Wounds hurt, but they heal. Broken spirits are a different matter, and are more complex to fix. Taiya sat behind a boulder, protecting her from the wind with her head in her hands for the next day. She couldn't sleep. Every time she closed her eye she saw his eyes go blank. His life slipping away from him. His future leaving him.
She'd spent her time sitting there, plotting how to finish these games. The gifts were piling up beside her, but she only picked at the food that arrived. She couldn't bring herself to look at any more of the supportive notes Tyler and Finnick had been sending her with the gifts. They made her feel ill, so she'd taken to ripping them up upon arrival.
It was midday on the tenth day when a cough and a stumble woke her from her numb stupor. As soon as the sound met her ears, her brain switched to rage. Taiya leapt up from her hiding spot and lunged out, tackling the girl from District 7 to the ground. Ivy didn't put up much of a struggle, she was ill. Taiya pinned her arms and legs and arms to the ground and looked the girl over. Her bones were jutting out from malnutrition, the other tributes hadn't had the same access to resources as she had.
"Please," Ivy begged. "Please just end it."
"As you wish," Taiya whispered in her ear before she pulled out Theo's sword and ran it through the girl's chest.
A cannon rang out. Only 3 left.
Taiya stood up and took a step back from the girl before screaming as she watched blood pool on the ground, frantically running backwards, tripping over her feet in the process. It looked just as the snow had around Theo when he died.
"It's not Theo, it's not Theo," Taiya muttered with her eyes closed. Taking a deep breath, Taiya reassembled her steely resolve before getting back up on her feet. She still had two more tributes to take out.
There were three of them left in the arena. She knew how this time of the Games usually went. The final showdown. The Gamemakers would encourage them to head back to the Cornucopia for the end. So that's where she would go. She'd get there first and make a plan to go home. She'd be going home today.
As she made her way through the arena, she found herself back in the clearing where Theo had died. The gift she'd receive lay there untouched, the snow surrounding it was back to a pure white colour, leaving no reminder of the deaths that had occurred there only a mere 2 days ago.
Taiya lowered herself shakily to the ground as she picked up the gift capsule and opened it.
'You can beat this. I believe in you – Finnick'
Inside the capsule was a small length of rope. Looking at it, she wasn't sure whether to smile or ground it into the dirt. Sighing she tied it around the necklace Annie had given her. She'd already threaded Theo's ring through it. Her one token had now become three.
She looked down at the rope hanging around her neck before she undid it with a smirk. She held it in front of her and tugged the two ends. It was sturdy. She tied it back onto the necklace, she could use that as a weapon if need be.
Making her way to the Cornucopia she surveyed the area. The table of weapons had been cleared away, leaving just an empty horn in a field of snow. Taiya looked around the area cautiously, making sure no one was hiding in the tree line before sprinting her way across to the horn.
Hiding just inside the horn, she looked to the back, where a camera would obviously be positioned. "Whenever you're ready," she smirked, challenging the Gamemakers. It was obvious they wanted this done today, it should be nighttime by now, but the sun still shone in the middle of the sky.
Just on cue, Taiya heard the howl of wolves and immediately tensed. The wolves would no doubt serve to herd Cotton and Hero into the Cornucopia. Taiya tightened her grip on Theo's sword before laying it to the side. She could use a sword well enough, but it wasn't her best weapon. Both Cotton and Hero were Careers, so she needed to be using the weapon she had the best capability with, knives, only she didn't have many of those left. Pulling two out, she held them at the ready as she took two deep breaths. She stood up straight and walked into the mouth of the Cornucopia so she'd have a good view when someone ran out.
She stood there for 20 minutes until she finally saw movement. Hero came charging out from the trees and froze when he saw her standing in the mouth of the Cornucopia. He cautiously looked behind him to see the wolves had stopped at the tree line. He backed further away from the wolves before turning and marching towards her. He was too far away for her throws to be of any use and he knew that. He stopped just outside her range and looked at her.
"You seen Cotton?"
"No, when did you go your separate ways?" she asked.
"About the same time you took off," he answered. "I didn't want it to come down to us."
"Me neither," Taiya answered cautiously.
"You don't look so good," he noted, taking in her dishevelled appearance. "I'm sorry about your friend. How'd it happen?"
"The boy from 9. We took care of both him and the girl, something you and your district partner weren't able to do," she sneered.
Hero smiled as he looked down. "So how do you want to do this?"
