Song: Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata
Arena, Forest, Day 7: Johanna Mason
Johanna woke up feeling anxious. There was a pit in her stomach not unlike the one she had had by the stream the other day – the awful feeling that something bad was going to happen. Added to the uncertainty and paranoia that came with being in the arena, and it was not a fun way to feel at all.
She didn't know what she was anxious about, but she knew that something would happen today – whether it was to happen to herself, or somebody else, she couldn't say – but something would happen, and it would happen soon.
After a breakfast of bread and pine needle tea, Johanna decided to walk to the stream to fill up her water bottle and thermos. She was running low on water, and it wouldn't hurt her to stretch her legs – if she didn't get up and do something, she would be left to stew all day, and she was beginning to hate her own company. Not that she wanted anyone else's, not in the arena at least, but still. A change of scenery would help her escape the wrath of her imagination.
It was a beautiful day, and even in the shade of the forest it was warm. If she were back home, she and Eurydice would have definitely skipped school or work and gone down to the river for the day.
Johanna couldn't remember what day it was. Thursday? It felt like a Thursday. We must be at least six or seven days in, she thought, cursing herself for not keeping count. Although it didn't really matter. Time didn't exist in the arena.
In the damp soil of the riverbank, a miniature forest of watercress was growing. Johanna recognized the little green leaves from raining, and harvested as much of it as she could, putting the small plants into her empty cooking pot with the rest of yesterday's bread, snacking as she went. It didn't taste wonderful, but they were the first fresh greens she had had since arriving in the arena, and the nutrients would do her good.
Filling up her water bottle and thermos, Johanna looked around. It was quiet, and the water rushed slower and quieter here than it did closer to the lake. She decided a small bathe was worth the risk – she stunk to high heaven, and she remembered one of the trainers telling her it was important to stay clean, because it was easier to keep warm. She didn't know whether that was true or not, but the trainer definitely knew more than she did, and the nights had been getting colder and colder as time went on.
Peeling off her outer clothing and gloves, Johanna waded into the water, tucking her dagger into the waistline of her panties in case there was a surprise attack. She wouldn't put it past the Gamemakers to set the bears on her again – they had done it when she was shitting, so why not when she was half-naked? Some perv in the Capitol would probably love to see that, although they probably all would since the whole lot of them were nothing but wretched perverts.
The water was freezing, but it woke her up, and she felt immensely better having washed the dirt ad sweat from her skin. She had forgotten what a good bath could do, and when she climbed out of the stream, Johanna felt fresh and ready. For what, she didn't know, but she was still feeling extremely anxious so she was ready to deal with the anxiety, at the very least.
She ran her hands down her arms and legs to brush off the excess water before pulling her clothes back on. She didn't want to wait around any longer to dry – she had been on the ground and vulnerable for long enough, and still couldn't shake the uneasy feeling she'd woken up with.
Why do I feel like this? She wondered, making her way back into the thick forest. Perhaps the post-traumatic stress was setting in early. But that didn't make sense, it was called post-traumatic stress after all. No, something told her that it wasn't trauma – and the low growl behind her told her that she was correct.
Dropping her supplies where she stood, Johanna yanked her hatchet from its sling, clasping the hilt of the dagger between her teeth. She would run first, and go back for the rest of her supplies later – they had thankfully landed in a bush, so they were at least somewhat concealed in case another tribute was to come wandering by. Johanna took off, not taking the time to wait around and see what had growled. There would be time to figure that out later, although she already had a pretty good idea of what it could be. She had heard that growl before.
Grabbing onto a branch, Johanna pulled herself up, quickly scaling the tree and peering through the branches. She couldn't see anything, and the forest had gone eerily quiet – she couldn't hear the birds anymore, or even the stream, though it was only ten metres away. She could hear her heart beating quicker and quicker in her chest, could hear the blood thumping in her ears – but where had the growl come from?
Her question was answered as the black bear ran at the tree. Johanna automatically reached for the can of bear spray, glad that she had remembered about it early this time. Maybe if she was lucky, the bear would careen off to the lake and tear the Careers to shreds.
Johanna realised too late that the bear spray was still in Eulalie's satchel. Which she had thrown into a bush. Which was currently located behind the creature she needed it for.
