Chapter 26
I return to the others, still breathless and grinning uncontrollably.
Corvid says, "All dried off now, Midnight? By the short time you were gone, I'm assuming it was you who got to finish?"
I don't understand, but Rubis gives them a dirty look.
"Anyway…" Izzie says, excitedly, "Let's go hunt a blind girl!"
She and Corvid sling their weapons over their shoulders. I lift up my pack and attach my sword and sheath to my belt.
We make our way down the stairs and into the darkness.
"Where would she be…" Corvid ponders.
"I assume she would be looking for other tributes to kill, from what you've said." Rubis suggests.
"So, should we check the roads?" Izzie asks.
Corvid says, "Yeah… But we should be quiet. If she hears us in a group, she won't come near us."
"Maybe we can scare her into running, and she'll trip?" Rubis says, with a hint of a smirk.
We cover the main road as a group. The one that the careers and I chased Anita along, days ago.
"Nothing." Izzie states, quietly, "We can't cover the whole arena like this. She could be anywhere."
"How big is the arena?" I enquire.
"Stretches from the back of the college – you know, the Astroturf and the orchard – to the edge of town. So about a half-hour walk from one end to the other."
"I haven't been further than Churchill Gardens." I say, recalling our long walk to fight Minx.
"You haven't even been out of this half of the arena?" Izzie laughs.
Rubis adds, "It's not even a large arena. I suppose, if they made it the normal size, with all these buildings, nobody would find anyone else for weeks."
"Exactly…" Corvid muses, "So Blue could be creeping down any of these little side-alleys. I think we should split into pairs to look for her, then call for each other."
"And alert the roadmen of our position? Or more importantly, Blue?" Rubis queries.
Corvid gives him a look, and a silent conversation seems to pass between them. This involves Corvid gesturing towards me, and miming a stomping buffalo.
"Ok." Says Rubis, "I get it. Midnight and I will look for Blue while you two do your thing."
"Great." Says Corvid.
Apparently, Izzie doesn't even need to ask what Corvid's secretive plan is.
"Let's go, Midnight." Rubis says.
"Ok, babe." I say.
So what if they're making plans without me? I get one-on-one time with Rubis.
With that, my snookums and I walk off to look for our prey.
The urge to take Rubis' hand as we walk side-by-side is overwhelming.
I take hold of one of my PS6 controllers and swing my arm and his wire between us.
"Ow." He says in a hushed tone, "That is attached to a barely scabbed-over wound."
"Like the wound in my heart, that our love is scabbing over." I breathe, dreamily.
We walk some more.
"Can you walk more quietly?" Rubis whispers.
Somehow, in heavy, black boots, he is as quiet as a delinquent teen sneaking downstairs in the night.
I double my effort to walk silently, putting only the balls of my feet on the tarmac, rather than my entire soles. I successfully reduce my thudding steps to shorter taps, that echo more crisply in the night.
"I'm tired." I say, after a while.
My calves ache terribly from spending so long on my tip-toes.
Rubis says, "Just make sure to complain to me every time you feel sorry for yourself. I love it."
I appreciate him taking on the burden of my woes with me. Needless to say, if anything was bothering him – say he lost his legs, or something – I would put aside all my troubles to support him.
Later, Rubis emits an almost inaudible gasp.
"What is it?" I whisper, urgently.
"Look."
He is pointing into the dark, at a petite figure, standing stock-still.
It seems we have found our prey.
I am about to call out at the top of my lungs for Corvid and Izzie, when Blue dashes towards us, hands outstretched.
Rubis' face drains of colour in a split-second, and sweat shines on his forehead.
At the same time, an immense dizziness overcomes me. I drop to my knees. Pressure builds up in my eyes and I hurl a pathetic dribble, containing the burnt Rubis-chunks I ate earlier.
She heard us. She has hit us with her mysterious powers, which we clearly underestimated.
"Run." Rubis orders, weakly.
