A/N: Has it seriously been almost two months since I updated?! I'm so sorry guyssss! But here's a look into some quality bonding time with Aqua and Parker! Not really!
Don't own the Hunger Games, blah, blah, blah...
See the turncoat on his knees
A vagabond that no one sees
When a moon is throwing shadows
You can't save the ones you've caught in battle
Chapter Thirty One:
Watching the rest of the first day of the Games got very boring very quickly. The only interesting thing about it was the tributes moving and making camps in different areas in the arena.
Charlie stays in the main island, in a forest in the north part. Calem and Kiyoko, neither knowing at any point that the other is nearby, move to the jungle, Calem trekking farther in than Kiyoko. Annaliese and Thomas, allies, make a bad decision and go to the island with the shifting plates, though throughout the day, they hardly move. Coral and Rosaline, their alliance cut in half when Jasmine and Carr were killed in the bloodbath, make their way to the wetland island, where they find it quite hard to camp in, but they don't dare leave; they don't know if anyone else is lurking nearby. The Careers, eager to learn the secrets of the arena, hike along the edge of the main island, never actually entering any island or finding any other tributes. The bickering between Vesta and Wing is minimal, but does occur multiple times. Thankfully, neither killed each other in their sleep; the others made sure to not give either one a night shift or just that reason.
The day ended peacefully, unfortunately, with only nine deaths; all results of the bloodbath. The fallen were Andrew Darwin (Three), Carr Gibson (Six), Dominique Carase and Jonah Willys (Nine), Lilith Zink and Alisondro Tomas (Ten), Jasmine Asantha and Grayson Grane (Eleven), and Kaitriona Menosei (Twelve).
So that brings us to the second day. Wherever I go, the Games are broadcasted, it doesn't matter if it's a public area or my own living quarters, it never leaves. Which is a great thing, I would never forgive myself if I missed a good, live murder.
The first few hours in the morning are rather uneventful, but I can tell that something is about to go down in only a minute; the Careers have found the place where Charlie is camping, but he's still asleep. I find myself lucky, considering this is occurring at the same time as I'm trying to gain sponsors for Fletcher. The Careers approach the tree he's sleeping against, utterly defenseless, as I'm talking to some rich old Capitol man who might be interested in sponsoring Fletcher. I break off conversation, as does everyone in the room, as the Careers stop in front of him. I smirk to myself. This'll be the most unfair match I've probably ever witnessed.
With deadly accuracy, Crystal takes a small throwing knife from her belt and throws it directly in the middle of Charlie's hand, pinning it to the tree. He wakes up in an instant, immediately screaming from the pain, then bawling when he sees the knife in his hand. Hoping it'll help, he pulls it out, blood gushing from the wound. He looks around for something to defend himself with, but having not taken anything from the Cornucopia, he falls into a mass state of fear. Charlie stands up, leaning on the tree, this time looking around to see if there is any chance of escape. Of course, there isn't, so he doesn't run anywhere.
Crystal steps up menacingly and smirking with a large butcher's knife, the girl who acted her best, looking sweet on cameras, is showing her true colors. Reminds me of Stingra when she made her first kill, though technically, this is Crystal's second; though no one is judged by murdering someone in the Bloodbath. Before Crystal can make any move, Wing shoves past her, machete in hand. Crystal gives an annoyed expression, as does Vesta and most of the others, but nobody says anything.
A rather smug Wing hits Charlie across the face with the blunt end of the machete without enough force to cause any serious injury. She continues to beat on Charlie while on the other side of the room, a woman presume is Wing's mentor (I know she's from Six, and they can't really be Carr's mentor), Clio Coach, struts over to my side, wearing an expression almost identical to Wing's. She doesn't say anything, so I focus back on Wing, Charlie, and the other Careers. Charlie's face is bruised and bloody, but as Wing raises her fist to punch him again, Vesta interjects.
"Get it over with already; we already know you feel the need to prove yourself to us. You're gonna have to do a lot more than that to do it though."
