Chapter 9: A Traitor
The Arena - Day 4
The next day, nothing happens. We can't seem to find a Tribute, although it doesn't surprise me. This Arena is so massive, I'm surprised that we found the boy from Eight. I'm actually relieved to not find anyone. I don't want a repeat of what happened.
On the fourth day, Luna and I stay back at camp while everyone else goes Tribute hunting. I sit by the fire, watching the snow that fell during the night shake from the trees. Evergreens, Maxx had called them. Luna sits near me, polishing her precious quiver of arrows. I watch her wipe the sharp points with a cloth. Blood spatters are still on her coat from the bloodbath.
It's strange how gentle her face seems, pale skin smooth, eyes focused on the arrows. She looks younger now, like the sixteen years she is, rather than the ruthless killer the blood stains on her coat suggest.
"So," I say to Luna. "Do you have any family back home?"
She nods, laughing. Her laugh surprises me. "Yeah... I do. My parents got divorced. But I have a younger sister and brother. They're twins. Jade and Lucius. They are the two people I love most in life."
I smile a bit. I can understand that. "I have siblings too... I miss them."
She sighs. "I get the feeling."
We're silent for a moment. All I hear is the river, the wind, the fire, and the sound of Luna's cloth on the hollow metal arrows.
"Why did you volunteer?" I ask her. I can guess her answer, but I ask anyway. If Bale is right and Porcelain tried to kill me, it's good to have some of my allies on my side. Well. As much as they can be in a tournament to the death.
"I volunteered because, well I was best in my class," Luna replies. "And because my sister is sick. She has an illness that came about this spring. Apparently it was from a Capitol mutt."
I cock my head. "You have mutts in your District?"
She nods solemnly. "Yeah... it was a lizard. It bit her, and apparently was one of the Capitol's mutts they left behind from the Dark Days. She's just been getting worse. They say you die within a year. Unless, of course, you have the cure. Only the Capitol has it. If I win... I can get it to her and she won't die."
"How old is she?" I ask.
"Five," Luna says in a whisper. She still doesn't look up from the arrows.
I swallow. "I'm sorry."
She shrugs. "It's okay. I mean I've always-"
A cannon goes off in the distance. We both stop talking, look up into the sky as a flock of birds alights into the air, startled.
"Do you think they found someone?" I breathe, watching my breath fog in front of me and up into the sky. The birds become black dots in the distance.
"Let's hope so," Luna says.
And then she returns to her polishing. We don't talk again.
A scream pierces the air as I'm jumping in place to get some blood moving. I stop, my feet having stomped down a foot of snow around me. Luna's gone, off to the forest for a bathroom break, taking her bow with her.
I look around the campsite. Around the Cornucopia. Off in the distance. Towards the treeline. No one is in sight.
Another scream.
I jump, reaching down and picking up a knife that was set down in front of one of the small tents. Adjusting it in my gloved hand, I turn in a circle. The scream was close. My blood begins to pump faster, my heart thumping.
Luna, come back, Luna, come back... or maybe it was her. Dread fills me as I imagine Luna being cornered in the woods as she's trying to walk back. The attacker being in sight of the camp. Watching me as I turn to look at the treeline, knife clenched in my fist.
A shadow moves behind the thick green branches.
I swallow, trying to imagine someone bursting from the trees and rushing at me.
Even with the knife, I won't be much of a threat to a starving, freezing Tribute who's desperate.
My hands shake, the knife trembling. But I hold it so tightly my knuckles must be white under my gloves.
And then Luna emerges, bow drawn with an arrow nocked. She's unharmed, to my relief. She runs up to me, whirling around, searching for a threat. "I thought the scream was you," she says.
I shake my head.
There's a yell. A third scream. This one is so bloodcurdling that a shiver drops down my spine.
A cannon.
Luna nods towards to the right, down the river and towards another section of snow-covered forest. "That way." She starts to walk, bow raised at the ready. I follow, holding my knife close. The bag of throwing knives sits at my hip still.
