The Living Games

A/N There's not much to say today, so I'll get right into it! Enjoy this chapter and may your heart be okay afterwards, I know mine sure wasn't.

Chapter Twenty Five: Your Time has Come

Aubrey lied her head down on the soft grass, looking up into the dark sky.

The anthem had just ended, and once again, no one had died. The only death was yesterday, which was the girl from Three. It was shaping up to be a boring three days, and if your experience in the arena could be described as boring, something was wrong. So when things went to shit, she wasn't surprised.

They had all bathed and hydrated two days ago, and Andy's burn was pretty much gone. They hadn't encountered the Careers once, which was suspicious, but they didn't worry too much about it.

Which is where they went wrong.

But we'll get to that later.

A soft breeze was blowing through the forest, giving the perfect illusion of a calm night. Like the calm before the storm.

She was on watch duty with Josh was fast asleep, and Andy was tossing and turning. He had been having bad feelings ever since that day at the river, but he had no explanation for why.

Andy laughed. "Just some bad mojo, ya know?"

Aubrey had laughed at the time, but now that she had been thinking about it and getting more paranoid, things started to seem more real.

She knew for sure that the gamemakers were planning something, either that or the Careers were. They wouldn't stir up anything if someone else was already on it, someone else like another tribute.

It was the first time she had really thought about one of them dying, one of them truly dying. It was always in the back of her mind, but she tried not to think about it. Why cause yourself pain about something that might not even happen? She could die before either of them, anything was possible at that point.

She sat up against the tree and touched it. It wasn't magical or anything, it was just real. She needed a link to reality, a reminder that the games weren't just child's play. Maybe she had been thinking that for too long, and it was time to put her gloves on.

• • •

Well, she got what she asked for. Maybe they read her mind, maybe they just had enough of waiting.

Either way, when they ran into Gem, they knew it was about to go down.

Gem was the boy from District One, the one who could throw a spear as far as he could a seduce a crowd.

And where one Career goes, the rest follow.

So when Baronialia, Jackson, and Layla showed up, AKA the Careers, All their weapons had already been pulled out.

Josh had his sword, Andy had his trident/spear thing, and Aubrey had her knives.

It was obvious that Crystal was missing, and due to the angered look on their faces, she had gotten away and caused some trouble in the mix of it. Gem had turned and ran into the woods, and no one seemed surprised.

Jackson smirked. "Twelve. Oh, have I been waiting for you two. I never did get to your district during the interviews, did I? Well, I'll try to follow it through the best I—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! Shut it already and grab the brat!" Baronialia snarled, then grinned. "We're gonna make him pay."

Andy's face had gone from calm to cautious, but his smartass-ness hadn't left him.

"Pay for what? Dinner? 'Cause you haven't even asked yet."

Baronialia screamed in rage (seriously, take a chill pill) and rushed him. That seemed to spark the others, and Jackson darted towards Josh, leaving Aubrey with Layla.

Now, Aubrey didn't know much about Layla. All she remembered was her flirty attitude and her high training score. But she didn't look so flirty now wielding her twin daggers.

She smiled brightly and confidently. "Knife against knife, eh? But we'll see who's put in more work."

With that she swung at her, one dagger high and other other one left to block.

Aubrey danced out of the way easily, meeting her dagger with her long knife.

"Not too bad for an ametaur, eh?"

Aubrey huffed, blocking another sideways swipe.

"How about we talk less and fight more?" she said, backing up a little. "I'm not sure you can handle multitasking."

Layla glared daggers (eh?) and slapped her across the face.

Aubrey stumbled back, surprised.

She had expected her to stab her, not slap her! What kind of Career does that?

Aubrey growled and switched from defense to offense. She was not down to get slapped again.

Layla was meeting every one of her blows, spinning around and laughing like she was playing a game on the lowest setting.

One thing about Layla that set her apart from the other was her long hair. It was pulled back into a tight ponytail, and it whipped Aubrey in the face every time she turned.

And she was getting tired of it.

The next time Layla blocked her strike, Aubrey feinted a sidestep and when Layla, sure enough, spun around, she cut off her ponytail at the root.

It fell on the ground, in all of its dead red glory.

Layla gasped and grabbed the stump, feeling the uneven strands.

Aubrey swore she saw her eyes get watery.

"You BITCH! I've been growing this hair out for THREE years!"

Layla looked so angry her eyes seemed to be glowing.

"Now you've done it!"

Layla took in a deep breath and gripped her two daggers, swinging both of them at the speed of light. Aubrey could barely keep up with her, getting cuts and scratches from each strike.

Layla grabbed her by the hair and held a knife up to her neck, her back against her chest.

"You are going to pay for what you've done! What should I cut off first, your hair or your head?!"

Aubrey gasped, elbowing her, but getting kicked in response.

"Don't even bother struggling, I'm a trained professional, that other girl, what was her name? Kiddy? Well, she was trash. Couldn't even hold her ax right, A shame, too. She could've been something. Something like my footstool!"

Aubrey narrowed her eyes.

"How did you know about Kelly?"

She laughed. "Well, who do you think sent her? A gift from mwa!"

Aubrey scowled, starting to feel herself shake from her anger.

"You mean you sent her to kill me, knowing full well she would die?"

Layla laughed.

"Of course. How else would I have gotten rid of her? Her purpose was fulfilled, and she was just taking up space. And so are you."

Aubrey's fingers curled into fists.

How . . . how dare she! She had been tripping over killing Kelly for so long for no reason? She was done, and she wasn't dying today.

Aubrey smirked her ass off and grabbed Layla's hand.

"So are you!"

She spun her around and slammed her against the ground, grabbing her daggers and throwing them far away.

Layla gasped and flipped them over until they rolled on the ground, struggling for control.