Wing stops and stabs the machete through Charlie's chest. BANG! When Charlie's dead body slumps against the tree and splays upon the ground, she whips around to face Vesta.
"So I guess you really do care about what I think," Vesta sneers.
In a flash, Wing has her machete at her rival's chin, though she doesn't look the slightest bit phased. In fact, she snickers into Wing's face.
"You don't scare me, you do know that. Don't you?"
"You sure?" she asks. "It might not be me you're scared of, but maybe the fact that someone who's been training for this all of their life got the same training score as someone from Six? That's pretty sad, if you ask me."
Silence fills the room as Vesta clenches her hand around the sickle hanging in her belt, but no other Career seems to notice it. They do look anxious, though, and Fletcher does notice it as Vesta begins to pull it out of the loop.
"STOP!" he yells. Both Vesta and Wing put down their weapons as Vesta turns around and glares at her District partner.
"I'm up for killing you, too." She eyes up her other allies. "All of you, really. But mostly you two." She glares at Fletcher and Wing again.
No one says anything more for a few seconds, but Oceanus eventually speaks up. "Should we go through the forest today?"
"Might as well," answers Garnet, "just to make sure nobody's there."
So the group sets off in search of more kills, unknowing that the only other tributes on the main island, Mahogany and Lumber, are nowhere near the small forest.
Chatter starts up again in the room as Capitol citizens go about betting and talking to mentors and escorts. Before I can seal the deal with the man I was talking to, Clio holds out her hand for me to shake with the same conceited smirk as before. I forcefully shake her hand and return her smile with an expressionless face.
"Clio Coach, District Six," she announces. I remember she won somewhere around the Fiftieth Games, when she was seventeen or eighteen, so her slight wrinkles suit her age. "Nice to finally meet you, Aqua."
"Wish could say the same thing."
She frowns. "It's too bad, the quarrel between our tributes."
I shrug. "Vesta is Parker's. Fletcher and Wing don't seem to be having problems."
"Oh, really?" She laughs. "You get the stupid one? You and your little buddy not gettin' along these days?"
"In all honesty, they chose us," I inform her. "Which makes Fletcher the smart one."
She smirks yet again.
"I don't know who you think you are, but you've obviously chosen the wrong person to mess with." Her cocky demeanor, while not uncommon in people I know, is already getting to me.
"Hm." She thinks for a second, clearly looking for a retort. "So I should just go bug Parker about his tribute?" A terrible retort, might I add.
I snort. "Be my guest. All you'll get is the same attitude, maybe even a fake smile, if you're lucky."
For whatever reason, Clio stays in her place, but turns around to talk to...the Capitol man I was making a deal with, it looks like. What a bitch. The man smiles as Clio takes the wad of money in his hand that was supposed to go to me. She turns around and flashes the money in my face.
"I think I will go talk to your boyfriend." She chuckles as she walks to back to the other side of the room. Two random ladies who were just talking to each other must've heard her.
"Wait, you're-"
"Definitely not." I tread away as quickly as possible after cutting her off.
Something needs to be cleared up, and fast.
While I have no clue where Parker is, it seems to be that Clio does, as she's confidently making a beeline to, most likely, him.
~Change of POV~
Before I can finish a conversation with a disturbing Capitol person named Bijoux with gems implanted in her skin, one of the mentors (the lack of deformities gives it away), followed by an agitated Aqua, waves the disheartened girl away, but before she can speak, Aqua pushes her away.
"Who's that?" I ask.
"Some bitch," she answers. Great description, Aqua. "But ignore her, she just wants to bother you."
The bitch tries to say something, but Aqua cuts her off, saying; "Don't try to deny it!" and she shuts up and walks away.
"So…"
"We need to talk," Aqua says, flustered.
"About Vesta?"
"Nah, she's fine." Aqua thinks about her statement. "Well, not really, but that doesn't matter. Somebody's gonna kill her soon." I silently agree. Aqua looks around. "Let's go to the City Circle."
