Chapter Thirteen, Breaking the Ice

The shattering sound of a cannon rang in Silyah's ears. Two tributes were now remaining. She ran across the iced ground, her nearly slipping over her boots. Part of her was hoping that the person who had just died had been the right one…

Too soon for her own taste, she began to see some crimson spots of red on the previously immaculate snow. Her heart was pounding in her ears, along with couplets of a song she had once heard.

Are you, are you

Coming to the tree

Where they strung up a man they say murdered three.

She saw the hovercraft lift a body in the air. Her throat tightened. It was not the right one…

Are you, are you

Coming to the tree

Where I told you to run so we'd both be free.

"Silyah?" A male voice came from behind some frost-covered trees, where a raven-haired boy peeked out of the forest. "Silyah," he hurried his pace until he reached her. There was a cut on his left cheek; his red blood was dripping on the snow. "Are you alright?"

With her back turned to the young man, Silyah let go of a frozen tear, which ran across her cheek and shattered on the ground when she spun to look at him. "Artemis?"

The young man's pale lips formed a smile. "You're alive," for the time it took to say it, he truly looked happy. "I was afraid Caskar had killed you already."

"You don't get it, don't you?" She whispered, choking on her words.

"Get it?"

I would suggest you don't get too friendly with Artemis… I have noticed how you two act together… Beetee's words joined the chorus of The Hanging Tree in Silyah's brain. The girl slowly walked towards Artemis. She was shaking just like she had during the Reaping.

Artemis looked at her, "Is something wrong?"

More frozen tears escaped Silyah's eyes… She threw her arms around Artemis and cried on his shoulder. "We are the last two standing, Arty," she buried her face in his coat, not caring about the blood dripping from his cheek.

Artemis stared at her. "We are?" A weak frown spread across his pale features.

"They just took Caskar's body."

Are you, are you

Coming to the tree

Where the dead man called out for his love to flee.

Silyah tightened her grip on Artemis, her arms around his neck.

"Silyah?" His tone had changed, he now sounded worried. "What are you –"

Silyah pulled Artemis even closer, the movement sending them both to the ground.

For a second, the fresh snow flew into the cold air, forming a white cloud around the two tributes before falling back down, covering Artemis's jet-black hair with iced crystals.

Silyah's fingers brushed his hair, the outline of her old and familiar smile on her lips. She leaned closer to him; their faced not even inches apart… Her lips were about to meet his… Her hands framed the boy's face, slowly moved down to his jaw and then to his neck. Her thumbs lightly flew above his adam's apple.

Are you, are you

Coming to the tree

Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me.

Artemis's irises got smaller as his eyes grew wider. "Silyah… What are you doing?" He gasped. His skin seemed to lose a few shades as if to match the snow, even if the blood from his cheek now was coloring it dark crimson.

The girl's tears fell on his cheeks, the salt in them burning in his wound. Silyah's shaking hand closed around Artemis's throat. She shifted her weight for it to be concentrated on the boy's chest, just over his lungs.

Artemis moved again and again, against the weight pressing down on his rib cage, making breathing worse than it already had been. He locked his hands around hers and with despair, tried to force them away from his neck artery.

"I'm so sorry," she mouthed, fighting against the resistance coming from Artemis.

Artemis had long ago realized that if things ever came down to this, Silyah would have had no problem killing him off, but he had never dared to imagine that she would actually do it.

He used the little strength he hoped he might possess in the task of removing her hands from his neck.

Silyah was really shaking now; both from the panic and from the pressure she was trying to apply on Artemis's throat. She could not even see his face anymore due to the tears filling up her vision and it was better that way.

The boy moved for an instant, though it was clear he was losing energy and then, it ended. Artemis had tensed for one second, just before his limbs had grown lifeless. His hands lost their grip on Silyah's and fell on the snow. The rhythmic beat that once could have been felt in his chest slowed down dramatically until the one that took it away could not feel it anymore.

Silyah collapsed on Artemis's body. The ice was already starting to freeze his corpse.

The girl felt numb and empty; devoid of humanity. Still shaking like a leaf, she rolled away from him and got to her feet. She wiped away her tears with her bloody hands and stared at her victim.

