I do not own Glee or The Hunger Games.
This chapter is short. I just couldn't think of any ways to make it longer, but the next one should be. Thanks again for all the reviews and alerts. They legit make my day :)
Puck is looking into Clove's eyes, tears falling down her cheeks. Mason is just standing there, looking between them and waiting for Puck to kill her. He looks down to her then sees a mix of him and Rachel. Her hair, his eyes and tan skin.
"Please don't kill me." She whispers.
"Puck, just kill her. We need to keep moving." Mason looks back at Cara and Scarlett shrugging and shaking his head.
"What would my mom think? She won't love you anymore if you kill her only daughter." The girl looks at him again.
"She's not here. And you're not my daughter, you're Clove."
"Fine, don't kill her. Just leave her here. Someone will." Scarlett walks over, pulling on his forearm. "Unless you want to die with her, we have to go. Please Puck."
He looks up at her, Scarlett is forming tears in her eyes too. He looks between the two. Rachel would hate him. Sarah would hate him. Finnick would understand, he's had to kill to keep himself alive. Puck shakes his head.
"Clove?" Someone yells.
"Fuck you Puck, I'm out of here." Mason grabs Cara and runs towards the beach.
"Please." Scarlett looks at him and tugs on his arm some more.
Puck just looks back at the girl laying on the ground. "I can't."
One of Scarlett's tears falls down her cheek. "I can't stay here and die with you. I want to go home." She turns around and follows them towards the beach.
"Thank you." Clove smiles brightly up at him. It's like Rachel's smile.
He sighs and wonders what the hell he just did. Now he'll never get back to Rachel because he couldn't kill this girl. The figure who was yelling her name is closer now. One minute he's holding her hand, the next everything turns black.
Puck wakes up and sits up fast. He's breathing hard as Scarlett looks back at him concerned. "Are you okay?" She feels his head then hands him another fever pill and antibiotic.
"Um, yeah. I'm fine." He looks over and sees that Mason is awake. "How about we go fishing?"
Cara looks at them. "I can stay here, you guys can go to the beach."
Puck doesn't even question it. He grabs the extra net plus the other things he'll need then exits the shelter. Scarlett and Mason have to jog a bit to catch up to him. It's late in the afternoon as they walk. The dream keeps haunting him no matter how much he tries to think of something else. A high pitched scream echoes near him. Puck stops in his tracks and looks around. More screaming.
"Rachel?"
He runs towards the sound with Scarlett trying not to scream his name, it coming out as a harsh whisper. Leaves are crunching behind him as his runs. Once he gets to the spot where he hears the screaming, there's no one around. He spins in circles then looks up. A jabber jay is sitting in the tree, Rachel's scream coming from its beak. He takes his extra knife and throws it up, killing the bird. Scarlett finally catches up to him and stares at the bird. She's out of breath and looking at him like he's insane.
"What is that?"
"Jabber jay. Stupid fucking bird." He looks at Scarlett. "Where's Mason?"
"He was behind me." She turns and sees that he's nowhere near them.
They walk back to where they last saw him, and there he is. Just standing there. Scarlett kind of skips over to him before knocking into something and falling over. Mason bangs on the invisible wall, trying to tell them something. Eventually he gives up and shakes his head sitting down. He takes his knife and draws patterns around in the dirt while looking around for anyone who might be roaming the woods.
"We're trapped in here." She turns and looks at Puck. He's just looking at the invisible barrier that's separating them from Mason, frustrated that this is another trick up the Gamemakers sleeves.
Another scream starts, this one male. And another, female. Santana's. Puck sits on the ground and covers his ears. He quickly realizes it won't help. He punches the ground then lays down, staring up at the birds that are staring down at him. He glares at all them, wondering if he killed them all if more would just reappear. Scarlett lays down too, curling up in the fetal position, but he notices there are tears going down her cheeks.
"Scarlett?"
She lets out a small sob then sniffles as the screaming starts to get louder. Then she flops onto her back and screams. "He's dead! How can you even use this against me?" She sobs harder.
Puck sits up and pulls her to him. "Who's dead?"
"My brother."
He tries to think back in school. He saw her walking home with a guy once. Freakishly tall with the same colored hair. Why did this guy seem more familiar? The only way he'll find out is if he asks her, but since she's crying so hard, he knows it'll kill her.
"How did he die?"
She laughs sarcastically. "The Hunger Games. Two years ago."
