"Maple!"
My head is pounding and my mind is foggy.
"Come on Maple!"
Am I dead? Was that my cannon that sounded? No, it can't have been. Why am I in so much pain if I am dead?
"Please Maple!"
I can hear her sob. I feel something fall on my cheek. Something wet and it is rolling down my face. I push and push to get back to the surface. I need to get out of this nightmare. Somebody is calling me and they need me. I force an eye open and I see black hair and purple eyes.
"A-Alex?" I murmur.
"Maple, come on" I hear her plead. My vision becomes clear and I see Alex smiling at me with tears in her eyes. She has a gash above her left eye and a bruise on her right cheek.
"W-what happened?" I ask, feeling my body coming back to me. I try to move but pain shoots through me.
"Don't move" she says as she holds me down, "You are hurt. Eight stabbed a knife into your side. Just stay still while I fix you up" she says.
I hear a trickle of water and I realise we are back at the stream. I turn my head, which sends pain through my whole being. "W-who, d-d-died?" I ask. She doesn't reply though. It must mean that Chip and Thorn are dead.
Suddenly the anthem plays and the seal shows up. I haven't even realised that it was dark out. The first face to show is Glamour and then that is followed by Glitz. Then knives and Chip. I feel more rage fill me as Chip's face shows up. It makes me want to kill Glitz over and over again. The last face to show is Thorn. This sends hurt through me more than the other deaths, excluding Oak. Thorn, though quiet, was there for me when Oak died. He made me feel better and now he was dead.
"Alright, I am going to stitch you up now" I hear Alex. As soon as the needle enters my skin I let out an inhumane scream. The pain is unbearable and I have to bite my arm to stop the screaming.
After 10 or so minutes, Alex is done and I feel dizzy once more. I still feel pain, but not as much. "T-thank y-you" I mutter as I feel darkness overcome me once more.
I wake to the sound of birds and the stream running. I look around and manage to pull myself up against the hanger. I look around and I don't see Alex anywhere. "Alex?" I ask, hoping she is watching out on the hanger. "Alex?" I ask again but get no reply.
I start to panic and look around camp. I see that two bags have gone and her sword. No, she has left me. Suddenly I hear a scream and then a cannon blast. That scream…it was Alex. "ALEX!" I shout again.
I force myself to my feet but stumble straight into the stream head first. I clamber back to my feet and grab my axe, "Alex?!" But no reply. I swing the two bags over my back and leave the camp with my weapons and bags.
I walk for a couple of minutes and then I see the hovercraft in the distance. Please don't be Alex. Please! I beg to myself. But then I see her black hair being lifted up, "No!" I scream as I fall to my knees defeated. They have taken them all away from me. No more Alex. No more Oak. No more Chip and no more Thorn. All of them gone, to be sent back home in wooden boxes.
I hear footsteps coming towards me. It must be 8, coming to finish me off. But as the figure approaches me I see Micro running towards me. "Micro?" I ask confused. I wipe the tears from my eyes and she runs into my arms.
"Its eight, he is coming" she shouts as she clings to me. Then I see him come charging into the clearing. He is cut open and looks very pale. His mace is covered in blood and flesh and I see some strands of black hair attacked to it. He killed Alex.
I stand and push Micro behind me, "Stay back" I tell her. I drop my bags and grab my two axes. Right now I am running on anger and adrenaline alone. "You killed her" I mutter.
"What?" he asks.
"Alex, you fucking killed her" I shout. He smirks and I can't take it anymore. I throw one axe but he manages to move his head just in time, but as he is distracted I charge forward and kick him in his chest. The pain has gone and all I feel now is anger and the determination to get my revenge.
He stumbles back, seemingly shocked. "What's the matter?" I spit, "Didn't see that coming!" I shout. He pushes himself of the tree and then charges at me with the mace held above his head. He swings but I duck just in time and then slice at his arm with my axe.
I get up and jump to the side before kicking him again. He stumbles and falls over, "Get up" I scream. I want to see his face when I kill this bastard. He clambers back up and glares at me, "Come on then" I say while spreading my arms wide and glaring at him right back.
I see him pick up some dirt of the ground and then he throws it into my eyes. My eyes instantly sting and my vision is blurred. I try my best to rub the dirt out. Then I feel a force push me down onto the dirt and he climbs on top of me. Pain shoots through my head as he starts punching me. I feel my nose crack and my right eye instantly swells shut.
The memories of the day before flash through my mind. This is how he was going to finish me off then and now he is finishing the job.
He stops hitting me and I feel his strong hands snake around my throat and I instantly start gasping for air. Is this how it will end? Being strangled to death by a guy twice the size of me. Black dots fill my vision and I know that this is the end so I close my eyes and just let it end.
He lets out a groan and then I hear a thud, soon followed by a cannon. My left eye flies open and I turn to see an axe in his back. I hear a screaming and then turn my head to see Micro looking at 8. Did she just save my life? Yes, she did.
Then it hits me. We are the final 2 and only one of us can go home. I didn't want it to come to this, but here we are. This is how it was always meant to be. They want us all to suffer and this is how they do it. This poor little 13 year old girl is going to have to die by my hands.
I push myself up and look at her. She looks even smaller now, than she did before. Why do I have to kill her? Why me? I see her lip trembling and I can't get the picture of Venia out of my head.
Venia…
Dad…
Fern…
Gran…
I have been fighting for them. I have been fighting to see them again and hug them and kiss them and for them to love me. I have been fighting for Oak, Alex, Chip and Thorn. It wouldn't be fair to just give up now.
I grab the silver necklace that Ally gave me all those years ago and determination fills me. Though I am hurt, my body is pumping with adrenaline which pushes the pain aside. I won't go down now. I won't give up, I am going home. I grip the handle of the axe in the boys back and then rip it out.
"No…" Micro mutters as she backs away. I drag my feet towards her and she backs up into a tree, "P-please" she begs but I push it aside. I am going home. Nothing will get in my way. Nothing!
"I…am…sorry" I mutter before raising the axe and bringing it down into her head. Blood splatters my face, the warm liquid dripping of my chin. I look at the now lifeless body of Micro Stellar. The 13 year old girl who fell to my axe. I let go of the handle and her body crumples to the floor, followed by a cannon. "I won" I mutter as I step back.
Trumpets sound throughout the arena with the capitol's applause. "Ladies and gentleman, I am proud to give you your victor of the one-hundredth hunger games and fourth quarter quell…Maple Serena from District Seven!" Claudius Templesmith's voice shouts.
"I won…I-I-I…me" I stutter as I fall to my knees. But at what cost? The cost of 23 other lives. 23 other kids who won't ever see their parents again. Was it worth it? Was it worth the fighting? Just to regret it for the rest of my life. I have killed and that won't ever be wiped clean from my conscience. I will never escape the arena, because it is a part of me now. It is embedded into my brain.
I reach around my neck and pull out my silver necklace with the half heart charm and I see the faces of all the people I love. Everyone I have ever cared about and I know I did this for them. I won so they wouldn't lose. I won for them.
The wind picked up around me as a hovercraft descends. A minute or so passes before a ladder is dropped down. My shaky hands reach out and as soon as I climb onto the ladder I am frozen in place. The hovercraft picks me up and I get one last look at the arena. The crater where it all started. The blood stained grass from our final fight with the careers. I can even see our camp site through the trees. I look to my necklace and I manage to smile a genuine smile. I'm coming home.
A/N: So there we have it guys, the end of the 100th Hunger Games and 4th Quarter Quell. But this isn't the end of Maple Serena, we still have the backlash from the arena and her return to District 7. Coming soon will be the next chapter in her life; A Victor's Story.