Chapter 48- Silver Bellcreek

Violet and I sit up in our tree listening to the cannons. The first one came just after dawn, then the second one came a few minutes later. The feast is claiming its victims one by one. Who's dead? I suppose we'll know tonight. It doesn't stop me from biting my nails though.

"What day is it?" I ask Violet. We've been awake for hours but we haven't spoken. The occasion seemed to be too solemn for chit chat.

"Eight I think. It's been hard to keep track." So I've been in here for over a week now. Only a week? It seems like an eternity. Like it's been a hundred years since I was in District 1.

Another cannon goes.

"Who do you think that was?" Violet asks. I shrug. "I don't know. Who's left?" "I don't know. I was hiding somewhere where I couldn't see the seal."

We wait a few minutes but no other cannon goes.

"I think the feast is over," Violet says, but before she can finish her sentence another cannon fires. Four dead before breakfast. I hope that food was worth it. I know it was worth it to me to not go. Else my cannon could be firing right now.

"What do you want to do?" I ask Violet. "There's been enough bloodshed today, hasn't there?" she asks. I nod.

Violet has gotten so very skinny in just eight days. Her bright blue eyes are overly large in her face now, and her hair is so very tangled. I don't want her to die. I don't want anyone else to die either. I have to keep blanking out what I've seen, the faces of the dead. They float before me without warning: Osa, Beade, Keek… they haunt me.

"Silver?" Violet's high voice interrupts the flashbacks. "Silver?"

My eyes focus on her, sitting on a branch above me, tiny and fragile.

"Want me to untangle your hair?" I ask her.

She nods.

Violet sits in front of me and I use my fingers to untangle her hair, piece by piece. It takes ages but finally her hair falls in waist length red curls, untangled. Violet ties grass from down below while I braid her hair back and I use the grass to tie it. At the end she's still skinny but her hair is beautiful again. If she's to die in the next few days, I want her to be beautiful.

"Thanks, Silver." Her smile is pretty, no matter how thin she's gotten. Then she gets distracted looking up; she points. The silver parachute falls through the trees and lands next to me on a branch. Violet and I grin at each other.

Tearing it open, I find a container full of thick beef stew, full of potatoes and carrots. The sauce sparkles like gold in the sunlight. Alongside it is two bowls and two spoons- and a ladle. Even here the Capitol is sophisticated.

"Thank you!" I say to the audience who must be watching us now, unless the feast is still going on. Now that the cannons are quiet I think the worst must be over.

"Aren't you glad we didn't go?" Violet says, grinning from ear to ear.

"Absolutely."

We can only eat half a bowl each before we're stuffed. Can our stomachs really have shrunk so much in so little time? But the food is delicious. I still have a little water and Violet and I share it.

The birds are singing again (I don't know why they stopped) and the forest is peaceful. There's been enough bloodshed today to keep the audience happy. So we sit and we talk.

Violet tells me about District 5; about the pretty streets and the apartment building she shared with her parents and two sisters. District 5 wasn't as impacted by the war, just like District 1. She tells me how she likes to play near the dam that helps power the Capitol, and about her special friends at home.

In return I tell her about District 1, about Shine and Glint and my parents, and Flaire, the friend I loved so much I volunteered to die for her.

That gets me thinking. Did I volunteer for Flaire to save her, or did I volunteer for myself? Inside I know it's the latter and I feel shame. Now I'm glad I saved Flaire. I'm glad I spared her from the fate I've endured.

When we grow hungry again, we eat more stew. We both know that the Games won't last much longer, and if we are going to die, why not do it on a full stomach? That's what I tell myself, anyway. We use the parachute to play a game, where we pass it back and forth and try to catch it. It keeps our minds off things for a little bit.

After a while, Violet takes a nap and I keep watch. I doubt anyone is going to come. I wonder who's left. Who's dead? Who died at the feast?

My answers come at nightfall, when the anthem wakes Violet up. Together we sit on the same branch and look up at the sky. Violet slips her hand into mine. She reminds me of Shine a little, but Violet is more delicate than Shine has ever been.

The first face to appear in the sky is Glow's. I squeeze the tree trunk. So Glow is dead. Dead. Gone. When I return- if I return- to District 1, there will be no Glow. Dead.

The second face is Curia. Both of my former allies are dead and gone now. Now I know I did the right thing by breaking off the alliance. I'd be dead if I was still with them. I feel like crying but I don't know why. Curia would not have hesitated to kill me. But that doesn't mean she deserved to die. No matter what she did.

The third is the girl from 7, Oak. She's dead and gone too. I remember that ingenious paper dress she wore at interviews. She was alright. Then I remember shooting the arrow at her during the bloodbath, and I'm glad I didn't kill her then.

The last face is Oak's partner from 7. I can't remember his name. The tall one with the brown hair and brown eyes. That's all I remember of him; I never saw him here in the arena. He got a 7 in training, I remember that.

The Capitol seal shines gold then disappears. The only light is from the moon way above us. It's full tonight. I hug Violet to me. It's a warm night, which I'm grateful for. The faces in the sky are still burned into my memory. They were just kids, like me. Like Violet. And now they're dead and their families are going to mourn them. I hope I don't bring that pain to my family.

"I'm glad we're allies," Violet says. "Me too," I whisper back. Suddenly I take my arms from around her and take off my necklace with the diamond.

"What are you doing?" Violet asks me.

"I want you to have this," I tell her, putting it around her neck.

"I can't, it's yours!"

"Please. I want to give you something."

Violet lets her hands fall and allows me fasten the diamond on her. She looks at it with a bent head for a second, then hugs me again.

"Thank you, Silver."

We sit like that for ages and ages. I look up at the moon. Full and gleaming, like someone's polished it.

That's when I hear it. The howling.

"What's that?" Violet asks, terror seeping into her voice.

"I don't know."

In seconds the forest is full of howling- an eerie sound that sends chills up and down my spine. Wolves.

But when the creatures start to appear around us in the trees, I know they're no wolves. Violet trembles. I hook my quiver over my shoulder with its last two arrows in it and take hold of my bow.

The mutts look up to the moon and howl at it. I squeeze Violet's hand one last time. I can barely breathe.

The mutts stop their noise and for a moment everything is quiet. Time stands still for those few seconds. Then they snarl and pounce towards us; Violet screams. I shove her down out of the tree and yell, "Run!" Violet takes off as I hit the ground running. My ankle buckles a little when I land but this is no time for injuries. I leave my pack in the tree and I run.

The wolf mutts weave in and out around us; they're surrounding us. Violet runs ahead of me. What are they doing? They're not trying to kill us- yet.

I figure out the mutts' pattern too late; they swarm around me and they swarm around Violet and they separate us. Violet screams.

"Silver! Silver!"

"Violet!"

But I can't reach her.

"Violet!"