A/N: Thank you all for following this story for so long. It's an honour to command your attention.
This one is rather wordy, but it's a little important. Apologies.
The Trial Games.
By the time I stop running, I can't hear Crux's screams over my heaving pants. I had run to the safety of the canteen block and quickly ducked inside the entrance, peering through the open iron grate doors behind me. The block is still within sight, but quite a distance away. As I take a moment to glance around from my new hiding place, and I can see the block I escaped from, as well as a second block neighbouring it. There's no sign of movement- indicating that Crux hadn't decided to run after me.
To my left I can see the accursed football field and the golden horn, now stripped of its treasures. My stomach twists as I notice there are two corpses lying besides the remnants of Prose's charred body.
They're just going to leave the bodies where they fall? I try to regain my breath but my efforts are failing miserably. My mind feels as though its breaking, twisting in on itself for the lack of morality.
Those two must have died while I was running to the block. I can't see who they were from where I stood- but they both look so small.
A strange wave of relief washes over me that I don't even try to suppress. Neither of those bodies can be Holden then. He's much broader in the shoulders than that...
The bell had rung six times so far. I know that the first had been Prose at the beginning, and the last one was definitely Kringle. What were the identities of the remaining four? Who had been killed before even half an hour passed?
Something in the far distance catches my eye, and I turn right to squint towards it. A little beyond the two blocks I could see another two blocks, one just barely within view. They were separated by a large concrete quad that dipped into the earth like some sort of ghastly battle-arena pit.
Had anyone reached that far yet? I couldn't see anyone or anything from where I stood, clutching the black iron gates of the canteen tightly with my left hand.
What would've been useful would be a map, but I guess the Gamemakers didn't want this to be easy. After all, this was a fight to the death. Strategy was something best thought of when the players had nothing to help them, there were more flaws that way.
Though I'm trying so hard, I know I'm fighting the one thought that's resonating within the walls of my mind. Crux, my oldest friend, had tried to kill me.
Crux, who used to cover my eyes with his palms every morning without fail, had attempted to end my life?
He was my best friend aside from Holden. He had been since I was little, even longer than Holden. I vaguely remember how his hair was much blonder then, and his eyes were more bright and childish.
I smile, sliding down to my knees as my lip quivers. My chest hurts and my head aches as I remember those days. He had been so different then, still energetic and optimistic- but affectionately more so. I had really loved him like then, like the older brother I had never been able to have.
...that boy... had tried to kill me...
A tear hits my hand and I realise I'm crying. A sob escapes me and I look down in my moment of sorrow. As tears fall for the boy long gone- I finally remember the tin lunchbox in my sweaty hand, and my sorrow is alleviated slightly. I remember that I still have a chance.
'You've lost Crux,' my mind whispers gently. '-but Holden might still be out there. Keep fighting. For him.'
Suddenly feeling voracious, I snap open the lunchbox, see the little juice box and sandwich and grab the little sandwich in both hands; not even faltering as I shove it into my mouth. All reasoning from before of surviving by rationing had long fled my mind. I was starving, tired and desperate.
The sandwich was delicious. The white bread was soft and delicious while the meat, still cool was also tasty. A strange white spread that isn't butter oozes from the sides and onto my fingers that tasted sweet and a little tangy. The moment I finish the first half of the sandwich I grab the second, the sauce still smeared on my lips.
There's a squeak, and I freeze. As I sit here, crouching in the canteen doorway- piling my face with food- I had completely forgotten that there could be others in my midst. Slowly, and carefully, I turn around and see the perpetrator.
"Miss Maya,"
I stare blankly at the two little girls. I recognise them, two of the younger students from our school- Tilly and Lola. They're both thirteen- and from what I can see, scared and unarmed.
"-you two-" I muffle out, but my mouth still full of sandwich. I swallow and try again sheepishly. "You two."
Smiles of relief break their stunned expressions, and Tilly runs forwards to hug me- which I misread and almost fall backwards to avoid. Still, she wraps her arms around me and buries her teary face into my chest.
"-Miss Maya we were so scared!" Tilly wails. "We were too scared to run, b-but then he killed Cobalt and Ellivieve-"
She chokes. My mind pictures a young girl in Prose's year with short but thick yellow hair that poked out in awkward places- and a boy I vaguely remember playing a game with a large yellow paddle he had called "cricket".
