Chapter 27

NARRATOR | Declan Davidson, District 4

TIME | Day 2

TRIBUTES REMAINING | 16

"Come on, Declan, you need to eat," Evelyn says, passing me a piece of jerky from her bag. "Stop trying to be a hero."

I grab the jerky from Evelyn's hand, but grimace a bit before throwing it into my mouth. I still haven't regained my appetite since yesterday - and who would, after everything that happened - but I know I have to keep myself strong.

We had an early morning - the Arena is quite chilly, and it only gets worse at night, so it was difficult to stay asleep. I tried my hardest to nestle close to Lucas and Evelyn, but neither of them are large enough to provide much body heat.

"How are you feeling?" Evelyn asks, her voice dropping out of range of Lucas and Violet, who are eating a short distance away. "Out of ten."

I think for a second before answering. "Five," I sigh. "I'm alive and you're alive, that's all I need. Beyond that, there's not much to be happy about."

Evelyn nods. "Well, Safira's dead," she shrugs, "and I know how horrible that sounds. But we would never survive this Arena while she was in it."

"One less person," I say softly. "I guess everyone needs to go at some point."

I'm distracted by a trembling sensation in my legs; at first, I think that I'm so weak that my body is shutting down, but the look on Evelyn's face tells me that she feels it too.

"Violet, is this an earthquake?" she calls loudly, panic in her voice. Violet knows more about these things than we do, but this fits the description of an earthquake from what I read in training.

"A weak one," Violet says, moving closer to us with Lucas on her tail. "It doesn't feel natural, though... something might be happening out in the Arena that's causing it."

The shaking stops just as quickly as it started, and I let out a sigh of relief. In these Games, you can never know what to expect, and I have no idea what the Gamemakers are planning to do.

"We should try and climb up to see what's going on," Violet suggests. She makes her way to the nearest tree, moving her hands around the trunk to get a good grip.

"I'll come," Evelyn says, glancing down at me. Her eyes tell me everything I need to know - if Violet goes up by herself, she holds all the power. She could tell us anything she wanted to and manipulate us with that information... after everything that happened yesterday, I wouldn't put it past her.

"Me too," Lucas says, jumping up from the ground. His blatant eagerness leaves no secrets about his intentions; it's as if he's begging Violet to notice him, to like him as much as she likes Evelyn. Every moment Violet spends alone with Evelyn is a moment that Lucas slides further out of Violet's circle, but does he realize that he's already the least important member of this group?

"I want to get a look at the Arena," Lucas says. Evelyn turns to me, rolling her eyes in response.

"Fine," Violet sighs. "We'll all go. You two can climb that one, Declan and I will go up here."

My heart drops; immediately, all three of us are complaining to Violet.

Evelyn's voice wins out over the rest of us. "Declan's afraid of heights," she reminds Violet. "We should just go up with you and leave him to guard camp."

"You see those cliffs?" Violet asks, pointing to the sheer rock faces rising over the distant trees. "Declan's going to have to get over that fear quickly, because he's going to be facing it sooner or later. We fell 7,000 feet into the Arena, and he survived."

"Violet, that's not fair-"

"I'll come." The words leave my lips before I can really think about what I'm saying. Evelyn glances at me, surprised, as I climb to my feet.

"I want to conquer my fear," I sigh. "And I wanna see the Arena, too."

If Violet wants me to come up the tree with her, I have to take advantage of this opportunity to talk to her alone. I need to know if I can trust her with my life in this Arena... if I can't, I'd rather she just kill me now.

Lucas still complains, but Evelyn keeps her mouth shut for my sake. I know she doesn't want to be stuck with Lucas - there's been a weird tension between them since the Bloodbath - but this is our only option. Evelyn has experience climbing the masts of boats in Four, and it would be stupid to leave Violet alone with Lucas.

Violet smiles, beckoning me over to the tree. "Here, put your hands up like this," she demonstrates.

With Violet's help, I manage to clamber up into the tree. She climbs up after me, pushing me up at times as we rise higher and higher from the ground.

My knees feel weak, and I grow more and more scared the higher I rise. What if Violet finally snaps and pushes me from this branch...

I swallow my nerves, pushing my way through the canopy above. Violet is right - I practically fell from the sky to get here, and it seems silly to be afraid of climbing a tree. When the Arena comes into view, what's left of my fear dissipates. It's stunning.

I was too busy screaming during our initial descent to get a good look at the Arena, but what I see now takes my breath away. The trees we slept beneath last night sweep across the winding hills, and they're met by rocky cliffs in the distance. The cliffs have a mystical quality to them; water drifts gently down them like powdered sugar, and a few lone trees grow from tiny outcrops in the rock.

At the center of the Arena, the valley slopes into a body of water; I'd call it a river, but it doesn't seem to be flowing anywhere. The water laps gently at its rocky shore, and my eyes drift down the water, past the mountains. In the distance, the water seems to meet some sort of ocean... it looks like the ocean wraps behind the mountains that enclose the Arena, but it's hard to tell. In the center of the ocean stands a monument of rock.

