This chapter is dedicated to 11-year-old Lindsey, who died of cancer a couple of weeks ago. !

Chapter 14: Movie Night Part 2

Clove

With only twelve tributes left, the fighting was really getting intense. Almost every tribute was injured in some way, and disasters in the arena kept happening, like volcanoes and hurricanes and whatnot.

I suddenly felt a painful tug at the back of my head.

"Dammit, Glimmer!" I cried, swiveling around to face her.

Glimmer raised her hands in defense. "Sorry, sorry!"

I turned back to the TV to see Claire and another girl circling each other; Claire with her bow raised, and the other girl holding what looked like a silver stake. It looked like a pretty equal fight; they were well-matched opponents. Claire was bleeding steadily from her lip and upper arm, and her opponent had a dangerous-looking gash in her forehead.

Suddenly Claire's mouth parted in horror and she slowly pointed behind the girl's shoulder.

Stupidly, the girl looked behind her.

"Made ya look!" Before the girl knew what was happening, Claire shot her in the neck.

13 down, 11 to go.

Glimmer

After Claire's kill, the screen flashed to show a silver arrow whistling through the trees.

"Uh!" The arrow landed in someone's shoulder…Mia's shoulder.

Mia touched the base of the wound, and her hand came away, sticky with blood. Her face was wrinkled with pain and disbelief as she looked at the person who had shot the arrow.

Claire.

I grabbed the remote from Izzy and paused the TV. "Why would you shoot her? She was your ally!" I cried to Claire.

Claire shoved and folded her arms. "Well, it was getting down to the last tributes, and I wanted to win," she said, as if it should have been obvious.

I shook my head and pressed play.

Onscreen, Mia looked with despair at her shoulder wound. "Claire, what-?"

But Claire had already run off into the woods.

Mia tried to start easing the arrow out of her shoulder, but blood flowed out and she gasped in pain.

Offscreen, Mia showed off her shoulder. "OH ya! Still got the scar, baby! WOO!"

After giving Mia a weird look, we turned our heads back to the TV.

Mia had found some bright green moss and pressed it to the area around the arrow, probably hoping to staunch the flow of blood. She picked up her knife and sawed off the part of the arrow protruding from her skin, leaving only a little arrow stub. She ran back into the forest.

Clove

Tributes kept being killed, until there was only Finnick, Allie, Claire, Mia, Gabby, Izzy, and two others left.

The screen showed Gabby, Izzy, and Allie fighting two burly guys who looked about eighteen, while Allie Izzy and Gabby were only thirteen. And they were losing. Big time.

Gabby looked uncertainly at the sky, which was turning blacker and more threatening every second. Clouds were being thrown across the sky in all different ways, and rain was slanting down on the fighting tributes. Suddenly Gabby lunged forward and pushed one of the boys down and jumped on his stomach. Allie threw her the spear, and Gabby caught it and crouched down to look the boy in his face. He raised his right fist behind Gabby and raked his dagger along her spine. A faint look of pain crossed her face, but she kept her cruel smile and, whispering, "Buh bye, darling," she stabbed him in the face. She stood up and, throwing her head to the angry sky, laughed.

Now that half of their opponent was gone, the three continued to grapple with the other boy, whose fury was apparent over the loss of his ally. He was gaining on Izabelle, backing her up to a tree. Izzy did a very daring, very unexpected, very awesome move. Izzy did a back flip and landed neatly on her feet on the lowest branch. The boy followed her into the tree, but was very unsteady on the thin branch. Izabelle, however, was very surefooted, living in District Seven, the tree district. Gripping her axe tightly, she swung it and cleanly chopped of his head. She grabbed it before it could fall. Gabby and Allie scattered as the boy's buff body fell towards them. Izzy lifted up the dismembered head and grinned.

Glimmer

"Ok, you're done," Gabby said, plopping onto the couch after she finished my pedicure.

I stopped mid-braid to wiggle my toes. Gabby had painted them a soft blue, with delicate swirls of silver and white on each big toe. It was by far the best pedicure I'd ever gotten, better than any stylist had given me.

"Thanks!" I said, hugging Gabby.

"SHH!" everyone cried. We turned back to the screen.

