Chapter 11: Escaping an Ally
The Arena - Day 7
The girl from District 9 raises her sword - the sword taken from Porcelain - higher. I raise my arm without even thinking, aiming the throwing knife at Elegance. He stares back at me, a smirk on his face. The silver spikes on the black mace glint in the sunlight.
"You won't do it, will you?" he mocks, his eyes glimmering. "Coward."
Porcelain suddenly rushes for her sword, Elegance spinning, raising his mace. He misses her by mere inches, the girl from District 1 dive-rolling as she drops her daggers and picks up the sword. The girl from 9 charges at Bale and I, swinging her sword at Bale. He manages to block with the spear in his hands. Metal clangs harshly.
I look over as Porcelain turns on Elegance, her fingers curling around the silver hilt of her sword. Her eyes are murderous with a kind of anger I didn't realize she was capable of. Elegance doesn't look intimidated, that half-smile back on his face. It looks like he's all too thrilled at the idea of killing his District ally.
Another clang of metal, and Bale pushes the girl from 9 back as she tries to attack again. She immediately swings her sword lower, slicing Bale's shin.
My knife does fly through the air, but at the girl from 9. She screams, holding her arm. The thin knife is driven into her bicep, no doubt slicing through the muscle of the arm she's using.
"Grainelle!" Elegance shouts, his attention shifting to the girl for a moment.
Porcelain takes advantage of the distraction, swinging the sword down. Elegance just manages to swing his mace around, nearly knocking the sword from her hands. He's bigger than her, and the mace is heavier than the sword.
And then Porcelain is spilling a string of swears, moving at Elegance again. "You traitor," she snarls, jumping away as he swings the mace again.
"I got a better offer than your pathetic vanity, Porcelain," he responds. "Even the Gamemakers know I'm more of a Victor than you - who did they give a ten in training to?"
Porcelain attacks again, still managing to dodge the mace. The spiked mace might be more dangerous if she gets hit, but it's less quick than using a sword.
In front of Bale and I, Grainelle is struggling to hold up her sword, pulling my knife from her arm. I get two more knives from my belt, making sure she sees them. Her eyes flick between my knives, and then back to Bale as he hovers there for a moment, hesitating to attack her.
He could kill her if he wanted to.
But he isn't.
Elegance gasps as he swings the mace too far, missing Porcelain's face but overextending it. The momentum of the swing makes the mace fly too far to his right. For just a moment, his torso is exposed. Porcelain sees the opportunity too.
In one smooth slash of her sword, she slices his throat open. For a moment, it seems as though she's decapitated him. But his head doesn't come apart from his body completely.
Elegance's corpse falls to the ground in a mess of blood at the same time a cannon fires.
I stand there stunned, knives still clutched in my hands. It doesn't even seem real. It's too gruesome to be reality.
The wail of the girl from District 9 - Grainelle - makes it seem real.
She drops her sword, stumbling from Bale and I. Her eyes are stuck to the place where Elegance's body lies, his dead hand still curled around the mace
Grainelle looks at us once, her blue eyes wide. And then she rips away, tearing towards the forest, her shape vanishing into the trees.
Porcelain heaves air, drawing my attention. She stands there, tangled blonde hair flowing in the wind, chest rising and falling. It's such an odd thing - she's so beautiful it's like she's stepped from some Capitol magazine. But then scarlet blood is splashed on her clothing and splattered on her face and hair, her sword slicked with the same substance, making her repulsive. At her feet, our old ally lies.
And then Porcelain lets out a long breath, dropping her eyes to her hurt leg, tan cargo pants blooming with blood around the gash. She looks up at us, her face neutral. "Thanks."
Bale nods, grimacing and limping towards our camp. "I'm gonna' go find fresh bandages and some medicine."
"You should too," I say to Porcelain.
She looks down at Elegance and kicks his leg. I wince. Then she walks over - surprisingly steady on her hurt leg - to pick up one of her discarded daggers, her lips pressed so thin I can barely see them. Porcelain leaves her sword in the snow, not bothering to clean it.
"Porcelain," I begin hesitantly, "there's bandages here..."
She shakes her head, already setting off past me towards the direction Grainelle ran in. "No. I'm going to find her."
"No!" I say, catching up to her. "You can't do that, what if she kills you?"
She shrugs, picking up her pace. "Don't worry. She had me by surprise last time, she won't now. Besides. She's unarmed."
I stop trying to chase her, watching as she disappears into the trees, escaping through the green.
I let a sigh out, my breath fogging into the air. Turning and walking back to camp, I watch Bale sit a bit inside the Cornucopia and tie his leg with a sterile white cloth, an open bottle of painkillers beside him. With the bandages and medicine, that's all we have. There really isn't anything left we can do but prop it up and hope the bleeding stops.
