Day Twelve: Hands of a Killer
"Hey Didi, what's up?" The fighting is still raging at the cornucopia, far from the normally over by now conflict. Carcinus is keeping watch over the Eight boy and Six girl, watching as they beat each other down. I'm perched on a crate, surveying my allies and looking down at Lorelei, who's directed the question to me. It's answered with a cool shrug. "Same old. Watching two kids beat each other down for my amusement, you stole my kill in the Bath and I want to have something to do. Instead, the boys and their testosterone fuelled insanity have demanded we watch this and let it play out first." She gives a non-committal nod, lapsing back into silence. I can hear Basalt and Royal below me, muttering something before they broke off. Boys.
The fight beneath us is dull. Long, boring and a slugging match between two children who look like they couldn't beat a pinata down. Why the boys are enjoying this is beyond me, and I fiddle idly with the bowstring across my shoulder, untwining individual strands of brown hair from it and making sure it's all clear. Lorelei's eased herself a little closer to Carcinus, her own boots raised up and atop a crate so her legs are straight out. Not the most relaxing-looking posture, but not my place to challenge it.
Amaretto slips off her top, giggling off some words about there being easier fun at this point and giving each of us a pointed look. A few eyes linger, mine don't. She's pretty, I won't deny it, but attraction is a vice I swear I won't partake in even when she slips up to me, standing by my crate and fingering the arrows in my quiver. She gets a small nod from me, but nothing more, even when she whimpers out the next words like a kicked puppy. "Oh, come on Di. I need someone interesting. There's something fishy about the Fours." Drawing a laugh from Lorelei, her voice gets a little bolder. "Basalt keeps whining about this not being the right place, and Royal is just... ew. So that leaves you, and on your honour as a member of our Squad I want to have some fun and a nice little sit."
I don't dignify that comment with a direct response. Instead a careful pace is traced around her suggestion, and I tap the crate. "Sure. Come up. Just don't do any of that pushing stuff I know you love to do. Regardless of how much you want to." Amaretto clambers onto the crate, leaving her tunic on the one opposite, and settles a couple of inches to me closer than is strictly necessary. I'm flashed that perfect smile, and she plucks an arrow from my quiver. "Pretty! I'm sure you'd be able to hit something from a way away. But nothing for close up, what if I get in close and deliver the old kill?" Waving her hand around a bit in some approximation of a stab, I bite back a smile. It's cute, kind of.
Of course she looks like she can sense my thoughts, cocking her head to one side and eyeing me with those big blue eyes. "What's wrong, Di? Don't like the idea of a pretty girl being so close. Come on, loosen up a bit! We have the Cornucopia, we're fine!" This gets a shrug as a reward, before I nod and make my concession. "Knife. I like a knife as insurance. One of those nice stabby ones, the ones that you can stab up with and be sure they're dead."
She nods, and I get another flashing smile. "Sounds fun! Me, I like my rapier. Stick 'em with the pointy end and all that. Thank you for talking, by the way, it makes this a whole lot more fun. Besides, I think it makes Royal a little pissy I'm not hanging out with him." Royal raises a middle finger, and Amaretto laughs her high, pure laugh. "Love you too!"
Carcinus is still pushing them forward with the spear, and at this point I think everyone just wants it to end. The boys are clapping, but Amaretto, Lorelei and I are now moved on to other things that don't involve that much bloodshed. Not exactly much enjoyment in untrained violence after all, especially when both the children are stumbling over their feet.
Eventually, it's too much. The kids are both crying on the floor and only landing an occasional blow, and so with careful aim I take my bow. String an arrow, taking careful aim even when I feel warm breath rushing over the inside of my ear and a chin on my shoulder. I loose the arrow, and the Six girl jerks like a puppet, before dropping as if her strings were cut. A little off target, a little kiss on my cheek, and Amaretto laughs into my ear. "Good girl. That was your first, wasn't it? In the arena, at least." "Yes." "Girl of fewer and fewer words, aren't you. Well, let me see those hands." I show them to her, and one's taken with a giggle, her finger tracing across my palm. "Nice little hands, aren't they. Washed in blood."
Her head is tossed back with a horrifyingly audible squeal of excitement, before I feel an uncomfortable weight begin to squirm into my lap. I was told to expect this, told the Ones always try to be touchy-feely with the aim of securing closer ties with the allies they think are best suited to back them up. I didn't expect it to be this early, though, it usually isn't. "Just the way I like pretty hands on pretty girls, nice and washed. Because you're pretty, Di. I like you." Then her lips press into my mouth, and. Well, it can't hurt to indulge my ally. That's what this is, indulging my ally so she's less problematic even when she's withdrawn behind me. Indulging her by taking aim at the other child, boy from Eight glancing at the Six girl's corpse in terror as I feel that rush of warm air over my ear and chin on my shoulder. I release.
Two weeks later, and she says the same thing she'd said at the Cornucopia. An arrow through her chest, she sways, grasping my hand. "So pretty, Diana. I... like you." I'm not sure how lucid she is, how much of it's the blood loss. I never get the chance to ask her, given she grasps at my hand, her own hands slick with her own blood, and then topples into the leaves with a pair of crunches.