Chapter 14

Jasper was not far away and whilst I was the more badly injured, I had a hungry determination that he seemed to lack. I guess it was called the hunger games after all. I chuckled and then could have slapped myself for finding a pun funny.

I caught up with him and saw him slowly paddling and nursing his wounds. I scoffed, what a baby, he wasn't even hurt that badly.

Before he even knew that I was behind him, I had leapt from my raft onto his boat and knocked him to the ground. I kicked away the bow and it floated down into the depths.

He turned on his back and looked at me in horror.

"What are you doing?" He asked. "I am supposed to win these games."

I laughed.

"I never agreed to that." I said and drew my dagger. He leapt to his feet and drew a long sword from behind him. Damn, I thought, where did he get that from?

He started thrusting the sword at me and it was all I could do to parry away the blows with my little dagger. His skills were superior and his sword was bigger, but I had clearly been in better condition than him until about a minute ago and it showed.

I doggedly dodged him and swerved and noticed with glee that every hit was hurting him. His right arm was a bloody mess and he hadn't been able to get the dagger out. He clearly was not left-handed and he was struggling to fight with me.

I swerved again as he lunged. We kept fighting breathlessly. And then I saw the opening. I lunged forward as his sword nicked my shoulder and pushed the dagger right into his heart.

I saw his eyes widen in shock. He gasped and a splattering of blood flew from his mouth and hit my cheek. He fell backwards, seeming to take an age. There was a splash and I could barely focus as Jasper sank down into the water.

A canon fired.

It was just me and Annie left.

I could barely breathe I was so excited. No, I could barely breathe because I still had an arrow head in my chest. All of a sudden, as the anger and the adrenaline subsided, I stared to feel everything again. I cried out in pain and fell to my knees. There was my chest with its arrow, a sword cut on my shoulder and everything ached. I curled up into a ball, shutting my eyes tightly, hoping against hope that everything would just stop hurting.

I heard a splashing noise and opened my eyes. Annie was paddling slowly towards me. She had a look of concern on her face and I noted that maybe she was slightly recovering from her childish persona.

She reached the boat and transferred over onto mine, hesitantly. She leaned over me, unsure and hesitant. I knew that she wondered if I was dead.

Looking up into her innocent face, I knew that I should kill her. I could kill her and I could go home and they would fix me and this awful nightmare would be over. I could see my parents.

But looking up at her face, I knew that I couldn't do it. Not only was I weak and could probably not even lift my head, but I couldn't kill her, she was so innocent. I couldn't even really believe that I had killed Jasper.

I felt something touching my arm. I looked down. Annie was stroking my arm in what I was sure she thought was a comforting way. It kind of was comforting. But the site that met me as I looked down was not. There was blood everywhere, floating into the water. That explained why I was feeling so groggy.

I lay back. Everything was so heavy and everything was so much effort. I heard Annie whimper and I knew that I must look terrible.

"It's ok." I told her breathlessly. "It'll be ok, it'll be over soon." And it would be. Everything was just so heavy.

I knew that on the other side of the screens money would be exchanged soon. The odds for Annie winning would have been so small; a district four female victor who wasn't a tribute, who had killed no one, and who had spent most of the games screaming. Someone would be getting rich.

I couldn't help but feel that this was a little unfair. But then again, what about this entire thing had been fair. The odds were not in anyone's favour.

I thought about my parents. They would be watching. They would be begging me to stand up, to kill this little District 4 girl, to fight and to win. I could win. But I was so tired. So tired.

I felt a tear come sliding down my cheek. And then I realised. I had given up. After everything, I didn't have the strength to keep on going, I was going to die.

I curled tighter into a ball. The pain started numbing and I almost felt comfortable. If this was dying, it wasn't so bad. I felt strangely cold and numb, as though I was in an ice bath. I shivered slightly, but there was no point. I was letting go.

Annie started crying loudly. I wanted to reach out to her, to tell her it was ok again, to comfort her. But I couldn't move, everything was slowing down and going darker.

Then, as though upon request, I felt a warmth spreading through me, my ice bath had turned to a comforting warm one.

It was all over, it was finally over. No one could hurt me anymore. There were no careers, no Capitol, no Cashmere and Erran telling me I must die. No swords, no daggers, no bows, no sharks. No more hunger games.

I closed my eyes and fell into the warm, comforting embrace of death.