Someone rushes from the forest, Luna nearly shooting her.
Porcelain is holding her wrist, sword missing, a bleeding gash across her left cheek.
"Porcelain!" Luna calls, lowering her bow slightly. "What-?"
Porcelain shakes her head, ponytail whipping. Blood drips from her chin, falling into the snow. "We were ambushed."
"Ambushed?" Luna asks confusedly. "By who?"
"Where's Bale?" I find myself asking.
Porcelain jerks her head back as Bale appears from the forest, walking calmly, two spears in his hand and two backpacks over his shoulders.
Relief washes over me to see him. Maybe I shouldn't be happy to see my competitor alive and well. He's from home, I tell myself. That's why.
Porcelain starts walking towards camp, and I notice her fingers soaked in blood as she squeezes her wrist. Luna glances at Bale once and then chases after Porcelain, asking her what happened.
I stand, waiting as Bale walks over to me. When he reaches me, he stops a foot away, looking down at me.
"It's Maxx," he whispers.
I nod. "What happened?"
"Elegance killed him. Him and the girl from Nine," Bale says softly.
Luna gives a cry from behind us. We turn, watching as she covers her mouth, dropping her bow. It doesn't make a sound as it falls to the snow. "This isn't funny, Porcelain!"
"Did I laugh?" the District 1 girl retorts, reaching into a bag for bandages and ointment.
"He can't be dead," Luna chokes. "Please! I-I want to see his body!"
Porcelain straightens up before she nods over my shoulder. "Too late, Two. Sorry. He's gone."
We glance out over the forest to see a hovercraft appear, lowering a claw down to pick up a body. The claw raises back up, and then the hovercraft leaves as if it were never here.
Luna makes a wounded noise, wrapping her arm around her stomach. Her hand is still over her mouth.
I have to avert my eyes. I don't know what to say to her. "What happened?" I ask Bale again, keeping my voice low.
"We found the girl from Eight, Corduroy. Maxx killed her," Bale begins. I remember the cannon from earlier, which must have been her, but say nothing. Bale keeps speaking a moment later. "We were walking through the forest later, on our way back. And then - Sea-Pearl, it seemed like out of nowhere - the girl from Nine lands on Porcelain's back. She must have jumped from a tree. Nine tried to stab her in the head, but Porcelain managed to move, and Nine got a good swipe in across her face."
I glance at Porcelain as she wraps gauze around her wrist, using her teeth to sever the strip.
"And then when I tried to get closer, Elegance got in my way. I was confused at first, but it became pretty clear when the girl from Nine called him by his name. Elegance had turned against us, he must've been plotting with the girl from Nine. I don't know when it started, but this was planned. Porcelain managed to throw off the girl from Nine, but she was back up and moving in seconds and managed to get into it with Porcelain. She stabbed her in the wrist after Porcelain tried to spear her in the stomach."
"And Maxx..."
"And Maxx got in Elegance's way too. Elegance had that spiked mace... Maxx didn't a chance when he didn't move fast enough. And at that point, the girl from Nine and Elegance ran away." Bale shakes his head, his eyes dropping. "It was so awful, Sea-Pearl, I-" he takes in a ragged breath, going quiet. Behind us, Luna is crying. "Nevermind."
Tears prick my eyes. I know Maxx was a killer, but I can't help it. It's such a terrible death.
Bale eyes Porcelain uneasily behind me. I quickly realize our alliance is losing stability, if it even had it to begin with. One ally tries to kill another. Another ally turns traitor.
But now one is gone, and the other is dead. It's only me, Bale, Porcelain, and Luna.
"How many Tributes are left?" I ask Bale.
"Ten, counting you and me," he says without moving his gaze.
Already, 14 people are dead. 14. I imagine the Capitol citizens collecting and recasting bets, looking at replays of the incident. The death of the girl from 8 - Corduroy, Bale had called her - is probably forgotten in the Capitol already. The collapse of the Careers is much more interesting. What could have caused the District 1 boy to turn on his stable alliance in favor of someone from District 9?
