Disclaimer: Otno Uzannesu Ollinsco. (Translation: Not Suzanne Collins)
In the morning, I wake up early again. I think of the previous morning. I remember that I'm supposed to meet Aqua.
What did she want me to do again? Emphasis or something? The only emphasis I heard yesterday was "friends."
I walk over to the clearing. I see the bloody knife on the floor and pick it up. I place it in my hood.
"Aqua?" I whisper-shout. "Where are you?"
"Here!" she yells, louder than necessary, from behind me. I jump out of the way, my hand clutching my heart.
"Stop that!" I yell.
She giggles, covering her mouth with the tips of her fingers, which are still covered in my blood.
"Did you listen to the emphasis yesterday?" she asks.
"Yeah," I say. "What's 'friends' got to do with anything?"
She frowns. "Oh…. I'm sorry." she says.
"What?"
"Well, isn't it obvious?" she asks. "You and Karma are just friends. Nothing more."
"…So?" I say. "I know that. Besides," I add. "She doesn't believe in love."
"True. Very true." she says. "But don't give up on her. By the looks of it, she'll come around."
"No she won't." I say quietly. "She made it very clear."
"Casey-"
"Hey!" I hear somebody yell.
Aqua sighs, "That'll be Jade."
I'm guessing Jade is the girl from One. Great.
Jade kicks some branches out of her way, scowling. When she sees me, it seems as if fire is burning in her eyes.
"Hey, baby," she says. "Karma not here?"
"Don't call me 'baby.'" I mumble.
"What's that?" she asks. "Aqua, scram!" she yells, jerking her head. Aqua obeys immediately, keeping her head down.
"Now, where were we?" she asks. She walks toward me and I back away. I trip over and fall backwards. I scramble up and run away as fast as I can.
When I get back to camp, I'm happy to see that Karma is still asleep.
Stupid Jade. She is horrible to Aqua. I mean, sure; Aqua might be insane, but it's just impossible to not like her. I hate Jade, making Karma cry and being such a jerk-butt to Aqua.
I got the term "jerk-butt" from Karma, calling her brother that once.
Anyway, I hope I never see Jade again. Hopefully she'll be dead before I get angry enough to kill her myself.
I grab a stick and walk into our shelter, where Karma is snoring away, some drool trailing down her face. I grab a twig and crouch down by her face. Then I pick her nose with the twig.
She snorts and sits upright immediately. She grabs her spear and holds it at the ready. When she sees me laughing, she scowls.
"Not funny, Casey," she whines, rubbing her eyes. She makes a weird noise that sounds a lot like "Ngyahh."
"You're right. It was very funny." I say matter-of-factly.
She purses her lips and then we both burst out laughing.
"Shut up, jerk-butt." she says to me, pushing my shoulder. She's so strong that she knocks me on my side.
"Ouch," I say, grabbing my heart. "Rude much?"
"Yes."
We start laughing again.
"So," I say. "What are doing today?" I ask.
"We're going to kill off the Careers. All but one," she says. "The boy from One. I thought that if we leave one, he might think that somebody else killed his allies and kill them."
I consider this. "Who's all left in the Career pack?" I ask.
"Both from One, the girl from Two," she says with a wince. "there's, um, there's… a girl from Five for some reason, and both from Four."
"Aqua!" I yell.
"What?"
"No! Don't kill Aqua!" I plead.
I probably shouldn't like her, considering that she sucked my blood while I was asleep, and then reminded me that Karma and I will never be together, and the fact that she is a bit scary, but there's something about her. I just have to like her. And I don't want her dead.
"What are you talking about?" she asks, looking at me as if I were going insane.
"I'm not crazy," I say. "Oh! I forgot." I pull out the knife from my hood.
"Whoa…" she says. "Casey? Do you need some rest? You don't… seem too well."
"I'm fine. I found this on the ground."
"Okay. So what is Aqua?"
"Not what," I say, shaking my head, and my hair. "Who. She's the girl from Four. Let's leave her instead."
"Why?" she asks. "Do you guys know each other?"
"You could say that," I reply.
"Is she nice?" she asks.
"Yes," I reply, not knowing what this has to do with anything.
"Then we have to kill her," she says.
"What? Why?" I ask.
"Because the plan won't work if we leave the nicest person in the pack. Casey, this is about the crappiest plan ever made in the Hunger Games history. It's crucial that it works." she says, grabbing the knife from my grasp and taking it to the stream to clean the blood off of it, and I follow her.
