"No. I-" I look up then, out at the audience and every person on the edge of their seat. I think of everyone back home who is watching this
The crowd starts screaming. I shoot Caesar one last smile, and his face looks slack with shock. I take a sigh of relief because I don't have to answer any more questions, and I know I won't have to see-or deal with- Gale's rage and fury, because I won't be going home.
At least I don't plan on it. If I do, great. Right?
I stand, shaking, in the room that is going to bring me up to the arena. My eyes are glued to the glass cylinder and I can't eat the food at my side because I already feel like I am going to sick up everywhere.
"30 seconds. Please enter the tube." A women's voice says from a hidden speaker somewhere. I slowly start walking towards the tube as it counts down the seconds.
20.
I don't want to
15
Someone help me.
10.
Grandma, I love you.
5.
Peeta, I'll miss our odd conversations.
2. Twelve, you will always be my home.
1.
Gale, I'll always love you.
The glass door slides in front of me and seals shut. My breaths get deeper and shallower as I feel like the oxygen has been cut off. And then I'm rising, and I can see the sky, but it's all so bright, and then I can't see anything but white.
I squint my eyes shut and listen to the nothingness around me. I hear no birds, no wind, no nothing. All I can feel is the chilly nip of the air. I force my eyes open and look around me. Another damn countdown starts, and I can see the large, golden cornucopia in the middle of what looks to be a run down city square. The buildings are crumbling cinder blocks and wooden poles. Most of them are missing roofs and at least one wall.
There isn't a single house that's not ruined in some way. I zip my jacket up higher to try and keep out the cold. I look at the piles of weapons. I don't see a cleaver or any big knives, but I do see an axe. I look quickly at the tributes around me.
Didn't Haymitch say something about staying away from the blood bath? I look around the ground closer to me, and can see a simple satchel down a little ways from me.
Just as the gong sounds I decide to go for that, and jump off my pedestal, sprinting towards the little brown shoulder bag. I sling it quickly over my head and take off towards a building that looks to have more support. I run through the old… House? Is that what this is? I can't tell, because it's all rotting. I end up in a kitchen, and spot a frying pan hanging on the wall. I quickly grab that and hide in the corner.
I slowly get my breath back, and maybe a little bit of my sanity, and then I can hear footsteps. And they're getting closer. I grip the frying pan closer to my body and wait with baited breath and wide eyes for whoever it is to come around the corner.
GPOV
Posy sits in my lap, crying softly, and gripping my arm tightly. I get that this girl saved her from having to be in the Games, but I don't get why she's so worked up over her. Call me heartless, I don't care.
I'm not really paying the screen much attention, but then Posy gasps, and grips my arm so tight her nails are digging into my skin. I look up just in time to see the boy from five come around the corner, spear up and at the ready. He doesn't seem to have noticed the small redhead, and that's his downfall.
Aces quickly raises her pan and hits him on the head. He instantly drops, and lets out a moan so she hits him again. A cannon goes off and she drops the pan, covering her mouth with her hand. I can see her chest heaving and tears rolling down her face. I roll my eyes.
APOV
Oh my God. Oh my God. I just killed him. Oh my God.
"Deep breaths, deep breaths." I mutter to myself, sliding down the wall and sitting in the corner with my knees to my chest and my hands on my head.
My eyes are clouding up with more tears, but I wipe them away before standing up. I take a deep breath and then quickly grab the bloody pan, before running from the room. I blink in the sun before taking off down the road. Once I find another empty place I sit down in an old closet and look through my bag, put my hair up, anything to keep my mind away from what I've just done.
There's an empty water bottle and some matches, and a blanket. That's pretty much it. I take off my belt and wrap it securely around the door handles so that it can't be opened, and then I wrap myself in the blanket, instantly feeling a little warmer. I huddle in the dark corner and try to calm down. I've survived the bloodbath. I've survived the first hour. I'll survive my first kill. I won't let this take me out.
Maybe I really do have a shot at getting home.
GPOV
I scoff as she falls asleep in the old closet thing. Posy turns around and glares at me.
"What? That's probably the stupidest thing she could do." I say, rolling my eyes.
"Show her some respect, Gale. That'd be me if it wasn't for her." Posy scolds.
"Yeah, well you'd probably do better than her." I say, and she hits me on the head.
"Gale! That doesn't matter! She threw her life away!" She says, tears forming in her eyes. She's so sensitive sometimes, I swear.