We stumble away from Blue, at a pace more alike to zombies than tributes fleeing for their lives.
Suddenly my legs give way beneath me. I fly forwards and catch myself on my arms. Try as I might, I cannot move my legs.
"I can't get up!" I wail.
Rubis responds with an almighty sneeze.
Blue is approaching rapidly.
She says, "Neat trick, isn't it? If I can hear where you are, I can affect your anatomy. You signed your death warrants when you stepped within fifty yards of me."
I roll onto my back to see Blue standing above me, arms outstretched towards me.
My diaphragm seizes up. My ribcage presses into my lungs. My throat constricts like my windpipe is trying to fold itself in half. I can't breathe.
I writhe and struggle against Blue's mutant powers. She blurs into three as my vision goes fuzzy.
I rasp, "Only Rubis gets to choke me."
Blue only smiles.
Then, quick as a flash, she scampers away, releasing her grip on me.
I kneel, coughing and retching.
My saviours – the Goths – chase after Blue.
She heard them coming just in time.
Rubis appears in front of me and crouches down. I wrap my arms around his neck and he hoists me to my feet.
We watch our team-mates face off with Blue. She is able to pinpoint exactly where they are, just by the tapping of their shoes on the road.
Izzie clutches her head and falls to her knees, eyes screwed shut.
"Stop it!" She cries.
Under the cover of Izzie's cries, Corvid is able to sneak close to Blue.
Their axe whistles above her head as she ducks, just in time.
Blue rounds on Corvid and they double over with tears in their eyes. I can only imagine what pain she inflicted on them.
"You'll have to do better than that." They grunt.
Corvid stumbles forward and swings their axe wildly.
Blood sprays from Blue's torso.
"So will you." Blue sneers.
She shoves one hand outwards aggressively, and Corvid falls to the floor. I see them trying to stand on legs that have stiffened like pencils.
Blue presses her other hand onto her axe-wound. It heals in front of our eyes.
Izzie runs towards her and Blue nearly takes a spear to the chest. She rolls out of the way and Izzie misses by a whisker.
I didn't realise Rubis had left me until he appears on the other side of Blue.
He swings his controller-arms at her and one strikes her in the temple.
She aims who-knows-what effect at him, but Rubis sidesteps daintily. At the same time, Izzie howls as loudly as possible, throwing off Blue's aim.
"Give up, Blue!" Corvid says from the ground, "You're pretty much useless if we make enough of a racket."
Corvid proceeds to sing a crude song at the top of their lungs, as Izzie and Rubis target the blind girl. Blue barely avoids fatal wounds, without a single chance to attack in return.
Then Izzie stabs her in the lower back, at the same time as Rubis hits her in the back of the head.
Admitting defeat, Blue runs away from both of them as fast as she can.
They give chase.
Corvid is still singing raucously… about balls, I think?
I shout, "Go Izzie! Go Sexy-Pants! Pin her like you would pin me!"
"Ew!" Shouts Izzie.
"Not you, you freak!" I respond.
Blue takes advantage of the noise.
She whips around and Izzie crumples, just like that.
Then Blue turns directly to me.
I feel my legs stiffen, but not like Corvid's did. Mine take on a life of their own, and force me forwards. I can feel every ligament and muscle tensing and relaxing, like somebody is controlling each one consciously.
Which, I realise, Blue is doing.
She forces me into a run, faster than my body would allow me to go under my own instruction.
Blue is ducking under Rubis' flailing controllers when I reach them.
My arms lift without my influence.
Suddenly, I find myself grasping Rubis by the neck.
Is this what people mean, when they say their bodies take over in the heat of passion?
The muscles in my hands and fingers contract. My thumbs press into Rubis' windpipe so hard that it hurts. My own bones creak from the strength of my grip.
Rubis tries in vain to shake me off. He stumbles to a wall, with me hanging onto him like a demon koala, and rams me against it.
