Act 20
'Losing a Brother; Silver and Gold'

Dezji fell forward, landing on top of me with all his weight. I ended up falling back onto my butt with Dezji resting on top of me. He had just been stabbed in the back by the only person left; Silver. Dezji was gasping for air as he continued to choke on blood. I didn't know what to do. Instead I just looked up at Silver. He was grinning ever-so-slightly as he stood there menacingly. A shiver ran up my spine as I made eye contact with him. He was unarmed, but that didn't matter. He had muscles, which I lacked. He had confidence, which I lacked. And those two things combined where just enough to make him the most intimidating one here.

And if I didn't move quickly, he was bound to get me. I rolled Dezji off of me carefully enough that he didn't get even more hurt.

I'm sorry, I thought looking at Dezji.

I couldn't stay by Dezji's side as he died. If I did, I would die too. Dezji seemed to realize this as he looked up at me. He sent me a strained smile lined in coughed up blood. He was crying. I had never thought I would see Dezji cry, but there he was struggling a smile and crying. He gave me a small nodded and began to slowly stand up. He struggled to get his footing, but managed to somehow stand up.

"Dammit," muttered Silver.

He seemed a bit pissed that Dezji was still able to stand, but he quickly regained his composer.

"Still alive I see," spoke Silver.

"Calico! Run!" commanded Dezji. "I'm already screwed."

He sent me a sideways glare. But from just that, I knew I wasn't going to be able to argue with him. I also knew that he was about to do something stupid.

"Just promise me you will take care of Lilleth," he added.

I froze. Dezji had clearly given up. If we took out Silver and he killed me, Dezji could have probably still lived with the help of Capital technology. The Capital wouldn't want to be without a victor. But there he was, giving me instructions like he believed I was going to win. I still had to deal with Silver to win.

"Run!" Dezji shouted again.

I gave up and broke out in a run towards my gear. I turned back once to catch a glimpse of Dezji and Silver. Dezji still had the knife sticking out of his back, but he didn't move to remove it. If he did, he would surely bleed out in a matter of seconds. But with it in, it only meant pain surging through his back; especially with him moving about like he was. I managed to get back to my bag of stuff and pull out my slingshot that I had put back after shooting Aur. I also grabbed my knife that I dropped when seeing Dezji beat Aur into submission.

"You going to fight her battles for her?" asked Silver. "You're already dying. You cannot do much. Besides, she needs to fight this herself or she won't earn the title of victor properly."

Silver was correct. Dezji was too injured to do anything. We all knew this, but it didn't seem to affect Dezji. Instead he just sent a snarl aimed right at Silver. I went to rush back to Dezji's aid, but he extended a hand to motion me to stop. I did as ordered and paused, frozen in time, as I watched Silver circled Dezji, like a wild dog does with its prey.

Knowing what was about to happen, I closed my eyes, sealing them shut. Still, my anxiety didn't stop me from reluctantly peaking through my clenched eyes and watching the scene unfold. Once Silver was located behind Dezji, he lunged; aiming for the knife in his back. If he got that, Silver would easily win the fight before it even started. Dezji seemed to realize that and quickly wiped around. The knife in his hand rushed forwards and glided across Silver face, gouging out his right eye.

I remember seeing people from the factories with missing limbs, facial features, and everything else due to factory fires, machines malfunctions, and other things. When I was a kid I had wondered how some of them survived. One who had her entire left side of her face burned and lost her eyes said that it depends on what was lost. If one gets stabbed in the eye, it won't cause enough blood to be lost in order to die. Thus you can survive getting stabbed in the eye; which was a god's send for Silver, though a problem to.

Silver now was unable to see through his messed up eye, though that didn't stop him from pouncing onto Dezji. Dezji fell backwards at this attack, landing on the knife. It dug into him even deeper now as he let out a high-pitch scream in agony. I went to run to his side, but something stopped me. I hadn't wanted to hear it, but I did and it had caused me to be paralyzed with fear. The sound of the gong. The sound of life leaving a person's body. Dezji was dead.

"No," I muttered.

"Dick," muttered Silver.

He got up and pulled the knife Dezji had from his shoulder. When Silver pounced on him, Dezji must have had stabbed Silver. It had got his right shoulder. I had a bum arm and so one would think this might even things out, but that was not the case. Silver's injury didn't seem to be doing me any favours, instead seemed to irk him even more. He still was able to use his arm and as for the eye, that didn't hinder him.

"I am not going to lose," he said, approaching me.

I couldn't win against him in a hands-on match. I was too weak. If I could have gotten to Aur, I could possibly use the bow to injury him enough to use a knife to finish him off, even with my damaged arm. But Silver stood between me and Aur's dead body. I only had my slingshot and a knife. There wasn't much I could do, but I was desperate. Silver was slowly approaching me, anger slowly escalating inside of him. It showed. Maybe it was out of desperation or just sheer insanity, but I dropped my knife and picked up a nearby pebble. I managed to get one with a sharp angle on one side, perfect for a projectile. I took quick aim and launched it at Silver. He had shifted to the side, expect it to go passed him, but I wasn't aiming at where he thought. He assumed I would be aiming at his forehead or his good eye, anywhere I could possibly do harm to him where he wasn't already harmed. But I instead aimed for one of his injuries, hoping to cause enough pain; his gouged out eye.

He fell to the ground, screaming in pain as he tried to get out the lodged in stone from his socket. I didn't really want to look at the real-life gore there in front of me, but this was my chance. I rushed forward, grabbing my knife from the ground as I did, and jumped onto the shrieking Silver. He didn't have any chance to counter, instead could only let it happen. I jabbed my knife into the side of his neck and ripped it forward. If the scene wasn't gory enough, I just made it more; ten-fold. I didn't care. This was the someone who had killed Dezji. I hadn't known Dezji long, only through Lilleth, but from what she had told me and from what I had witnessed, he was a good person. And now he was gone. He didn't deserve that and I was pissed off.

"That's for Dezji," I said with an awful sneer.

A gong sounded announcing Silver's death. It was over. The anthem played, announcing the Games as over. I had won. I had made it.

I am updating twice today.

Deaths in this Chapter:

*Dezji - Placed 3rd; Killed by Silver.

*Silver - Placed 2nd; Killed by Calico.