Chapter 10- The Arena
OMG! (Obese milking goats) It's here! It's finally here! Angel's fate is sealed from here on out. In a matter of chapters she will be brought to her- HA HA! Did you really think I was gonna spoil it! You didn't? Oh, okay then... WARNING: Will Contain Spoilers. Stiill kan't speel.
blah, blah, blah. YOU WILL UNDERSTAND LATER YOUNG KUMQUATS!
On with the story!
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My mind is in a fog, with what happened between me and Finnick two nights ago and what happened with me and Daniel last night I can't think straight. It's not until I'm pricked in the forearm with a needle that I come back to reality. Where am I? A hovercraft taking me to my doom. Brave is the only person here with me. I'll never see Finnick again. I eat my breakfast, taking in a lot of the carbs and proteins and avoiding sugary foods. I try to remember the Careers' plan we made last night. Get the weapons and good stuff, set up camp at the Cornucopia. Was that all? I stare out the windows as long as possible. I wish I could open a window, then maybe I could sing to a mockingjay. I did that quite a lot at home. Never in front of anyone. What I would give to be able to sing to my family now. Two hours pass and the windows black out. I lay down on a couch resting my head in Brave's lap. I close my eyes trying to fall asleep again, even for just a few minuets.
"Brave?" I ask.
"Hmmm?"
"Tell me, about- about your life."
"Well, I have a wife and next month she'll be giving birth to our second child."
"What are you going to name the baby?"
"It's going to be a girl, so my name choice is Angel. Lestona, my wife, named our son so it's my turn to pick."
"Tell me about your son." I like this, hearing about his family. Half of me is asleep, half of me awake.
"He's thirteen and completely interested in my work with clothing. Already he's in line to be the new stylist for the girl in District 12 by or before the 74th Hunger Games."
"What's his name?"
"Cinna."
The hovercraft stops and I'm lead down a tube into the catacombs. All I can think of as I'm lead to the Stockyard (Here in the Capitol it's the 'Launch Room') is that after the games some tiny little girl with a frilly pink dress my family could never afford with blue lips and frizzy hair will be tracing my footsteps in awe that she can walk the same way The Angel of District 4 came before she was put to death. I want to hate the people of the Capitol but they don't understand, they're like children, most of them. Not realizing that 'The poor boy who got killed after dessert' has a family, a job, friends, maybe a girlfriend back home. And that a breif speach during the Victory tour won't stop their grieving. Brave hands me a package with the clothing I'll be wearing and helps me dress. Skintight fleecy black pants, a dark blue-green turtleneck (covering Marshal's hickey), a black belt around my waist, black lace-up thigh high boots with thick yet flexible soles and treads for running. A black jacket that falls to my thighs and a hood with draw strings. Brave does my hair in two fishtails easily tucked under the jacket.
"Do you have your district token?" He asks. I lift up my necklace, then tuck it under the turtleneck. "Move around, make sure everything fits." I jog in place and walk in a circle.
"Fits perfectly." I answer. "My dress last night was amazing, I loved the wings."
"I thought you would, I just wanted you to leave an impression."
"Sixty seconds." A female robotic voice alerts me. I have one minuet left with Brave. He hugs me tightly.
"I talked with Finnick, you have sponsers around the block, they love you." Brave says.
"Thirty seconds."
"You are the person to bet on. Don't doubt yourself Angel." A bell goes off and I step onto my platform. Brave gives me one last smile. That last smile I will ever see from someone who will have to kill me. For 15 seconds I'm suddenly clausterphobic. I'm in total darkness touching the walls around me as if trying to escape.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Let the sixty-eighth Hunger Games begin!" Claudius Templesmith cries out.
