Chapter 21: The Grand Finale

Iris' POV

A hovercraft soon comes and picks up Nyla's and Zach's body. The area is left with bullet holes through everything, except the surviving people. Those surviving people are Gray, Kellie, and Me. So it's the District 2 Tributes against the District 11 Tribute.

There's silence for a while, and I'm depending on whether to go out or not. If I go out, Gray could kill me with his arrow and Kellie has that axe, and I think I saw a sword in her belt too. I need to think up of a plan, a plan to kill both of them. But how? I'm outnumbered, and they've been training their entire lives.

I have to do this, for Sage, for Nyla, for Sabine, and for my family. I have to.

So with a deep breath, I jump out. And right as I jump back into the clearing, an arrow goes flying by me. Kellie and Gray jump out of their hiding places and arm themselves with weapons. I take the knife in my belt and fling it towards them. It lands in Gray's shoulder.

He screams in agony while Kellie races towards me. Gray takes out the knife and follows in pursuit. I look either way, not knowing where to run. I'm dead meat now, this was a horrible idea.

Gray smiles and says, "Ready to fall?"

"Ready for the knife?" I hiss back.

"Nearly," He answers, before letting go of the arrow.

I dive for cover, but it pierces my leg. I scream in agony and wrench it out, feeling the fiery pain course through me. I toss the arrow away and scramble to my feet, leaning on my left side where I wasn't injured.

I grab my other knife and fling it towards them again. This time Kellie gets it. She makes some weird sound, almost like a hiss, when it contacts her body. It's not a direct hit, but it slices open her side pretty well. She grabs the knife and chucks it at me. I just barely miss it and it goes over my head. I love being small.

But then, suddenly, the ground jerks again. All three of us stumble and a fear rises inside me that the Cornucopia Tornado will come out again. But that doesn't happen, no, something worse does.

I see in horror as parts of the ground rip open, revealing a dark and empty abyss. The large cracks starts getting wider in the earth, and more come off of the previous ones. I jump out of the way as the ground separates beneath me. Kellie shoves Gray to the ground as she tries to get out of the way.

The ground is trembling also, trembling as the cracks get wider and more appear and then it'll grow still before starting up again. I stand on a surface between two large openings with Kellie and Gray. Gray is behind me, while Kellie is in front of me. I try and get to my feet, but I stumble and have to swing my arms to regain balance. If I fall into the openings, I'm as good as dead.

Kellie struggles up also, a cruel grin on her face. She reaches forward with the axe in her hand, ready to strike it down on me. But when she's moving it towards me, the ground jerks and I fall to the ground. I gasp as my head goes over the crack, but the rest of my body is on solid ground.

But when I look up, I see that the axe Kellie had thrown landed right into Gray. I stare in horror as the axe buries itself in his back and he screams and screams and screams until he has no breath left. He falls to the ground, his body twitching and choking up blood. Finally, his body grows still.

I'm surprised I even hear the canon fire over the rumbling of the shaking ground and the moaning of the widening cracks. Kellie is still standing there, a frustrated look on her face. I don't even think she's upset by killing her tribute partner, but more frustrated because she doesn't have someone to help kill me. She whips around and draws her sword. I just have enough time to pull out mine as she brings hers down towards me. I block her sword with mine, and flash a grin.

"Better luck next time!" I shout at her.

"You're right; I will have better luck next time!" She snarls back.

With both hands she reaches up again, but I'm quicker. I roll away and get up to me feet, blocking her blow with my sword again. She let's out an angry sound from the back of her throat as I slice my blade across her arm.

She screams with more fury than pain and brings down her sword again. I'm not as quick this time and it catches on my abdominal area. I grunt with pain as I feel the blood well out of the cut, but I refuse to give in. Oh what a great show we must be giving for the Capitol.

Our blades clang together as we fight and she reaches forward. I jump back, but the sword pierces my side. I gasp and press my right hand against it, trying to stop the bleeding. I'm getting too many cuts, and so is she. Even if no one wins this battle we both could bleed to death in a matter of a day.

I whip my sword diagonally at her, across her chest. She leaps backwards, out of the way. But she gets too close to the edge. She stumbles a bit, waving her arms to get balance, and this should be a great moment to push her, but I don't' get that chance. The ground jerks again, but it throws me backwards and her forwards. I slam against the ground with a loud thud and the air is knocked out of me.

I take a couple of seconds to try and get my breath back before scrambling away from Kellie. She grabs her fallen sword as I leap over one of the cracks. It's a small crack, thank god, and I land safely on the other side, ignoring the rush of pain in my leg when I land. She follows and because of her skill, she leaps and, while in air, starts to bring down the sword. But I reach my sword up and block it as she careens into me.

We fall to the ground, just centimeters away from the next opening. She pins me down, pressing her hands against my arms and kneeling down on my legs. I try and get up, but she's much bigger and stronger than I am, and my attempts are feeble. Kellie smiles cruelly at my as she raises her blade.

"Looks like the little school girl will see her end," She purrs darkly, almost like a cat, "don't you know children shouldn't mess with us?"