Artemis's eyes were frozen, just like the rest of his body was about to be. His gaze seemed locked into her's, his last look still captured in the blue and hazel colour of his irises. His lips already sported a faint shade of blue. He looked like a doll, unmoving and cold.

Silyah swallowed back the bile that had climbed up from her stomach. His accusatory stare was piercing her soul, if she still had any, that is.

The next minute felt like the rest of eternity, and maybe it had been. It had started snowing again; the white crystals falling from the sky were now slowly forming a soft sheet over the raven-haired boy. Soon, his skin would be too cold to even allow the smallest of the flakes to melt against it. The short red line on his cheek seemed so colorful in the ocean of white… The frost on Artemis's body was an exact replica of the one he had once painted on his arm… It sickened Silyah to watch him there, lifeless, staring and utterly beautiful.

She looked down to her bloody hands and attempted to wipe them clean on her snow-covered coat. Her hysterical cries resonated in the empty arena. "I'm so sorry!" She screamed frantically, as if she was trying to remove the air from her own lungs. "I'm so sorry!" She wept. The blood would not go away, reminding the girl of a character from a seventeenth century play she had read a long time ago.

As if the weight of the whole world suddenly fell on her shoulders, the girl crumpled to the ground. "There could only be one winner!" She screamed to her judgmental conscience as she rocked back and forth on the cold mattress of ice and snow.

She looked back at Artemis's body and crawled towards it. She could not stand to look into his eyes. For the last time, her fingers brushed the boy's body. She closed his eyelids. Not being able to see his hate filled eyes slightly soothed the girl. The snow on Artemis's face had partially melted with her touch. "I'm shattering the ice once again," she whispered, partly to herself, partly to the body. "Goodnight, Ice Prince."

Are you, are you

Coming to the tree

Where they strung up a man they say murdered three

Strange things did happen here

No stranger would it be

If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.

Silyah got up and turned away. The snow gently falling in her hair almost looked like some type of jewelry… A victor's crown, perhaps… The last cannon shot of the 80th Hunger Games filled the silence and echoed in the girl's mind as she walked away, leaving Artemis's limp body behind.

Silyah woke up as a horrible, window-shattering scream resonated in her eardrums. She sat straight up in her bed. Her hands were clenched so tightly that her long nails dug in her palms. She had only realized that she had been the one screaming when her lungs had become empty of oxygen. Panting, she tried to relax her fingers and looked down at her hands to see if there was any blood that was not hers hidden somewhere between the folds.

Artemis had been in the kitchen – he had woken up a little while ago to get a glass of water – when the scream startled him. Taken aback, the boy had lost his grip on the glass of water, shattering it on the ground. The scream had unmistakably been Silyah`s

Artemis therefore decided to walk over the girl's room and gently knocked on her door. "Silyah?"

There came no answer.

Artemis frowned, though he despised entering a room without consent, the scream had made him forget his manners. Slowly, he opened the door and stepped inside. "Silyah, are you alright?"

She was clearly awake, but she did not turn to face him. Silyah was looking right in front of her, still breathing heavily. She had heard Artemis's question, but the realization that the Artemis from her nightmare had spoken the same one had rendered her speechless.

Still not getting an answer, Artemis came over to her. He almost felt concerned… The girl was awfully quiet, as silent as an Avox… "Silyah?"

Her eyes were huge; she tried hard not to blink, for every time she did, she saw him, frozen on the ground. Her heart was beating so fast it might as well have found a way out of her chest. "Artemis…" she whispered with a raspy voice caused by her scream.

The raven-haired boy sat at the edge of her bed. "Yes?"

She faced him and studied his features carefully, beginning with the angles of his face, then the colors on his skin, which were all suggesting that he was alive. Finally, her eyes found his. There was no hate in them, only a shade of worry.

"I heard you scream… Is something wrong?" Artemis kept on asking, and he would not stop before she gave some sort of reply, audible or not.

She cleared her aching throat, wondering if her voice would crack if she spoke.

As if driven by an invisible force, Silyah grabbed Artemis's hand and felt for his pulse. Avoiding to touch, or even look at his neck, she moved closer to him to hear his heart beat.

