11.
One must pay attention to reason first before they can understand the truth.
I have my eyes glued shut as I hear the angry growls and howls of the wolves bellow me. Are they mad they were only able to get Ivan and not me? Ivan, poor Ivan. I choke on my sobs, he saved me, he could have left me back there and be alive right now. But he didn't and instead he saved my life. I will forever be grateful to him.
I feel a cold hand grip my arm and I jump so high I almost fall out of the tree. Someone steadys me and I peer frantically through my tears, trying to see who it is. Ivan grins at me, his face cut and scraped and his arm against his chest. I can see the blood from here.
"Ivan you're okay!" I practically scream while launching myself at him and hugging him. Guess the whole I don't trust him didn't last very long. Oh well, he's proven himself.
He winces and I quickly pull away "sorry" I mutter apologetically.
"Thought I would die so easily" he teases a little cockily.
"Calm your ego" I laugh, wow it feels good to laugh "there was evidence".
"The cannon" he says "ya I wonder who that was?".
"Me too!" I say in wonder, its sad that two people have lost their lives tonight. My spirits instantly fall and I feel gloomy again. Ivan and I almost got killed by Capitol mutations that the gamemakers pinned on us.
I hope my family and Finnick aren't taking my near death experience badly. Actually they are probably taking the fact that I wanted to go back and help, be killed badly. If I ever make it out of here boy will I hear it.
Then I shake my head, I would love to have them yelling at me again. It would mean I would have made it out of here. Which I know most likely won't happen. The odds aren't exactly in my favor. Even with 14 tributes gone and only 9 standing my my way. What disgusts me is the fact that the Capitol has made other childrens deaths seem like victory to us. We should not be happy that there are less poor innocent children standing in our way. And I even feel bad for the careers, they are more brainwashed than anything.
"Why dont we stay up here for the night?" Ivan suggests.
I look down at the angry mutts circling beneath our tree. "Ya that might be a good idea".
Ivan offers to take first watch but I refuse, hes already been up most of the night while I got to rest. He eventually gives up before eyeing my first aid kit.
"Mind if I have a bandage?" he asks, I notice he is gripping his bloody arm.
"Of course" I say feeling bad I didn't help him before. I get out a bandage and help Ivan wrap his arm and clean it as best we can up in the tree. Once it is bandaged Ivan thanks me and moves to a different branch. He ties himself with his rope so he doesn't fall and closes his eyes. I do that same with my rope and snuggle into my jacket. I feel the cold air swirl around me and I shiver, its too bad we lost my sleeping bag. It would be cold nights from here on out.
I find myself thinking of Finnick, his handsome face and his strong arms around me. The thought holds my sanity and makes me feel safe as I stare around at the dark trees. As selfish as the thought is I wish he was here with me, helping me through it. But truthfully I'm glad he is safe, and he's helping me even if he isn't here with me.
I grip my hair in my hands and stare at the screen in frustration, why would she do that? Why would she offer to go back? Does her own life mean nothing to her?
Of course Annie has already gotten herself into near death experiences because of her overly large heart. The heart I love and always have loved. Not that that matters if she can't manage to use her brain instead and make it through the games. Honestly if it wasn't for Ivan miraculously deciding to ally with her she would be dead right now.
My eyelids feel heavy from my lack of sleep but I refuse to stop watching, even when Mags begs me to go to sleep.
"This is my fault" I finally snapped at her, not caring about the other mentors staring at us curiously "I will be here if she needs my help". So here I am in the middle of the night my head in my hands and my tired eyes staring at the screen. The white walls around me are bathed in light from the ceiling lights and all the other couches are empty the screens playing to know one in particular.
Each mentor had a screen that followed their tribute 24/7, my eyes never strayed from Annie's screen. Maybe only to see if the other tributes are threateningly close to her, so I can warn her. I see her now, her tired eyes staring off into the darkness, her usually bright eyes lost its sparkle. I know she has seen too much, lived too much. This death is too much for her, I know she can't handle it. I hope I can just get her out of there before she hits the breaking point.
