So.. It has been quite a while, but this is the final chapter in the Arena. What do you think is coming next?
I change the classification, because while I don't plan on writing any rape scenes, they will be implicit and the deaths are going to have a few details, that's why I am avoiding problems now.
The 15th day in the arena started pitch black as any other, there was nothing on it that could indicate that today was going to be any different. There were still four of us and during my whole time in the arena I only saw two tributes. This is not that uncommon as it may sound. Since the beginning the Capitol had their favorites and they have a larger screen time than the rest of the tributes, the careers actively hunt down other tributes so unless they are dumber than the previous editions or the others know how to hide really well there is no need to interfere.
Katniss was different, they wanted her dead.
In my case, if you are forgettable enough, they are just going to let me be. Sooner or later my type dies, it doesn't matter if it is for the hands of another tribute, mutt or natural causes. There is no reason to try to kill me faster because it is only a question of when it is going to be for them instead of if, so there are other tributes that would present a better show.
If I am correct in the 50th Hunger Games a lot of tributes died like that. The Second Quarter Quell had twice the number of participants so most of them ended up being ignored, but in a poisoned arena where the only food safe to consume was in the cornucopia and the ones from sponsors this result in a lot of children dying from hunger or poisoned themselves because of it. If I was there, I would be dead because of the lack of sponsorship.
Anyway, I must be glad that it started normal. Because if I had listened to the wolf howls when I was up in a tree I would have died. The way it was I was filling a bottle of water in a pond after eating a small portion of my rations. My normal routine in the past days. There was only an hour of light left when they started. If it was a week ago, I would have climbed the nearest tree and pray that everything turned out well. But one week ago, there were five other people alive.
Those howls are not just mutts coming after me. No, they are going to escort me to whatever the final battle is going to be.
All these thoughts occur to me as I ran as fast as I could. The water bottle left forgotten in the pond and three knives substituting it in my hands as fast as I could. I doubt they will be going to give me time to open my backpack when I arrive.
I did not dare to look behind as I felt the mutts' breaths on my skin and heard the sound of their paws on the ground getting closer each second. They may not be here to kill me in specific, but that doesn't mean they won't if I do not hurry.
I was still running after an hour; the sun had set and I was now advancing blindly through the woods in the direction of a faint blue light when I hear a canon. Now we are three. And they want us to fight in a place where falling doesn't only mean dying. It meant being eaten alive for the fishes. At least there would be enough light for us to see each other where we are, in the top of the waterfall.
It was not a really big glade with a small source of water that develop to the abomination abruptly and this certainly is not something that naturally occur. I can see body parts in it. Whoever was, I hope they had died before falling.
The two other tributes still standing are already fighting when I arrive at the glade. I was not surprise by them. Aurelius and Augusta were strong and the favorites from the Capitol. And they had been training their whole lives for this.
They barely spare me a glance when I stumble out of the tree line. I imagine what they think of me. I may not be cover in blood as them or their weapons, but I am cover in mud, my hair was untamed, the hair ties long been lost and I am sure that there are more than one or two leaves in there, small cuts were all over my body from spending days in a forest that I was not used to and it was obvious that I lost a couple or more of pounds. I don't have any serious injury so I was not the worst looking tribute in the history of the Hunger Games by far. They, however, despite of the blood in their clothes seemed well fed, only recent cuts were open and I was sure that I saw the green of medicine tint in Augusta's wrist. Next to them I looked like a beggar. Not really far away from the truth since 10 next to the upper districts was poor. But it didn't fill me up with confidence.
My right hand tightens its grip on my knife. Not yet. I will not throw it yet. If I do it now both of them will turn their attention to me. Now they are ignoring me, they consider each other the biggest risk to their victory.
I will let them kill one another then. In the moment only one is standing I will attack.
Attack and run. Run for my life. I just need to hold for one minute. Three in the worse scenario. I can do it.
I clench my jaw with determination as I saw Aurelius' sword and Augusta's dagger collide and suddenly both weapons are flying of their hands laying in the waterfall. For a second both of them freeze until the boy from 1 jump onto the girl and begins to punch her. It was brutal. And nauseating. I watch it all with a mist of morbid fascination as he continues to beat her up even thought she had already stopped her weak attempts to take him of her.
The career from 1 seemed like a different person than the one who I first saw in the reaping. He was no longer beautiful with his blond hair and blue eyes typical from his district. No, now he looked like a beast with only one purpose and as the cannon sound with Augusta body still warm and her brain scatter around the glade I can't stop thinking that maybe I was wrong, maybe the fishes would be kinder than the boy that stares at me with eyes injected and bloody hands.
He stands up slowly, like a predator does when they don't want to scare their prey. My knife flies before he can give one step ahead. There were about fifteen meters between us and my aim is still not perfect. I can only scratch his right arm.