Then the light hits my eyes. I blink a few times. I have sixty seconds to figure this out. I look around. Pine trees. Lots of them, everywhere. I look to my left and see pine trees, I look to my right and see pine trees and the tip of a mountain peeking above them. In front of me there's a Cornucopia glinting gold and covered in snow. Snow. There is snow everywhere. When I exhale my breath swirls into the air. I zip up my jacket all the way. There are supplies scattered around the Cornucopia in no pattern. Literally two inches away from my feet lies a belt that velcroes around your waist and I can see the silver, copper, and gold tips of throwing knives poking out under the black fabric. Three feet from my left is a loaf of bread, two feet behind me lies a dark green backpack. I think I see a coil of wire under the pack of knives. I glance around and see Collin getting ready to run. I poistion myself to grab the supplies I want.
"Five."
The world is watching.
"Four."
Being a Career I'm garunteed a close up.
"Three."
I only hope I don't die at the bloodbath.
"Two."
I can't do it.
"One."
The gong rings out. I grab the knives and pick up the coil of wire. I wrap the knife belt securely around my waist as I dart back behind me and sling the backpack over my shoulder. I run towards the Cornucopia and pick up a small yellow box, I have no clue what lies in it. Then I grab two large loaves of bread after stabbing a tall brutish boy from District 7 in the hand. He screams out. Glamour comes behind him sinking her spear into his back and pulling it out. Ringlet shoots a small girl out of a tree. The girl tribute from 9 comes at me with a long spear. Clearly the Johanna Mason strategy is catching on because she scored a three in training. I take a knife from my belt and throw it into her thigh, she yells falling on the ground throwing her spear at me. Glamour catches it and shouts at the girl;
"Thanks for the spear!" This causes her to come at me. She jumps onto me using the knife from her thigh and presses it against my throat. I push her off and jump onto her grabbing a new nife and driving it into her chest. She spits blood in my face vomiting a fountain for a while, then just before dying slashes my forehead. I grab the knife from her running to the Cornucopia and climbing atop it standing next to Ringlet. He shoots bronze arrows in all directions.
"Cover me?" He asks sinking an arrow into the District 5 girl's stomach.
"No problem." I gasp. I pull out a knife with the longest blade possible. A spear is tossed at Ringlet and I deflect it with the knife. Another knife, a rock, another knife and I deflect them all. At least an hour passes. People doing their best to fight. Some are holding in the guts. Others throwing spears while bleeding into the snow. I look around, Daniel picks up the little girl from his District and they run towards the mountain. The girl from 7 thows a spear with such force that in goes through my jacket and pins me to the ground. While I try to pull it out of my jacket she traces my mouth with a knife, pulls it back; and falls ontop of me. Collin helps get her off of me and pulls the trident out of her back. Then helps me up. I look around and see all the dead bodies of tributes bleeding into the snow. There are only five people standing.
"Where's Granite?" Collin asks.
"Put me down!" A small girl's voice sqeaks. We all turn to see Gadget, the tiny girl from District 3, dangling from Marshal's hands. He's choking her.
"Marsh!" Glamour calls.
"Please!" Gadget cries out.
"Put her down!" Glamour commands. Marshal drops the little girl to the snow covered ground. She gasps for breath.
"She killed Granite!" Marhsal shouts. My mouth hangs open, this girl who barely spoke a word during her interveiw has killed one of the most menacing tributes.
"What?" Glamour asks.
"This little rat killed Granite." Marshal says. He picks up a dead body. The unmistakable blonde hair, freckles standing out against her papery white skin pulled tight. One. Arm. Blown. Off. "See?" Oh, God. I fall on my hands and knees.
"Angel?" Collin asks. I can't speak. Blood from Granite's shoulder drips to the snow. "Angel-" He's cut off when I begin to vomit. It's acidy, and tastes horrible. I've always hated throwing up. I cry after, and then can't stop for at least two days. My stomach will twist and turn with nothing left to retch but still try and force me to lose food. I can feel my throat suddenly raspy. I continue knowing that with the other tributes doing nothing but searching through the forest I can almost feel people all over Panem watching me lose my carefully-selected breakfast. Collin pats me on the back as I moan. I see what I've put into the snow which only makes me puke more. When I finally finish I crawl on my hands and knees until I can't anymore. This gets me about ten feet from where I started. I curl up into a ball hugging my knees to my chest and cry softly to myself. Collin comes over rubbing my back and shushing me.