"Oh, shit, shit, shit," she whispered to herself, her stomach swooping with dread, and scrambled up the tree as far as she could, clinging to the thick trunk and hoping she had gotten away before the bear had seen her. She knew that she hadn't, of course – it was there for a reason – to kill her. Or fight her, at least. I really fucked up this time.
The bear was thankfully alone, but it made no difference. It leapt at the tree, using its claws to pull itself up. Taking the dagger from her teeth, she threw it at the bear, aiming for the eyes – it missed the eyes, but sunk deep into the bear's front right paw. Letting out a howl, the bear crashed to the ground, before getting back to its feet and running at the trunk full force.
Johanna recalled the first group of bears doing just that – the had been trying to either knock the tree down, or knock her out of it. She had had the bear spray that time, but last time there had been, how many, five bears? This time, there was only one. She could fight one bear – surely she could manage to do that. Why would the Gamemakers have sent only one bear, if they didn't want her to fight it?
She didn't have much choice, in any case. The bear was very determined, and it was running at the tree with unnatural speed and force. If it wanted to knock the tree down, it would succeed, and Johanna desperately wrapped her arms and legs around the trunk as the tree creaked and cracked ominously. "Get the fuck away!" she screamed down at it, not really believing her words would do anything but not knowing what else to do.
The bear growled again, and Johanna knew that if she lived to see life out of the arena, that sound would haunt her dreams for the rest of her life. The tree cracked again, and started to sway – Johanna let out a panicked screech as the bear came running again.
This time, the tree started to fall. Johanna's stomach dropped, and she watched the quickly approaching ground with despair. She had to climb down, and fast – she would rather take her chances with the bear than with the falling tree, which would crush her if she didn't move.
The tree didn't fall completely to the ground, instead slamming into two other trees, which broke the fall. It wouldn't hold for long, but she was from District 7 – she didn't need long. Johanna took the chance to make her way down the trunk, which was now almost parallel to the ground.
"Slowly," she said to herself, inching bit by bit down the trunk, feeling the tree slipping slowly. It was risky business, but she needed to be faster – the bear was making its way over, she could hear the thumps of its heavy feet, the snorts from its curious nose. In her panic, her foot slipped, and she began to slide down the trunk, feeling the skin on her fingertips shred as she desperately scrabbled for a grip. Finding it, she held on for dear life, waiting a second before continuing the climb and pondering over what her next move should be.
There were bears in the forests of District 7. She had never encountered one herself, but every lumberjack knew the rules. If it's brown, lay down. If it's black, fight back. She didn't know whether or not these rules applied to the Capitol's mutts – probably not – but what else could she do? This bear was black, and the Gamemakers obviously wanted her to fight back.
Holding her hatchet tightly, Johanna jumped the remaining three meters to the ground, landing hard on her ankle despite her attempts at a smooth landing. She quickly limped away from the tree, and not a moment too soon; it thundered to the ground with a crash so loud it left her ears ringing. Johanna started to scream, raising her hands above her head and shaking them around – black bears were usually timid creatures, she remembered. They were easy to scare. Of course, this black bear was a mutt, but even the mutts couldn't ignore the rules of nature.
The bear was huge, and it was angry, and it was running straight towards her. It was a risky move, but Johanna stayed where she was. She let the bear get so close she could feel its hot, rancid breath on her face as it approached. Jumping out of the way at the last moment, Johanna grinned when the bear crashed head-first into the fallen tree, seemingly getting its head stuck in some branches.
There was no point in running now, she knew that. The bear could – and would – simply knock down any trees Johanna chose to climb, and she didn't have the bear spray to protect her this time. It would easily outrun her when it freed itself – and she knew that it would. She had to fight. She knew that was why the bear was here in the first place – the Gamemakers wanted her to fight. They wanted her to show the audience what she could do.
The bear had its back turned, but it was never going to be a fair fight in the first place. Johanna, for one, didn't come equipped with razor-sharp claws and fangs the size of a small child. She swung her hatchet into its lower back and it howled, struggling to get free. She yanked the hatchet out of its back and was preparing for another swing when the bear freed itself, whirling around.
"Fuck!" she yelled, and jumped backwards just in time, turning her head to the side instinctively. It was a good decision.