"Wouldn't that be more crowded? Or is that what you want?"
"Not really, but less people will wanna talk to us about sponsoring," she explains, already walking away. I follow, disregarding many Capitol citizens trying to talk to us, until we get to the City Circle. The Avenue of Tributes is sprinkled with clumps of people, but not many. Most of them were in the place for betting and sponsoring...I don't know if there's a name for it.
Aqua stops when we find an area where there are very few Capitolites around. "Okay, so I think that a bunch of people think we're...together." She says the last word with a shudder.
"Seriously? Even after what happened during the last interview?" I smile to myself, recalling those events.
"Guess so." Aqua grins as well, but it fades away quickly.
"So… How are we supposed to fix that?"
"Well…" She clearly hasn't thought this through. "We could do another interview-"
"Do you really think we'll be allowed to have another interview?" I cut her off.
"Okay, true. Any ideas?"
I hesitate. "Nope."
Aqua's eyes light up, clearly the effect of a terrible idea popping into her head. "You should pretend to date some girl from the Capitol!" Called it. "Who was that one you were talking to before me and Clio came?"
"First; Bijoux, second; my god no! Especially not her!" I argue. I swear, although that being the first time Bijoux met me, she was just...infatuated with me. It was actually frightening.
Aqua stops to think for a few more seconds. Out of ideas, she says; "So what was that thing you wanted to- or, didn't want to- tell me yesterday?"
"Oh… This is probably the worst time to tell you." Or the best…
"That works." She smirks. "So what is it?"
This obviously won't end well, but Aqua will never let it go if I don't say it… "Well… Um, when we got back to District Two- stop staring at me. Anyway, so when we got back, I kinda started dating Hestia Sparks…" Despite what people generally say, it really isn't a relief to get that off of my chest.
Aqua stays silent, staring at me, for about thirty seconds, which really makes me want to just crawl out of my skin and just go anywhere else.
"I feel like I should've been aware of this," she finally states.
"Maybe, but that's it. Happy?"
"Well, not really. I mean, my two best friends have been dating behind my back for- how many months has it been?"
"...Almost a year, probably eleven months."
"Wonderful. So yeah, I'm completely fine with that," she says sarcastically.
"Because you care so much about that kinda stuff," I retort.
"Well, normally, not at all, but this is a lot different."
"So about the other thing we were talking about," I say, desperately wanting to change the subject.
"Oh, yeah." Aqua slowly comes to a conclusion. "That could actually help, maybe."
Before either of us could say anything more, a bunch of Capitolites rush to a giant screen at the end of the Avenue of Tributes that is broadcasting the Games. We run with them just in time to see Mahogany and Lumber, the alliance from Seven, being driven off of the volcano island by something that is actually quite common near volcanoes- lava. The volcano begins erupting, lava splattering the ground near the two, ash basically blinding them. I glob of the glowing red lava shoots straight at the two, hitting both of their shoulders. The two screech as some of their skin melts off, but they don't stop running. They manage to not step into any pools of lava and make it to the land bridge, regaining their sight. Once they reach the main island, they abruptly stop, panting profusely. Lumber digs through a pack from the Cornucopia, looking for some sort of medicine, but finds nothing other than a sleeping bag and some food.
Lumber passes out on the ground; he got a much more severe burn than his District partner. Mahogany, frantic and desperately rummaging through the bag again, finds three long pieces of cloth and ties the first around her shoulder and under her arm. Blood soaks through almost the entire way, but she's too busy doing the same thing to Lumber to notice. She ties the last piece over Lumber's shoulder as well; there's too much blood for the first.
Still panting, Mahogany sits down on the blood stained grass and looks at her surroundings. The two aren't covered by any trees; they're in large field and would be easily seen by anyone nearby. But very close to them is a large dip in the ground covered by bushes, which happens to be where the Careers camped the night before. Mahogany grabs the pack and their weapons; a spear and an axe, and throws them into the dip, then struggles to drag Lumber in as well, who wakes up as she's pulling him. The two don't have to wait for help for very long; their mentor already found them a sponsor, and a silver parachute ascends down to them, which is full of burn medicine, which they each apply to themselves.