"You tell me," she smirked. "It's your call. I have the advantage here," she said as she threw a knife in the air. "Distance."
"Alright," he nodded as he got ready to begin. "Keep an eye out for Cotton. She's pretty nasty," he huffed before he charged for her.
Taiya threw a knife that he deflected off his sword. Taiya growled as she moved around and threw another, managing to strike him in his non-dominant arm. Hero yelled out but continue to make his way towards her. He was slower than he was in the beginning, he'd had access to food, but not as much as she had. Given he had been alone he would've had trouble feeling safe sleeping for the past week. She held the advantage.
As he got closer to her, she whipped out another knife and slid under his sword as he swung it towards her. She forced her arm backwards, she stuck the knife into the back of Hero's knee, making him scream as his leg buckled.
Taiya sighed as she stood up, pulling out her last knife and cockily twirling it in the air. She took a fraction too long and Hero swung the sword. She jumped out of the way in time but it still managed to cut across her arm, making her hiss in pain.
Hero tried to rise back to his feet but repeatedly collapsed, whatever damage she'd inflicted in his knee had crippled him.
"I'm sorry Hero," Taiya apologized as she raised her knife. Just as she went to release, there was the pounding of footsteps sprinting towards them, and a large force smashed into Taiya, sending her careening into the metal horn of the Cornucopia, smashing her head on the side. Groaning, she clutched her head as she slid to the ground.
"Apologies 4, but he's mine," Cotton snarled before turning to Hero and slashing his throat, making a cannon boom. "Now, where were we?" she smiled, turning to Taiya with wild eyes.
Taiya whimpered as she crawled backwards while Cotton advanced. Scrambling to pick up the knife she'd dropped, she threw it, sending it into Cotton's side, unable to hit her target properly thanks to a woozy head.
"You missed! Now that's not like you? Is it?" Cotton laughed, not even bothering to remove the knife. Taiya grabbed ahold of the Cornucopia and pulled herself up into a standing position only to slam back into the ground as Cotton tackled her. Cotton clawed at her face as she tried to get a grasp on Taiya's chin. "LOOK AT ME!" Cotton roared, making Taiya freeze. "This is the last face you're ever going to see," Cotton taunted as she stared down at her with wild arms.
Cotton has been so focused on getting Taiya's attention, she hadn't properly pinned her limbs down. So Taiya swung her arm up and punched her in the side of her face, throwing Cotton off of her.
"You bitch!" Cotton squawked.
Taiya frantically crawled towards Hero's body. She needed to get a knife, his sword, anything to defend herself with. Before she got too far, Cotton grabbed onto her leg and tugged, sending her sliding back towards the murderous girl as Taiya screamed.
Taiya kicked out with her free leg, sending her foot slamming into Cotton's chest, knocking the air out of her momentarily. This only enraged Cotton further, and she roared as she grabbed Taiya's head and slammed it viciously into the side of the Cornucopia again. Taiya collapsed to the ground as her vision spun with stars. She coughed weakly, desperately trying to regain motor control.
Cotton loomed over her, and leant down and flipped Taiya's body over so she was facing the sky. As she flipped her, Taiya caught sight of Theo's sword she had left lying inside of the Cornucopia.
"You were never going to win," Cotton sighed as she stared down at the weak girl below her. "No matter how much you tried to flirt your way to the top. You just can't beat me. I knew it from the day I watched your reaping video." Taiya slowly tried to creep her hand towards the sword, whilst maintaining eye contact with Cotton. "My mentor told me not to underestimate you," she snorted. "I think he overestimated you. As they all did. But not me. I see you for what you really are. A spoilt, weak little girl. I didn't even want you in the Career pack, but the idiots from 2 insisted, even this idiot did," she said gesturing to Hero's body.
"Do you want to know what my mentor said about you?" Taiya coughed and Cotton raised an eyebrow in interest. "He said you were an arrogant fool, guess he was right," Taiya giggled as she tightened her hand around the hilt of Theo's sword.
Cotton's eyes filled with rage and she dove towards Taiya, her knife outstretched ready to attack. Taiya quickly spun herself around, the sword upright, impaling Cotton as she came down towards Taiya.
Cotton coughed as she looked down at the sword before her eyes rolled back into her head and a cannon sounded. Taiya's breath shook as she sat herself up, moving quickly away from the bodies and into the safety of the Cornucopia horn as she leant her back against the wall. It was over. She'd won.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" Claudius Templesmith's voice echoed around the arena. "I am pleased to announce the victor of the sixty-seventh Hunger Games, Taiya Ambersnow! I give you – the tribute of District 4!"
