A/N More apologies for its tardiness, sorry. Thanks again to my little helper, iggyxxmitchell. Please read and review, it makes me happy.
I saw the pale blue tent first and gestured silently at the others, trying to get them to be quiet. In front of the tent was a huge smoky fire, which was what had originally alerted us to its location.
I looked towards Halcyon, who was mentally calculating an attack plan.
"This feels like a trap." I mouthed at him, unsure whether he'd understand. He shook his head dismissively and drew his sword. We pressed on until we were right up by the tent. I could actually hear the tiny twigs snapping beneath our feet.
Suddenly there was a crash of body hitting body behind me. I whirled around, trying to spot the attacker. A girl with a shock of short ginger hair was on Cyprian's back, clawing at his face. As Luke gave a cry of surprise Izzy began to punch the attacker repeatedly, probably thankful that the girl was seemingly unarmed.
"6 o clock!" Halcyon shouted over the sounds of the scuffle. The noise had disturbed the inhabitant of the tent, a boy with dark curly hair, who was now making a run for it. He wasn't as fast as Luke's spear, which caught him in the back of the leg, knocking him to the ground.
I had frozen the second the redhead girl had attacked, rooted to the spot and not knowing what to do. Now Luke, after flashing a glance after the bombarded Cyprian, was jogging over to finish off the boy he had just hit, and Cyprian had wrestled his attacker to the ground.
Halcyon strode coolly over to the redhead.
"Leave her." He gestured to Cyprian who had her pinned to the floor. After a pause he released her slowly. She looked around wildly, unsure of what was going on. Halcyon punched her square in the face and she dropped like a stone to the ground. We stared at him.
"Wha.." I said, still not too sure what was happening.
"It's nothing, just history, Cyprian, it's your kill.." He said, waving his hand dismissively. Cyprian grunted and calmly broke her neck, as if it were as easy as breathing.
"Where's Luke?" I asked, turning away from the sightless eyes of the dead girl. Izzy pointed to the other side of the little camp. As we moved further into the clearing we heard the boom of the cannon for the mysterious redhead.
"Luke! Get back here!" Halcyon barked at him. A few minutes later after we had begun looking in the tents, Luke returned, weighed down by the boy he was carrying over his shoulder.
"You were supposed to have killed him!" Halcyon snarled.
"No.." Luke began, laying the injured boy down and glanced towards the flame-headed corpse on the floor, his expression enigmatic.
"You too chicken now?" Halcyon huffed and walked off, maybe to scout the area but more likely in a strop because Luke had disobeyed him.
"No it's just... Never mind." Luke tailed off and Hal sighed in frustration. I walked towards Luke.
"What is it?" I said, looking into his eyes.
"He says he knew my sister... She went missing at the start of the war."
"I knew her, yes. If you fix my leg up, I'll tell you some more." The curly haired boy said from the ground. I went over to him to look at his wound. It was bleeding heavily, I was unsure if a bandage could really help this.
"Look, I need to know if she's alive. Can you get a bit of cloth or something?" Luke looked towards me hopefully. If this really meant so much to him, I guessed it would be the right thing to help him.
"There's some here." Said Izzy, coming out from the little blue tent. "There's food too." She smiled.
I helped Luke bandage the boy's leg, not that it would do him much good.
"Please, just tell me. Where is she?"
"Just let me rest, and then I'll tell you. This doesn't half hurt dude!"
"Ok, ok.."
"So what's your name then?" Izzy said, squatting down beside him. Trying to make friends I frowned, not the best idea..
"Alexandros." He said, waving an arm out in greeting.
"Hi, I'm Isonia. My friends call me Izzy; well they would if I had any friends." She looked over to me and laughed, trying to make a joke like old times.
"What the hell is going on here?" Hal stomped in, back from his sulk.
"Well, this is...Alex. He's injured and..." Izzy began, hoping not to be yelled at by Halcyon.
"I can see that, darling." He just called her darling, why did he call her that? My mind went wild. I mentally shushed myself- I was just over thinking it. Halcyon came closer and poked at Alex's bloodied bandage.
"Now that will get infected.. Should probably cut it off.." He began to draw is sword, smiling slyly.
"Hal, no. I need to ask him stuff first."
"Ask away, I don't think you've got much time.."
"He won't talk.."
"Well, I'll make him."
"Halcyon, seriously calm it."
"I am perfectly calm, it's you who wants to play doctors and nurses all the time."
"I just need to ask him something!" Luke said again, this time stressing each syllable.
"Ugh, would you boys just calm down!"
"Ask away, or I'll cut his bloody head off!" Halcyon growled, I reached out for his arm in an attempt to calm him down, but he brushed me away. Luke glared daggers at Halcyon, but decided it was better to just leave it.
"Look, just tell me about Julia, or I'll let Halcyon..." Luke began resentfully, but Alexandros cut him off
"...OK, how about everyone calms down and stops talking about decapitation?" The injured boy yelled.
"Oh, would you just..." Izzy growled and did something totally out of character. She threw Cyprian's axe (lying next to her), straight at Alex. It just missed his head thankfully, but the thought was still there. I still couldn't comprehend myself as a killer, and the Philip that appeared in my dreams sure wouldn't let me forget about it, but lashing out unprovoked like that seemed not something Isonia Leandra would do.
Alex looked around bewilderedly, Izzy looked shocked and apologised profusely.
"Well, if you can't get a job done right..." Halcyon muttered, picking up the axe lying next to him, which I noticed later was ironically burnished with a mockingjay emblem, and burying it in the inured boy's chest.
If looks could kill I thought as Luke death-glared at Halcyon.