"Well can't we leave both of them?" I ask.
"Think, Casey," she says. She accidentally cuts her finger with the blade and starts sucking on it. "If we were alone, we'd both be dead right now. This Aqua character could keep the One boy alive, and vice versa. The sooner everyone else is dead, the sooner one of us gets home, okay!" she yells.
"Okay, sorry," I say, putting my hands up in defense. "So how are we going to kill them?"
"Dunno," she says. "I was thinking maybe scope them out a bit and-" Karma is interrupted by a cannon firing. After a few seconds, the girl from Five is taken by a helicopter.
"Well then," she says. "she's dead. One less person to kill. Anyway, I was thinking we go to the Career camp, watch them for a while, see their weak spots, and get them."
"Oh, do we have to kill them individually?" I ask.
"Well not unless they were stupid enough to activate the bombs again like two years ago." she says.
I can hear the laughter coming from the Capitol.
"Well Careers can be stupid in different ways." I say. "For example, volunteering in the year that we're in," I say with an arrogant grin.
"Now you're talking," she says, and we high five. But on the inside, I feel sick.
"Could you stop with that swinging thing?" I say. "It's really making me feel bad for myself, 'cause, you know, some people don't know how to swing on branches like monkeys."
Karma jumps down and makes monkey noises, scratching her underarms. "Sorry," she says. "I had to…"
I smile.
"Hey we're almost there," she says. "Oh… I mean we're here." She points to a tree.
"Are you saying that the Careers are living in a tree?" I ask.
"No," she laughs. "I mean we're going to climb this to watch them." She puts a duh face on and grabs a branch.
"Let me know how that works out for you." I say with a thumbs-up. I start to walk in the opposite direction, but Karma grabs my hood and pulls me back.
"You're funny," she says. "Come on."
"Ugh. If I die, I'll kill you," I say, hoisting myself up on the tree.
"Good luck with that," she replies.
When we're high enough the see the Career's camp, I gasp.
"Whoaaaaa," I say. The Careers have built a wall of rocks that guards their food. If I squint, I can make out a rope that is concealed by vines. My eyes travel up the rope until I see a bow and arrow perched up in a tree. The rope is somehow clipped to the string of the bow, so if somebody tries to steal the food, they'll get an arrow in the heart.
Well, then.
"Look, look, look!" Karma whispers, hitting my arm and pointing to Jade. Gross.
Wait….
"What's up with her head?" I ask.
Jade has her hands pushing on the sides of her head. She's rocking back and forth in fetal position. Every few seconds, she'll let out a moan of pain.
"I think it has something to do with noise. I could see her face scrunch up when I was screaming," Karma says. "One weakness. Now, we need to find her strength."
"Why?" I ask.
"Because," she replies. "We can lure her with that…. Or do you want to do something else? I'm all ears." She doesn't sound sarcastic.
"Um… I don't know. Go to that clearing where you killed Tay-" Karma's face turns green at the mention of him- "She tends to go there."
"Then leave it to chance?"
"Yep."
"…Okay," she says. "Katniss, help. Send us something please," she says, looking at the sky.
When we get to camp, we find that Katniss did indeed send us something. An extra spoon.
"What the hell," Karma says, more as a statement than a question. "What are we supposed to do with this?"
"I dunno. Scoop out our competitor's eyeballs?" I say with a laugh.
Karma looks thoughtful for a second, as if she is considering this, and I wonder if she's gone mad.
"I'm kidding," I say.
"Okay."
"…Okay."
"Yep…" Karma says, rocking back and forth on her feet. I don't get how this turned so awkward.
After thirty seconds of silence, I speak up again, but I only make it worse.
"Well, okay then."
Karma purses her lips, hesitates, then walks into the shelter right as the anthem starts playing.
"Karma!" I yell. "Get back out here, time for the faces."
"I don't want to watch," she says.
"Too bad," I say. "You have too."
She comes out and stomps over to me like a little kid, making me laugh.
"Only one person died. Why do we have to see her face?" she complains.
"Because it's the rules."
"Because it's the rules," she replies, mocking me. She grabs my arm and falls backward, taking me with her.
When the girl from District Five shows on the screen, Karma sighs.
"She's pretty," she says, which is an understatement. The District Five girl had long brown hair and pale skin. Her eyes scrunched up when she smiles in her picture. She couldn't be more than fifteen.
"Well, I guess we can go inside now?" she suggests when the sky goes black. Without waiting for my response, she goes inside, holding her stomach.