Then I remember that they're both dead, and my stomach feels hollow again. Did Crux kill them?
"Who? Who killed them?" I ask, looking up at Lola who stares blankly at me with her weak smile. "Did you see?"
"It was Sin... he killed Cobalt and Ellivieve..." Lola answers as Tilly cries softly. "He pushed Ellivieve down and kicked her to death- and then Cobalt... he had a baseball bat... so he tried to take Sin out but..."
She trails off, but I don't need to hear any more. It was obvious that Sin got hold of the bat and finished Cobalt off himself. I'm suddenly very aware of the splatter of blood across Lola's face. She must have been in very close range for it to spray her face.
That explains the two corpses on the field...
"You.... you have food...?" Tilly weakly asks as she looks up at me.
"...yeah..."
A greedy thought inside me wanted to lie, but it was a dumb thought. The sandwich is still in plain sight.
"-c-can I...?" Tilly's eyes dart towards the remaining half of sandwich. "I'm so hungry... we had to r-run so far..."
The greediness growls for me to deny her the sustenance- as technically we are enemies and one of us will have to die eventually – but I'm my mind is plagued with memories of seeing her and her friends in the hall, and I find myself handing her the sandwich freely and smiling as she stuffs it into her mouth ravenously, just as I had done.
"Did you see anyone else get...?" I look at Lola. I still want to know the remaining two dead. "...killed?"
"No," Lola shakes her head sadly. "Hendrix told us to run for cover."
That made sense. Hendrix was Lola's older brother, the eldest in group of tributes in fact. He was eighteen years old- and had always been a loner- but was usually kind to the younger students. We all supposed it was due to his surprisingly wise younger sister's influence.
"What about you?" I look up at Lola locks eyes once more. "Have you seen anyone killed?"
My first instincts are to lie, not wanting these two girls to learn of Kringle's fate. They'd ask me who felled him, and then I would think of Crux again. I don't want to think of him as a killer.
But Lola's knowing stare says that she already knows the truth- she just wants to confirm my reliability. Swallowing, I nod.
"Kringle... he was... killed by Crux... he tried to kill me but... I ran..."
Lola's eyes widen and my head bows automatically. It feels sick to utter that sentence. I still couldn't believe it to be true. He was my friend, not a killer. He couldn't kill Kringle...
"...Tilly get over here."
Tilly, finished with the sandwich- stumbles backwards and is pushed behind her friend as Lola's eyebrows narrow at me. I blink, and Lola makes a head jerk towards the door.
"You have to leave, now Maya." She demands, raising her chin in signal. "Crux is your friend- and I'm sorry, but it's probable that you are in league with him."
"What-?" I gape. "No, no Lola! I'm not- I just said he tried to kill me-!"
"-and if that's the case, he'll be looking for you- and we can't risk hiding you." Lola's voice is cold and strangely mature. "Not while he is on the lookout for you."
I stand to my feet, but I'm still in shock as the two girls stare at me, their eyes telling me to leave. Tilly's face is shocked, but her eyes are wary. I crouch down to pick up my tin lunch box- and she flinches.
"Leave the box." Tilly blurts out.
"-no!" Anger is starting to fill me from within. "I found this-!"
"Well I found this."
Lola pulls out a slingshot and pulls back the band. I can't believe this. The girls I had just helped were already turning against me, and not only that- robbing me. They were two-faced, double crossing fighters after only two or so hours since entering the arena.
"-let me keep the box, you can keep the juice." I say, trying not to let my fury show. "I don't have a weapon, at least let me have the box."
Tilly looks at Lola, who nods her head after a moment. I place the juice on the concrete floor, close the tin box and cradle it within my arms once more. Turning slightly, but feeling insecure about showing my back to the girls- I say over my shoulder;
"You're making a huge mistake."
"-not while Crux has that crossbow we're not." Lola hisses as she pulls the band taut.
I leave the canteen and slip around the corner, anger burning from within from what a fool I had just played. I decide that Crux has probably left the block by now, and that should be where I head next.
It isn't until I reach the outside of the block again that I freeze.
I hadn't told them about the crossbow.