralakone Hurling of course. Those two have a different air about them, they walk differently, talk differently. They aren't real, pure careers. How can I tell? They fear death.
Suzie joins Daphne and me and gives a quick glance towards the tent which Dral has just joined Kara in. They're probably just chatting, they seem to have something going on between them, but even so we keep our voices hushed to a quiet whisper.
"What do you think we should do about them?" Asks Daphne, glancing around furtively, "I say if we all agree on it they're dead, no matter what Anvike and Precious say."
I let out a murmur of agreement but Suzie just glares at us both.
"Are you two stupid?" She snaps, "We can't break the careers this early, anyway, remember what Precious said she'd do to anyone who took a step towards them before their due time?"
We sit there in silence for almost an hour, stoking the fire and even taking a few bites out of our food supply that we have stacked up at the Cornucopia if we can be bothered to get up.
"It looks like they're living then, Suzie. But don't let your judgement be clouded by Dral." Daphne chips into the silence knowingly. I look at her, unsure and then realize she's talking about Suzie and Dral; the relationship that could never be, even before Kara came in and intervened. Suzie just glared at Daphne and huffed.
"Dral? What about him?" Suzie asked innocently, a bit too innocently maybe.
"We all know about-" started Daphne but she was interrupted by Dral and Kara unzipping their tent and coming out. We all tense but Daphne and I relax when we see that they're giggling and messing around, evidently they don't know about our conversation. But Suzie didn't relax, yet another sign that she had a crush on Dral. What a pity that her designer ruined it for her in her interviews or she'd have had a chance.
Dral whispers something to Kara and she pecks him on the cheek and glances at us. She doesn't seem fazed by the fact that we're watching, no doubt because the whole of Panem is too. I see Suzie shift uncomfortably. Ah well, that doesn't matter now. It looks like Dral's made his choice. He's a lucky guy; I'd have done anything to have all those girls clamouring over me. Well, soon I will have the pick of the ladies because I'll be a victor. Then Dral can stuff that in his petty wooden coffin which will rot along with the rest of his body.
Then Dral presses her to him and kisses her on the lips but she shoves him off. All the girls I'll have when I'm victor will never do that, they'll idolise me like a God, they'll worship the very ground I tread on. A huge grin appears on my face. Kara hugs Dral and he kisses her on the forehead and they slowly tumble over here. I look around but I can't see Suzie anywhere. It looks like she made off earlier, she couldn't stand it. Well, I'm not giving them some privacy and neither is Daphne. If the whole of Panem can see it so can we, we have a right to a good show too.
They sway over to us and collapse on the bench next to us. They mutter small words of greetings and we reply, but now we have front seat tickets. Maybe we won't kill them so soon after all, they make quite a show. Dral reaches down Kara's body and she reaches down Dral's until their hands are both around each other's waist. They both laugh like naughty schoolchildren and Dral mutters something that I don't quite catch and take a while to process.
In that while Kara has jumped up and thrown a knife right through Daphne's lungs, not even allowing her to scream before she collapses on the floor on the verge of death. But I'm more worried about Dral and all I can do is open my mouth in a shocked 'O' shape as Dral clasps his clammy hands over my mouth and sticks his sword right in my stomach, skewering me.
I collapse on the ground and see Kara and Dral scurry away into the woods as fast as they can. Then I hear the cannon sound of Daphne's death being signalled followed by another – mine, I think. They evidently think I'm dead but I'm not. Not yet, anyway. The pain sears through my body and I clench my eyes shut to block it out. Suddenly the pain ends and is replaced by a numbness in all my limbs, and then I remember what Dral told Kara before he attacked us.
I love you.
