Finally, another chapter! Only one more after this! I don't know if I'm happy or sad about that... Well, R&R! :D
Adrenaline pumps through my veins as our razor-sharp blades collide. I can immediately tell that Jayre is much stronger than me as the force of his blow makes me stagger back several steps. I can only hope that he isn't in the mood for torturing his victims today. He spins his sword as he steps forward, then he pushes it against my blade until the weapon is hovering not an inch from my unprotected throat. I see his other arm rising to smash his bronze shield against my undefended face. I desperately kick out, slamming the heel of my foot into the back of his injured knee. He groans in pain, and I allow a small burst of hope to bloom in the back of my tortured mind. He's got immense strength, but I just might have enough strategy to defeat him. I kick again while he's still trying to stand back up, and that's where my strategy fails.
Jayre grabs my ankle and gives it a short, sharp, ferocious twist. Something cracks and I gasp in pain as black spots dance before my eyes, making the whole world swoop and spin. I collapse against the Cornucopia with my foot at a very odd angle, closing my eyes tightly as he raises his sword for the final deadly blow.
CLANG! I'm… not dead. In fact, I haven't even gone numb. I'm in total and complete agony; I should be dead. I look up in bafflement. Except for the fact that Falcon, who was sort of shell-shocked after we killed Gentia, has intervened and is now battling Jayre, I should be very, very dead.
Why did he bother to step in? He could have easily won the Games, seeing as I would have died and Jayre is seriously wounded. I think back through all the time I've had since the reaping. I look back on what he's done for me. He helped me kill Chas and Gentia. Carried me to the roof after Leris and Azalea died. Woke me up on the train when we first arrived in the Capitol. Introduced me to Ashe and Range, now both dead. Got upset when I joined the Careers.
He loves me.
That in itself is horribly disturbing. I guess it's sort of a brotherly love, perhaps a crush since we'd never met before the reaping. I didn't know he existed before then- we didn't even live in the same sector! I sure hope it is a brotherly love; having a crush on a girl three years younger than you is creepy to me. I'll never understand boys, not for the rest of my life. However long that may be. I can't help my district partner; I'm forced to sit against the Cornucopia with my badly broken ankle and watch Falcon fight to the death.
Jayre tries to slash Falcon's throat, but the staff goes up and the other sharp end flashes towards Jayre's unprotected torso. It grazes the boy's side instead. As the staff is horizontal, Jayre swings out at Falcon's head and hits it with a dull thudding sound. Falcon drops to his knees, seeming dazed, but he manages to shake himself back to reality quickly and sweeps Jayre's feet from beneath him before he can land another blow. Now both boys are kneeling. Jayre can't get up fast on his injured knee, so he rains a flurry of blows on Falcon's staff, effectively keeping him down too. Suddenly he changes directions in midair and slices a deep gash down Falcon's shoulder, chest, and side. Falcon roars in pain and I can see his muscles tense, spraying blood everywhere. I gag on the metallic tang when several drops fly into my gaping mouth. Jayre must have hit a major nerve or something, because Falcon loses all use of his right arm. His left arm isn't the one he normally fights with, and Jayre easily knocks the staff away now. Falcon is able to struggle to his feet, though. I try to toss him my sword, but Jayre deflects it with his shield as it whirls through the air. Gritting his teeth, the District Ten boy leaps to his feet. He smirks cruelly and draws his blade through the deep wound he inflicted earlier. Falcon involuntarily flinches, but he tries to hold his ground. As Jayre reaches the end of the gash, he makes a sudden move and plunges the sword through fabric and flesh all the way through Falcon's heart. My district partner dies bravely.
BOOM. It's down to me and Jayre now. He favors his left leg, and I can't use my right foot at all. I might as well die fighting; I'm surprised I made it this far. First, though, I must stand. I scrabble for Falcon's staff, which fell near me when it was tossed to the side. I use it to pull myself up to a standing position. The heavy pole is as tall, perhaps taller, than me. I unsheathe my sword. Smirking the same smirk he grinned when he killed Falcon, Jayre brandishes his sword and shield with a flourish. I brace myself against the golden horn behind me and prepare to block as many blows as I possibly can before my little remaining strength gives out. He slams against my blade, jarring my entire body again and again. Five blows in, I can barely manage to postpone my death. Then, I see my opportunity.
Balancing carefully on the staff with both arms, I kick him again on his bad knee with my good foot. His face contorts into a grotesque mask of agony. "You're just a little kicker, aren't you?" he sneers. He knocks my sword away with his next powerful strike. He raises his blade for the final kill, but hesitates as a wave of pain threatens to sweep him away. I reach over my shoulder, desperately grasping for a nonexistent sword handle. I find the coil of rope instead. I don't hesitate to throw the thing in his face and hope it distracts him. It sure shocks him, anyway, and I snatch it up from the ground and toss it at his legs. It entangles him, knocking him over. At the same time, the staff wobbles and I fall to the ground too.
"So close… almost home," Jayre gasps as I impale him on the blade of Falcon's staff without a second thought. BOOM. Claudius Templesmith's voice reverberates through the arena on some sort of intercom.
"Ladies and gentlemen," -they call the Capitol creatures ladies and gentlemen?-, "I give you the winner of the Twenty- Sixth Hunger Games: District Five's Sol Ebony!" As the hovercraft lifts me up, I wrap my arms around Falcon's bloody staff. I want to give it to his family.
So, I keep getting all this stuff about how people LOVE Falcon. Sorry to his fangirls, but at least Jayre didn't win! ;) Again, only one chapter left after this. :):( I love all you guys who read this.