Since this arena is different, the only ally I can find is Kyy. Eleven cannons had gone off, and I know most of the lives were taken by a Career's hand. We find a place next to the stairwell on the second floor that is in charge of the music on all floors and stairwell. First we cut off the alarm in the single stairwell, then we play music throughout the entire arena. We put it on the song we sang in the hovercraft. On repeat, so that people stay happy until their brutal death. Then, at last, it is time for the list of the dead. Kyy is shocked by Glow's death, and I pretend to be shocked as well. Then comes Evan—I was right. Tara isn't dead. Lukas and Orchid are both dead. Kyy took credit for Orchid. Becca and Aaron are both dead. The two District Nine tributes are dead. Madison, the twelve year old, and Will, were also on the list. Last was Pine, and then the Capitol's anthem cut off.
"Tara is alive, so we aren't safe to sleep." I say mindlessly. I'm not tired, but he looks exhausted.
"How does she do it?"
"She'll poison you while you sleep. That's how she works. That's why she wanted in the Career pack," I say. That wakes Kyy up.
"She has to sleep too, right?" he asks. I grin.
"If she plays dirty, maybe we should, too," I say, holding up my bottle or prescription pills. Kyy laughs.
"I like the way you think," he says, and we leave the music room abandoned. We go into the stairs and head up to the fifth floor. The two twelve-year-old kids from District Seven are asleep in the arms of the other. I glance at Kyy and uncap the bottle. Kyy starts to stop me and I whisper back, hushed.
"If you were them, wouldn't you want to go this way, painlessly, while you slept? It's better than the death Sunny will give them," I say, and he nods. I use all of the prescriptions on the children, and a minute later, their cannons go off. It wasn't the only cannon we heard, however. After Emma and Liam's cannons, there was a third—and a fourth. We see a shadow at the end of the way, and I lead as we creep down the hall. I have my ax in hand, surprised at how quickly these Games are going.
I peer around the corner and get a pencil to the shoulder.
I ignore the pain and swing my ax for Sunny's face—I know it's her—and am quite satisfied at the crunch I hear.
And even more so when I rip the pencil out as her cannon fires.
But then I hear a grunt behind me, and see Kyy falling forward. I see eyes that I would recognize anywhere, and music that I have only heard once before, and am only just now remembering.
Kyy's cannon fires, and the music I had put on fades into a haunting melody.
"Cypress!" I hiss. She turns and swoons, draping her arms over me.
"Do you hear it?" she asks. Slowly, I nod.
The haunting music pulses through the arena, Cypress moving with the beat, leaning against the wall, her eyes glazed over—the gold again on fire.
"I tell you who to kill," a voice says. It is not Cypress, it is not me, it is in my head.
Where have I heard these tunes before?
Ah yes...my dreams. This voice has come to me before, as I sleep, and it is back now, though I am awake.
I resist the voice and run.