Before now I hadn't even paid her much attention. And turns out she's a serious contender in the Games.
The thought makes me shiver.
Bale looks at me. "You're freezing."
I don't say anything. The biting wind nips at my cheeks, the tip of my nose long-since numb. But it's the thought of Maxx's bludgeoned body that makes my blood run cold.
Without a word, Bale puts down the backpacks and spears and takes off his coat. He places it around my shoulders, making it twice he has literally taken his coat off his back for me.
That funny feeling comes back. The same thing I felt when I watched him during his interview in the Capitol. I avoid his eyes, feeling the warmth in my cheeks. His arms pull me into a hug, and all the chill fades from my body.
I close my eyes, taking a deep breath. For a moment I feel safe, liking nothing can hurt me, nothing can ever bother me. Then I remember where I am and what's just happened. I jerk away from him, and he lets me go. I grab his jacket, handing it back to him. "I'm fine. But thanks."
He watches me for a moment before nodding.
I turn and I bite my lip. The knife is still in my hands. I'm cold again, and feel like an ant under a microscope. No doubt the cameras are watching us each, gauging our responses to the betrayal. The sobs coming from Luna just make it worse. How would I feel if I was looking at Bale's corpse?
The thought shakes me to the core. Maybe I really shouldn't care. But I never want to see that happen. Never.
The anthem plays loudly, startling Porcelain as she sorts supplies. I don't stir, just looking up calmly, the firelight in front of us painting everything in orange and flickering shadows.
The Panem seal appears, glowing brightly beside the crescent moon before two photographs shine in the sky.
The first is Maxx. I scan his face, his brown hair, his bright blue eyes. It's so strange that the last time I saw him he was alive and healthy. He was just 17. He had the rest of his life ahead of him. Now his body's in the Capitol, in a box being shipped back to District 2.
I take a deep breath as the next Tribute appears.
It's the girl from 8. She stares back at us, chin-length red hair and freckles seeming too innocent for the Arena. Corduroy. I hadn't even known her name, just like her District partner. But Bale knew her name.
Maybe he cheered when Maxx killed her.
Even as I think it, I know the thought is wrong. Bale doesn't seem to share the bloodlust of my fellow Careers.
But then again, he did volunteer. He got a 10 in training.
I shake the thoughts away as the anthem gives a final flourish and the sky goes dark again.
Suddenly, Porcelain kicks a backpack.
"What's wrong?" I ask her.
"He took the matches!" she shouts. The gash on her cheek starts bleeding again. We don't have any needles in our supplies. "We have no way to make a new fire now. He took food, the sunglasses, four knives, and the mace he had. And the matches!"
Bale begins looking through the rest of our supplies, trying to find some. If only Amarella were here... I think. She could pick up two sticks and make a fire.
Soon it gets too late to do anything else but sleep, and Porcelain volunteers to stay up and keep watch. With Maxx dead and Elegance somewhere in the Arena with 9, Bale offers to dismantle their tents.
Luna went to sleep earlier, not wanting to stay up and see Maxx's face in the sky. I notice her bow and quiver lying on the ground, the silver arrows reflecting the firelight. Standing up, I pick up the and bow and quiver. Walking to her tent, I quietly unzip the flap. Inside, Luna is curled up under a couple blankets on the waterproof floor. I slowly notice her eyes are cracked open, staring into space.
"Luna," I whisper. "I have your bow."
She blinks softly but doesn't reply.
"Luna? Are you okay?"
She's quiet for a moment and then closes her eyes. "Leave it outside the tent. It's not going anywhere. I have my dagger with me."
I sigh. She's slept with it in her tent the past nights. It's strange for her to just leave her weapon. Before I decide what to do, Luna curls up, burying her head in her arms.
Then she begins to cry again, softly, but in small little gasps.