"Is that a mountain?" I ask, pointing at the irregular peak as Violet joins me at the top of the tree. Back in Four, I've never seen a mountain coming out of the ocean like this.

"It's a peak of some sort," Violet says, squinting. "A volcano, maybe?"

That would explain the earthquake - from what I've read, volcanos can cause tremors like the one we just felt, although I'd expect those quakes to be more severe than the one we felt this morning.

"The Cornucopia's missing," Violet notices, and I glance back to see that she's right. I can't believe I missed it - where the Cornucopia stood just hours ago, the water seems to have swallowed the land to widen its banks.

"Maybe they sunk it," I suggest, envisioning the metal cone drifting deep beneath the surface of the still water.

"Looks like it," Violet agrees. "That's what the quake was, I think. They wanted us to notice..."

We sit for a moment, thinking. Maybe the Gamemakers sunk the Cornucopia because people were scavenging the supplies that were left behind... or could it be because they want us to take note of the water that it's sunk into? What significance does this blue gash across the Arena have to these Games?

I hear a call in the distance, and I turn to see that Evelyn and Lucas have reached the top of their tree. Lucas is looking around, in awe of the Arena's beauty, and Evelyn has her hands cupped around her mouth.

Evelyn tries to say something, but we're too far away. I catch the word beautiful, but that's about it. Violet and I wave to her, motioning that we can't hear.

"We'll meet you at the bottom," I call, motioning to my District partner. She nods, giving me another deliberate look before turning around to get a good look at the Arena.

I turn back to face Violet; a storm is brewing in her eyes, and the look on her face makes my heart drop. For a split second, I think that she's going to kill me, but she's not paying me any attention. She's staring out into the Arena, where a plume of smoke is rising from the trees.

"Are we gonna investigate that?" I ask; the smoke is a fair distance away, but I think we could get there in an hour. Knowing Violet, we'll be marching there as soon as possible.

My ally just shrugs, her eyes fixed on the smoke. I glance back at it, expecting to see something captivating, but there's nothing special about the rising column.

"Violet, are you okay?"

Violet turns to me, and I see the tears pooling in her eyes. "Declan, am I a hypocrite?" she sobs, and I watch a dam collapse in front of me.

I'm so taken aback by Violet's change in demeanor that I don't know what to say. I glance over to the neighboring tree, but Evelyn and Lucas are gone, probably heading down to the ground.

"You're not a hypocrite, Violet," I say, trying to be as reassuring as possible. I'm suddenly very aware of how high up we are.

"Well, I feel like one," Violet spits bitterly. "I killed that girl from One yesterday. Eliza. And she did nothing to me."

I can barely comprehend what Violet is saying - is she trying to play some sort of trick on me to test my loyalty? This sudden change of character is so unlike Violet that it's making my head spin.

"Well, you killed Safira, too," I double down - if Violet is trying to get me to slip, she's not going to get the satisfaction. "Aren't they all the same? Two more competitors out of the Games."

"I came here to get revenge," Violet says, her red eyes filled with madness. "I came here to destroy the system that destroyed me - the Career system. Every year the kids from Two get their say in what happens in these Games. They trample over innocent kids like my brother, and I just can't stand it anymore. Safira got what was coming to her - she volunteered to be here. Eliza didn't. I let my emotions take over - the thrill of releasing five years of pain - and I killed her."

At last, I understand. I shouldn't be so surprised that Violet has a reason behind her madness, for some reason, but I am. To me, Violet has always been so twisted by revenge that she never saw the bigger picture. But now I see her as she is - a broken girl who's trying to get back at this system the only way she knows how. The Careers have won the last two Games in a row, and this year could make three - Safira is gone now, but that has left Judah as the clear frontrunner.

"Eliza has a family back home," Violet sobs. "She said so in her interview, and I killed her..."

I try to remember Eliza's interview, but it's slipped from my memory; I just remember that she could barely answer the questions. Clearly, Violet cares more deeply about this than I do.

"To have a loved one ripped away like that... it's like nothing else I've experienced," Violet confesses. "Logan meant everything to me. He was my entire life, and then just like that, he was gone. You wouldn't understand what it's like."

"I understand," I cut in, unable to keep the venom from my tone. Violet has no idea what I'm capable of understanding. "My sister was killed in the docks last year. Climbed up to the top of a mastpost and fell."

Violet stares at me, stunned. For the first time, I think she truly sees me. This is the first time I've mentioned it for a reason - all of us struggle with different things, and some of us are better at hiding it than others.

"When we heard, I wanted to kill the captain of the ship," I say, trying to hold my own tears back. "Freya had just started on the crew, and he promised my family he'd take care of her. She died on his watch, and I wanted him to pay for it. But he has a family, too. If revenge is the only solution, where does that leave us in the end?"

Finally, my words seem to calm Violet down. She turns back around to face the Arena; in the distance, I watch as a flock of birds take flight from the top of the cliffs.