Allie, Gabby, and Izzy were celebrating after their kills. No one was paying attention to the worsening weather. At the last minute Allie screamed as a forty foot wave descended on them, broken trees and bushes tangled in its roaring water. Trying to protect themselves, the girls started to run behind a huge, fat tree. Only Allie made it, though. Izzy and Gabby were smashed against the front of the tree, their heads violently jerking back and hitting the hard bark.

As soon as two cannons boomed, the sky turned bright and blue again, the wind stopped howling and turned back to a soft breeze, and the wave evened until the arena was up to its knees in water. Much quicker than it should have, the water drained into the ground.

Allie emerged from behind the tree, her clothes soaked and brown hair dripping fat droplets of water.

"NOOOO!" she howled to the sky as she saw Izzy's and Gabby's broken bodies before her.

Glimmer

The screen flashed to a shot of Mia running. She stopped at a tall figure standing by a tree, trident in hand.

"Finnick!" she gasped in relief. "You've gotta help me! Claire-"

Finnick tackled her and put the point of his trident to her neck. "Sorry, Mia, but there's no such thing as allies when only those allies are left."

There was a wet ripping sound as he yanked the arrow out of her shoulder.

Mia screamed, but it was cut off by Finnick's trident slitting her neck.

When her cannon boomed, Finnick walked away, leaving Mia's mouth in mid-scream and her neck a bloody mess.

Offscreen, Mia self-consciously touched the jagged scar across her neck.

Clove

Onscreen, Claire was running. She held up her bow, and she kept frantically looking behind her. Her hair was a mess. Her blonde hair was in a droopy ponytail, and it was limp and soaking wet, thanks to the once-again rainy weather. Mud was streaked across her forehead, and various cuts and bruises made their way up her arms.

She stopped suddenly, her way cut off by a mass of tall, thorny plants that curled up to the blackening sky. Claire turned around, but was cut off yet again by a pack of wildebeests. One, however, stepped forward from the pack and looked at Claire. Then it turned around and walked backward, looking back at Claire as if beckoning her to follow. It stopped beside her, and Claire climbed aboard its back.

Suddenly it began to run. Faster, faster than any regular animal. This wildebeest was a mutt; there was no way it would've been able to run that fast on its own.

It stopped at a cliff and bucked Claire right off the edge.

Glimmer

This was it. The final two. The final countdown.

Clove

The screen turned black with the color of night. Faces flashed across the sky as Allie slept, well-protected, concealed under a bed of leaves under a weeping willow tree with braches so long that they had trains that fanned out across the ground for a few feet.

Glimmer

Apparently Finnick wasn't very worried about Allie seeing smoke from a fire, because there he sat quietly, his head in his hands, next to an orange fire with steady black and grey smoke evolving from it.

Something small landed next to Finnick's knee. It was a white and silver parachute.

He had a sponsor.

Clove

Finnick opened the parachute, only to find a small piece of curling parchment. The camera zoomed in on the message, which was only four short words long:

She weeps under willows.

Glimmer

We saw Finnick stalking through the night, trident raised. She weeps under willows, that must've meant weeping willows, because that's where Finnick stopped. He spread apart the long curtains of branches that separated him from winning.

Clove

Finnick crept quietly through the grass, and gently moved aside a couple of the leaves he covered Allie's chest. He threw up his arm and buried his trident in her chest.

Many things happened at once. A cannon boomed, the dark sky turned to light, confetti covered the sky, and a booming voice rang throughout the arena:

"Congratulations to Finnick Odair, the winner of the Sixty-fifth Hunger Games!"

Clove

As we were all getting up from watching the Games, Cato and Marvel came in wondering what we were doing. Before we could answer, a gorgeous tall blonde guy strode into the room. He was wearing a lavender long sleeved dress shirt with a blue plaid tie. His blonde hair looked soft as silk, and he was chewing a wad of gum in his mouth. He crouched next to Glimmer, who was on the floor cleaning up the nail polish.

"Hey, babe," he said, the gum giving him a sexy lisp.

"Dan!" Glimmer cried gleefully, jumping into his arms and giving him a hug.

"Dan?" Cato said uncertainly.

"Dan?" I said with part disgust, part admiration.

Marvel, however, ran his hands through his hair and placed them on his temples. "Oh, great, Dan."