A Dangerous Game

Chapter Eight: Red Snow

The next morning Kurt awoke to find that he had been covered with the blanket. His throat was so dry it felt raw. Thankfully, he didn't feel as hot or dizzy as he had the day before; in fact, even with the blanket covering him, it was frigidly cold.

He groaned, feeling stiff from sleeping on the ground. "Blaine?" He croaked. Kurt blinked his eyes open, looking around the cave for his lover. Blaine was nowhere to be seen but his sister was in the corner fast asleep.

"'Morning," Blaine entered the cave, smiling when he saw Kurt was awake. He knelt next to Kurt, helping Kurt sit up and lean against the cave wall. "Drink this."

"You found water!"

Blaine chuckled, "Water sort of found us."

"I don't understand," Kurt said.

"You will, I'll show you. Drink first," Blaine held the bottle to Kurt's lips.

Kurt took a sip. He coughed; the water feeling like it was freezing his stomach. "I can't. Let me go back to sleep."

"No, no, small sips, you can do it." Blaine put his hand behind Kurt's head, putting the bottle to Kurt's lips, dripping the water down Kurt's throat.

Although it made him feel slightly nauseous, the water soothed Kurt's parched throat. After a few minutes, Kurt stopped, unable to drink anymore. "Where did you get the water?"

"Here, I'll show you," Blaine carefully helped Kurt to his feet and guided him to the mouth of the cave. Kurt gasped: it was snowing. Snow was drifting down from the sky, covering the ground in a thick blanket.

"It's beautiful," Kurt whispered in awe. He had seen snow before, of course, but usually it was turned grey by the smog that covered District Eight. He and Blaine sat down to watch the falling snow, allowing the false peace to comfort them temporarily. Kurt gently kissed Blaine's soft lips, then rested his head on Blaine's lap.

Chelsea came stumbling sleepily over, "Good morning," she said sitting across from them. She smirked, "So that's why you wanted Kurt to be our ally." Blaine glared at her and grabbed a handful of snow. Chelsea squealed when it hit her. "Oh you did not just do that!"

Before Blaine knew what was happening a snowball hit him in the face.

Flakes of snow were scattered onto Kurt's neck and he gasped in surprise, sitting up. "What the…?" He had been close to falling asleep.

He wiped the cold, melting snow off the back of his neck, rolling his eyes at the two siblings, who were now in a full-fledged snowball fight.

Someone, Kurt wasn't sure who but suspected Blaine, sent a snowball his way. That's it! Kurt joined the game. For a moment, he wondered how much Caesar was showing of their merriment. Was he congratulating them on making the best of their situation or were the Gamemakers pressuring him to cut this out of the broadcast?

With snow flying in every direction providing quite a distraction, it was pure chance that Kurt noticed the voices nearing their camp. "Oh my god," he shoved Blaine and Chelsea back toward the back of the cave.

"What is it?" Blaine whispered, "What's wro…"

"Quiet," Kurt hissed, a finger at his lips.

They sat there listening as the voices drew nearer. After a few tense moments, what they were saying could be understood.

"If you have a problem with the way I'm leading this group," Sebastian's voice was heard, "then get lost. I'll give you a five minute head start. Just don't expect me to make your death pleasant when I find you."

"Who," this was Puck, "put you in charge? Have we found a single tribute yet? No. If Puckzilla was in charge we would be the only ones left by now."

"Will you boys shut up!" Harmony snapped. The footsteps stopped, so close to the edge of their cave that it made Kurt hold his breath. His sai swords were sitting a few feet away, but he dared not reach for them for the fear of creating a sound that the Careers would hear. "I have a way to solve this." There was then the unmistakable sound of a bow and arrow being fired. And then a body falling to the ground.

"What the hell was that?" Sebastian shouted at the girl. Puck's cannon fired. "We needed him."

"Oh please, he was useless! All he was doing was complaining and eating our food and I was tired of keeping him in check."

Sebastian chuckled darkly, "Well guess what princess? Your only purpose was keeping him in line, so now you're obsolete. Oh well…" Harmony's scream was accompanied by the squelch of a sword being withdrawn out of a body, then, a second later, her cannon shot. Sebastian's footsteps faded into the distance, his cold laugh echoing.

Chelsea was shaking, her face buried into her brother's chest. Kurt had gone so pale that his skin could have lightened milk.

"We need to get out of here, if Sebastian doesn't see the ships come to take the… the bodies, then he might get suspicious." The ships would not arrive until all tributes, whether they had performed the kill or not, were out of the vicinity.

Kurt grabbed the backpack, making sure the water bottle was in it. His sai swords went back in his belt.

"I can take that for you if you want," Blaine offered.

Kurt shook his head, securing the backpack onto his shoulders. He gave Blaine a small smile, "I'll be fine. You carried it all of yesterday and me too for most of the evening. Just keep your sword ready in case Sebastian comes back."

Blaine nodded.

Sebastian had stripped the bodies of whatever supplies they might have once had. Blaine searched through their pockets for anything he might have forgotten, while Kurt kept Chelsea distracted.

Blaine held up a knife that Sebastian must have overlooked, or maybe the Career already had his own. Either way, he had left the fine blade on Harmony, perhaps wishing it to be taken away when her body was lifted out. The knife was silver with a slender curved blade. It glistened in the early sunlight and looked like it hadn't been used yet. Blaine retrieved it's case and slipped both into his pocket. "Come on, let's get out of here." He said, with one final look at the two dead tributes.

As soon as they had moved far enough away, the ships came and took the bodies, leaving only patches of red that stuck out harshly from the white. Now that they were trudging through the snow, rather than playing in it, it seemed much more unpleasant.

"Kurt," Blaine broke the silence that had hung over them for the last hour after leaving their cave, "have you ever killed anyone?"

"What?" Kurt frowned, taken aback by the question and the fact that Blaine felt the need to ask it. "No, or course not."

"Not even an animal?"

"Um… a fly... does that count?"

"No, that doesn't count." Blaine hurried his steps to stand in front of Kurt, putting his hands on his shoulders. There was desperation in his eyes, "Kurt, promise me something."

Kurt nodded, "Anything."

"Never kill." Blaine couldn't get out of his head the sound of Sebastian's laugh after he had killed his fellow Careers. "Promise me that? I never want you to become like Sebastian."

"I could never be like him, you know that." He paused, trying to figure out exactly how to phrase he planned to say next. "Blaine," he said slowly, "You've never…?"

"Only animals, I promise. I couldn't have survived in District Three if I hadn't; nothing grows there. Kurt, promise me you won't. No matter what. I don't want you to have blood on your hands."

"I promise."