A/N: No, the number in the title is not referring to a district. In this chapter, two will die. Which two? Read on to find out.
It's the evening of Day 10. The arena is freezing cold. A tribute with brown eyes and hair grey and wispy from malnutrition sits on the frozen ground, curled into a ball. Her body is numb. She has lost both ears to frostbite, and the icy wind rushes into the gaping holes where they once were. She imagines her twin laughing, laughing at the barely conscious girl on the screen.
A 12-year-old girl clenches her coat around her as she stumbles away from the Nixrope patch behind her. She braces herself against the cold. Her head is tilted downward. She is facing the ground. Her face is numb. She has already lost two fingers to frostbite. Bellatrix can barely see where she is going.
But she sees the older tribute on the ground. Luda, she recognizes. Her hand goes to her knife. Luda will see her soon. Will kill her.
Luda tilts her head up as best she can. She gasps when she sees the younger girl standing over her, knife held aloft. She lunges forward, making a wild grab at Bella's ankles.
Bella's heart races. She throws her knife, stumbling backwards. The knife soars through the air, piercing Luda in the chest.
Luda forces her head down, looking at the knife protruding from her chest. She raises a shaky hand and grasps the hilt. She tries to yank the knife out. But her hand is slippery with blood, and she is weakening by the second. Her body coursing with pain, her hand drops to her side.
Bella gets back on her feet. She looks at Luda, now slumped on the ground before her. Bella reaches down and pulls out her knife. Blood trickles out of the wound, freezing before Bella's very eyes.
BOOM!
Luda is dead. Bella, realizing this, stumbles away from the body. I killed her. The words are running through Bella's head, over and over. Horrified, Bella backs away.
A hovercraft appears in the sky. It scoops up Luda's frozen, bloody body.
Bella chokes back a cry. Her brain is not functioning properly. It is too cold.
Bella holds her knife, pointing it toward the sky. Then, she angles it toward her body. Why should she live? She is a murderer now. She has only her cruel father to go back to.
Suicide, Bella, really? Is that how you want to go? Junia's voice runs through her head.
Bella closes her eyes, and continues walking forward. Nothing matters now. She drags herself forward, step by step.
Her foot catches, and Bella falls forward. Her feet scramble for purchase on the slippery ground. But she is distracted by a fierce shoot of pain in her chest. Bella's eyes drift downward, and she sees she has fallen on her knife. It is stuck to the hilt in her chest.
Bella yanks out the knife. Blood pours from the wound, dribbling down her white coat, staining it red. The knife slips from her fingers. She stares at the rip in her coat.
Bella's chest throbs with pain. She has missed her heart. Might as well finish the job off.
Bella fumbles for the knife. She grips it tightly. A tear drips onto her cheek as she thinks of Junia. But it's too late now. The tear freezes, and Bella shoves the knife into her heart.
A/N: And we're down to six.
Living tributes:
District 1: Glint Harson
District 4: Aquamarine Mer
Luxtia Emerald
District 7: Archer Lux
District 9: Jax Samuel
District 11: Orange Skyla