The bear's claws came so close to her neck that Johanna felt the air brush past her throat, as light as a butterfly's wing and as deadly as, well, a bear's claw. It missed her throat by millimetres, but sliced open her left cheek instead. Warm blood gushed into her mouth and down her face as she realised, with horror, that the bear had sliced through the flesh of her cheek and into her mouth. It didn't hurt yet, but she knew that it would hurt like a bitch once the adrenaline wore off. If it ever had the chance to wear off, that is – she had no idea if she'd manage to kill the bear or not.
But she had to try. Spitting blood from her mouth, Johanna leapt out of the way again as the bear swung again, rolling under its legs and sinking her axe into its stomach, her back on the ground.
A waterfall of blood drenched her, and Johanna wondered what the point of her bath earlier had been if she was just going to be covered in blood not ten minutes afterwards. She yanked her hatchet out of the bear's gut, and tried to scramble out from under it in case it decided to die on top of her, but she needn't have worried. The bear was kind enough to grab her by the shoulder, stabbing its claws into her flesh, and drag her out of harm's way – or, into harm's way. Johanna didn't really know which was which, safety was kind of a grey area in the arena. It threw her hard against a tree, and she scrambled to her feet, ducking behind the tree before taking a peek.
The dagger was still stuck in the bear's paw, which Johanna was pleased about, although it didn't seem to have much of an effect on the bear at all other than surprising it out of the tree – it was walking on its hind legs, and it seemed to only have made it angrier. It ran around to her side of the tree and she ducked back behind, realising too late that teasing it probably wasn't the brightest idea she'd ever had.
The bear bounded forward with a roar and swiped at her again, and Johanna felt its claws graze her stomach. She yelped in pain, and aimed her hatchet at its head. It was risky – if she missed, she would be left without a weapon. But she was also badly injured, and couldn't risk getting any closer to the bear – it would take her head off. It had already tried to, and had only been millimetres away from succeeding.
Her hatchet sailed through the air, and Johanna fell backwards, her legs shaky and unable to support her weight. There was a dull thud as it connected with the bear's head, and an even louder thud as the bear toppled to the ground, sending up a cloud of dirt.
Johanna let out a shaky breath, not quite of relief, and put a hand to her stomach. The claws had sliced through the fabric of her shirt, and her hand came away bloody. Her intestines were thankfully still in the right place, but the cuts were deep, and she was losing blood quickly. Her cheek was an even sorrier story – the bear had slashed straight through it, from the corner of her mouth to halfway up her left cheek, almost to her jaw, and had even made a small cut on the side of her tongue. It was as though she had an elongated smile. She could feel the air whistling through the hole, and felt sick, spitting out another glob of blood and flesh.
She had never been in as much pain before, and knew she would pass out if she didn't do something about it. At least her ankle didn't hurt as much now, although that probably had more to do with the fact that she could feel the flesh of her cheek flapping around in the wind like a fish out of the water. Tears of pain gathered in the corners of her eyes, and fell before she could blink them away, carving trails into the drying blood that coated her face. They met the open flesh of her cheek, and she hissed as the salt stung the fresh cut.
Using a sturdy branch as a makeshift walking stick, Johanna slowly made her way over to the still corpse of the bear. Her hatchet was planted firmly into its skull, and its black fur was matted with blood and dirt. Good. If she hadn't been about to pass out, Johanna would have cut off one of the bear's legs to cook and eat, but she could barely manage to walk let alone swing her hatchet one more time. She wiped her bloody hands on her pants and gripped the handle of the hatchet as tightly as she could, yanking it from the bear's head and grimacing when small chunks of brain matter flew with it.
Now that the hatchet was removed from its head, she could see the full extent of the damage she had inflicted – the bear's snout had split right down the middle, and its skull had seemingly cracked like an egg, the remnants of its brain resembling some sort of yolk. She was impressed with herself – she had managed a solid throw even though she was about to pass out. Silently thanking Magnolia for teaching her how to throw an axe, Johanna tucked her hatchet back into its sling, not bothering to wipe the gore from its blade.
"Disgusting," she said, and spat a mouthful of blood onto the corpse. It felt strange to talk, and Johanna bit back a borderline-hysterical laugh. Why she was laughing she didn't know, but she was so light-headed that everything seemed funny.
Now you have to find your supplies, Johanna, she told herself sternly, fighting off the white spots appearing in her vision. She was vulnerable – she doubted that nobody had heard the fight. The tree had been so loud, when it fell, and she wasn't that far from the lake. And if the others hadn't heard a cannon – they were probably headed her way right this moment.