"Luna..." I try. She doesn't respond.
Finally, I can't take it. I sit back, zipping up her tent. And then it's like I'm imagining what she is - Maxx being beaten to death. There isn't a chance I'm going to sleep now.
"I'll watch," I tell Porcelain. I set Luna's bow down outside her tent and stand up. "It's not like Elegance and Nine are going to come attack us now anyways."
Porcelain nods wearily, yawning, a fresh bandage on her wrist as she lifts her hand to her mouth. Without a word, she drifts to her tent, crawling inside and zipping up the flap.
I sit down on a plastic bin full of food, staring up at the crescent moon. Is it even night out? Or is this just the Gamemakers manipulating our time? Is Mama looking at the moon out the window as she sits in our living room, watching the Games on television? What are my siblings thinking?
I can imagine Wave urging me to try to something like Elegance once the number of Tributes gets lower. But I can't. I don't think I can right now, at least.
A few minutes later, Bale sits down beside me. "Couldn't sleep?"
He nods. "Mm-hm. My eyes wouldn't close."
I look down at my boots, a question jumping around in my brain. "You never told me..."
He turns his head, eyes watching me carefully. "Told you what?"
I shrug, looking at the moon in front of us. "Why you..." I look at him, shrugging again. "Why you didn't let me drown that second day."
He smiles for a moment, and then it goes into barely a smile, and his eyes glimmer. "I have my reasons. As long as we're asking questions, why did you seem so worried when I saw you after getting back with Porcelain?"
I furrow my brows. "Well, we'd just heard a cannon and screaming. Why do you think I was worried?"
The corner of lips twitch into a smile for a second before he looks back at the moon. "Fair point. You just didn't look that nervous about Porcelain."
"Yeah, well I..." I trail off, struggling for a response. "She's not my District partner."
"I didn't know you cared that much about me the other day when you told me not to ask about your arm again," Bale replies, glancing at me. "I was just concerned for my District partner."
I remember snapping at him as we went on the Tribute hunt, back before we found the boy from 8. It seems even more rude now considering that he'd saved my life not even an hour later. Which I never even thanked him for.
I look down at my hands, pulling at my gloves. "Thank you. For not letting me drown."
"Anytime," Bale mumbles.
We're quiet for a while, just sitting, looking at the moon.
"Did you mean it?" I finally ask.
I see Bale look at me out of the corner of my eye. "Mean what, Sea-Pearl?"
"That I'm a brat." I look him in his eyes. They look as dark as the ocean at midnight in this lighting.
For a moment he looks confused before recognition flashes across his face. "Oh. After the interviews... I... I meant it then. But I was wrong."
"Really?"
"Yes. Honestly. I should've realized how you felt," he said.
I could feel my face burn even in the dark. I looked back up at the moon. "You mean how I felt as an untrained Tribute."
Bale laughs softly.
I bristle, scowling at him. "You don't need to rub it in, Bale."
He shakes his head. "I'm not. I think you just underestimate yourself. Have you seen how good you are at throwing knives? Anyways, I don't care about that. It's supposed to be illegal anyways."
"Not that District Four cares," I finally mutter.
Bale cracks a smile. "Fair enough."
We both get quiet and look back at the moon.
I wonder if it's actually the real moon shining through a transparent force field, or if it's just a projection. I hope it's real. I hope my siblings are looking at the same one.
Eventually, Bale takes a breath. "I think," he says, still looking ahead, "that you were nervous about me for the same reason that I hated seeing you upset after. And why you let me hug you."
I don't reply, sitting as still as possible.
"Don't let them intimidate you, by the way," Bale says.
"Right," I say, laughing humorlessly. "Don't let the people willing to kill me in a second intimidate me."
He looks over at me, searching my face. "I'm serious. You're stronger than them."
Then he leans in. My breath catches, and I'm frozen. When his lips brush mine, tingling spreads through my body and warmth melts the cold away.
I close my eyes.