"Posy's right, Gale." My mother says, "Besides. You should be happy that someone likes you so much they'd be willing to die in place for your sister so that you don't have to lose her."
"Oh, come on, Mom. You really believed that? It was obviously a lie. She just wanted more sponsors."
"Then why would she volunteer for me? Why are you being so cold?" Posy asks, disappointment on her face.
"Because she's a townie, Posy! There's no way she was telling the truth. She probably just wanted the shot at glory, and if she dies, well, she still gets glory because she died in your place." I say angrily, moving Posy and standing up.
"Where are you going?" Mother asks me.
"I'm going to bed." I say, and that's exactly what I do. I fell asleep almost instantly, but it wasn't for longer than five or ten minutes. I wake up with a start at hearing an ear splitting shriek. I'm up and out of the bed and in the living room within seconds.
"What happened? Is everyone alright?" I demand.
APOV
I woke up after hearing someone talking to somebody else in one of the rooms over.
Not again.
I quickly unwrap the tie and put my belt back on, and put the blanket back in the satchel before standing ready with the pan. Someone throws open the door to the room that's connected to my hiding spot, and two people come walking in. I can't tell who they are, but I think at least one is female. I try to keep my breathing quiet, and I exhale in relief when they leave.
I should leave too.
I slowly and soundlessly open the doors and sneak out, poking my head around the corner of the doorway from which they just left. I'm about to make a run for it when a girl shrieks from down the hall, and I jump, my eyes wide.
"Run!" Someone yells, and I decide if they're running, so should I. So I book it out of there, colliding with the girl from earlier, knocking us both to the floor. The boy from eight runs by us and out of the building, and I try to stand up. The blonde latches onto my leg and pulls me down while also pulling herself up.
And then I hear it.
It sounds like nails on a chalkboard and some type of dying animal. I scramble up again and shove the blonde girl forward.
"Run!" I yell at her, hearing the thing come out into the hallway. I chance a look behind me and thank my lucky stars that I didn't just soil my pants on national TV. A giant black, bird like thing with rubbery skin is at the end of the hall, stretching it's wings.
"OH MY CRAP, RUN FASTER!" I yell, shoving her around the corner and then grabbing her hand and dragging her behind me because she's going way too slow.
"IS IT COMING?!" She yells back.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK?!" I reply before finally running out the empty doorway and into the sun once again. The boy stands outside and gives me a funny look.
"I can't believe you left me in there, Ryan!" The blonde yells, shoving the guy-Ryna- in the chest. He doesn't even flinch.
"Um, I think we should continue running…" I start, before screaming and rolling out of the way of the mutt that I now see as a large bat.
The blonde ducks and covers her head with her arms, but Ryan isn't so quick. THe bat snatches him up by the throat and carries him off. We watch with wide eyes as the bat takes to the darkening sky, and soon we can hear his cannon firing.
"Oh my God!" The blonde cries, and starts to stand up. She's about to run off when she turns back to me.
"...Allies?"
I look up at her, confused as to what she's saying.
"I mean, you did kinda just save my life back there instead of just tripping me and running." She explains.
"Um… Sure." I say, grabbing her hand and letting her help me up.
"I'm Rebekah, but you can call me Bekah. You're Aces, right?" She asks. I nod and look around us.
"Where should we go? It's getting dark and now I'm not so sure it's safe to be inside or outside." I say softly. Bekah shrugs.
"I have no id-" She starts, but then the sky lights up and the anthem starts.
First is the pair from three, and then the boy from four, both from five. I close my eyes tight when they show the picture of the boy I killed. None from six, boy from seven, and Ryan. The girl from eleven is dead, and then that's the end of the list. That's only eight. We are so screwed.
Bekah and I find an overhang behind one of the buildings, and wrap ourselves up together in the blanket that I realize now must be insulated. I'm so happy I listened to what I think Haymitch said and skipped the blood bath and grabbed that satchel.
My throat is dry, my stomach's empty, but at least I'm warm.
Maybe an hour later I can tell the temperature has dropped at least twenty degrees, and now I can't feel my toes or my nose.
A cannon goes off. And then fifteen minutes later another goes off. And then two hours later, when it's colder than I have ever felt before, three more go off. That brings it up to thirteen, and Bekah and I are in the last eleven. I take a deep breath and try to get some sleep now that Rebekah has taken over watch.
So, how'd you like the Gale point of view? Should I continue that?