"Aw. Neither died," signs Aqua.
"Sucks. Both are actually competition for the Careers," I add. The screen goes back to a view of the six groups of tributes, none of which are doing anything interesting. The other Capitol people go back to doing whatever they were doing before the volcano erupted.
"So do we have to get Hestia over here?" Aqua asks, going straight back into our previous conversation.
"Why, so you could kill her for betraying you?"
She thinks about that. "Sure, but after someone sees you two kissing or something."
"I don't feel comfortable with this idea. And how are we even supposed to get her over here?"
She shrugs. "I'm awesome. Everybody does what I say."
I shake my head. "That's no very true. It doesn't work that way."
She grunts. "It should. We should ask Emberlynn or something."
Once we track her down, Aqua explains everything to Emberlynn, including some very unimportant details, while I just stand there awkwardly. Emberlynn looks really confused.
"Is it really that important?" she asks.
"YES," we say in unison.
"Well… I don't really think we can get her here, but if it's really that important, I don't think using a Capitol girl would be a bad idea.
"No," I object immediately.
Emberlynn rolls her eyes. "Or not. On a different note, are you okay with your sister volunteering when she turns eighteen."
"Yeah, sure," I say. Aqua looks confused this time.
"You have a sister?"
I give her a blank stare. "You're kidding, right?"
She shakes her head in disbelief. "No."
"Wait, you don't know Artemis?" Emberlynn asks.
"No, why don't I?!"
"That's on you, Aqua." I almost start laughing. "You probably wouldn't really like her anyway; she's not as malicious as you and your friends."
"One of which you're dating," she adds.
"Okay, true, but she's not as bad as most of the others." I stop. "Could you do me a favor and get over it?"
"No," she quickly states. "So there's nothing we can do until we get back to Two?"
"No, not really," says Emberlynn.
"Dammit."
"Yeah."
Cut me down to size so I can fit inside
Lies you try to hide behind your eyes
'Blue Moon' by Beck (Very dramatic, I know, but I just realized that I didn't have any Beck songs, and this actually fit the best..)
(If you think about it, it works, but yes, it makes it sound much more intense.)
SO...
Who do you wanna see die next?!
Thoughts on Parker's secret?!
ParkerxHestia or naw?!
Thoughts on the chapter in general?!
Tributes:
District One:
Garnet Shynes
Crystal Shimmers
District Two:
Fletcher Byrde
Vesta Reddira
District Three:
Andrew Darwin (Killed by Vesta when she silt his throat with her sickle) 21st Place
Kiyoko Mori
District Four:
Oceanus Blue
Coral Clear
District Five:
Charlie Milfay (Killed by Wing when she beat him up and stabbed him with her machete) 15th Place
Rosaline Bishop
District Six:
Carr Gibson (Killed by Fletcher when he sliced his stomach open with his scythe) 18th Place
Wing Spherings
District Seven:
Lumber Mason
Mahogany Woods
District Eight:
Thomas Weiss
Annaliese Mayer
District Nine:
Jonah Willys (Killed by Fletcher when he stabbed him in the stomach with a knife) 22nd Place
Dominique Carase (Killed by Oceanus when he overopwered her in hand-to-hand combat) 20th Place
District Ten:
Alisondro Tomas (Killed by Crystal when she stabs him in the back with her short sword) 17th Place
Lilith Zink (Killed self when she threw herself off of her pedestal too early) 24th Place
District Eleven:
Grayson Grane (Killed by Mahogany when she threw her spear through his back) 19th Place
Jasmine Asantha (Killed by Garnet when he strangled her to death) 23rd Place
District Twelve:
Calem Hav
Kaitriona Menosei (Killed by Wing when she beat her to death) 16th Place