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Benedict
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It's Illumia's job to send her tribute's body back to District 5. A team preps Vilhem for the journey and places his body in a plain coffin. I stand beside it and stroke the wood with my hand. Illumia doesn't spare tears for him.
"What are we doing with it," she asks quietly. "He had no family. That lady from the group home didn't even know him."
"It's staying here with us until Elena comes back," I say with more confidence than I feel.
"Benedict, you can't keep believing in her survival," Illumia says firmly. "I saw her leg. Everyone saw it. She can barely walk. I thought at first it was just hunger, then maybe the loss of Vilhem, but she's crippled, and you knew it the entire time. The other four tributes are big and strong. They chase her, and it's over. You know they're waiting for her. You've seen them on the footage. They've been plotting her death since before they even entered the arena."
I can't listen to Illumia's words. "Stop it," I order her. "Just shut up, Illumia." I have to force myself to not collapse, because I know her words are true.
"I won't shut up. You've pinned your entire existence on her survival. Did you survive your Games just to be killed during another one? I know we're not friends, and I have no obligation to help you. However, no matter how much I help you, I have no problem telling you that your actions stink of folly. She has no chance." Illumia slaps her hand loudly on the coffin. "It's her in this coffin now. Say goodbye, and leave everything in this room."
My knees give out and I sit against the coffin. Illumia is right. With the way I've been handling Elena, she's already dead. "I have an emergency plan," I mutter.
"Are you sending her a new leg?" Illumia says sarcastically. "Or maybe you'll kill the other tributes for her?"
Just when I have begun to like her, I suddenly hate Illumia again. "I won't let her die, Illumia. I'll make sure of it."
"You have no control here, Benedict," she snips, saying the one thing I don't want to think.
"Enough already," I say in rage while I stand up. "You might think that you're helping me, but you're not. I've told you before, go back to the old Illumia that hates everyone, and leave me be."
"Fine. I won't help you anymore. I'll just leave you to ruin. You can dump the boy in the sea for all I care." She turns and stomps out of the room. I collapse against the coffin and give myself over to my tears.
I cry for a long time, until I'm too tired to keep crying. Somehow, I find my way back to the apartment and my room. When I crumple onto the bed, I take a huge breath, and smell Elena. I've wandered into her room instead of mine. Her clothes are on the dresser, cleaned and folded. I get up and grab one pile. It unfolds in my hand and it's the dress she wore at the reaping, the one that made her cleavage look incredible.
I didn't notice her at first, even though I'd like to say that I did. I was sitting there on the stage in-between Illumia and the mayor, Rumford. They were chatting to each other, ignoring me as they usually did. Life was dull for me, and being a mentor was the only time I did anything worth mentioning. I didn't pay attention when the envelope was read, or when she got onto the stage. When she threw her jacket off and her cleavage was on every screen in the square, that's when I finally looked up and saw her. Of course, my initial reaction was an erection from the sight of her breasts. Then my gaze travelled up and I saw her face. I think my heart pinged, if I believed in sappy stuff like that. She and Vilhem left the stage and I was frozen to my seat. Half of it was not wanting anyone to notice my erection.
I'll admit, at first I thought she was just a piece of ass. I fantasized about taking her while we were driven to the train. I'd never been with a tribute, and hadn't even been with a woman in a long time. Then we were on the train, and suddenly, she had spirit and attitude, and she morphed from a piece of ass to a woman. Every day, I lost more of my heart to her.
Everything has happened so fast, I've not allowed myself time to process it all. I bring her dress up to my nose and find it smelling like whatever it was cleaned with. No good. I go to her bed and rub the dress all over the sheets, then bring it back up for a sniff. That's better. I lie back down and put the dress right next to my nose. I stroke the soft linen and picture Elena here with me. Would I make love to her or just hold her to me, I ask myself. Probably both. I remember her telling Vilhem that she's still a physical virgin, and my cock hardens. If she dies, I'll never be able to make her belong to me. I'll never know what her face looks like when she's in ecstasy, or what her favourite food is.
Even though Illumia said I should, and I know it's probably better if I do, I don't allow myself to let her go.
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Elena
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I've been walking for hours, and my leg feels like a bear mauled it. My face is streaked with tears from the pain. It doesn't stop me. I limp along the forest in the steady ever-present rain, and I'm glad for it, because I don't have to worry about being noisy. I can't stop to rest. If I do, I won't be able to get back up again. The sun starts to set, and I have my first bit of luck.