"So what'd you do?" Glamour asks Gadget.
"I made a simple fire bomb and threw it behind me. Then she died. Then he started choking me." Gadget says. Glamour walks over and smacks Marshal upside the head.
"Idiot! If she calls that a 'simple bomb' imagine a big one. We have ourselves a personal bomb maker." Glamour says.
"You alright?" Collin asks me. I nod my head an moan letting the last of today's retchings pour out of my mouth.
"We should check the bodies for anything useful. Then the ground after the hovercrafts come." Ringlet says. "Angel, you watch the girl inside Cornucopia, then we'll set up camp." Collin puts my arm over his shoulder and drags me inside the Cornucopia. Gadget joins me.
"I'm not going to hurt you." I tell her. "I only kill if threatened." I think of how I told Finnick that I wouldn't kill. My purity is gone. He was right. The Games do change you. Gadget nods her head. Glamour comes over with her haul first. Two backpacks, the yellow box I dropped earlier, the bread I dropped earlier, a silver bow and quiver of arrows, and a sleeping bag. Collin comes over with food and water canteens. Ringlet carries another three backpacks, and two armfuls of spears and swords. Marshal carries only Granite's old backpack and doesn't set it down. I guess he doesn't want to let the last of her slip away.
"That's it I guess." Glamour says. She nods at me. "Feeling better?" I stand up.
"I'll be good for the rest of the day, tomorrow will be worse. I'll sort the packs." I say. Gadget hands me two backpacks and keeps three for herself. Glamour helps Collin sort the food. Ringlet and Marhsal trudge into the woods in search of food. I shrug my backpack off my shoulders. I unzip mine first. Another coil of wire, a sleeping bag, two packs of dried fruit, a lighter, chapstick, a metal teapot, and a pair of nightvision goggles. (I've used them while night fishing with Travis on the boat trips) Then I dump out the contents of the black one; a box of crackers, a water canteen, a torch, a flashlight, and another pair of nightvision goggles. The last backpack is sorted out holding only two sleeping bags, a flashlight, and a ball of twine. Gadget and I pool together what we found dividing the sources evenly among the six of us. Each backpack contains a food and some source of light. My new backpack is the dark green one I started with, only now its contents are different. A lighter, a sleeping bag, three packs of dried fruit, a coil of wire, a ball of twine, and chapstick. I start a fire and continue adding kindling as it grows. Gadget gathers pine needles and brews pine needle tea with the teapot in Collin's backpack. Glamour uses a small knife and slowly sharpens each of her spears as well as any other weapons in sight. I close my eyes and rock myself back and forth when the fire keeps itself going. Collin glances around at the dead bodies.
"Shouldn't we have heard the cannons by now?" He wonders aloud.
"Maybe they want to see if I'll puke anymore." I joke with no tone to my voice.
"Maybe there's another fight still going on." Glamour suggests. As if on cue we all hear a girl's scream and mockingjays fly out from the general direction it came from. We hear a cannon. "Okay count them." Glamour says. Gadget draws a tally mark in the snow. The cannons continue firing. Two, three, four, all the way to thirteen. There are only eleven of us left. More than half in one day. These Games could be over soon. Hovercrafts come in to pick up the dead bodies. I let out a loud sigh. Marshal and Ringlet come through the trees. Ringlet carries two fat rabbits, Marshal holds a small groosling. This is our first day out here. We don't even need sponsers. Ringlet skins and cleans the rabbits, Marshal plucks the bird clean.
"Roasted rabbit or bird stew?" Marshal asks.
"That's a groosling." I say.
"Roasted rabbit or groosling stew then." He spits.
"Rabbit." Glamour says. I nod my head. Ringlet skewers the two rabbits and sets them up over the fire.