"I know we need to go to that fire," Violet mutters. "I know we need to kill whoever's down there because if we don't, it'll be harder to win. It'll be harder to survive with more competitors. But whoever is down there has someone who loves them. Just like how Logan had me. And I don't want to be a monster."

"You don't have to be, Violet," I say, resting my hand on my friend's shoulder. "There are sixteen people left in these Games. Whoever is out there will be dealt with. It doesn't have to be us that kills them."

Violet doesn't respond. After a few moments, she sniffs, wiping her nose and turning back to me.

"Alright," she smiles weakly. "Lucas and Evelyn are probably wondering what's happened. Let's head down."

The descent is easier than the ascent - after all my time in our treetop perch, I barely contemplate what'll happen if I fall. Violet is an expert at scaling trees, and we reach the ground in no time.

"What happened?" Evelyn asks as soon as we reach the bottom. "We were so worried!"

"I had to clear my head," Violet says, shaking her head. "These Games... none of us knew what they'd be like until we got here."

"Well, we'll have to hurry," Evelyn says, reaching for her bag. "Did you see that smoke? Whoever's down there will be gone soon, so we should head out as soon as we can."

Violet shakes her head with a frown. "We don't need to," she sighs. "Someone else will do it."

Lucas and Evelyn both stare at me, their mouths hanging open. This Violet is nothing like the one that scaled the tree just a few minutes ago.

"And what if nobody else does, Violet?" Evelyn says, recovering quickly and stepping up to face our ally. "They're just going to go free, and there's still sixteen of us? Do we want to win the Games?"

"Of course we want to win," Violet says, gritting her teeth. "But someone else will do it. Judah or Vinny, whoever. Just not us."

"Listen, Violet," Evelyn says, her tone dangerous; I wince as she steps closer to Violet. "There are twelve other tributes in here, and most of them hate us. We have all the sponsors, you got one of the highest training scores. Who's to say that the others won't band together to take us out? Don't you think that Judah wants you dead now, and don't you think Verity would make a deal with him like she did with us?"

I can see the gears turning in Violet's head, and I want to scream. After all the progress I've made, after making Violet seem like a person for the first time since I met her, Evelyn is undoing everything in front of my eyes. I bite my tongue, clenching my fists behind my back; whatever Evelyn's doing, she has her reasons, and I have to trust her. I've trusted Evelyn from the start, and it's gotten me this far.

"What would Logan have wanted?" Lucas adds, finally figuring out what Evelyn's trying to do. "Would he have-"

"Don't bring my brother into this," Violet snarls, and Lucas shuts his mouth.

"You have a chance to take out your competition, Violet," Evelyn piles on. "Would Logan want you to sit around and wait for the others to team up against you? Is that what he did when he was here?"

That's the final straw, I can tell. It's just like me with my sister. Any time someone mentions Freya's name, I crack like a fishbone.

"Grab your bags," Violet says through her teeth. "Let's go."

Violet doesn't say a word as we pack up camp, and Lucas takes the opportunity to walk next to her as we head towards the pillar of smoke. Finally, I can talk to Evelyn as we walk.

"What were you thinking?" Evelyn whispers, glancing at our allies ahead of us. "After everything we talked about!"

"We said that we couldn't trust her," I choke out; I can feel my face turning red. "She broke down and I didn't know what to do! She's grieving, Evelyn. Just like I did when Freya died."

Evelyn winces at my sister's name; she worked at the docks back in Four, so I'm sure she heard the news when Freya died.

"Violet's brother died five years ago, Declan," she points out. "And that's not what I was talking about. We don't have to worry about her killing us, which I know you're stressed about. Violet has no other option. We are the only protection she has from being killed, because if someone attacks her they'll kill us first. The only thing that matters is if we can trust her to bring us to the end. To do that, Violet needs to kill everyone for us."

I just hang my head, staring at my feet as Evelyn berates me. For that brief moment in the tree, I felt connected to Violet in a way I can't describe. In that moment, she became more than just an ally. Now I'm starting to realize that the entire encounter was a mistake.

"Without Violet, we have no chance," Evelyn says. "She's supposed to kill everyone for us, Declan. And then at the end, she'll be so weak that we can pick her off ourselves. It's our only hope."

It's nauseating, but I know that Evelyn is right. I feel so full of guilt that I could explode; Lucas and Evelyn are manipulating Violet by taking advantage of her grief, and I shouldn't let that happen. As someone who knows what it's like to lose a family member, I should be standing up for Violet... but now I understand the truth. If I want to have a chance of surviving this Arena, I have to convince Violet Chappelle to be a killer.

A/N - I love this chapterrrr and I hope you enjoyed it too! Hopefully this adds some dimension to Violet's character and contextualizes some of her behavior so far in the story - I know she's been painted as very flat so far but there's a treasure trove hiding within her that I'm gonna try my best to explore. Also any thoughts on how Evelyn is handling this whole situation?

See you in the next one :)

~S