Despite my back thumping on brick, I can't let go.
Blue is standing still, the Goths incapacitated and Rubis asphyxiating.
Every ounce of her effort is directed at me. Her eyes are screwed tight shut in concentration, while Rubis' bulge out of his head.
Rubis foams at the mouth. The veins in his forehead throb visibly. All I can do is watch as I squeeze the life out of my one true love.
I feel as though I am being choked myself. And not in a good way. My hands hurt almost as much as my panicked, rapidly-beating heart.
Rubis' neck stops twitching in my grip. He collapses on top of me, entirely lifeless.
"NOOO!!! RUBIS!!!" I wail, wracked by raw grief, "I can't lose you again!"
I sob so uncontrollably that I don't realise my grip has finally released.
Blue hears the results of her scheme and flees the scene.
Corvid and Izzie recover from their respective concrete and jello states, and rush after Blue.
"She's too far away!" Izzie huffs, "We shouldn't waste more of our energy."
The two slow to a defeated halt.
Blue sprints down the road, her trail of blood thinning as she heals her wounds.
Suddenly an ear-splitting crunch resonates back to us.
Blue has run straight into a brick wall.
She stumbles backwards. A bloody gash marks her forehead and her arms are bent in directions that they definitely should not be.
"Screw wasting energy." Corvid grins, "Race you!"
The two of them tear off. Within moments, they have caught up to the concussed mutant. Seconds later, Blue has been axed and speared to minced-meat.
I barely hear the cannon above my monstrous waves of sobbing.
The Goths meander back to me and my deceased baby-doll.
"Wow." Izzie comments, "Midnight got a kill."
"Don't give him that much credit." Says Corvid, "That was Blue's kill."
"I never would have guessed she was that powerful…" Says Izzie, "She made every joint in my body go floppy."
Corvid grimaces, "I could feel my tendons stretching in my knees and ankles, like they were getting shorter. It was horrible. At least singing distracted me."
"What were you even singing?" Izzie asks, "It was funny."
"It's a song called Blue." Corvid answers lightly, "I thought it was fitting."
I snap.
"Will you two stop focusing on yourselves?!" I scream, "Blue just made me kill my own boyfriend! You will never understand pain until you've been through what I have!"
"Alright, it's not a competition." Izzie retorts.
I continue to wail.
I consist only of despair, total and condemning.
There is a scuffle of movement above me. Through my tears, I see Izzie lunge forwards, before Corvid shoves her to the ground.
"What are you doing?!" She exclaims, betrayal etched in her voice.
The thought crosses my mind that Corvid wishes to form a lethal couple, with just me.
No, surely they wouldn't think they had a chance, just because Rubis is gone?
But Corvid doesn't hurt Izzie.
They hiss, "If you kill him, we'll get Capitol Mutts set on us within milliseconds. We're only alive because we're with him."
Izzie growls, "Then how are we supposed to live? If his plot armour is as strong as you think, he'll win the Games!"
"He won't. They want an arsehole like him for entertainment, not to be the next darling of the Capitol."
Then Corvid whispers something close to Izzie's ear. Her expression transitions from frustration to livid resignation.
Corvid steps off of her and helps her up.
I see what's happening now.
They are only using me. They don't care about me at all. They are selfish, Capitol rebels, who couldn't care less that my one true love is dead beside me.
I sob so hard that it hurts. I can't overpower these two, without Rubis to protect me. They'll use me until the end, then they'll kill me and one of them will win the Games.
Or even worse, they'll do some stupid suicide pact together and there will be no winner.
If me dying will earn these two an excruciating death, then that is how I wish to go down.
Not by their hands, but my own.
I extract the dagger that Rob forced me to carry.
I hug Rubis' corpse with one arm, giving him one last passionate kiss.
"Mmm, necrophilia." Izzie comments, sardonically.
I raise the dagger over my chest and screw my eyes shut.
I plunge it downwards.