As soon as my weapon takes out his blood, Aurelius speeds forward and I throw my other knives before start to run. My heart pounding so loud I can taste blood and bile at my throat. One of the knives missed the target. Another made one more scratch that I doubt he felt. The last one hits him in the thigh. He only grunts and take the knife away before continue to chase me. Good. That was good. There is an artery in the thigh that is connected straight to the heart, if I hit it the poison can take effect quicker. I can survive.
I just need to run. Fast. Faster. Faster.
I miscalculated one thing. I maybe be fast, but I am exhausted from the previous racing through the woods and I am younger and smaller than him, this translate to him have longer legs and more stamina. A hand grabs my hair and I am sent flying. Grass filled my vision. Before I could stand up, I felt his feet connect to my stomach. Hard. The air left my lungs and my sight became blurry with tears of pain.
"Only you now little girl. Only you and I will have everything I always dreamt about. I will be a Victor." A maniac laugh came out from his lips. He went insane. Or he has always been insane. I don't care. I care that every sentence he speaks he land another kick making me unable to stand up. "I must say that I am impressed. I didn't expect someone as lowly as you to make this far. You, from the bottom districts, are always so weak that it's almost boring. I would say that you are different, but that is not true, isn't it?" His teeth looked like small daggers when he smiles. Not like Enobaria. Instead, it remembers me of the monsters and demons from old myths, the ones that assume human flesh, but you always knew that something wasn't right with them. "I had even forgot that you were alive. But I guess that disgusting animals prosper in the dark."
"Fuck you." It escapes before I realize. Maybe not the smartest choice. Or even the smartest comeback, but honestly, I am not even mad about what he said about me, this boy is clearly not in his right mind and his opinions worth less than trash, but he talked bad about my district. In live television. And that makes me angry.
In the before I would not have spent a second glance in 10, I would have thought that it was a place forgotten by time and would have prejudice against the people that live there and don't try for a better life in the big cities. In this life however I was forced to be there whether I like it or not. So, I met the place and the people. I saw just how peaceful and pretty is to watch the sunset in the fields, how fun it is to ride a horse as fast as you could, how gentle and kind the people are and how they try to help everyone despite the awfulness of the world.
I can't let this stupid boy that only knows how to kill to disgrace my people.
That doesn't mean that I could do anything when his face turned red and he finally gets down so he could punch my face instead of kicking my stomach and legs. The first punch made me saw stars and blood filled my mouth. I try to push him away, turn us around and even try to protect my face with my arms. He laughed. It was the undeniable truth that I was too small, too young, too weak to do anything so my attempts for someone that trained his entire life seemed feeble at best.
My world was full of pain and even so he didn't end me. He wanted me to suffer. For him to have the chance to savor his moment, with each punch destined to make it hurt, but not to kill me, not yet. That's why I was confused when it stopped. My heart was still beating, I was sure of it and I could still feel my arms, legs, the soil underneath me. I was alive. But Aurelius had stopped. Why?
I open my eyes that I didn't realize I had closed. He had stood up. Confusion was all over his face. One of his hands were in his throat and another in his stomach, holding it like it hurts.
Oh.
Oh.
The realization waves throw me as a smile begin to form in the corners of my lips. I didn't imagine that would feel like this. Maybe relived, maybe remorse, but not happiness. I guess the other feelings would come to me later at night when I will finally be able to lay on a bed, but now? Now the only thing in my mind is good, he deserved it.
"You! What did you do to me?!" He shouted at me when he notices my smile. "What have you done, you little bitch?!" He did not seem afraid of death, only angry. Maybe the thought of his own mortality never occurs to him, I don't know, I am not going to ask. But I would be afraid if I was him, when I first died, I wasn't really worried because in general I was a normal person, not too good or too bad, only normal. He, however, volunteer, he took joy in killing other children and even with his time in the arena he did not seem sorry. I imagine if he is going to burn in hell if there is one.
"What do you mean? You didn't honestly think that you would get out of here, did you?" I forced a confusion expression on my face that was already begin to swell. Maybe life here did not make me a good person either. "Aurelius, dear, I was the one wearing a crown in the start, and I would be the one in the end. I gave you all a really clear clue. It is not my fault if you were too stupid to understand." A giggle scape out of my lips. This one was not made up for the cameras and was one step away from becoming a maniac laugh. Maybe I wouldn't come out of here sane either.
His eyes widen, but as he was about to respond to me with something incredible rude his eyes rolled back and he start to vomit blood. On me. I couldn't stop looking as his knees gave in and his body fell over me crushing me further into the grass. While the last cannon sound I can only keep staring at his face only a few centimeters from mine and noticing that where once were two beautiful blue eyes now the blueish light from the waterfall lit up two empty orbs with blood dripping from them.
I screamed.