Author's Note
I do not own the Hunger Games.
d8f
Her cannon fires on the fourth day.
Perhaps the Gamemakers have grown bored of their little alliance shying away from other tributes and scavenging for food, because she falls, not to another tribute, but to an arena trap as the small fox and squirrel like creatures they have seen over the past few days suddenly grow vicious with fangs and claws.
d10m
It feels like reality in that moment.
He watches her blood stain the dark ground and screams.
She slaps a hand over his mouth and drags him away.
d2m
"Top twelve."
They grin and laugh and high five. They're a quarter of the remaining tributes, not a half like the Careers usually are, but it's a good position.
Of course, he wants to be higher than that.
They all do.
But only one of them can have it.
He sees the look the girl from One gives them.
D8m
She's gone but he stays with the pair from Ten, because they're better company that nothing.
The boy's a naïve nightmare, but there's a hardness to the girl that reminds him of his older sister.
So they eat together that night and he tries not to think of her screams.
d4m
He never wanted to enter the arena, but he's here now, with a girl no older than his brother.
They've been hunting, but they've found nothing, so they stop as night draws in.
"I wish I knew you'd be okay," she says as she curls up at his side.
He frowns. "What's that meant to mean?"
She falls asleep with a smile on her lips.
He sits watch until the night is dark and the moon is high.