The end of the Games, but not the end of the story! Who's excited? Read and let me know what you think in the end of this chapter!
My fitful sleep ends in the afternoon of the next day.
I wake up to see sunlight streaming down on me, but it's still pretty cold, with snow everywhere.
I am sore all over and hungry too, plus I didn't even bother to check what I got in my new pack. My new butterfly swords are tied to a nearby branch and I'm still wrapped up in my new blanket.
When I move to sit up, the pain in my most recent injuries flares up. My shoulder and side feel like they're on fire.
Heheheheh. Girl on Fire. That's Katniss' job…
Hampered by my injuries, I try to stretch out and look around my surroundings.
Like I said, there's still snow everywhere but luckily no more has fallen recently. I can't see the ground. Everything there is hidden.
Everyone else must be trying to recover from yesterday too. Everyone that was still alive when the feast was announced went to it.
I saw everyone there get injuries of varying degrees.
My injuries? Well, they're probably mid-range. Not little scratches, sure, but not life threatening.
At least I hope…
I lean over to another branch where I've stored my packs and reach for the newer one.
The first thing I see is a new first-aid kit, but it's smaller than the first one I had. It has a few bandages and some disinfectant, but that's it. If it can really be called much of a first-aid kit at all…
I find three whole apples, a large packet of raisins, a packet of pistachio nuts, more matches, a fresh sleeping bag, new gloves, a small jar of something like meat paste and two knives with long, serrated blades.
More food. Good. A new set of gloves. Good. Matches? I barely had any left. The other things will certainly be useful too. These knives really are kinda pretty…
I touch the tip of one blade and giggle. I'm turning into a knife nut, aren't I?
I laugh again. Or maybe just a nut…
I no longer have my archery set and I also lost the grappling hook and rope. Here's hoping I won't have to scale any more mountains…
For my only meal that day, I take some of the meat paste and put it on one of my leftover dinner rolls. The roll is getting kind of stale, but it tastes like the closest thing to heaven I can get on here.
"Heaven? What heaven? This is hell on earth!" I think.
Shaking my head to dispel any voices wanting to talk to me, I pop in six raisins, two sugar cubes and carefully sip some water.
As night falls, I realise I heard no canon booms today. Could it be perhaps I slept through them? It certainly is plausible. After all, didn't Katniss sleep through multiple days?
Wait, did I sleep through multiple days? I don't think so- I mean, I'd feel stiffer than I already do if I had, surely…
But how would I know that?
Shaking my head again, I wipe my good eye, trying to see the sky better.
Hm. From what it says, there were no fatalities today. Can't say how good it is for me. I lost track of time and I really have no idea what it is or who might have died from when I passed out to when I woke up…
The next day, I wake up mid-afternoon again when the sound of a canon goes off.
A few minutes later, another canon blast goes off.
Hm. Two in a row. I wonder who caused them and who's still alive now…
I try stretching again, but I feel stiffer than a board.
Looking out into the distance, I see a body being lifted into the distance and I see a glint of blond hair.
Hm. None of us girls left have that colour hair so it must be one of the boys…
But which one of them is it? District 1 or District 2? I might have seen the hair, but they were too far away for me to see their body type. District 1 was tall and lean, while District 2 was shorter and stockier, close in build to the District 4 boy…
The fact that I'm close enough to see the body being lifted up into the air though probably means that their killer is nearby so even though I'm feeling stiff and want to stretch, I daren't move from my spot.
Two more people down.
On my last count, there were only five of us left. How many of us are there still alive? Three? Two? I honestly have no clue…
For dinner, I finish off my rolls with a little meat paste, finish the apple slices I had since the start of the Games, eat a handful of raisins mixed with pistachio nuts and take more sips of water than I usually do. I hope I get out of here quickly enough to not regret that.
Hm… It's also the most I've been able to eat in here without either trying to conserve or feeling nauseous. Perhaps I'm healing up enough for another battle or two to the end!
When night comes, I see that both the District 1 and 2 boys are gone. Two more Careers gone.
Depending on how things went when I was out, there are still three more people standing in these Games including me. If none of the other two girls died, that means that the top three Tributes this year are Titania, Kalei and I. Districts 2, 11 and my District of 9.
Whoa.
Who knew I'd make it this far? Imagine that.
Me. A girl who used to sit at home drawing Hunger Games fanart and writing Hunger Games fanfiction. Me. A cheerleader who also danced in her free time. Who always loved to hang out with her friends in the mall and make fun of ugly people…
Who knew that a girl like that could make it to the top three of the Hunger Games? Surviving fights, killing people, dealing with illness, injury and hunger without the proper treatments? Who would have expected that of me?
