A/N: Hey it's the author here. So first off I would like to say I'M SO SORRY for taking a freaking year a half to upload. I was just so busy after uploading the second chapter that I completely forgot. So to prevent that from happening again, I plan on ending this story in the next chapter, if not this one. I won't cut out any super important details though, so don't worry. Once again I'm so sorry for making you all wait this long, I'm awful. Anyways, here's the second to last chapter, so enjoy!
Here I was, in a position I thought I would never be in. I'm standing on the platform, right in front of the Cornucopia. The other 23 competitors have their eyes glued to the timer. 10 seconds left. My eyes search frantically for Cato. I spot him about ten platforms away from me. He looks at me and nods. 5 seconds. My eyes land on her. The girl from District 12. I am determined to kill her.
4. Inhale.
3. Exhale.
2. Inhale.
1.
I bolt off my platform and run like never before, immediately grabbing a knife on the ground. From the corner of my eye I see Katniss. I throw my knife in her direction, but the stupid boy from 9 takes it. The cannon goes off. Looks like I just made my first kill in the Games. I grab another knife from the ground, running, and I throw it at her head. She lifts her backpack to guard her head, and it burrows itself in the backpack. I curse to myself and watch as she flees into the woods. Next time she won't be so lucky.
The past few days have been a blur to me. The tracker jacker stings caused me to go a bit insane and dazed. Katniss unleashed them upon us while we were sleeping. Glimmer died though. So Katniss finally did something right, I guess.
The boy from 12 betrayed us, so Cato wounded him and he ran away. Our alliance now consists of Marvel, the boy from 3, me and Cato. Cato. The Games have changed him. He's different now, more ruthless than before, not that I mind, really. He's killed a lot of tributes already, in ways lacking mercy. I've killed some too. Besides that boy from 9, I killed the boy from 7, the girl from 10, and assisted in the girl from 7's death. I kill anyone who crosses my path. But Cato's bloodthirsty, he's hunting them down, and I have no choice but to assist. A part of me is wondering what will happen if it's just us two in the end. What would he do? Would he forget everything that we once were? Would he end it all just to win the Games? Would death really be a better choice for the both of us if it meant we could be together again?
Currently, Marvel, Cato, 3, and I are gathered here at the Cornucopia. I have no idea who's left, but I've been keeping my eyes peeled open for Katniss. She's probably somewhere tending to Lover Boy right now. His chance of survival is dwindling by the second. Cato wounded him a point where he'd need medical attention to survive. My thoughts are then interrupted by Cato's growling voice.
"Look at that smoke," he demands. Everyone's head snaps up and looks in the direction he's pointing. In the distance, there's a fire engulfing a large tree. Clouds of smoke are dancing in the air, taunting us.
"I bet you anything it's that little girl from 11," I say, standing up. She climbs trees; she has to have been the one to set the fire. "I'll check it out." I begin walking in the direction of the smoke when I feel a hand on my shoulder, stopping me.
"We'll all go," Cato says. Cato, Marvel, and I grab our weapons, but the boy from 3 doesn't.
"He doesn't need to come," Marvel murmurs.
"He's coming," Cato raises his voice at Marvel. "We need him in the woods, and his job here is done anyway. No one can touch those supplies," he says. He motions for 3 to grab his weapon, and he does.
"What about Lover Boy?" Marvel asks.
"I keep telling you, forget about him. I know where I cut him. It's a miracle he hasn't bled out yet. At any rate, he's in no shape to raid us," Cato snaps back. "Come on," he says. We all head off to the direction of the fire. "When we find her, I kill her in my own way, and no one interferes."
Marvel and 3 nodded at Cato's request. He means Katniss. He wants nothing more than to cut her flesh and spill her blood. But I do too.
Cato is ahead of everyone else, obviously eager to kill the girl from 11 too.
"Don't worry," Marvel says, getting Cato's attention. "If it is 11, she won't be alive for long. I've set up a net trap near here; she'll more than likely get caught in it. Then we'll come for her."
"Show no mercy," Cato tells him.
We walk about half a mile into the woods when we hear a loud explosion.
"The mines!" Cato yells running back to the Cornucopia. Cato and 3 are ahead of me, at the Cornucopia now. I see Cato, furiously kicking at everything in his path. 3 is throwing rocks onto the plain, making sure that there are no more active mines. I run to the Cornucopia, looking for anything to salvage. Once Cato's tantrum in finished, he turns to 3. He begins yelling furiously at him, looking angrier than ever. Before I have a chance to react, Cato snaps 3's neck. His body goes limp.
The canon goes off and soon enough a hovercraft is here to collect the boy. The sun starts to set. Cato steps back to the Cornucopia, still cursing. Marvel appears next to me, shaking his head, warning that there is not much left to salvage. Cato and I grab our night-vision glasses (which thankfully survived the blast) and Marvel lights a torch. We tacitly walk back into the woods.
We have been wandering in the woods for about an hour and have come across nothing.
"Maybe we should call it a night," Marvel says.
I silently nod my head in agreement. But it doesn't matter what we think. Cato calls the shots.
Cato sets his sword on the ground and practically falls down. He's leaning against a tree and takes of his night-vision glasses. "We hunt all day tomorrow. No resting until we find her." Marvel nods. Once again, her referred to Katniss. I wanted nothing more than her dead.
The second the first light hits Cato's face, he is up. He awakens Marvel and I too.
"C'mon," he grumbles. "It's a hunting day." We grab our weapons and walk deeper into the woods.
"We should go back to where that big fire was," I say to him. "Maybe there's a chance that the girl from 11 is still there."
"Marvel, you said your trap was set up near that tree right?" Cato asks.
"In that general area," Marvel says.
"How well is it hidden?"
"Pretty well, in fact if you all weren't with me you would probably stumble across it and get caught." Marvel replies. He knew exactly where it was.
"Good," Cato says to himself in a low voice. "Clove is right; we should head back in the direction of where the fire was. Chances are, 11 is hiding somewhere in a tree. If she and 12 are allies, then she wouldn't wander off somewhere else. 12 would go back to that area, looking for her. She's still over there." Cato says, walking back to where the fire was. "Let's go hunting."
We are walking in silence when Marvel brings his hand up, motioning for us to stop.
"She's here, I know it," he whispers and turns to face Cato and me. "She's mine. I am going to kill her. You all need to go. Go somewhere deep into the woods and wait for me. This is my chance, this is my kill. I have to do this alone," he says, with passion in his voice. Cato surprisingly nods, and takes my hands, taking me deeper into the woods.
We have been walking for maybe ten minutes when we hear a bloodcurdling scream. A child's scream.
"He found her," Cato says, quietly.
We then hear another scream, from someone older. A girl. Then a canon goes off.
My eyebrows raise in surprise. Whose canon was that?
Off in the distance I can hear the wails of the Girl on Fire. The girl from 11 was dying. We all knew it. Then another canon goes off. 11 was dead.
"That first canon," Cato says, very slowly, "was Marvel's." I nod. Now it was just the two of us. Just like old times.
We stay standing. We can hear Katniss' cries from almost a mile away. We both know that this is our chance to kill her. But something has stopped us from moving forward. It's just too easy of a kill right now.
I feel something inside me. I know what it is. For the first time in a long, long time I am starting to feel something that I thought I could never feel again. The feeling lasts for only a split second. A feeling of sympathy.