"How are we supposed to drink this tea?" He asks looking at the pot. Immdiately a silver parachute falls from the sky. Ringlet opens the container it came with. Cups. "Here you go kid. -Gloss." He reads aloud, sometimes mentors give notes with the gifts. Even if Finnick sent me something with a note, it's not like he could put what he really wanted on it. I pour myself some tea.
"Tomorrow you guys can go out and hunt, I'll stay here with Gadget." I offer.
"Okay, then you have to look for trails with us the next day." Marshal says. I know that he means human trails. They're expecting me to kill. I got a 10 in training, now I wish I hadn't. "We need a pretty face to keep our spirits up." Glamour slaps him across the face. The Gamemakers must want tomorrow's hunting to come soon because in two minuets night falls and it's pitch black other than our camp fire. I sip my pine needle tea, chew on my rabbit. Gaget has already finished hers and is sucking on the bone. The anthem blasts through the speakers rigged throughout the arena. First is Granite, despite how much I loathe him, I give Marhsal a short hug. The second face to flash into the sky is the girl from 5. Gadget lets out a sigh, this means Chip from her district survived. Then both tributes from 6, the girl from 7 that Collin saved me from- that also means the boy who I stabbed in the hand lived- both from 8, both from 9- yes, there's the girl I killed- both from 10, and both from 11.
"So who's left?" Marshal asks wrapping his arm around my waist. I let him. He gets two days of grieving, then his hands stay north. As well as any other part of him.
"Glamour, Ringlet, you, Gadget, Chip, me, Collin, the boy from 5, the boy from 7, the girl from 12, and Daniel." I say. "That's eleven."
"I don't know about you, but I didn't sleep a wink last night." Glamour says. Curling into her sleeping bag. "I'm going to sleep. Two people will have to share a sleeping bag." Gadget crawls into Glamour's. "Who else is willing to share?"
"I'll share with Angel." Collin says. I'm glad that it's him, and not Marshal. It's like Travis getting me through the night during thunderstorms. Surprisingly Collin and I both fit. We keep the fire going and Ringlet is smart and puts twigs and branches near the entrance of the Cornucopia so if anyone tries to kill us we'll hear them first. He even keeps a tight grip on his bow when he falls asleep. Marshal goes under as well. Gadget and Glamour look like sisters sleeping and curled up together, despite their different appearences. I stare at the fire watching the flames curl into the air, sparks shoot out, wood shifts. I listen to the crackling and popping.
"Angel, you awake?" Collin whispers. I turn my head since it's impossible to move in this sleeping bag.
"Yeah. Can't sleep either?" I ask. He shakes his head. "I keep thinking of my family."
"Angel, would you sing for me? I used to hear rumors at school that you had an amazing voice." Collin says. I know that the cameras must be on us right now. Travis must be watching at least, so I'll sing for him. I clear my throat. I sing soprano, and it's hard to sing soprano in a whisper but I manage.
"Are you, are you,
going to the tree?
Where they strung up a man,
they say murdered three.
Strange things did happen here,
no stranger would it be,
if we met up at midnight,
in the hanging tree.
Are you, are you,
going to the tree?
Where the dead man called out,
for his love to flee.
Strange things did happen here,
no stranger would it be,
if we met up at midnight,
in the hanging tree.
Are you, are you,
going to the tree?
Where I told you to run,
so we'd both be free,
strange things did happen here,
no stranger would it be,
if we met up at midnight,
in the hanging tree."
I finish the song there because the next verse talks about suicide and that isn't mentioned in the Games ever. Only used as an action.
"The rumors are true. You sing like your name. Angel, the girl with the voice of an angel." Collin says. I can feel myself blushing. "Why'd you pick that song?"
"Because it's Travis' favorite." I answer honestly. I close my eyes snuggling into the sleeping bag as memories of singing that song at the foot of the lighthouse while leaning on Travis' shoulder flood my mind. I dream about him. It's not an eleborate dream, just me talking to him. When I wake up I'm still whispering his name.
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Awww! So sad! I still can't beleive Angel KILLED someone! And I wrote it! Next chapter soon. Reviews inspire my writing. You don't want me to get writers block...