Certainly not Claudette or Dominique…
See bitches? See how far I made it? I would die in the Bloodbath huh?
Well, you see me up in this tree? I might be injured, I might have been ill; I might not look as beautiful as I was before you bitches got to me, but I'M STILL HERE!
I might have to face Titania still. Somehow, I don't think she's dead. Kalei might be, I'm not sure, but for some reason, I do not think Titania is dead. I don't know why. It's just a really eerie feeling…
And even if I end up having to face Kalei in the end, she could kill me too. She didn't get a nine for nothing. She's probably the one who killed Mason, Titania's District partner. I wouldn't be surprised if I found out that was the case when I get out of here.
If I get out of here…
And if that is the case, I'm going to try and get as much rest as I can. Possibly facing two lethal people with higher training scores than me who have survived this long in the Games is certainly going to take a lot of energy…
"Don't get your hopes up, Violette. You'll be dead by morning!"
"And if you're not, Titania or Kalei will take care of that for you!"
The voices in my head snicker.
"Cut it out guys. Stop laughing at me. I can still win this thing. Violette Gardner can still win this thing!" I say.
"Sure you can... You have about as much chance winning this game as Edward stopping his sparkling!"
"Quit it, I said! If I made it this far, I can win!" I clutch my head, trying to shake out the sounds of laughter.
"I need to get some sleep now. I will need all my energy for the big finale, won't I?" I grin.
Gotta look confident. I can't show any more weakness in here…
WHAM!
"OUCH! What the hell?!" I wake up suddenly when I feel something hard hit me in the stomach.
It hits me again in the head and again in the bad leg, just above my ankle.
"What the hell? What is this thing? What's going on?!"
I look up and my eyes widen as I roll over the side of the branch, narrowly missing getting hit by a giant chunk of ice.
Is that… hail they sent?
"OW, OW, OW, OW, OW! DAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMIT!" I try covering my head with my arms, but it's futile.
Instead, I reach for my supplies all around me in the tree and stuff them together as quickly as I can.
As I'm climbing down the tree, a large chunk of hail hits my hand, making me lose my grip and I tumble down the rest of the way, falling with an abrupt thud.
I let loose a stream of curses as I get up and scramble blindly, trying to find somewhere to shelter from the evil hail.
"OW, OW, OW, OW, OOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW!" I feel the strap of my old backpack loosening and I catch hold of it to keep it from dropping.
The pounding of all this hail is starting to give me a headache.
Finally, at long last, I find somewhere to shelter and catch my breath.
A nice cave.
Once I do, I finish the meat paste, jerky, crackers, raisins and pop a few pistachio nuts in as well, drinking a little water afterwards.
The hail soon mixes with snow and I can't even see outside anymore. It's all a mixture of white and grey out there.
I hear cracks and snaps as the snow and hail piles up on everything outside.
There's some wood in the cave so I light it.
"Fire. Nice, sweet, warm fire…" I sighed happily as the warmth hit me.
Shuddering as the heat rolls through me, I glance out at the snow and hail which is not letting up.
About two hours later, the barrage has finally stopped.
When I finally climb out of the snow, I see that the snow and hail has pretty much destroyed all the trees and shrubbery around.
Chunks of ice are sticking out from the snow-covered ground and I have to watch my step to make sure that I don't slip and fall over them.
Reaching around into my backpack, I pull out the two serrated knives and stick them into free slots on my weapons belt.
I shift my butterfly swords to one hand and reach into my backpack for the last of the sugar cubes and an apple.
Sometimes I eat when I'm nervous and right now I'm the epitome of nervousness.
Between crunches of apple and sugar cubes, I listen carefully for any sign of approaching animal or person, but it doesn't come.
I would have probably said they all died and I'd won, but if Titania and Kalei had died, surely I would have been proclaimed the winner and collected by the hovercraft already.
Therefore, that's not the case here. They're still lurking around somewhere. Whether hidden away somewhere, waiting to die from injuries or illness or waiting to fight, they're still very much alive.
Like me.
I'm still here. I'm still in the count.
I wonder what everyone outside this arena must be thinking. Surely Dominique is reporting back to Claudette, keeping her updated on my suffering. That's probably a given.
What about my District 9 family? My mother Lydie, father Alexander and my brother Louis. What are they all thinking now?
Maybe they're cheering for me right now. Maybe they're willing me to return to them. Maybe they're not getting their hopes up because after all, the odds are very unpredictable in these Games.
