Chapter 25! Thanks for all the nice reviews! Another chapter might be up tonight, or I might just start writing it. I'm trying to finish this story quickly because I'm in a Peter Pan mood. I mean really? He's just some random boy living on an island in the sky and he never gets any older? How can that just be so magical and pixie dust without some kind of dark mystical secret going on? I've always thought that Hook was his younger brother and that's why they hate each other! But I can't start that one until I finish this one and I can't finish this one until I finish writing the authors note… so here's chapter 25! :) HAPPY EASTER!
I wake early because the mist makes me wet. It is cold and damp inside the ever swirling cloud. I lie awake on the ground, unsure of what to do. I am still somewhat disoriented from the reality of the games. My mind plays tricks on me. I see disturbing muttations pressing in on me from every direction. They are vicious with their white, long teeth and disgusting green claws the color of Caesar Flickerman's lips. Their glowing eyes peer out at me from the mist, just waiting to devour me. I know that I'm imagining it, but I can neither close my eyes nor get up. It's like being mentally paralyzed; I can't think anything but the same thoughts over and over again. I see the girl's arm fly away from her body and onto the ground. I see the spear make contact with the boy's chest. The blood pours freely from Clilvel's foot. His scream as he sees the axe in him. I am shaken from these thoughts when someone nudges me.
"You up too?" Sam asks. Now that I'm looking, I can see his figure leaning against a tree trunk.
"For a while," I whisper, just in case the mutts can hear me.
"This mist is good, according to Garett and Savis, but I think it's just here to freak us out."
"It was empty. We need water and food and supplies," I say. "That scares me more than the mist."
"Maybe our supplies are right in front of us," he says. I think about it. The mist is wet. I open my mouth and try to eat it, but I don't feel any different. My mouth is cold, but that's it.
"The animals have to get their food and water somewhere," I reason, but the problem is that I haven't seen any animals in the arena.
"If we can find an animal, I'm going to eat it, I'm so hungry," he half smiles, then, on a more serious note, adds, "They showed the deaths. The girl from 6 and the two we saw."
I don't answer, but sit up and nod. Sky probably died from dehydration. I'm sure there's food here somewhere; we just have to find it. I lie back down and wait for the sun to rise. Melanie wakes up next, then Carney, who crawls over to Sam and puts her head in his lap. I wonder if they like each other or if they are just being friendly; District 12 has always been a little strange.
Pretty soon everyone is awake, but none of us feel like doing anything. We all are tired from yesterday and have no food to give us energy. Garett starts exploring to find food while Olitup, Maple, Spring, and I try to see what's around us. We find a giant tree vine and use it to tie ourselves to the tree that Sam was leaning against earlier. After about an hour, all we can find are trees. No animals, no edible plants, nothing but trees. And I can't see anything through this blasted mist!
Suddenly I feel myself slipping. Olitup catches me with her hand and Carney helps her pull me up.
"What was that?" I scream. I use my hands to feel around on the ground, and find a place where there isn't any land at all, just a hole about three feet wide. We don't know where it leads, so we decide to get the rest of the group before we explore it. We tug on the vine to let the others know that we've found something. They follow it to us and crouch around the hole as we explain what happened. Savis pushes his glasses up and wipes his brow.
"I'm going down," he announces and no one voices any complaints. He secures the vine around his waist and lowers himself in until he is left hanging by his finger tips. Then he lets go. About a second later we hear a thump, which means it's not deep. Garett makes a torch using some rocks and leaves and lowers it down into the hole. Savis gets it and for a while we don't hear anything.
"Guys, it's water," we hear him say. It's all I can do not to just jump down. Then I remember that it could be some kind of trap. Savis is, after all, a District 2 kid and not to be trusted blindly. But Sam lowers himself into the hole and this time we can hear him drinking the water.
