Alice Grace Silvin, District Eight female- 13
"You're going to win this Games over my dead body."
It should have been scarier than it was. At that point I guess I'd just seen too many scary things. We'd been in the graveyard for I didn't know how many weeks. I wasn't even entirely sure it had been weeks- it wasn't like the sun ever came out. I knew it felt shorter than a year. Anything else I was fuzzy on.
Anyway, I wasn't scared when Silver said it. It was such a darkly funny sentence from her that I actually smiled. Trust Silver to make the biggest threat in the world something wholesome. It was about the only wholesome thing in this place, all graves and monsters and dead bodies old and fresh. Just last night Mouse had… I didn't want to talk about it. But I was the only one left of us now. That meant she could bluntly state that she would do anything to make me in particular win.
Back home I was afraid of the dark in my room. I didn't think I'd be scared anymore when I got back. Even in the dark my room was nothing like this place. Every night I pretended to sleep so Silver wouldn't be worried. Every night I lay awake hearing the chains scraping along the floor and things that weren't wolves howling at the moon. I smelled the dust and the smell like I imagined a body would smell like. I smooshed Jack into my chest and it felt like just having something soft and safe in the world meant it was possible maybe someday the world could be safe for me again.
I thought it was just my imagination when I saw the man in the doorway. It was always so stupid in books when they said something was just someone's imagination. What kind of dummy can't tell the difference? It was different for me, though. Real and not-real weren't the same in this Arena. So I didn't sit up and shake Silver until the man's footsteps made really real-sounding crunching noises.
It wasn't fair as we ran from Jack. He was almost twice as tall as I was. I knew he was going to catch me and so did Silver. I wanted to wish that she would run away and save herself but I wasn't brave enough. I wanted her to stay with me even though I knew it would mean she would die.
"Keep looking ahead," Silver panted as we ran. I could barely see her face in the dark. "Just don't look back. No matter what."
I couldn't understand why it was taking Jack so long to catch me. My imagination overtook me and I looked back.
Silver was gone.
I stopped dead, not even thinking about how I was wasting Silver's diversion. I simply couldn't move. I couldn't even think past how brave it was, and how little I was worth it, since I was going to die anyway. The thought of death reminded me of-
A cannon sounded.
Silver was dead. I had no hope. After all I'd been through, my only thought was that I wanted to die nearby her.
I circled around so hopefully Jack wouldn't catch me right away and made my way backwards to where Silver must have gone. As I reached a clearing the clouds opened so the moon could shine through and let me see. The body on the ground was so much longer than Silver. The body was torn up and so was the grass around it. The blood looked black in the moonlight. Jack was dead. Jack was gone.
In a shadow near the body something stirred. I ran to Silver and drew back when I saw the slashes and stab wounds covering her whole body. She didn't rise or even try to when she saw me. I wasn't sure she could see me at all past all the blood. But her eye flickered and what was left of her face smiled a little before the second cannon sounded.
The anthem was playing. Why is the anthem playing? It wasn't until I saw the hovercraft that I understood. It seemed unbelievable. Jack had been the last one in the Arena with us. I hadn't even noticed. There had been so many people I'd lost count. But it was true. The Games were over. I wasn't going to die. The anthem was playing over Silver's dead body.
Silver is a virgin confirmed