A roar of the crowd cheering live from the Capitol sounded through the speakers and Taiya could barely hear herself think. A hovercraft materialized in the sky and collected the two bodies in front of her before another appears and releases a ladder down to her. Shakily, she rises to her feet and stumbles out of the horn of the Cornucopia and places a foot in the rung of the ladder before being frozen by an electric current. The ladder rises, pulling her up into the hovercraft as she takes one last look at the frozen arena.
As soon as the door closes behind her, she is immediately surrounded by doctors, who poke and prod at her to assess her head injuries. Taiya flinches back from their touch angrily. "Get away from me," she growls at them.
"Miss Ambersnow, please, we need to check the severity of your injuries. Can you please tell me how many fingers I'm holding up," one doctor asks, raising his hand while another shines a light in her eyes.
Something in her snaps and all she feels is hot anger flooding through her veins. "I said get away from me!" she screams, making them jump back from her slightly. Before they can relax her, she quickly undoes the knot holding the rope to her necklace and dives behind a doctor, wrapping it around their throat.
Everyone in the hovercraft begins panicking while she chokes the doctor. As soon as a loud crunch noise rings out a Peacekeeper charges up behind her and rips her off the doctor, grabbing her and lifting her into the air as the doctor collapses to the ground, his face a shade of dark purple.
"I'll kill you all," Taiya roars as she thrashes against the Peacekeeper's arms. She catches sight of herself in the mirror and freezes. She barely recognizes the girl staring back at her. Feeling her body relax the Peacekeeper releases his hold on her. She hears the doctors talking about not wanting to sedate her because they wanted her return to be filmed, but she doesn't care, she's too transfixed by the stranger in the mirror.
Taiya lets out a choked sob as she frantically rips off the coat and jacket she had on and kicked off the boots. She'd only now just realized the stark difference in the temperature of the hovercraft compared to the arena she's been in and she was boiling. After stripping off her unnecessary layers, leaving her in her top and pants, she stepped closer to the mirror. The matted ponytail, the bloodshot eyes, the slashes on her cheeks, the bruises forming on her head, blood flowing down from her head wounds, the bloodstained hands. This wasn't a version of herself she recognized.
An avox made her way towards Taiya, shaking as she handed the girl a glass filled with what appeared to be orange juice. Taiya takes it from her, but her shaking hands can't grip it properly and she drops it to the ground, the glass shattering. Taiya showed very little care as she stepped over the mess and made her way to a seat and sat down. She watched as they carried away the body of the doctor she'd killed. She didn't care, she was numb.
A doctor stood opposite her, a Peacekeeper right by his side as he shone the light in her eyes again. None of them had been brave enough to touch her again after her murderous freak out earlier, so they'd taken to evaluating her from a distance. But she knew they couldn't fix the wounds that cut the deepest.
The hovercraft landed on the roof of the Tribute Centre and she let out a sigh of relief. As the door of the hovercraft began to open, a Peacekeeper grabbed her arm to help her stand and she lost it again. She grabbed his arm and twisted until she heard a snap. She got behind him and went to wrap her arm around his throat when she felt the stab of a needle in her neck and then a cool sensation as the substance was injected into her. Her vision immediately went fuzzy and she released her hold on the Peacekeeper who collapsed on the ground and pushed himself back. Taiya fell backwards into the arms of the doctor who'd injected her.
Before her senses left her completely, she saw three people run onto the hovercraft. She recognized Moxie's bright purple hair race in and start admonishing everyone in sight, she recognized Tyler's dark hair as he snatched her body from the arms of the doctor despite her weak attempts to lash out at him, and the last one she recognized was Finnick's sandy blonde hair as he stood frozen in the doorway of the hovercraft, meeting her eyes just as she lost consciousness.
And just like that her Games are over! I hope you enjoyed it. The last little bit of this chapter is designed to give you a bit of an insight into her mental space for the next part, spoiler, it's not the best, obviously. How will this affect hers and Finnick's relationship? I guess you'll have to wait and see now!
Please leave me a review with any thoughts you have, I really love reading them, they inspire me to get the next chapter out quicker!
Sparky She-Demon: Hope you liked it, is it the tributes that had to watch out for her or everyone around her?
tomeii: OMG haha I'm so sorry! Although hearing you needed a crying break makes me feel kind of proud, is that bad haha?