Ava is a walking trigger warning, but her thoughts are especially unhealthy in this chapter. This is unreliable narration to the max.
Ava Hanson POV
Venus was dead. Her blood wasn't flowing and she was cold. Otherwise I wouldn't have been sure. I got up and stood over her. Someone had sent her a death mask. It was like a thin sheet of bronze that covered her face. It was appropriate for her in life and even more so in death. She looked hollow, like a husk. It reminded me more of roadkill than a human body.
I went across the room to tend to my wounds. The most serious was the hole in my side, but even that wasn't as bad as it could have been. Venus' knives were small enough to throw, meaning that the blades were only two inches long. They were fatal if they hit a vital area, but my hip was mostly full of bones. I was all torn up and I was surely bleeding internally, but it wouldn't have ruptured any organs. I bound the wound with a strip from my shirt and hoped my sponsors, or Lottie's and Marley's, would come through.
I didn't want to ever go near Venus again. I didn't want to leave our building either, though. Knowing things ike Venus were real made me wonder what else was out there in the dark. Besides, there was something I had to do. It was horrible, but I couldn't let my allies down. I limped back across the room and stood next to Venus. I would have covered her with something, but I was afraid if I couldn't see her, she'd move. I forced myself to support Marley's head with one had as I cut her down. She thudded down like a brick and I tried to slow her fall. I wiped as much of the blood off of her as I could and pushed her next to Lottie. I pulled Lottie so she was flat on her back. However the hovercraft was going to collect them, it wouldn't find them as they were when Venus left them. It would take them both at once, like the friends they were.
Whyte Roberts POV
There were two possibilities. The first was that the Party Girls killed Venus and two of them died somewhere along the way, leaving one of them behind and probably wounded. The second was that I was alone in the Arena with Venus. The cannons went off after the Anthem had already played, so I wouldn't know until the sun went down. If I waited until then, I would know who I was fighting. If it was a Party Girl, I could go and find her. If it was Venus, she'd probably find me first.
I'd never been so close to victory before. The end of the Games was only hours away. The Arena was large enough for either of us to lose the other, but the Gamemakers wouldn't let that happen. The woods were already off-limits. No doubt they'd shoo us closer until we crossed paths.
I wondered which of the girls it was, if it wasn't Venus. Lottie would be the hardest to kill. She was built like Floki, and I never could have fought him. Marley seemed shallow, but I'd seen what she did in her first Games. That girl's head was like a dropped egg.
Ava was my best bet. She was so hesitant and willowy. If the Gamemaker hadn't reset her cloned body to a normal weight, she'd have blown away by now. She hadn't killed anyone in the Bloodbath, and that was the only time I'd seen her. I couldn't count on fighting her, though. It was unlikely she'd survived Venus.
I wanted to win, but I didn't want the final fight to come. Before, I'd only killed in the heat of battle. I hadn't meant to kill Charmaine. She surprised me, and I only meant to stop her from attacking me. Diamond was a clear case of self-defense, and it still bothered me. I wondered what Vera would think of me and how she would have reacted in the same situations. The plan was that she'd win her Games and we'd both be Victors. That meant she'd have to do the same thing I did, but I still felt like she was judging me from beyond the grave. For this final fight, we were both seeking each other out with clear intent. Both of us wanted to murder the other. It wasn't out of panic or surprise. There was no way we could justify this one.
Ava Hanson
I didn't know whether I should never be scared again or whether I should never stop being scared. Venus was real, and I'd killed her. There were things so evil I couldn't comprehend them, and I was strong enough to kill them. Every second I was afraid another boogeyman would lay its cold hand on my shoulder, and I was scared of myself knowing I could fight back. Was that was it was like to be Pray? To know you could kill anyone you saw and the only thing stopping you is yourself?
She must have been so proud when she saw it. It was a fearful thing to earn Pray's pride. I had to become more like her to do it, and it was so far from what I used to be. Everyone in the country saw it. I must have looked like she did when she dropped from a tree and tore a boy apart. Now I understood why Kazuo was still scared of her. But that's what I was now.
I was proud, too, and that also scared me. I'd found strength I thought I didn't have. I'd thought I was weak. I never had the courage to push my body far enough. I always shied away from true slenderness. I rationed food and I burned all the calories I could, but I could never let go of the last horrible shreds of fat that buried my body. I hid behind gluttony and beauty was always out of my reach. I surely wasn't beautiful now, pale with blood loss and covered in slashes. But I was successful. I saw something through all the way to the end. I killed Venus. No one else could do that. No one else ever would.
I felt like getting in some more reflection before the last battle, which should be up next. Ava got sponsored armor like Cato wore sometime after she killed Venus. She didn't get any medicine, though.