Chapter Thirty-Seven.
Iris vs Anastasia.
Iris bounces on the toes of her petite feet with her hands clutched into strong fists on the end of her muscular arms. She'll make the first move. She always does. I've watched her in training with the assistance on hand if you wish to practise hand-to-hand combat. Iris always attacks first.
Iris stepped towards me and throws her weight into a punch. As her body shifts forwards, I duck and drive my fist into her stomach, just below her diaphragm in the chest. She moans and before she can get her hands on me, I slip past her with my hands up protecting myself, getting ready for her next attempt.
The smug Iris has vanished and suddenly she runs at me like she's about to tackle me, I block her punch with my forearm. The blow stings horrendously but I refuse to acknowledge it. Iris grits her teeth and lets out a frustrated groan, it was strangely more animal-sounding than human. Iris tries a powerful kick at my side, which she hit strongly. However I grip the ankle of her leg and whilst she is off balance, I force my elbow up into her face. Our bodies are close enough and Iris manages to get a couple of strong hits to my ribs, I stumble to the side, recovering my breath.
There is something she's not protecting, I know it. I watch Miss Castillo for a couple of seconds, her hands are too high; they guard her nose and cheeks, leaving her stomach and ribs exposed. Iris and I have different flaws in combat. Force of habit moulded by Michael who taught me to keep my ribs and stomach protected because the important organs are there, being punched in the face was simply a price to pay, but thinking about it, Michael never fully punched me in the face like Iris will. Light and gentle jabs was Michael's style.
Our eyes meet for just a second – Iris's eyes are filled with Career blood-lust. This girl is going to kill me.
She rushes towards me, carelessly. I aim a low uppercut. Just below her bellybutton. My fist sinks into what little fat she has, forcing a heavy breath from her mouth that I feel against her ear. As she gasps, driving her elbow into my back, I sweep-kick her legs out from underneath her, and she falls hard to the ground but her grip on my jacket remains strong as we plan, Iris on bottom and me on top, sending a cloud of dirt around us.
Iris Castillo suddenly erupts with power and releases a violent wave of punches and elbows to my face and ribs. Hot blood trickles around my lips and my chest tightens as suddenly the will to breath is too much.
No, I shall not die here. Not now. Not by Iris. I grunt angrily with myself. Mustering up the courage and will to deal with the pain sure to follow, I plant the strongest head butt against the young females head, knocking her partly out of consciousness but a part of her was still awake and present. A stomach turning sounds of bone cracking echoes on impact.
Iris turns and crawls across the grassy field away from me like a terrified insect, stalking towards her because using her jacket to turn the young woman over then grabbing a nice handful of her hair from the top section of her head to pull her into a sitting up position then yanking a bit higher to coach her onto her knees and thankfully she can keep her own body upwards.
Balling my cut and bloody hand into a fist, I drive it without emotion strongly into the side of her face, "That's for your stupid threats and comments!" I hiss venomously with a slight hint of sarcasm. Iris blinks repeatedly to attentively regain vision.
I gather her face in my hands before throwing it downwards whilst bringing my knee up so they meet with such force any unbroken bones in Iris's nose are now completely obliterated causing her to breath from her mouth only, "That's for my sister!" I scream as emotion and all the rage I have towards Iris bundles up into one overloading wave of uncontrollable energy.
Then without thought, my hands find themselves in two separate positions. My left to the back of the skull and my right on her chin. Iris Castillo's eyes open to stare at me, deep seas of regret and panicked.
"And who's this for?" She chocks out.
I raise my eyebrows at her and sigh deeply. "This is for me." I growl and the next movement is swift, using the strength in my arms which was channelled through my hands, I flawlessly turn her head to the side making sure to angle her chin upwards during the turning. Snapping her neck like a twig. And as I did, a cannon sounded in the eerie arena.
Allowing her limp body to fall backwards into the dirt. I turn without giving any acknowledgement to the body of the fifteen-year-old girl I had just murdered in cold blood. She wasn't a friend, nor an acquaintance. I am not even certain Iris Castillo was human but somewhere in District 2, there is a family that had just lost a member. A sister, daughter, niece or cousin.
She will be missed, just not by me.
Snagging the backpack marked with my district number from the table in the mouth of the Cornucopia, I selfishly decide to take the smaller backpack intended for one of the District 2 tributes, however since there are only one member still living from the District 2 team, I don't see the point in wasting a pack that could be filled with life saving ointments or food. Afterwards, I then attempt to trace down the dropped survival packs and weapons. Feeling I have put myself at risk enough for one day, I simply pocket the loose weapons – including the vest that housed the array of knives Iris had – and carry the survival packs before adventuring out into the wilderness, looking like I have adventured home from a shopping trip, across the field across from the mouth of the Cornucopia opposite to where Garrett informed me he last saw the Career Tributes, but now there is only one left; Cato Ludwig.
Speaking of the devil, when I reach the edge of the field just inside the tree line, I feel an untameable urge to turn back for an instant. Cato has broken free of the trees and finds Iris's body in the grass. He kneels beside Iris, spear in hand, begging her to wake up and stay with him. In a second, he realises it's futile, she cannot be saved. She is dead. Rage washes over me. He sat there, that night, any night we shared, he was spoon feeding me bullshit, and me, a little girl whose never been loved, ate it up like a sucker. Fuck him. Jesus, I am such a fucking moron. Fuck Iris Castillo, fuck Cato Ludwig.
Further into the tree line, I watch through a gap as the hovercraft descends on the arena, alerted to me via a mockingjay melody. The metal claw scoops up Iris's body from the ground before rising her up for the other two tributes to see. Well, one because myself and Cato already are aware of her death, but Garrett isn't. Once the hovercraft disappears into thin air, I am pushing and shoving through the trees being careful not to drop anything. I need to find somewhere to stay, a cave would be safest and that's what I head for, not the one in the rocky terrain before with Cassandra, Waylon and Alden, somewhere more hidden. Plenty of undergrowth.
Knowing Garrett is somewhat nearby gives me a little sense of safety but also worry because now there are three, how long will those, "I'm your little piece of home" excuses keep me alive against him, or has he already decided to cut me down when I least expected.
A/N: Ding-Dong, the witch is dead. Is it strange I really enjoyed writing this chapter, I hope you all enjoyed and remember to review and tell me what you think and how (if you believe) it could be improved. If not, review, review and review!