Chapter Twenty-Four, Freezing

Silyah crawled out from her hiding place, holding on to Artemis's backpack. One of her hands went to her throat, where a tight ball was beginning to form. She had to get away! She gathered up the little strength left in her and looked away from Elon's crumbling figure. She forced her feet to drag her towards the bridge she had previously crossed, desperately wanting to get away from all the death scenes she had seen.

When she finally got to the suspended planks of wood, Silyah grabbed the two ropes that stood instead of rails and began the slow process of crossing the river, not even caring about being too visible. She had only taken a few steps when a morbid curiosity got her to look towards the rock. Her gaze then moved down to the river, where the water had already taken a red tint… Flashbacks from her nightmare attacked Silyah's mind.

After the initial shock, chaos erupted in Silyah's brain. She had caught glimpse of a navy blue coat in the water, just beside the place where the red hue in the river was the brightest. Despite her urge to scream in hysteria, she was unable to keep her gaze from the frozen water and the body inside of it, however, when hovercrafts appeared in the sky, she forced herself to look away.

The young woman went back to crossing the bridge, slipping multiple times, not even being bothered by the fact that the pale skin on her arms was turning into black and blue bruises. The adrenaline that had fed her energy earlier had now deserted Silyah, leaving the blue-eyed girl so exhausted and uneasy that she barely noticed her feet touching the other side of the river.

Nevertheless, as soon as she felt the cushion of the freshly fallen snow under her boots, she crumbled on the ground. She removed Artemis's bag from her shoulders and tossed it behind her. The girl muffled a scream of rage in the sleeves of her coat and leaned back against a tree before rubbing her shaky, frozen hands together in an attempt to obtain a little bit of warmth. Suddenly, she felt like running far away – as far as the arena's force field – and not give a thought about anything else, but she could not; she was alone, cold, scared and most importantly furious. Furious about having decided to split up from Silver and Novia, furious about being such a coward and more than furious to have be the spectator of Artemis's murder without having done anything to prevent it… If only he could have died without her having to witness it!

In one sharp movement, Silyah got up, turned to the tree behind her and kicked its trunk until her foot hurt, which was after approximately three kicks. Once again, she dropped to the ground, this time reaching in her coat's back pocket for a bed sheet and her water bottle. She wrapped the sheet around her shoulders, frowned, then sweared. The bottle was empty. Not even wanting to consider going to the river, the young woman grabbed a handful of snow from the ground, bringing it to her mouth. She let go of another swear as she took it the strange, almost chemical smell emanating from the cold ball in her hand. At that point, she wanted to burn the Capitol down, or better yet, freeze it to the very core; she would have to go fill up her empty water bottle in the river in which had bled Artemis Fowl. Well, it was not as if she was not already tasting blood; it was filling her mouth because of how hard she had bitten the side of her cheeks in order to choke her screams.

Silyah girl kicked the ground as she got up and walked to the river. She took a branch from beside the stream and tried to make a hole in the ice covering it. If her technique was not successful, at least it had the power to calm her rage down. At one point, she threw the branch in the middle of the river and picked up a rock. It would be much more effective than a stupid twig.

Each time she hit the ice, she thought of the District 2 boy's face. You're just as bad as him, said a hateful voice in her head. You are a murderer too; there is blood on your hands and over your name! Elon's face was soon replaced by her own.

Killer. Murderer. Assassin.

Silyah only realized that she had actually made a hole in the ice when she noticed that her sleeves were soaked up to her elbows. She shook her head and looked back in the water, where she saw Artemis's pale, blood-covered face… His accusatory and hate-filled eyes, which had been haunting Silyah ever since she had her nightmare… She shook the vision away, grabbing her head with her two hands. She had always known that her dream would make her go crazy after Artemis's death.

Silyah starred intensely at the water before her, for if she closed her eyes, she would see herself killing her District's male tribute over and over and over again…

Her fingernails were almost digging in her scalp when she caught a glimpse of red in a sea – or in this case, river – of white.

Silyah found her water bottle beside her, giving it a long look before putting it back in her coat's back pocket. She would have to find another water source; she was not able to stand the sight of the thin film of scarlet moving with the current of the river.

She backed away, all too aware that she would not be able to sleep peacefully tonight. She had killed somebody and watched way too many people die from up close.

She walked back to the place where she had tossed Artemis's backpack. Perhaps she could get something useful from his fall… She opened the bag and found various items made of copper and stone. Very peculiar… she thought. So that was how the Ice Prince had spent his arena days…

All of a sudden, a "thump" sound brought Silyah's attention back to the river. Something had gotten stuck in the clusters of the water current's shattered ice pieces. Something, which thanks to the flow of the stream, was hitting against the river's icy edges… A body.

Effie was once again at the edge of her seat, as Claudius Templesmith and Caesar Flickerman were describing what they had baptized The Second Bloodbath.

After the deaths of Moss and Thea in the morning, the kills kept on coming and they all appeared to have been caused by a split in the alliances, as well as a strange need for revenge.

"Just look at this! Scpenser Ross, hoping to save his own life by getting Artemis to move." Claudius was watching his monitor with wide eyes.