I keep struggling to get out of her stony grip, but she doesn't budge. She's taking her time as she wipes my blood off of her sword and then raises it again.

"Perhaps you will learn your lesson," She continues, "When I return and you join your lovebird."

That sets me off. Even when Gray mentioned my dead mother, I was furious, but not this furious. I want to rip her apart, limb by limb, and make her pay for Sage's death. She does not say something like that to me.

A rush of adrenaline goes through me and it's so strong that I'm able to free my leg and knee her in the stomach. She grunts and instinctively puts her hands on her stomach. I wrench free of her grip and dive for my sword. I hear her give a furious wail before coming after me.

Her blade slices down my back as I just make it out of the way. I kick her before slashing my sword across her shoulder. She flinches as I scramble to my feet, leaping over the next opening. But it's not far enough.

I start to fall and I slam down at the edge. My arms are on the ground while my feet and the rest of me is flailing in thin air. I struggle to get my body up as Kellie jumps over. I just got my legs over as she brings down her sword.

It pierces my hand and I scream as I feel the blade dig into my skin. It isn't very deep, thankfully, but it hurts like hell. She withdraws her sword and I take my good hand and slam it hard into her head. She stumbles back, gripping her head with her hands as I slice her leg open.

Kellie recovers quickly and leaps forward, her sword going down my arm. I scream my head off, because I could never imagine this amount of pain. I have so many wounds, so many cuts, it's getting too much for my body to bear. I know I have to end this soon, but how?

I straighten up as I feel myself walk back. I'm getting closer to the next crack, and this one is too big to leap over. Kellie has the tip of her sword just inches from my neck as she drives me closer to the opening. I grip my own sword in my left hand while my right hand is desperately trying to stop any bleeding.

Kellie is horrible too with so many wounds from me they're making her body be covered in blood. I'm covered in my own blood too, but I think that some of the blood that covers us isn't our own. She's breathing heavily and her left hand is pressed against her leg as she limps towards me and I limp back. It's starting to get hard for me to breathe and I'm surprised I'm still standing.

Once I'm at the edge, she stops and smiles cruelly at me, "Looks like this is the end, any last words?"

"Yeah, I have a few words," I hiss, my voice rough from the physical pain I'm in, "A few words from my fellow District 11. Up. Yours."

She gives an angry sound, and I'm starting to think that she may secretly be a mutation, half-cat and half-human. She steps forward, but I stay where I am.

"Anything else?" She asks.

"Yeah, I guess so," I nod, and with that, I step back, falling into the abyss.

But I don't fall far, and my left hand catches the ground. I'm hanging there, my fingers clutching onto the blood-covered soil and grass with the rest of my body hanging there. My left hand is the only thing holding me, and I'm surprised that I'm still hanging here. My right hand holds my sword, which are both idling beside my hanging body.

I begin to hear Kellie laugh. I just barely see her from where I'm pressed against the stony walls of the opening. Some small rocks fall on me as I figure she's dancing with delight. To her, I just committed suicide and gave her the crown as victor. To her, she is the victor of the 25th Hunger Games, the 1st Quarter Quell.

Well, that's what she thinks.

It's right when her laughter begins to fade that the adrenaline kicks in more fiercely than before. I wrench myself up and she clearly sees me now. I see the look of pure horror and shock as, just a second later, I drive my sword into her stomach.

Kellie gapes silently as she struggles back, gripping the sword with her two hands. I struggle back up onto the ground, her blood dripping on me as she begins to fall. She falls silently, landing on the ground with the quietest sound. Her eyes, once so filled with cruelty and pleasure, are now empty like all the other 22 tributes. Her blood seeps out of her and runs towards me. But I don't care, I'm so covered in my blood and the blood of others it doesn't matter.

Finally, her canon fires. It had been just days before that I thought that sound was horrifying. It was just days before that I heard Sage's canon fire and I thought it was the worst sound the world could ever produce. But not this time, no, because this canon represents victory.

Because I, Iris Novada, at just 12 years of age, have won the Hunger Games.

A smile comes to my face, the first smile in weeks. I have won. I have won. I have won. But it only takes me a little bit to realize that nothing has happened. Why am I still here? Shouldn't I be picked up? Finally I realize that they have to pick up Kellie's body before I leave.

So I crawl a little ways away from her, but only about a couple of feet. I can't go any further, I have so many fatal wounds that I think I am going to die. The pain starts to come back again and I have to try hard not to cry. But a smile is still on my face. I have won.

The hovercraft appears in thin air. Dark claws reach down and bury themselves under Kellie's motionless body. I watch as she's lifted into the air and disappears inside it. The hovercraft disappears also, heading back to where it came from. And as it leaves, I'm still smiling, because out of everyone who came here, I won.

Then I hear Claudius Templesmith's voice boom through out the empty arena, "Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victor of the Twenty-fifth Hunger Games, and the tribute of District 11-Iris Novada!"

A/N: I just wanted to let you know that this isn't the last chapter.