The End
I start running again, faster this time. The sound of the cannon has fueled me and my blood is boiling. I'm not sure who I'll find at the end of this blood trail but I know what I have to do. No matter if it's Reiner or Jean, I'm going to kill them. I have to.
After the last cannon fired the night sky lit up with an eerie red glow which lights up the night. Finally, I see a figure crouched over a lifeless body on the ground. The figure stands up and from the broad chest and shoulders I can tell that it's Reiner. He finally spots me and lifts his bow to take aim but I growl and throw my spear that I made and it goes into his left shoulder and implants itself deep into the tree behind him, pinning him there.
He cries out in pain and tries to remove the spear but it is imbedded too far into the tree. I'm still running as I grab the bow from my back and take aim with an arrow. Reiner screams and right at the last second rips away from the spear and dodges out of the way. My arrow lands in the tree right where his heart would have been.
Reiner runs off, cradling his torn shoulder. I charge after him and I notice he's running with a limp and a bandage wrapped around his thigh where Sasha must have shot him. I now just realize where he's running too as I see the cornucopia up ahead.
Reiner makes it to the clearing around the cornucopia but stumbles and falls. I take this chance and am able to catch up. I've abandoned the bow and arrow and now take out my swords. I run to Reiner and bring back my swords to strike but he kicks me hard in the gut, knocking the wind out of me, and I stumble backwards. Reiner gets back up and takes out a sword of his own.
"You killed Bertholdt!" Reiner cries and charges at me with tears in his eyes. He brings his sword down at me but I block it with my own. The blow shakes my bones and rattles my teeth because he is so much stronger than me even with two wounded shoulders and a wounded leg. I feel my arms start to shake as I try to hold off his strong blows. "Killed Bertholdt and you killed Annie!"
"You killed Connie!" I groan, "And you killed Sasha and Jean!" And I'm able knock his sword out of his hands and he backs away from me.
"Because I had to!" Reiner yells frantically. "It's because they wanted me to!" He points towards the sky. "They were the ones who made me like this. To them, we are all just Players in their sick Games. All we are to them is pawns, ready to be knocked off the board, just for the enjoyment of the Capitol. They were the ones who turned me into a warrior. I just want to go home!" he chokes and tears start pouring down his face. "You know what they're like, Mikasa. You understand more than anyone who the real enemy is!"
I lower my swords slightly because I do understand. The reason all these people have died in here wasn't any of our fault. It was the Capitol who forced us to do these horrible things. It is the Capitol who is the real enemy. But Reiner took this chance of my hesitation to charge at me and before I can react he tackles me to the ground. My head whips back and cracks against the ground and I see stars. He effectively knocks the swords out of my hands and sits on top of me and then punches me in the face. The pain is blinding and I'm close to blacking out. He then wraps his massive hands around my throat and starts to squeeze.
I gasp and reach my hands up and start to claw at his face as I'm running out of air. I'm starting to see spots and I then bring my elbow down a hard across his arms and his grip loosens around my neck and I'm able to bring my knee up and ram it into his groin. He buckles in pain and I'm able to escape from underneath him. I start to crawl towards my swords but Reiner hurriedly stands up and grabs me around my waist and lifts me off the ground. He then throws me hard against the side of the cornucopia and I hit my head hard, once again and my world starts to spin and I collapse to the ground.
I try to get back up again but Reiner stomps on my back and I fall back to the ground. He then grabs me by my hair and I cry out as he pulls me back up and slams me against the side of the cornucopia. His hands wrap around my neck again and I'm too weak to fight back this time.
"I'm sorry," Reiner murmurs, "but this has to end!"
I can feel the blood dripping down the back of my neck from my cracked skull and I can feel my limbs start to go numb. I know I don't have much longer and my vision starts to go black and tears slip out of the corners of my eyes. "I'm sorry, Eren," I whisper and I can almost picture his teal eyes and his bright smile. I can't die here. I can't break my promise to Eren. I can't let him down again!
I reach down and bring my leg up just a bit and grab Eren's knife that was hidden in my boot. Everything is going dark and I can barely hold onto the knife because my fingers are starting to go numb. Reiner notices my movements though and squeezes harder and shakes me like a rag doll. My head knocks against the cornucopia and the knife falls from my grasp. I let out a strangled moan and I stop fighting. It's over now. My face is soaked with sweat, blood, and tears. I cannot win. I close my eyes and wait for the end to come.
