Chapter 37:
Letha Calder, District Five, Age 16
Victor of the 112th Hunger Games
As the platform pushes her out into the arena, the sun blinds her at the same time her fear freezes her in place. She can hear her blood pounding in her ears as she stares around at the tributes surrounding her, further freezing her in fear. The careers are fully prepared for this, way more than she ever could be, and they have a look in her eyes that sends a chill down her spine.
The clock is ticking down to the start of the games yet Letha can't even bring herself to look around to find Elia. She can't look away from Parrith, the boy from Two, who looks as if he's ready to murder every single person here.
This is it. This is how she's going to die.
The countdown ends and the gong sounds, starting chaos in front of her and all she can do is stand there in fear and watch as the careers charge forward. A few seconds fly by as the careers reach the weapons yet time seems to slow as other tributes try to get supplies and blood starts flying into the air. Their screams make her crouch down in fear and she can feel her cheeks wetting with tears. She can't do this. She doesn't want to die but she doesn't know how to fight through her fear and just move.
Someone starts to run towards her and Letha starts breathing quickly as she fears her death. "Letha, move already!" She tries to search for the person shouting at her before seeing the boy running towards her fall to the ground. Landing on top of him and pinning him to the ground is her District partner. Iri glances back up at her as he wrestles to keep the other boy on the ground. "Damn it, Letha! Fucking run already!"
At his shouting, Letha stumbles to her feet before immediately falling off of the platform. Her face slams into the ground, stunning her for a moment as she reaches up to her nose. When she pulls her hand away, she's confused by the blood on her fingers. A hand grabs her and drags her up and she lets out a scream as she starts thrashing at them, not ready to die.
"Calm down, it's Banni," a voice shouts at her, struggling to keep Letha moving. It takes her a few seconds to recognize her ally and she tries to stumble to her feet so they can keep moving. "We need to get out of here."
"We can't – we can't leave," Letha struggles on her feet, wanting to move forward while also wanting to turn back to search for Iri. "We can't leave Iri behind!"
Letha pulls on Banni's arm as she looks back over her shoulder, searching for her District partner. But when she sees his bloody body with a spear protruding from his chest, she stumbles to the ground, blood draining from her face. "No, no, no, no."
Banni stumbles as Letha pulls him down, "Fuck Letha, we can't stop!" But Letha can't move. Not when she knows that Iri is now dead because he tried to get her to move. Banni grabs Letha and tries to keep her moving. "Letha, come on!"
Letha keeps tripping over her feet as they run into the tropical forest, her mind just replaying the image of Iri with the spear in him over and over again. He died trying to save her. She didn't even know him before the games. And now, he's dead. District Five's only chance of a victor is her and she has no idea how to even do that.
But her attention finally falls to Banni as he leads her away from the cornucopia, away from the careers, away from Iri's dead body. Banni could have left her behind yet he did everything to keep her moving. Why? Why are these people helping her so much when it's her life or theirs?
Either way, she has to try now. She has to try so Iri didn't die for her when he could have won. But it's a debt she will never be able to repay, even if she does somehow survive this arena. How could she ever repay the gift of her life?
She has no idea how...but she has to try.
Guess who forgot it was Wednesday last week and very nearly forgot about it again this week! If you guessed me, you are correct XD
Anyways, didn't realize how much shorter this one compared to some of the other ones. Just goes to show how much shorter I was writing these sections at the time of Wayward XD Which is a funny contrast considering next week's update is much longer than normal because I got carried away writing it lol.
Well, there's our loveable victor mom, Letha Calder! She's another one of those victors I could write a whole story about (I say that like there aren't a good dozen I'd love to do that for lol). She's just too good of a person and one of the victors who really deserved to win because they are just a kind person. What can I say, I love Letha lol.
Well, if you read Wayward, you know who's coming up next week. I'd buckle up and get ready for some big angst because I wrote something from her POV that we only saw from an outside perspective... And it's big emo. So I can't wait! See ya then!