Artemis blinked. What was the girl doing? He did not ask out loud, though; something had clearly shaken Silyah, so he simply let her calm down. He did, however, wonder what could have made her behave like that…

It was not until she was one hundred percent sure that Artemis was still alive that she spoke. "I'm fine for now…" she murmured while reluctantly letting go of his hand. Well, that was awkward, she thought as she sat on the edge of her bed, side by side with Artemis.

The young man looked at her. "It's strange, seeing you so dark minded... You always sound so positive…"

"I thought that I could handle this whole situation with calm, but apparently, the truth ended up slapping me in the face."

Artemis nodded. "I know that feeling."

Silyah wanted to tell him that she was not even afraid about her own fate in the arena, that she was afraid for him and what the Hunger Games could make her do, but she could not let the words slip from her mouth. Instead, she let her shoulders sink and looked at Artemis, trying not to let her eyes get watery.

The boy tried to read her face. For once, it was not exactly an easy task. "It's late, you need sleep. We can't have you looking tired for your interview with Caesar…"

"I don't want to have anymore nightmares…" She was about to add about you, but she bit her tongue. "You'll have to get some sleep too… I hope your ear drums will forgive me for my scream," she said with a touch of her good old humor.

"My ear drums are fine…" Suddenly, a light smile appeared on Artemis's lips. "I'll be right back…"

Silyah raised an eyebrow and the boy left.

What was she going to do about Artemis? What was she going to do about herself? She felt that her dream was a message from her subconscious, telling her that the arena could have to power to influence her, change her and bring the dark part of her personality on the front stage… She wrapped her bed sheet around her to stop her shivering.

Artemis then appeared at her door, carrying two cups of a warm liquid.

The corners of Silyah's mouth rose slightly. "Is that..?"

"Yes, it's hot chocolate…" Artemis sat down on the bed giving her a cup. With a devious grin, he dipped his index into a spot of whipped cream and wiped it on her nose. "Cream-nose," he simply said. After reflection, Artemis truly wondered what had been going on in his brain; this sudden friendliness was so unlike him.

Nevertheless, this bizarre act had had the power to make her smile as she squinted her eyes and removed the cream. "Thanks." Resting her shoulder on his, Silyah sighed and shamelessly made a small movement as Artemis took a sip from his drink, causing the boy's hand to jump. "It's the return of the mustache," she said, clearly cheered up the liquid on Artemis's upper lip. Memories were so precious in times like these… "Now we are equal, again."

Artemis lowered the cup, giving her a look, raising an eyebrow. Somehow, it did not look as scary considering the line of chocolate about his mouth.

"Sorry, I had to do it," she laughed quietly. She rested back against him and this time, she did not move until her own cup was emptied.

"Go to sleep now, or Effie will be going frantic tomorrow," said Artemis.

"Thanks again," she gave him a sweet smile and placed her cup on her nightstand. "Good night Arty," she said before wondering why she had used the nickname she had heard in her dream.

Artemis had been halfway to the door when she called him by his sobriquet. It almost made him tense up. His eyes moved back to her with a slight confusion, then he seemed to get back to his senses. "You're most welcome."

Silyah fell back against her pillow and fell in a dreamless sleep in less than five minutes.

Artemis stepped outside, closing the door gently after him. He felt somewhat guilty for putting one of Beetee's sleeping pills in her drink, but the girl clearly needed to sleep. Dreamlessly.

After briefly wondering down the District 3 apartment, Artemis sat down on the couch of the living room. A thought had struck him. This moment he had just spent with Silyah was most likely the last nice one they would share. Tomorrow would be the interviews and then, the arena would be waiting for them with deadly, opened arms.

Through the big window, the citizens of the Capitol were still buzzing around despite the late hour. For the most part, they were probably all waiting for the moment of the first kill…

Artemis leaned back, sighing. For some reason, he really wanted to know what had shaken Silyah. He tried to think of a reason that could horrify the girl who could always see the good side of almost every situation. It did not even strike his mind that he might have been the reason.

Slowly, Artemis's eyelids started to feel heavier and soon, the slim teenage boy was asleep on the couch.