Still Day 10 of the Hunger Games

I ran away from the fire, the inferno that was created by the Gamemakers is only growing, and creating a hell of a blaze. At every step I took a tree fell down in the distance with a crackling sound of fire. I pushed myself harder to escape as I can see the Cornucopia. Branches fell from the sky almost landing on my head.

I hate these Games.

The fire was practically on me, and there were some roots in the way they tripped me and I fell. I began coughing violently, the smoke was so thick, but I got back on my feet. Suddenly, a tree fell, I jumped out of the way. When I looked back, the tree was where I fell only seconds ago, the fire was rapidly approaching. My eyes burned with tears as I kept running until I made it to the clearing of the Cornucopia. I bent over to catch my breath from running.

I heard movement behind me and quickly turned around, just in time to dodge the deadly knife that was going for my head.

It was Lucian.

I turned around and I was frozen in shock at his appearance. The entire left side of his face was stained red with blood, the gash running from his chin to forehead had turned an infected purple. But it was his eye, or lack of, that made me stop. It was gone. I didn't know if it was swollen shut or somehow cut out, but I could tell his vision was poor. His hand looked disgusting thanks to me it was bandaged up. I can only imagine how the rest of his hand looked like.

I threw a knife at Lucian, but he dodged it and came running at me. Lucian tackled me to the ground. The hit made me see stars, but I quickly regained myself. He took a knife, my knife and set it at my throat.

"Did you really think you could win?" Lucian asked.

He looked crazy. I narrowed my eyes and tried to escape, but he had pinned me down good.

"I don't think I'll win. I know I'll win!" I exclaimed.

With a strength I never knew I possessed, I shoved him off my and rolled away, and quickly got up. Lucian pulled out his weapon, a trident, Kai's trident. I pushed Lucian against the Cornucopia. His face darkened and pushed my hands away and punched me in the face. I heard a crack and my nose started bleeding. I turned around, just in time to dodge a fatal hit of his trident.

Instead he sliced my upper leg and I moaned in pain. I looked up at him in rage and quickly threw one of my knives at him. He dodged it, but not before I hit his cheek, and blood came rushing out. Suddenly, he grabbed the front side of my shirt and slammed me against the Cornucopia. The bang made me light headed and I let out a little cry of pain. As tried to regain myself, I could see him with his trident in hand. I gasped and tried even harder to escape.

''NO!'' I screamed, as he raised his trident. He lightly sliced my neck at the side, but I moved out of the way just in time.

He tried jabbing it at me, but I sidestepped it and swept my knife towards him. He stepped backwards momentarily before coming forward again, but this time not with the trident; in his other hand is a small knife, which he slashed out at me; I don't step back in time and it left shallow gash on my shoulder. Absently I'm reminded that Lucian had Kai's trident and Kai isn't dead, so where was he-

Focus, Paige.

My hesitation caused by my absent thinking about Kai had cost me. Lucian had caught me off guard and knocked my knife out of my hand. I was a hundredth of a second too slow. My knife spun out of my hand and fell to the ground. Lucian was too quick, and I didn't have the chance to pull out one of my knives before he stabbed his trident into my abdomen.

I cried out and my legs collapsed underneath me. Lucian yanked his bloody weapon out of me as I fell to the ground and my eyes closed in pain. My arms folded tightly over my bloody stomach, but it does nothing to keep in the blood. It gushed out over my arms and onto the ground. I waited for the final blow but it didn't come, instead I heard some whistle to get Lucian's attention. Through the pain I managed to open an eye a crack and see that it was Kai.

"Now it's just you and me, Seabrook," Lucian said before starting to fight Kai.

It would be so easy...just get your knife Paige...Lucian and Kai aren't even watching you...

But the pain in my abdomen is too great. I'm weakening, I'm dying. Blood is flowing from my body like a river.

My life began flashing before my eyes, and I realized I promised too many people that I would win for me to give up. It took an immense amount of effort just to move my head to look down at the locket, now covered in blood. And this necklace is the tendril that I hang onto as I fight to stay alive even when the blood is rapidly exiting from my body. I'm becoming weaker, but I'm holding on.

Then all of a sudden I heard a cannon boom through my haze of weakness. I looked towards the scene where Lucian and Kai are – were – fighting. Kai is slumped on the ground with a bloody trident protruding from his abdomen through his back.

"Yes!" Lucian shouted, and looked expectantly up at the sky. "I won! I won! I'm the victor! Yes!" he yelled.

But no hovercraft appeared to take him out of the arena and back to the Capitol. Because Lucian was not the victor yet.

And he never will be.

My knife is in my hand and I don't feel the pain. I'm stronger than ever, I lift myself up onto my feet and bring the knife up over my head.

"Well?" Lucian demanded. "You can't just leave me here! Where are you?"

And then he realized.

He turned at the same time as my knife left my fingertips. It spun towards him as if in slow motion. Lucian's eyes widen and his mouth opened in a silent scream as the knife hit home and pierced his throat, sinking to the hilt. He gave a shuddering gasp.

His face contorted in hate, and he began pulling himself once towards me with bloodstained hands. For a moment I became afraid, afraid that he's so full of hate and sickness that mortal wounds won't stop him from coming towards me. That he would continue to drag himself, gurgling and bleeding, towards me to try to kill me. But he doesn't keep coming towards me, and he slumped onto the ground, his eyes still open. They become unfocused, but I still stare at them. Not believing that he's dead, I limped to his side and kicked him.

BOOM!

"Ladies and gentlemen," Claudius Templesmith announced over the blaring of trumpets. "I am pleased to present the Victor of the 67th Hunger Games, Paige Dyne from District 8!" Claudius Templesmith cheered over the loudspeakers.

The anthem played after him and I saw the faces of the people I watched die today, or at least heard. I got up from his body and wore a shocked look on my face, I watched as the hovercraft took away my enemies. I fell down to the ground, and I started to finally break down. All the deaths I saw, and all the ones I didn't. The odds were in my favor, but not in the others.

I looked at the pool of blood that I had made and I did the the unthinkable. In my blood I wrote on the Cornucopia.

THIS IS WHAT THE GAMES HAS DONE TO ME!

Then black spots clouded my vision and I fell to the ground.