Aubrey stabbed her long knife into the ground, stopping them and getting on top of Layla.

Before Aubrey could stab her, she felt her weight leaving the ground and being thrown backwards.

She rolled on the ground before knocking into Josh, who was jumping up.

She grabbed her head and gasped when she saw the blood covering it.

Where did that come from?

Jackson was smirking and helping Layla up.

Josh stood up and ran over to Aubrey, his eyes scanning her head.

"What happened to you?"

She grunted when he touched it, swatting away his hand.

"I don't know, and we don't have time to figure out. I think it's time to switch anyway."

Layla had grabbed her daggers and Josh swung at her, and she met it with both daggers forming an x.

Jackson grinned at her and motioned with his hand for her to come forward.

She sneered at him. "What, do you ever stop smirking?"

"Not when there's nothing to be worried about around."

Ouch.

"You won't be smirking for long."

He smirked even wider. "That's not what I got when I grabbed you with one hand. You should really gain some weight, you're quite light."

"Shut the fuck up!"

Jackson met her thrust with ease, swatting her away with his two-balled mace.

Why is it always the goddamn mace?!

Aubrey knew two things: With his regular mace, he wouldn't be able to have the reach of a chain mace, and he would have better control over it. But he was also at a disadvantage because he couldn't slice her unless the spikes got to close, which she had no intention of letting happen.

They exchanged blows back and forth, neither of them able to hit the other. Unlike with Layla, he wasn't as fast and fierce. He didn't move as quickly because of his towering size, and he wasn't as nimble. But he was strong and he had power behind his blows.

Aubrey knew it was going downhill when he managed to knock her shorter knife out of her hand, leaving her with the longer one.

She was able to use more force with one knife, but she wasn't as fast, and he was starting to gain ground when he started to knick her.

She was starting to tire after fighting two Careers, and Jackass—erm, Jackson was taking advantage of that. He kicked her feet out from under her and pinned her down, his black eyes looking as evil as they ever had.

"You know, I was originally planning to burn you and Idiot over there alive, but since we're a little bit uh, held up at the moment, I think I'll settle for the next best thing."

Aubrey gulped.

"And what might that be?"

"Decapitation."

"Alright then."

Well, at least he wasn't one to cut around the bush.

Jackson pried her knife out of her hands and licked it (gross), wiping it on his shirt.

"You . . . you know there's blood all over that, right?"

He grinned, looking insane.

"Yes, that's the point."

It was then that Aubrey realized how fucking out of his mind he was. It was also that moment that she realized her short knife was right next her her head.

Jackson was cleaning the knife off on his shirt, and while he was distracted, Aubrey grabbed the knife and used all of her remaining strength to flip them over.

He slammed against the ground with a surprised grunt, obviously very confused as to how the hell she did that.

What could she say? She had lots of practice flipping Zane over.

She shoved that out of her mind and simultaneously stabbed him in the stomach with the short knife while grabbing the longer one from his loose hand and stabbing him with that one too.

He gasped and coughed blood for a second, glaring down at her and trying to grab her, but going still as the strength slowly left his body.

Aubrey didn't feel as bad when the cannon went off for him.

She stood up and looked at Josh. He was doing fine battling Layla, even managing to give her a few deep cuts.

Then she heard it.

A scream.

Andy's scream.

Aubrey's stomach pulsed and she looked over to him, forgetting all about him fighting Baronialia.

Baronialia had stabbed him through the stomach with her ax, and it was so bad it had gone through to the handle.

Andy screamed and slid off the ax, falling to the ground at her feet, his wound pouring blood.

Aubrey wasn't sure what happened next. All she could see was the blurry world through her tears and anger. She heard a scream, not sure if it was hers or Andy's. She found herself in front of Andy, blocking him. Baronialia had been going in for another strike, but was met with both swords of Aubrey. She looked surprised, clearly not expecting her to move that fast.

But all of Aubrey's strength had left her. Her arms were shaking underneath Baronialia long blade, and she was barely pressing at all.

Aubrey went from sad to mad so fast she couldn't even document what happened. Some unknown strength had come from within her and and she was throwing blows and swings at Baronialia so fast she couldn't even handle them. Baronialia was trying her best, but even with all of her training, she couldn't guard against Aubrey's anger and pent up emotion. All of the fear from the past three weeks and all of her anger at the Capital and Zane and everyone just came pouring out of her and into her blade.

She struck Baronialia again and again, still swiping at her even when she was down and the cannon had gone off and there was blood everywhere and she couldn't see and there was just so much red . . .

Andy.

Aubrey scrambled up and slipped back down, staring at her blood covered everything. She couldn't even feel any emotion towards what she had just done.

All that mattered was Andy.

Andy was coughing so hard he was shaking, and more blood was pouring out.

Upon seeing him, she knew he was going to die. The cut was so long that it went from his collarbone to his hip bone. His eyes, his beautiful, golden eyes, were dull and pale. His skin, his beautiful, glowing skin, was bloodless and cold. His warm hands were clammy and senseless.

Andy looked at Aubrey, really looked at her. He grabbed her hand weakly, trying so hard to escape the darkness surrounding him.

"I . . ."

Aubrey gripped him hard, tears falling out of her eyes in streams and turning all of the blood on them pink.

"I . . . I don't regret anything. I'd—" he started coughing again, looking even more pale. "I'd go to the end of the world to protect you. Stay alive more me, win for me."

He took one more look at the sky, the beautiful blue sky, catching one glimpse of the real horizon before his eyes glossed over forever.

Aubrey shook him, begging him to answer her. Even when the cannon went off for a third time that day, even when Josh came over to her, even when Layla had left, even when the cannon went off for a fourth time, even when Crystal came out of nowhere, even when Josh picked her up and moved her so the hovercrafts could pick the bodies up, she still didn't say a word.