I fear Ivan is her greatest weakness. If something happens to him I don't know how she will keep herself going. She cares too much, and I saw the scary look in her eyes when she thought he was dead. Maybe getting her allies wasn't the smartest thing. I mean she already started crying when Alec and Alyssa both ended up dead and she didn't even spend time with them in the arena. Then there's Ivan whose helped her from the beginning and is from home. I just hope when he goes that its nothing too gruesome.
It would be too good to be true if I actually got my wish.
I happened maybe 5 days latter in the games. Nothing interesting was happening to us. We just stayed up in the tree at night and looked around for food during the day. We were getting closer, I could feel it. We talked about back home, the beach and our friends. We shared experiences and talked about familiar places.
I know getting close to a tribute in the games is dangerous but I can't help it. Its nice not to be lonely.
Other tributes died in those 5 days, it was sad to see their faces appear in the sky. The night with the mutts the boy from 10 and the girl from 11 died. During the five days only one more tribute died, the girl from 3 died in the middle of the night on the 3rd day, I assume the careers found her. And the gamemakers were getting bored, the Capitol was getting bored and I knew it. Somehow they were going to make something happen, something bad.
I never knew it would happen to me.
It was a warm day, my pants and jacket in my bag. I was sitting on a clear space on the ground beside Ivan, the sweat glistening on my forehead and my cold water bottle against my cheek.
"It couldn't get any warmer" I comment while taking a small sip out of my water bottle.
Ivan nods before leaning his back against our tree "its amazing that the nights are so cold".
"I know" I reply with a smile. Ivan being the nice person he is gave me his sleeping bag, saying it was his fault mine was gone anyways. I refused at first but he insisted so I eventually gave in.
"Something's going to happen today" he mutters darkly "I can feel it".
"I agree" I say with a shiver "they must be getting bored!".
That's when I feel the heat rise and in the distance I see the red flames. A fire, there is a forest fire from the hot draught. Then come the screams and the sound of people running, tributes running straight towards our hiding place.
We wait a moment too long to take action, we just have our supplies away and our bags strewn over our shoulders when they burst out of the trees. The careers. They are all breathing heavily, sweat trickling down their faces. They wheeze from the smoke and a few of them even have burns.
They don't notice us at first so we start slowly backing away. I step on a twig and a loud snap fills the air, I cringe. Every single face finds ours, and every face holds a huge grin. They all stand up straighter and the boy from 1 moves to the front of the pack.
"Well well what do we have here" he un sheaths his swords with a smile. The others snicker while taking out their weapons.
"Please" I whisper while backing up. They all laugh when they hear me.
The boy from 2, Eddie I think lunges forward and pulls Ivan into a headlock. The movement is so fast and unexpected that there is nothing I can do to stop it. I see the knife pushed against Ivan's throat and courage lashes through me.
"Let him go" I snarl while holding out my knife.
"Oo someone's got a girlfriend!" the girl from 2 laughs while holding out a spear. I blush but hold my ground.
I see that grip on Ivan tighten as he struggles and I can see he is mouthing for me to run. I don't listen I wouldn't leave him. I feel adrenaline course through me and I throw the knife at the girl, she grins as she deflects the blow with her spear.
"Nice throw" she sneers "but I'm afraid we'll just have to punish your little boyfriend for that".
I watch in fear as they push Ivan to his knees. He tries to grab the knife from the floor and his hand curls around it, he stabs the boy from 2 in the chest and he falls to the ground. I feel myself scream, how could he do such a thing? I think, but no he's just protecting himself. Then is happens the boy from 1 angrily swings back his sword and brings it crashing towards Ivan.
It hits him clean on the neck and blood splashes everywhere, all over me. I sob when I see Ivans body fall to the ground and his head falling through the air. 'I need to get away from here, I can't look at this' I think before crashing through the undergrowth. The career's laughs follow me everywhere I go.
A/N: Thanks for the reviews and I hope you like this chapter! There's lot's of action and I even do some of Finnick's POV! Ya so Annie kinda goes crazy after this so now I need to figure out how to write that! R&R