Remember Rohan, the high scoring Tribute from District 7? He might have done well in training, but it certainly didn't help his odds of surviving in the end…
I would have never thought my odds of winning this good. Never.
A shiver runs down my spine. Will the odds be in my favour in this final showdown?
Oh, and what about Graham's family? I know I reached him too late to help him escape that gruesome death (excuse me, turning green at the memory!), but I hope they are doing okay. If I get back to District 9, I'm going to do what I can to help his family. It's the least I can do after all…
I'm so absorbed in thought, I barely notice that I've reached the lake that I killed the District 7 girl next to and washed off in a few times.
It's completely frozen over now. No chance whatsoever of getting any water from that. I'm not even sure I could get through that with a heavy-duty drill…
The next thing I know, there are two figures sliding right over the ice on their asses and straight into the middle of the lake.
I immediately retreat, hiding behind some rocks some distance off to watch. After all, I'm going to have to kill whoever survives this fight to get out of here…
Titania and Kalei got up and are now battling one another viciously, cursing up a storm as they do.
If it weren't for the weapons, I'd just think this was a major catfight…
Kalei swings her scimitar at Titania's neck but misses.
Titania stabs at Kalei's chest with her broad sword but narrowly misses as Kalei does a sort of pirouette to avoid it.
Neither of them can manage to get in a blow, no matter how well they try.
They keep swinging and dodging. Wow, this fight is going into stalemate territory fast…
Then I notice something.
Crack, crack, crack.
The ice below their feet…
Crack, crack, crack.
It's starting to crack and they don't seem to notice…
Crack, crack, CR-ACK!
The ice breaks open and both of them fall in, screaming out, startled.
The ice around them cracks even more and the space they're in gets larger as the lake opens up, leaving water and chunks of ice all over.
Once they've regained their bearings, they actually start fighting again in the water as they try to get out.
Minutes later, they're out on the farther side of the lake, climbing onto the shore, where they resume the fight.
Determined women, aren't they?
I move around the sides of the lake hiding in what's left of the bushes, rocks and trees to watch what will happen now.
Titania raises a knife and throws it…
Kalei twirls and slashes with her sword…
BOOM!
Titania's knife impales Kalei's eye at the moment at the moment Kalei stabs Titania in the stomach.
And so ends the life of Kalei, the female Tribute of District 11 in the 73rd Annual Hunger Games…
A brave, skilled warrior, who managed to hold her own in this arena, who managed to kill a Career who had a higher score than her- who just happened to be Titania's District partner…
Titania wrenches out Kalei's sword from her stomach, while holding a hand to the wound to try and staunch the blood flow.
She staggers over to Kalei's body and drags out the knife.
As she does, she looks up, and my blue eyes make four with her brown ones.
Shit.
She stands up and snarls at me.
Shit. Here she comes…
I take off through the ruined wintery landscape as fast as I can go.
Looking behind me, I notice that for someone who just got stabbed in the stomach, she's moving surprisingly fast.
I wonder if they teach the Careers not only how to handle weapons, but to have high pain tolerance as well…
"Come on, Violette! Keep running! Don't let Titania catch you or District 2 will have another Victor for sure!" I encourage myself aloud.
"YOU BET THEY WILL!" Titania yells.
Oh. She heard me.
Wait, she's close enough to hear me?
RUN FASTER!
FAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSTTTTTT TTEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRR R!
I bite back the urge to scream in a mixture of frustration and terror as I come up against a giant mountain that completely blocks off my escape. It's too wide to run around and it's not like it's just some little slope that I can be up and over in a few minutes.
I have no choice.
It looks like the final showdown will be on this mountain…
"YOU'D BETTER RUN, DISTRICT 9! I'M COMING TO GET YOU!" I hear her voice yelling in the distance.
That's all the motivation I need to scramble up the mountain.
The voices in my head try to have a conversation with me again, but I block them out. No way in hell am I letting them make me lose this thing!
I'm about halfway up by the time Titania reaches the base and I've paused on a ledge, eating my last apple.
Yeah, I know. Not the best time to be eating, but if I die here, I want the last thing I've eaten to be something nice…
I throw the apple core down the side of the mountain to taunt Titania, but she swats it aside and continues her ascent, at which I continue mine.
"YOU THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY FROM ME, LITTLE FLOWER?!" She shouts up.
"I DID BEFORE, DIDN'T I?" I shout back, increasing my speed.
I finally reach the peak of the mountain where there's a narrow ledge and get out my butterfly swords and finger my remaining knives nervously.
She'll be up here soon.
Nothing I can do to stop her.