I bite my lip, twisting my knives in my gloved hands. "Does it hurt much?"
He smiles. "No, I'm fine. It wasn't that deep."
With a nod, I glance outside the Cornucopia. I can still see the gray windbreaker belonging to Elegance. It looks like he's just lying in the snow until I look at his dark gold hair and head too closely and see its odd angle.
"Stop looking."
I don't listen to Bale at first, the image of dead Elegance burning into my brain. I can't even see his face from this angle. But then I finally turn back to look down at Bale. My District ally is staring up at me, searching my expression.
"Let's not let end up like Porcelain and him," Bale finally says, his voice low and quiet. "Please."
I blink at him for a moment and then nod. I look down at the knives still in my hands, finally putting one back into my belt.
Bale tilts his head. A faint smile traces itself across his lips. "I'm still surprised you threw one at the girl from Nine."
I look into the side of the knife still in my hand, watching it reflect part of my face back, trying to pretend that I probably didn't aid in her death. A knife in the arm definitely stops a person from holding a sword to defend themself. "She cut your leg open, what was I supposed to do? Stand there and gape?"
"Well," he begins, "I mean... you haven't attacked anyone this far into the Games. I'm just a little stunned that you didn't give a second thought to using a knife."
I nod, thinking. "I guess. I mean... It's not like I don't-"
A familiar whirring sound breaks my sentence, and my head jerks up. The hovercraft.
Bale blinks, staring at the pale blue sky.
I wait a few seconds, hearing the claw scraping in the snow. I hope they take his mace too. It was probably put in this Arena specifically for him. I don't want to see it ever again. Then the whirring is back and silence returns moments later. Elegance is gone for good. I imagine his family and friends back in District 1 mourning him, his mentor staring at the screens in the Games Headquarters.
What do Emma and Finnick think?
I clear my throat, turning away from Bale. "I'm going to go check on Porcelain."
Bale grabs my wrist, stopping me from walking anywhere. "No, don't. I don't want you going out there to be alone with her."
I slip my hand out of his, adjusting my bracelet. "I'll be fine. She's injured. And, anyways, she won't kill one of her last two allies. Not after we just helped save her life."
Without waiting for a reply, I run towards the forest, my boots crunching through the snow. Pushing aside the evergreen branches, I listen to the birds singing, snow falling from the long limbs of the trees. The forest seems to stretch on forever, off into the distance. It seems like someone could just go walking for eternity, deciding to get lost in the forest. But it's impossible for me to get lost.
I rub my hand over the tracker in my arm, aware that cameras are probably watching me right now.
Suddenly, a scream reaches my ears. It's close to me, further in the forest - not loud enough for Bale to hear, but it's the kind of scream that melts my heart, and runs shivers down my spine.
I move closer, knife held tightly, ready to protect myself. Small cries start to echo. Two sets of footprints dotted with red line the snow. I follow them. Breaking through a patch of thinner trees, a group of larger ones lay ahead, towering over me. Through the evergreen needles, I can see two Tributes' clothing.
Getting on my knees, I slowly crawl through the snow, and peek into the patch. I see Porcelain, and then my eyes flicker to who she's with. It's Grainelle, tears running from her eyes. The gash on her face is bleeding, mixing with her tears as they run into her hair splayed beneath her head. Porcelain's sitting on her stomach, one of her boots crushing Grainelle's wrist into the ground. Grainelle's other arm - the one I injured - is left alone, blood from the knife wound already staining her shirt and windbreaker sleeves.
My breath hitches as she continues crying.
Porcelain twirls her knife, voice light. "I knew that Elegance had bad taste in weapons, but in people too? Well, what can you do!" She lifts a hand, tracing beneath the cut on her cheek. "You did this. Do you remember it?"
Grainelle struggles a bit, trying to lift up her arm trapped beneath Porcelain's foot. It does nothing.
"The Capitol can fix it after I win, but the fact remains - you did this. You seemed so confident when it happened. What? Why won't you answer me now? Remember when you did this, Nine?"
Grainelle starts crying even more, squeezing her eyes shut.
"And honestly? My idiot ally? You two deserved each other," Porcelain spits. "But he's dead. And I'm going to kill you too. I want you die so slowly that you can feel it. And I want you to remember my face, and what you did to me. And after that, I'm going to go back to my allies and kill them too."
I hold my breath, blood running cold, rooted to the spot where neither girl can see me.
"They won't even see it coming," Porcelain muses. "You've done me a favor, you really have. Now we can speed these Games up until the end so I can finally win. I'm so sorry you'll have to miss it."