"He certainly never saw Geneva coming!" Caesar wore an expression similar to his co-host's.

The scene then switched to Silyah parting ways with Silver and Novia, shortly followed by Novia attacking Elon. "That was not a good idea…" Caesar had made sure that his tone had reflected just the right amount grief; foreshadowing Novia's imminent fate.

"Speaking of strange behaviors…" Claudius placed a hand on his chin, giving himself a thoughtful look as the scene changed.

Effie was gripping the armrests of her chair with such force that her fingers ached. Geneva was after Artemis; her axe ready to be raised at any second.

Beetee adjusted his glasses to make sure that what he saw was not a trick from his vision. As Geneva threatened him, Artemis looked extremely confident despite his bad shape… Then, with one simple order from the boy, the feline District 1 girl became all smiles and sweetness.

"How did he…" began the mentor, not even finishing his question.

"Perhaps the District 1 girl has taken pity on the boy. He is clearly struggling to keep his eyes opened and his feet in the right tracks," suggested Caesar almost as if he had heard Beetee's enquiry. What the announcer did not say, however, was that he was certain that his theory was far from the truth. After all, everybody in Panem had watched Geneva ask Artemis how he would like to die before jumping right in Team Ice Prince.

"Well, Caesar, you've got to admit that the situation could not have gotten any worst than death for Artemis Fowl." Claudius looked at a file on which featured the medical records of every tribute of the 80th Hunger Games. Quickly, he scrolled down to Artemis's section. "Since the beginning of the Games he got himself a knife in the shoulder, a blood infection from the water he tended his wound with, he fell down a cliff and thus suffered from many minor injuries and most likely, a broken foot or ankle. For this year, he has the longest list of unfortunate injuries and by far. As Scpenser Ross said, the kid will not let himself die!"

The District 3 team shook their heads in unison. Artemis was probably the most accident-prone kid they had ever sent to the Hunger Games, but he also had the advantage of being the most tenacious one.

The giant screen on which the District 3 team watched the Games now displayed Geneva finding a river and a terrified, wide-eyed Silyah.

Beetee almost felt the need to close his eyes, knowing all too well that Silyah was not a fighter… Judging by the fact that Geneva was running towards the brunette girl and by the advanced condition of Artemis's state, today could be the very day of both the District 3 tributes' loss…

Yet, to everyone's surprise, Silyah did not let Geneva get to her. Effie could not hide her grin; she nearly felt like clapping as she saw how the young District 3 girl had handled the situation. Apparently, Silyah had decided to stay calm and let Geneva run straight into her last spear, digging it in her own catlike body.

Ilranor and Xarone hugged each other in joy, each clinking their drinks with Effie's, but on the other side of the room, Beetee simply kept on watching the screen, a serious expression on his face. Technically, Silyah was not undefeated yet. She still had to face the fact that she had just become an active Hunger Games tribute; beside her official picture would now appear Geneva's name as her victim. Beetee grunted. He knew that Silyah did not handle deaths very well… That would be a great weakness to be exploited by the Gamemakers later on…

"Now, watch carefully because the next deaths happened nearly simultaneously. I have no idea as to how the tributes got to manage their time like that; it's truly unbelievable," said Caesar, captivated as the image on the screen was split in two, showing all the action.

The District 3 team glued their eyes on the right part of the television on which a feeble-looking Ice Prince was trying to get some water from a frozen river. Behind him was a mysteriously euphoric-looking Elon, armed with a thick and pointed icicle.

This is it, thought Beetee. No more boy tribute for this year.

Elon dug the icicle in the Ice Prince's head.

Effie let out a high-pitched squeal of horror, matching Ilranor's. Now, a terrible feeling hovered around the escort. Once again, she asked herself why she cared so much about her team this year. Maybe it was because they were the only ones who had ever shown genuine kindness to her… She quickly shrugged away of the alien feeling as she thought that the Ice Prince had at least lived up to his name. He had stayed absolutely fashionistic during his final scene; the frost in his hair, the pale skin and the one line of scarlet blood dripping down his temple… A very dramatic composition…

Then, still on the right side of the screen, the audience could see Silver blowing a poisonous dart right in Elon's neck, hitting his artery… However, just before the dart punctured Elon's throat, the left side of the screen caught Beetee's attention. On it was the young Crelin Spooks, dying to the hands of Harbor Pearl…

"Looks like it was not a lucky day for District 2," shrugged Claudius.

"Indeed, pal. On the other hand, it seemed to be one for Silver; very impressive shooting range for Ms. Canemon!" added Caesar approvingly.

"Well, dear audience, that was it for The Second Bloodbath. So many deaths in not so much time… I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone to update their poll pages considering that now only eight tributes remain… For now," said Claudius as the screen showed Silyah kicking a tree in rage.

Effie was glad that Silyah had survived the killings, but she could not help but to be exasperated at the moment. "That is mahogany," she sighed, pointing to the tree Silyah was fighting and clearly losing against.

Beetee gave her a look. Was she truly worried about the tree? Silyah was having a mental breakdown – which Beetee knew would have come eventually – while Artemis was nowhere to be seen… Yet…

If only Silyah knew… thought Beetee.