I see a cave with a tribute in it.
It's a girl, and she's just started a fire to cook some fish. I can't recall noticing her during training, or at the cornucopia. Somehow, I wish I'd paid more attention. She looks small, but I don't buy that she's weak. She's made it this far. I walk towards her, my harpoon in one hand, my left leg dragging. She doesn't turn around, not even when I'm so close that I could touch her with my harpoon. I take a deep breath, shut my eyes, and plunge it forward. A cannon sounds. I pull the harpoon back and hear her body fall. That was too easy, I think to myself. I peek with one eye. She's dead. I scan the cave for anything useful, and find nothing, so I turn and walk away. Three more to go.
I don't sleep. I don't even stop to pee. The hours roll by as I search for my prey. Night turns to morning, and I've made a full circle around the arena. My leg has slowly built up to an unbearable pain. I've just figured out I'm close to the cornucopia, when I collapse from pain and exhaustion. I lie there on the ground and my tears start to flow. I've looked everywhere and I can't find the other tributes. Maybe I should just give up and die here.
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Benedict
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I can see it in Elena's eyes when she gives up. Her leg is beyond its limit, and with the other tributes evading her, she won't be able to find them. She cries and lays there for a long time. When her tears dry up, she looks for the camera and stares straight into it.
"I'm sorry, Benedict," she whispers. My tears escape, and I almost feel beaten. Maybe she'll never come back to me. Before I can dive into the abyss of those thoughts, a voice makes an announcement.
"Attention tributes," the voice says. "There are now four of you left, and to celebrate this, we would like to inform you that the toxic fish are not completely safe to eat when they're cooked. All of you will need medicine within the next ten minutes or the toxic levels in your blood will kill you. There is currently one dose of medicine at the cornucopia, so only the winner will be receiving this life-saving dosage. We hope you enjoy deciding who will be the lucky recipient. May the odds be ever in your favor."
Everyone in the mentor room is silent. Elena's face is turning from shocked to horrified, so I get up quickly before the other mentors can react, and set up a parachute. I'm breaking my decision, but I don't care. The parachute falls into the arena after a few minutes, and lands in front of Elena's head. She opens it and finds a shot of medicine with my note.
'Inject this into your leg and get up, little girl.'
Medicine in the arena is always costly. I can see her acknowledging this on her face. She plunges the needle into her leg and within minutes, it takes effect and numbs all of the pain below her knee. She gets up and finds the camera again.
"Thank you," she breathes in relief. She's crying again, in pure gratitude. I join her, and start crying silently.
"Quit crying, Benedict," Illumia says next to me. Despite my telling her to piss off more than once, she's still sitting beside me. "You sent her medicine," she says matter-of-factly. "Maybe she'll make it after all. That leg looks done for, though. She's dragging it around like a limp noodle. She's closer to the cornucopia, so that's good. The others stopped following her for a lunch break, so she'll probably get there first." I nod, watching the other tributes carefully.
The three tributes left are big muscled girls. From the things they've said in the arena, they have wanted to kill Elena since her interview. They saw how beautiful and sexy she was, how she'd caught all the boys' attention, and would probably get all the sponsors, and because of all this, they wanted her dead. They took care to only discuss their plans when the broadcast was off at night, but since Illumia and I have been taking turns watching the cameras at all times, we knew their plans. They'd planted that girl there for Elena to kill. The girl thought she was part of their group, so she was cooking their fish while they went out to bathe. They told her any noise she heard was them, and to ignore it. So Elena killed a sitting duck.
Then the three girls followed Elena around the arena, waiting for her to tire out so they could catch her. They actually planned to force her to service them sexually before they kill her. I had to swallow bile in my mouth when they planned that part.
"I don't know if that harpoon will do her any good," Illumia says absently. "I heard some mentors bragging about sending guns to their tributes."
"WHAT?" I scream at her as I snap up and grab her shirt with both hands.
"I'm. Kidding," she says slowly. "Loosen up. I'm here supporting you, aren't I? I haven't once told you you're being a total moron and you should leave here and take up knitting."
"You're a saint, Illumia," I say with complete sarcasm. She points to the screen with one hand, and flips me off with the other.
On the screen, Elena is at the cornucopia, and has just injected herself with the shot for fish poisoning. A second later, an arrow hits her above the heart.
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