The only way you cannot win is if you don't fight, you moron. My eyes shoot open. The voice sounded like a mixture of Levi's and Eren's. But I don't care whose voice it was because it gave me just enough strength to fight. I reach up with my numb hands and before Reiner can react I dig my thumbs into his eye sockets. He screams in shock and pain and lets me go. I collapse to the ground and gasp for air and I find Eren's knife. I stand back up again on shaking legs and with the very last ounce of my strength I plunge the knife into Reiner's heart.
In order to survive in a merciless world, I too, must become merciless. He looks at me with blood-shot eyes that make his golden iris's stand out even more and his mouth opens and closes but no sounds come out. Tears mix with the blood that runs out of his eyes and down his high cheekbones. His hands reach out and I flinch, thinking that they're going to wrap around my throat again, but they only rest on my shoulders. A look of peace crosses over his face once the shock is gone and he almost smiles. His body then falls against mine and I'm barely able to hold both of us up. And with his very last breath he whispers in my ear and my eyes widen. Finally, he falls to the ground and the very last cannon rings through the arena.
I fall to my hands and knees and take shaky, deep breaths. My coughs are gut-wrenching and I feel like I'm going to vomit but nothing comes up as I heave. My eyes and lungs are burning and my whole body is shaking. It's over. It's finally over.
The redness of the arena dims down and even though I know it's supposed to be in the middle of the night, the sun is shining like it's in the middle of day. It's all too much to take in and my head throbs horribly and my world spins around me. I stand again and I try to take a step but my legs give away underneath me and I fall face first to the ground and I don't have the strength to push myself back up again. So I just lay there until everything goes black and I let the darkness take me. But before I lose all my senses I hear a voice boom, "Your 74th Games Victor, Mikasa Ackerman of District Six!"
When Eren and I were younger we would always play a game. We would pretend that we were outside of the Walls and far, far from home. We would climb the big oak tree outside of our town and Eren would pretend he could see over the Wall and see the vast ocean that Armin would always talk about and I would spread my arms and pretend to fly.
Sometimes on our imaginary adventures outside of the Walls there would be pretend monsters that Eren and I would have to fight. We never had to explain to each other what they looked like because we both just knew that they were big ugly creatures that had to be killed or else they would eat everyone in sight.
I've never lost my balance when we would play in the tree until Eren decided to jump from branch to branch. He eventually lost his footing and I quickly saved him but ended up falling out of the tree myself. I was knocked unconscious and Eren carried me all the way back to his father. I think that was when Eren started to get angry at me for always protecting him. He would tell me that I never cared enough about my own safety when I would protect him. I never got to tell him that his life was the only life that I will ever care about and now he will never know how much he actually meant to me.
This sensation that I am feeling is familiar. I can tell I'm lying on a cold, hard, metal table. Without having to open my eyes I know that there is a bright light above me but even if I wanted to I can't open my eyes. They feel heavy and refuse to open and my head is throbbing terribly yet feels very light and I have a nauseous feeling in my stomach. I hear murmurs but I am unable to pick out voices or words. It's almost like I'm underwater again, this sensation is almost the same as the moments before entering the Game. Then suddenly, I am able to depict a very clear voice over all the other murmurs.
"WHAT IN THE HELLS ARE YOU SHITS DOING TO HER? SAVE HER!" Levi's shouts cut clearly through the confusing murmurs. He sounds angrier than I have ever heard him and I wish I could open my eyes and go to him as my heart thumps painfully in my chest but my body refuses to move.
I'm able to hear other voices clearer now and I can understand what a woman is saying to Levi. "We're trying our best. But she is severely dehydrated and malnourished. One of her vertebra in her back is slipped so we can't move her until it settles back into place. Otherwise she might end up paralyzed. She also has a cracked skull and a major concussion and we need to wait to see if it has affected her brain at all. Then if everything turns out okay we have to make her presentable again before she is presented to the Capitol and interviewed. We can't have a half-starved, sickly, brain-dead girl be seen for her interview, now can we?" the woman laughs.
"YOU BITCH!" Levi roars and I hear some shuffling and the woman screams and I hear a choking sound and somebody is calling for security as Levi screams out every curse in the book. Now there were more male voices shouting and the sounds of a fight then dragging. My fingers twitch as everything starts to quiet down again and I again wish for my eyes to open.
"Doctor," a different female voice cries, "the patient is regaining consciousness."
"Put her back under." The doctor's voice is rough and she coughs.
And the last thing I remember is a tear escaping from my closed eyelid and running down the side of my face and everything goes numb again and I remember no more. Some part of me wishes I could feel like this forever. Numb and drifting into nothingness. Anything is better than this nightmare that I'm in now.