Please comment! This is my first one, so I really need feedback!
*I don't own the Hunger Games!*
Ch. 10- Finale
It's Jewel. She barely escaped the flames, she says, but the smoke in her lungs is too much. I hold her hand as she suffocates. "I should have gone with you." She says, but I reassure her that what she did was okay, but Jewel is no fool. She knows she's dying. Still, she listens to me reassure her, and when the cannon sounds, a solitary hot tear falls down my face. Such a waste. Jewel didn't deserve to die. Such a waste. Neither did Levan or Azure or Pesik or Regan or Honey or Sylvia or any of them! They died because of what some idiots did seventy years ago.
Then I have a reality check. Right now, I need to focus on getting out of the arena, then I can do whatever I want. There are three of us left. Me, Horace, and Hanah. Again. Hanah's death will be such a waste of a young heart. I just hope I'm not at the offending end of the sword.
I manage to get a few hours of sleep, but hunger is taking its toll, and after two full days of sitting where the fire can't reach me, I start to get hungry.
An Earth-shattering roar rips through the arena. I run up the meadow, and I can see through the smoke Horace and Hanah, locked in combat. Well, not quite. Hanah is backed against a tree, desperately trying to dodge Horace's blows that he makes with both his spear, and his fists.
Time seems to slow down. I run towards them, but then freeze. I watch as one of Horace's powerful fists collides with Hanah's ribcage. She doubles over, gasping. Another blow to the head, and it's over. I watch the light leave her eyes, her sway in the spot for a moment, then fall sideways to the ground, like a tree that has been cut down. A cannon booms. The flames seem to evaporate, leaving a scorched arena. Scorched, but no longer deadly.
I think to ambush Horace, but it's too late. I hesitated too long. He sees me and charges me. If this was a contest of brute strength, Horace would win, but it's not. The first rule that we learn at the academy is "be smart". So as Horace closes the gap between us, I run towards the waterfalls. Then, at the last possible second, I sidestep him, and he slips on the wet rocks and falls to the ground. When I rush him, he springs up and puts me in a choke hold. I fervently try to get out, but his grip is to strong. The world is getting dim, and a voice echoes in the back of my mind. "Your head is stronger than their chin."
Sometime, over three years of training, we did an entire week learning all about chokes. For the first time, I couldn't do something the academy taught me! So one of the instructors gave me this odd bit of information, in case I needed it.
I yank my arms up, loosening his grip, and then rush forward, slamming the top of my skull into the weak part of his chin. He flips around and falls to the ground. I dive onto him, and the two of us are brawling by the water. It's just like a wrestling match, I tell myself, it just to happens to be life or death. My muscle memory kicks in. He tries to force his fist to my nose, but I grab it, and, with my knife, open a gash on his wrist. He is at my mercy now, and he is becoming steadily bloodier by the minute.
"End it," he whispers, so I do. I was trained for this, I have to do it. Then I'll win. So I end it. I pull out my sword and end it.
A cannon fires and I scream. The rational part of me tells me that it's okay, now I'm safe. But the rest of me is convinced that the voice saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, our Victor of the Seventieth Hunger Games, Spera Okenwitz!" is really a mutt. So I want to scream and claw at another tribute, but there are none left, so I scream and claw at myself. And a hovercraft comes down, and I'm running from it, running back to where it's safe, but then I remember that nowhere is safe so I just sit down and let the hovercraft pick me up.
There is a woman at the top. She smiles a sweet, sappy, capitol smile, and sticks a needle in my arm. The world goes black.