Puck struggles with his next few words. "He seems to be a little more familiar than just being in the Games."
"Finn dated Santana for a few weeks three years ago. He really liked her, but then he saw how she looks at Finnick. I think he had a crush on Rachel too." He tenses at her last addition of how he liked Rachel, but it was three years ago. He has to let that go seeing how the guy is dead. Scarlett sniffles again. More screams add to Santana's and Finn's. Rachel's again. Then Sarah's joins.
He sighs, now remembering how he knew of Finn. "If he's dead, how are they using his screams? For all I know they could have Rachel and everyone else."
"There's only 8 or so of us left, right? They're probably interviewing our families right now. Just like with the mutts, they probably used their voices or something to torture us."
"Huh." Was all he managed to say.
She's quiet for a few minutes. "When he was in the Games, I remember my mom being a mess. Our dad died, but I don't remember how. Finn took care of us but then he was Reaped. She tried to be strong but when we saw him die…" She sniffles a bit. "My mom just lost it. She started to drink any type of alcohol she could find."
He hugs her closer, putting his cheek against her hair. Scarlett's tears are falling onto his arms and all he can think about is how disappointed Rachel must be in him right now. Injuring Clove so she couldn't move then Mason snapping her neck. Or would she think that he wasn't strong enough to do it since it's his job to get back to her. Then how he's holding Scarlett right now. Would she understand? His mind is working in over time till he finally gives into his exhaustion from trying to drown out the sounds.
Someone is nudging him as he finally wakes up. "We have to get out of here." Mason.
He stands up, gently pulling up Scarlett too. They both take a good look at her. Eyes are red and swollen, she's hiccupping and sniffling. Mason starts to walk her towards the beach. Longest hour of my life. Puck runs his hands over his face and follows them, eventually getting in front of them so he can check out the beach before they go. Lucky for them the sun has started to set so fishing will be somewhat easier without anyone trying to find them out here.
Mason drops Scarlett onto the sand gently, handing her some water and fruit. "Keep an eye out, especially for Marvel or Cato. We're going to go try and get some food."
Puck nods to her then tests out the water. Slightly colder than it was on the first day. He dives down, looking for anything that might be good for them. Mason stays back near the beach since he doesn't swim and since Puck can handle it. Once he surfaces, he motions Mason to throw him the net. He gets everything secured to catch some fish in no time since it's his job to do this every day. Then he dives down again, gathering up oysters he finds and securing them into the silver parachute he brought along. He swims over to Mason and hands him the parachute, then goes back to grab the net. There's four fish in it, but he thinks it'll at least last till they can come back out.
Scarlett carries the oysters while Puck carries the net. They're walking back quickly to the shelter when they hear a whistling sound coming through the woods. It makes a slight thwack sound before a thump happens. A canon sounds. They look back and see that there's a knife in Mason's neck.
He gives her a gentle push. "Shit, run Scarlett."
"But Mason?" She looks at him, her eyes still red. Scarlett moves towards him, but Puck grabs her arm roughly and pulls her away.
"He's dead. Go!"
They run back to the shelter and Cara looks around for Mason. Scarlett shakes her head no, and the other girl understands. "Do they know that we're here?"
"No, but they know we're in this area. There's no point in hiding anymore. Let's build a fire and get this cooking. Take down the shelter so they don't know that we can make anything look like the trees and bushes."
The girls nod at Puck. Scarlett gets to work deconstructing the shelter while Cara builds a fire. He starts to gut the fish then works on the oysters. The first few he opens contains pearls. Puck sets them aside in the parachute then sticks it in the backpack. The girls just smile sadly, upset about Mason's death and work to cook the fish. As they wait and look around to see if there's any Tributes nearby, another silver parachute floats down. It contains a bowl of broth and more bread. Scarlett and Cara instantly dig in, while Puck looks up, silently thanking Finnick or Haymitch for sending it.
Puck is keeping watch, finally caught up on sleep and feeling better than he has the past few days. The pills have killed his fever and his shoulder is feeling much better. The girls are in the sleeping bag but he knows that they're not asleep. Sniffles can be heard but not loud enough to make him turn back to them. Scarlett is probably still thinking about her brother then seeing the knife sticking out of Mason's neck. Cara is most likely thinking about her District partner just being dead all of a sudden. Puck throws in some more branches and watches the fire. After awhile the crying finally stops and he assumes the girls are finally asleep.