Chapter 53:

Matla Jarend, District Five, Age 15

Victor of the 128th Hunger Games

Matla is breathing hard as she climbs the last few steps and she leans against the heavy metal door to push it open. She puts a hand up to shield her eyes from the sun as she steps out onto the empty rooftop, letting her steps slow to catch her breath. As she approaches the edge of the building, a slow smile starts to push her cheeks out. It was so worth the six flights of stairs to get to the top of the tallest building on the campus.

She sits on the ledge, one foot hanging on either edge, as she stares out at the old buildings. Sitting up here, away from the noise and others…she can really just imagine she's at the university campus back home. It's probably the closest she's ever come to actually being there, knowing she'd never be able to go short of a miracle. But now…sitting on the top of one of the buildings, looking at the courtyard with benches, the red brick buildings… Well, that future seems a lot more possible now.

If she makes it out of this arena alive, her goals no longer have to be just dreams. Someday, she could be sitting on the actual university campus like this, working on an assignment, laughing with friends…

It's such a tantalizing vision of the future and being in this arena has only made her desire it even more. She has to get out of this arena alive and claim that dream. And she will. Doesn't matter if she's only fifteen – others have done it before and she knows she's smarter than some of them. And with ten left…well, she's confident.

She relaxes as she sits on the ledge, smiling a little to herself as she looks around. It's so peaceful…but she should have known better that the highest roof in the arena wouldn't be empty.

She hears stone against the cement roof and turns just before that dumbass from Nine tries to shove her off the roof. She grabs onto Cyrian's arms as he pushes her, eyes widening in shock as she starts to fall. She digs into Cyrian's arms and he stumbles forward, catching himself on the ledge with his lower half, while his upper half hangs over the edge as Matla clings to him. "Let go!" he yells, trying to dig his fingers into her wrists until she leans over and bites his hand, making him scream. "We're both going to fall!"

"If I fall, you're going with me!" Matla yells at him, trying to fight off the panic growing with each second as her arms scream in pain. How the fuck is she going to get out of this?! She makes the foolish decision to glance down and immediately looks back up, knowing there's such a small chance she'll survive this fall. Her feet scrap the brick of the building, trying to find somewhere for support, and she kicks the edge of a window, just a little to her right. An idea starts forming and she isn't sure if it's genius or dumb.

Probably a mix of both. But she doesn't see any alternative here that ends with her survival.

They're at a stalemate, both of them precariously hanging. Cyrian can't make a move for any weapons – if he even has one – without risking losing his balance and falling with her. And Matla has her hands locked on his arms, so tight her nails have started drawing blood. She isn't letting go until she's ready to. She starts using her feet on the brick to start slowly swinging back and forth and it takes a few passes as she builds up momentum before Cyrian begins to notice.

"The fuck are you doing?!" he yells at her, face red as he struggles to stay on the roof. "Stop, you're pulling me!"

"Good," Matla says as she makes one last big push, letting go of his arms as she swings towards the window. Cyrian screams in shock as he falls over the ledge, trying to grab onto it, before falling towards the ground. Matla desperately clings to the windowsill, her fingers slipping and one hand falls off. She cries out in pain at holding on with just one hand, trying to get a grip on the windowsill with her other hand as she's still swinging. She hears the awful crunch of Cyrian hitting the ground and the cannon follows soon after, furthering her fears of falling.

She can't die here!

Matla slows her swinging, trying to take a few deep breaths to calm herself but with her arm burning with the strain of holding her up, she knows she doesn't have long before her arm gives out. She reaches up and grasps the windowsill with her other hand and tries to get some purchase on the brick with her feet. A brick falls loose, tumbling to the ground and giving her a much needed foothold, just enough to push herself up into the open window. She rests her upper half on the windowsill, gasping for breath as she lays there, needing a moment before she pulls the rest of herself in. She basically rolls into the room, hitting the floor with a small thud and she groans in pain at landing on her shoulder.

But she just lays there, staring up at the ceiling, breathing hard as her body burns, taking a moment to calm her racing brain. As her breathing slows, she slowly smiles realizing what she just accomplished. She'd like to see how the Capitol is reacting to her now – surely they're no longer doubting her and realizing she's an underdog to root for.

And she is going to show them now.

She sits up, rubbing her aching arms, and looks around the classroom she landed in. Her smile just gets even bigger when she realizes she's in a chemistry lab and she pushes herself up to go look in one of the chemical cabinets. Surely they won't have the arena stocked…

But when she opens the door, she rubs her hands together at all the full labeled bottles in there, plenty with hazardous labels on them. Things she's learned about in class or used in lab experiments before…

Oh there's no chance anyone else is beating her now.

And there's our resident scientist/university professor, Matla Jarend! So of course I had to go and make her arena a university lol XD

Well in other news, realizing my stockpile was Dwindling last week got my butt moving and so I got a couple done since then! And since I had some others already written in the 130s, the stockpile is now currently sitting at a comfortable seven (could be nine if I get my butt moving on Delmar lol). I'll give some sneaky peek lol. Two words: poisonous s'mores.

Anyways! Oh next week is a fun one. I believe they're one of the last victors that has not been named at all in any of my stories. So next up is a straight up badass from One!