Elena Cortes, District Five (16)
My necklace had a little metal key charm on it. "The key to my heart", Esther had said, hand on her chest solemnly. "Not really, though. I found it on the ground by the railroad tracks. I like to think there's someone out there with a box they can't open and they think about me."
That was one of the reasons I loved Esther. She was so romantic and dreamy. Anything could be magic to her. She said she came up to me the day we met because she saw me and knew we were soulmates. How did she know, I asked? Apparently romantic people can just tell by looking at you.
I wonder if it's true you only get one soulmate. It wasn't likely I'd ever see Esther again. At least I wouldn't have to go on living alone. Esther would have said I would find a way to survive because of my love. I did love Esther and she was most of the reason I hadn't already laid down and died, but it took more than that to win the Games. My love was a lot stronger than my body. Just once I hoped Esther could let a dream go and move on. When I was gone I wanted her to find someone else.
The grass ahead of me burst into motion and I thought the time must have come. The girl from Three appeared through the swaying waves of grass, arms flailing across her face as she looked behind her. She saw me and stopped dead. I stared at her wide-eyed from where I sat half-reclined on the ground, both of us transfixed by the other and trembling with the urge to run and a terror that kept us frozen. I had no idea who she was. I might have passed her on the street and never thought about her again. But in the Arena there was no such thing as a passing encounter. I was sure I was looking at someone who wanted to kill me and it didn't occur to me until hours later that she thought the same thing.
The sound of a howling dog split the air behind the girl, made all the worse by how human it sounded. The Careers, or at least Elver, were chasing the girl and treating it like nothing but a sport hunt. The girl looked once more at me and charged off diagonally past me like she was still afraid of me. I stood up and ran the other way, away from both her and Elver. It would all come down to which trail he and his allies followed.
Moments later a scream, an abortive beg for mercy, and a cannon gave me the answer. I stumbled to a stop and almost fell into a shallow puddle hidden by the grass. Before I kept running, afraid the Careers would follow my trail now that theirs had ended, I filled the bottle I'd gotten at the Cornucopia.
The Careers never came for me that day. The strange smell in the air, followed by the angry dark cloud in the sky, came for all of us and we all ran. Even the strange giant plant-eating beasts the Gamemakers had created fled like scared children. They must have crushed some of us. It was probably a better way to go than the fire. If the Careers had come for me, instead of running closer to where the fire started in their pursuit of the girl, I guess they would have lived.
The Gamemakers never sent rain for the fire. It fizzled out on its own, leaving more than half of the Arena burned-over or at least singed and flecks of soot and ash circling with each breeze. As long as I lived I would never forget the staggering power of fire. The tiny flames of a campfire or an oven didn't compare to the monstrous animal an uncontrolled wildfire became. But it was still water that ended the Games. The fire left only Olivier and Tariq in the Arena with me. Most of the puddles were evaporated by the fire. I knew people died quickly without water. I didn't know it could take less than two days.