Gingerly leaning on the branch, Johanna slowly made her way over to the bush she'd thrown her supplies. She had gulped down half of her water before remembering why Maizy had died.
Maizy had died because Johanna stole her medicine – the medicine that apparently 'stopped blood flow to the wounded area, sped up the formation of blood clots, and warded off infection'. Johanna hastily combed through her pockets. There it was, the little pink miracle pill. She popped it into her mouth, taking a swig of water before swallowing. She had forgotten about her cheek wound, however, and half of the water came out through her cut. She had thankfully been able to swallow the pill, however. She wasn't sure whether she should have sat down first – but there was no time to wait, she had lost so much blood already. She had to get out of the area before someone found her.
Throwing her supplies onto her back, Johanna refilled her water bottle before turning around and heading back into the safest place she knew – the deep woods. It was slow going, and her ankle was starting to hurt pretty badly as well – she must have broken it when she fell from the tree. She hoped that the medicine she had stolen from Maizy covered broken bones, as well, although she would take her chances with a broken foot if it meant she wouldn't bleed to death. The branch made a good walking stick, though, and Johanna put almost all of her weight onto it as she hobbled along.
She knew that attempting to climb a tree in her current state would be a shitty idea. Thankfully, the forest was also home to a wide variety of shrubbery. After triple-checking a bush to make sure that it wasn't poisonous or home to a family of rabbits, Johanna climbed underneath it. She pulled the first-aid kit from her backpack, her hands shaking a worrying amount. It was thankfully full of supplies – she hadn't had to use any of them yet. She quickly dabbed some anti-bacterial ointment on her wounds, and tightly wrapped her stomach with bandages, using the leftovers on her shoulder which wasn't quite as bad as her other wounds. She couldn't do much for her cheek other than treat it with the ointment and hope for the best.
It had definitely been her most terrible day in the arena. She had never felt this much pain before – every inch of her body hurt. Even things that hadn't hurt that much in the moment were starting to ache. Her shredded fingertips. The muscles in her arms and legs. The entire right side of her body that had connected with the tree. Her throat, from the screaming. Everything hurt, but the pain wasn't the worst part.
The worst part was that she still had the uneasy feeling she had woken up with. She had thought it had been her intuition warning her about the bear, but now she knew – it was about something worse. And she didn't think it involved her. She would trade the feeling for all the bear attacks in the world, because at least bear attack stopped, with either a dead person or a dead bear. But the anxiety – she just couldn't shake it. Something had happened to someone she loved, and she wasn't sure whether she wanted to find out the specifics.
Losing consciousness, Johanna fell into the worst sleep she'd ever had in her life. Tossing and turning as Maizy's medicine slowly knitted her flesh back together, Johanna slept fitfully, dreaming of bears and flashing claws, of angry growls and the cracking of a falling tree. There was screaming, too – horrible, anguished screams. They sounded familiar, and she hoped that the boy – she knew the screams belonged to a boy – wherever and whoever he was, she hoped he would be okay.
Slowly, the dreams faded from nightmarish to peaceful. She dreamed that Eurydice was there with her, stroking her hair back from her face, whispering words of comfort in her ear. You'll be okay, Jojo, she said. You won.
No I didn't! Johanna tried to tell her, but Eurydice only smiled. I love you, Jojo, she said, and melted into the forest as though she was a dryad, wildflowers blooming where she once stood.
Johanna didn't believe her. She had won this battle, true. But would she win the war?
I don't know how accurate this is. I've never fought a bear. If I did, I would definitely die, so I don't think having experience fighting bears should be necessary when you want to write a bear fight.
To the Guest who reviewed last chapter – thank you! I'm sorry I can't reply to this privately. To answer your question, the sponsor money was what remained of Elm's, which was why there wasn't much. Hopefully that clears things up a bit, and thank you for the review!
Answer me this, dear readers – why do you think Johanna felt so anxious all day? Was it just the bear, combined with the trauma of the arena, or is something else happening? Who do you think the boy in her nightmare was?
Oh, by the way – for Johanna's cheek, I'm imagining the Joker. Just to give you a bit more of a visual.
Hope you liked this chapter, and have a wonderful day/night.
-Audrey :)