"Are you sick?" I ask, when I walk in, worry crossing my face.
"No," she replies. "I'm okay."
"Eat," I say, grabbing the bowl of food that Katniss sent us a few days ago.
She takes a spoonful, then feeds me a spoonful as well. "No more," she says.
"No more," I whisper.
I stare at her, sitting cross-legged right next to me as she mixes the food with the spoon. I wonder if she'll miss me, when I'm dead. If she'll remember me.
She reaches across me to set the bowl down, then straightens up.
Then, she does something that she hasn't done in what feels like months. She looks at me in the eyes. It's only for a second, but I realized that I took it for granted whenever that warmth spreads through me when she looks me in the eyes.
I realize that there is no possible way that I could come out alive without Karma, knowing I'd never feel that way again.
I realize that if Karma died, I'd go completely mad.
We're killing those Careers. Not one of them is going to touch my Karma.
"My Karma," I whisper.
I hold out my hand, and she takes it. Then, she lies down next to me.
"Good night," she says, smiling widely.
"Good night," I reply.
She lets go of my hand, kisses her own, then smacks me on the face.
"What the-?"
She starts laughing. She rests her head on my heart and closes her eyes, drifting off.
Instead of falling asleep, I find that my eyes are fixed on Karma. I pay close attention to her slight snoring. She starts mumbling gibberish after thirty minutes, before I can start to make out words….
"Don't… don't lea… leave…." she says, slurring her words. "Casey… stop… stop running."
"No, I'm here," I say.
My voice seems to soothe her. She bites her bottom lip and smiles.
"Bum-bum," she whispers. "Bum-bum, bum-bum."
"What?" I say.
Then I realize she's whispering the beat of my heart.
Curious as to what she'll do, I gently lift her head off of my chest.
"Where… where are… you?" she asks. "No…. no, no, no, no…" she sounds as if she is panicking. Then, tears start to stream down her face.
I put her head back on my chest, only it doesn't stay for long….
In the distance, I hear a boy yell in pain and a canon firing, waking Karma up, her fists balled up as if she were ready to fight. I give her a look, but all she says is, "Force of habit."
"Who do you think is dead?" I ask.
"I don't know," she says. When she talks, I see little puffs of her breath and notice how much the temperature has dropped, which is a lot compared to this evening.
"Karma, do you feel that?"
"What?" she asks, but she's visibly shaking.
"It's cold. Like, freezing," I say.
"Oh, yeah I feel that then," she says. She is so pale it's almost scary. "Let's see how cold the water is."
She takes my hand and drags me out of the camp, taking the knife and the spear in her other hand.
Every step is regretted because I want my body to be scrunched up together, warming me up, but Karma takes long strides to the stream, taking me with her.
The water in the stream is frozen on top, but just to make sure, Karma, who keeps a blank face, crouches down, grabs a rock, and lobs it at the stream. It flies straight through, proving that the ice couldn't be thick at all. Probably just frost.
Karma gestures for me to sit beside her, so I do. She hands me the spear.
"Just in case," she yawns.
For the next few hours, I sit cross legged, and Karma sits in my lap while I braid her hair into pigtails, unbraid them, then braid them again like I did with my little sister.
When the sun is just starting to rise, I hear a twig snap.
Karma looks at me, then grabs her knife, and stands up, pulling me up effortlessly. Either she's really strong, or I need to put on some weight.
For thirty seconds, we're both starting to think we're imagining things, but then another canon fires, and we hear a yell of pain that couldn't be more than fifteen yards away. I'm pretty sure the girl who yelled isn't dying.
Karma grabs my wrist with her left hand, and the knife in her right.
"What was that?"
A/N: My longest chapter ever! Okay, so it's Summer Vacation and, since I usually don't do stuff for summer, I thought I would be posting, like, every day. But I've been gone almost every day, doing stuff. That's a real change. Anyway, I've got ideas for my second story! I'm so excited, I think I'm going to try and start it by the middle of August. I just need a title, so that you guys know which story it is, so if you could leave some suggestions in your reviews, I would be so happy! Maybe I could give a little sneak-peek at the summery. So, I've been asked this question by some of my friends who were reading: "Do the Gamemakers change the rules again this year?" and my reply is this: "No." Because that would be unoriginal, in my opinion. But Casey and Karma always have a few tricks up their sleeves…. *smiles*
Okay, I'll see you next update, and also, thank you so much to all my reviewers! It's the greatest feeling when you get a new review, so I really appreciate it!
~Telling Time Backwards