Titania will be up here soon…
There aren't even any rocks or chunks of ice up here to throw down at her to slow her down- or better yet, make her lose her grip…
The audiences all over Panem must be watching this eagerly.
Here we are, the final two Tributes in the 73rd Hunger Games, getting closer and closer to the final fight.
A Career and a non-Career. I can guess who the bets are on, but I'm determined to make those betters lose a whole lot of money when I win…
I clutch the pendant of my District token nervously. Can't let the nerves overcome you now, Violette. You're so close to getting out of here…
I remember the note that Melissa passed me from both her and Gina on the morning I entered the arena.
"We hope the odds are ever in your favour, Violette. Good luck."
Let's hope the odds are in my favour against Titania…
I remember Ceres' encouragement the night before I went in and the hug she gave me.
"You know, it would be nice to have some female company in the Victor's Village so make sure you come back alive, okay?"
"You ready to die, District 9?" I hear Titania's voice nearby and I stand up, the adrenaline flowing through my veins.
I'm ready for a fight. And Ceres, I will come back to our District alive.
I tighten my grip on my swords as Titania finally makes it up, grinning at me, her tangled black hair flapping about the breeze, completely drenched in the icy water of the lake, looking completely deranged.
"I'm ready to go back to District 9 alive, actually…" I say coolly.
Titania cricks her neck. "Too bad that's not going to happen, pretty flower."
And with that, she charges.
I side-step and she stabs the sword into the side of the mountain so hard, it becomes stuck there and she snarls in frustration.
"Wow, District 2. All that snarling. Are you a wild animal now?" I ask calmly as she turns back around, breathing heavily and clutching another sword she's got in her hand, holding her other hand to the stab wound Kalei gave her earlier.
"You know what wounded animals are like, don't you? Vicious."
With that, she screams and stabs at me again.
I dodge again.
"Nowhere to run to now, District 9. Nowhere to hide. And this time, there's no ice and snow to shove into my face…" She moves a few strands of stringy hair out of her face, breathing even heavier than before.
Hm. She might be getting weaker, but she's still got fight in her…
She throws a knife and it lands in my stomach.
I crumple to the ground, seeing stars in my eyes and screaming in pain.
This, this is just too much. On top of everything else…
"See that, Violette! We told you that you couldn't win!" The voices in my head chorus.
"See that, District 9? You can't win. I'm too big and too powerful…" She walks over to me as I try to remove her knife from my stomach and throw it over the side of the mountain.
As she hangs over me with a rather large knife, she smiles.
"Now I'm going to kill you and go home as District 2's next Victor…"
"Remember that we all love you, okay? Don't just fight for us, fight for District 9!" My mother's voice rings through my head as I start to feel like both the mountain and the girl hovering above me with the pointy thing are spinning…
"Any last words? Any final goodbyes to your pathetic little grain district?" She grins, holding the knife above my chest, directly above my heart.
As I look into Titania's eyes, I imagine that those eyes flicker between colours. They change from her dark brown to Dominique's lighter brown to Claudette's blue-green.
That's all the motivation I need.
Before she can react, I reach to my belt for one of my pretty serrated knives that I got at the Feast.
"Yeah. I'll see you in a few days, guys!"
With that, I jab the knife directly into Titania's pupil and shove her away from me, standing up quickly and backing away from her tumbling around.
"AAH! MY EYE! WHY YOU LITTLE!"
She tries to go towards me, but I move quickly, stabbing her straight through the chest with one of my swords, kicking her in the stomach directly into her wound there and sending her flying right off the side of the ledge.
BOOM!
I sink to my knees, laughing loudly and crazily in some sort of relief as I realize… I've won.
I've actually won…
The trumpets blare once again and I hear Claudius Templesmith's excited voice.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the Victor of the Seventy-third Hunger Games, Violette Gardener of DISTRICT 9!"
The roar of the Capitol citizens that they're playing live over the speakers is almost deafening and I fall to my knees, clutching my bleeding stomach, laughing.
I barely even have enough strength to grab onto the ladder from the hovercraft which materializes overhead. Good thing it has that electric current that freezes you to it or I'd have fallen off for sure…
As soon as I'm inside the hovercraft, a crowd of doctors whisk me away to tend to my injuries, sticking all sorts of needles and tubes in me.
One of them places an oxygen mask over my face and before I pass out, I smile, thinking about how I actually managed to survive and keep my promises to my family and Ceres.
Well readers, that's it of the 73rd Hunger Games! What did you all think of it? How did I do? Review and let me know! Come on, you know you want to! I'd really like the input as I'd like to write about the actual canon characters when this story is done...