"Come on down," he says and we do. Garett makes us another torch and we lay it on the floor as well. It's still pretty dark in here, despite the fire, but I can make out several pools, filled with water. I wonder if it's poisoned, but David drank it and he's not dead; the audience usually doesn't like to watch us die by natural causes anyway. So I pick a pool and drink. The water feels so good in my mouth. It seems like my whole body was drying up, which it was. It's several minutes before anybody finishes drinking. Melanie actually jumps into her pool. She splashes us with the water and we splash back for a few seconds, until we realize that this may be the only water we find for a long time. She slowly climbs out of the pool, careful not to spill any water.
"Sorry guys," she says. We all assure her that she didn't do any harm and she manages a small smile. We decide to make camp here for now, since there isn't any mist. I want to explore the cave and Hector volunteers to come with me. We take a torch and set off toward the back of the cave. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be one; it just keeps going and going. There are many small little pools of water, enough to last us for a couple of days. We sit down on a rock to talk.
"What do you suppose this means?" I ask him.
"It's possible that this could flood periodically," he says. "So… did your mentors pick you?"
"Yeah. Did you ask for them to pick Melanie?"
"Yeah," he sighs. "Does David know?"
"I doubt it," I don't mention that I heard him crying.
"Do you like your mentor?" he asks me.
"What do you mean?" I hope he isn't asking what I think he's asking.
"Well, from the dirty look you were giving him at the reaping, I thought that you hated him," he says.
"Oh… well, I did because he killed his sister," and got my brother killed, "but now I know that he didn't have much of a choice. She had secretly poisoned herself and it was going to kill her anyway." I say. "What he did was really brave," I say, speaking more to Finnick than to Hector. After this, we really don't feel much like talking, so we head back to the rest of our group. We tell them of the seemingly endless water supply. None of us really talks much, except for Garett and Savis, who are still discussing tactics for killing the Careers. I don't see how they can come up with a plan if they have no idea where the Careers are. About two hours later they seem to reach the same conclusion.
"Okay, so we have dozens of ideas of how to kill them. The problem is that we don't know what kind of environment they are in, except that it's sandy." Garett says.
"Either all of us can go or half, it doesn't really matter, but we need more information." Savis finishes.
We discuss sending all of us, but then we don't know if there is water anywhere else. There is a possibility that the cave that is really a tunnel surrounds the entire arena and we can get to the Careers that way, but then we may need food. In the end we decide that tomorrow morning half of the group will go see where the tunnel leads to and the rest of us will go back to the Cornucopia and try to find a place where we can safely watch the Careers. For now, we all drink one last gulp before going to sleep.
I lie awake on the ground, thinking of Finnick. Now that I am in the arena, my time with him seems surreal. Like my life was being demanded from me so fast that I had to get in all my experiences at once. Wearing beautiful dresses, eating every kind of food imaginable, jumping in a fountain, falling in love.
But as I think of it, didn't I love him from the beginning, before I even knew that I'd be sent to my death? I loved him the moment he had given me the pearl. I had just mistaken it for an increase in fiery dislike. Sure I'd hated him before, but that was because he could have been doing so much better with his life. Didn't victors have a place in the Capitol? Couldn't they influence them to be more humane?
The fact that he felt remorse was maybe the turning point in my thoughts. The fact that he was sorry for everything he did used to infuriate me; victors, after all, were supposed to be strong, not weak. I remember how much my feelings for him increased, how I had thought it was a steady hate turning into a fiery passion that could only be satisfied by his defeat. But it was a fiery feeling that I'd seen somewhere before. I just don't remember where.
I hold the pearl in my hand as I go to sleep. I dream of racing to an island. My parents and CeCe are there, so is Caleb. Finnick is there also, along with Mags. We splash each other with the salt water as we trudge onto the beach and up the island. Caleb hugs me and my eyes linger on the three holes where the trident entered his body.
For some reason the fountain is there on the island, but only Finnick comes with me to jump in the water. Everybody else just sits on the edge and watches as we splash each other. I wake up when real water hits my face.