"Should have known." He spat, his voice more reminiscent of Hal in a bad mood, "you never can control yourself..."
"Just because I recognise I am the stronger man here..." Halcyon replied menacingly as Alex took his dying splutter of a breath.
"Says who? Your score? Your girlfriend? 'Cause I just think..."Luke shook his head. He was smart enough to realise this wasn't a fight he wanted to be in.
Cyprian and Izzy carried Alex's body away from the clearing, leaving me alone with the testosterone fuelled machismos. Luke had sat down and turned away from Hal. I wanted something, anything to break the bitter silence between them. Finally, Luke muttered;
"I'm going to... go get some firewood..." And he wondered off, leaving me sitting in the doorway of the tent next to Hal. I took his hand, needing something to support me. Needing him to be there. The last day had been so emotional, so much anger, so much death. He could see it was getting to me.
"It'll be fine" he said, his eyes meeting mine before he went forward to kiss me. It was short-lived, I broke off. I needed to talk to him.
"What has Luke ever done to you?"
"What do you mean?" He replied absently.
"Why do you hate him?"
"I don't hate him, he just hates me. He's trying to control us all, surely you can see?"
"I don't know, it just seems like you're overreacting a bit, Hal..." I said, shivering as I noticed how cold it was becoming. Night was falling again in the arena.
"Look, don't worry about him. And if he ever does anything to hurt you..." He broke off menacingly, putting his arm around me protectively. Now felt about the right time, I needed to tell him how I felt about him. How I really felt about him. I took a deep breath and turned to him.
"Halcyon, these last few days… you've always been there for me. I think..." My voice faltering, I'd never said this before so plainly. "I think I love you, like seriously; I love you." It came out in a rush, and I searched his face, looking for his reaction.
His eyes lit up almost triumphantly and he smiled his usual infectious sly grin. "I know, I know..."
The others returned to find us making out in the tent, I would find it a little awkward in normal terms, but I doubted I had long to live so frankly I didn't give a damn. Izzy coughed loudly. I disentangled myself from Halcyon's arms and turned to her.
"What took you so long?" I said, looking around, the sun had all but set now and the night air was dark and cold.
"We met a little...trouble" She said slowly as we all heard the distinct sound of cannon fire. I looked over at Luke who was cleaning blood from his spear, he smiled weakly. These were not killers, none of them were, and they were showing all the signs of guilt.
"Was it Anya?" I asked, trying to make conversation. She was the only one of the other remaining tributes that I could name.
"No, it was a boy..." Luke muttered, deep in thought. The new Panem anthem began playing and we all turned towards the sky. The smiling faces of today's dead appeared before us, two boys and two girls we didn't recognise, along with Katriarna, Alexandros, Fernando and Luke's cousin Elektra, who it turned out was the ginger who had attacked Cyprian. Eight dead in just one day. I hope the districts are enjoying this bloodshed I thought sarcastically to myself, knowing deep down that they probably would be.
"That leaves three out there, and five of us here..." Izzy said, always the maths genius.
"Lovely. Now, has anyone got any food?" Halcyon said, leaping to his feet and walking towards the still burning fire.
"There's the last of the rabbits... then that's it..." Izzy said, fumbling in her bag. For the second night we ate our meagre food in silence, ever watchful of whatever or whoever would come out of the dark trees.
After we'd eaten we again decided on a guard rota. I took first shift, gripping my knives in my hand with white knuckles and knowing that I wouldn't stand much of a chance against anything the game makers would throw at me. After what felt like a couple of hours, I woke a confused Izzy up to take over. After reminding her where we were and what she had to do, I returned to the tent to sleep (the boys had let the girls use the tent, they were being all macho and sleeping outside by the fire).
I awoke to hear shouting. Izzy was lying asleep next to me, her heavy breathing indicating there was no chance of her waking up anytime soon. I sat in the tent and listened in silence.
"Look, all I'm saying is it's just a teeny bit suspicious, you know." A boy, Luke shouted.
"And so what if I did, we're all killers now Lucius." Halcyon replied, his tone having the same amount of aggression to it.
I tensed. This argument didn't sound like the others- these two had been at each other's throats the whole time we'd been in the arena, but this time I could hear the frustration in Hal's voice and the rage in Luke's and I didn't like to think where this was going to end.
"It just doesn't make you the most trustworthy guy to be around, ok?"
"What, and you are Mr. Trustworthy?" Halcyon laughed. "I've seen you, and to be honest I'm surprised you haven't murdered us all in our sleep yet!"
"Would you two keep it down?" A third voice, Cyprian, hissed. "If you wake the girls up, you know what they're like..."
The other two seemed to have ignored him and kept yelling at each other. I was surprised this fight seemed only verbal.
"Ha! You can talk, you bloody psycho!"
"Oh, I'm crazy now am I? Just because you don't have the balls to protect who you love..."
"I doubt, Mr. Sunburst, that you've ever experienced love..." Luke replied in a quieter, more malicious tone.
"What are you trying to say, huh?" Hal's voice had lowered to match Luke's, but that didn't mask the danger in his accusation.
"Never mind. Anyway, I am no chicken. You know that."
"Sure sure, you're always such a mummy's boy I'd find it hard to agree with that."
"If you're so amazing and tough, prove it." Cyprian piped up. "Just man up and leave each other alone, please." I couldn't agree more with him, it was horrible to hear Halcyon acting like this, it didn't shock me though, it was just a side of him best left unseen.
"Oh for shit's sake.." Halcyon said, and it sounded like a scuffle ensued. I froze, not knowing whether to get out and see or hold my ground. The distinctive sound of metal entering flesh was heard. A body fell to the ground and the boom of a cannon ran through the clearing.