Remembering how to move, I back up, keeping my breath as quiet as possible. Once I'm out of the small grove, I get up and I run. Back a ways, I can hear Grainelle screaming. I don't dare look behind me, for fear that I might see my ally chasing me.
When I reach camp, I find Bale eating an apple. He looks at me, concerned at how heavily I'm breathing and the frozen tears on my cheeks. "What happened?"
"Porcelain... Bale, she's torturing that girl to death and then she'll come kill us. We have to go, we have to go," I say quickly, trying to stop panting from the run back. My heart is thundering.
Bale swallows, glancing at where the girl from District 1 disappeared. "Are... are you sure?"
I nod. "Bale, please. I can't kill her, and you can't fight her with that leg. It wouldn't take her a minute to cut our throats, we have to leave."
He pauses for a moment, and then his expression softens. "Alright."
We rush to stuff bags full of supplies, trying to get food and blankets into them. Water isn't a problem, but we still pack some iodine tablets. There's no matches to take. We toss all the weapons we can't fit into our bags into the river, watching the metal sink.
"She has a spear hidden somewhere, and another dagger," I say.
Bale shrugs, zipping up his bag. "We can't look for them, she'll be back any minute. Let's go."
I nod, pulling my backpack on. My throwing knives are on my hips, and a quiver of arrows is on my back with the pack. Luna's bow is in my hand. For some reason I couldn't make myself throw it into the river. Bale and I both hurry away from camp, the sky a few shades darker than before. A flash of red catches my eyes and I pause. There's a pool of cold blood where Elegance had fallen. Right next to it is the sword Porcelain used to kill him.
Without even thinking, I reach down and pick up the weapon. Bale glances over at me once he notices I'm not behind him anymore and silently watches as I walk over to the river. I throw the sword as far into the river as I can, which isn't very far. But a sense of satisfaction fills me as I watch her blood-stained weapon splash and sink into the same river Porcelain tried to drown me in.
Bale and I take off again, moving as fast as his injured leg allows. For the third time since getting into the Arena, the cold doesn't bother me. Instead it's like there's fire in my veins. We're getting away from Porcelain. Without us, she'll be all alone. And Bale and I are safe from her. For now, at least.
"Where should we go?" Bale asks.
"To the mountains," I reply, not even hesitating. I remember Porcelain back in the Training Center. "Porcelain is afraid of heights."
Just as we reach the foot of the mountain range, a cannon goes off. I gulp, my steps faltering.
Grainelle is dead. She died in one of the worst ways, and I could've helped her. Now, Porcelain is probably returning to camp expecting to murder me and Bale, and any moment now, she'll return and find us and most of the supplies gone, and the camp ransacked. The thought of her looking around the empty, ravaged camp makes a dark happiness fill my mind. I know it's not good. But I don't exactly care.
It takes Bale and I a couple of hours to climb some of the ridges, pulling each other up, and trudging through snow. Trees line the mountains, a bit thicker than the trees down on the ground. Eventually we find a series of caves leading into the mountain.
"Bears and lions," I mumble, eyeing some of the caves.
Bale doesn't say a word but I can tell from his expression that it makes him nervous too. Finally, we find a little spot where no snow has fallen, underneath a ledge, near some trees I don't know the name of.
Setting everything down, I lay two tarps down, and I lay on one, pulling myself into a sleeping bag. I tie my hood on tight, and try not to think about where I am. No longer am I in a strong alliance of killers. There are six Tributes left in this Arena.
There were twenty-four, and now only six pawns remain. The Capitol has torn away eighteen of the others. Six left; five to go.
Five to go until the Capitol has their Victor.
Wow! It has been a long time since I updated, huh? Well, this chapter was hard to write and I'm glad I've finally uploaded it. I kept procrastinating. However, it'll probably get more interesting with the Arena and old allies, new allies.
I wonder what the other Districts are up to? Who do you want to win? Which one is your favorite?
I've been thinking over the ending, and I'm pretty sure it'll surprise you all. Remember, only one between Sea-Pearl and Bale can win, assuming that both of them make it to the end without getting sick or attacked, right?
Haha, well I will take suggestions on what you think should happen to each tribute. Who should I get rid of next? (Wow that sounds awful...) TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE! Let me know who you to see more of, if you want to see mutts, tributes, storms - yeah.
So, thanks to:
the only mary potter
kgeesy
Luv2Live Live2Luv
for reviewing on the last three chapters. THANKS! :D
Please review again, I love hearing from you! Tell me my answers to all the many questions! Wee-Hee!
Alright-y... Thanks for reading! Please, PLEASE review! Bye!
~Meghan
5/14/18: Wee-Hee!
Also, sorry for how violent this chapter was. I wanted to show how brutal the Arena is and how awful the violence is, but I didn't want to describe it all too much.