136th – Gracyn Rupsis, District Nine
…
Raine's intestines are falling out.
The boy from Seven's ax carves a chunk out of her stomach, and her hands can't contain everything that is trying to escape. She tries anyway, slamming her hands over the gaping cavity. She drops to her knees, blood dripping past her fingers. A cannon sounds, and for a moment, Raine thinks it must be for her. But it hurts too much for her to be dead.
Hands are on her shoulders, pushing her down into the dirt. She blinks several times, trying to clear her vision. The image of the girl from Nine swims into clarity, and only when she hears the girl saying, "Shh, shh." does she realize she's been screaming.
Raine closes her mouth, trying to catch her breath. But it's impossible. It's like there's no air left in the world. Distantly, she wonders how the girl from Nine is still breathing without air. It's been sucked out of the arena, and Raine is suffocating.
"I'm Gracyn," the girl says. "I'm…going to help you."
Raine wants to answer, wants to tell Gracyn what her name is. When she tries to open her mouth to speak, the only thing that comes out is a garbled noise of agony. Gracyn said she's going to help her. She deserves to know Raine's name.
Her vision is going blurry again. The pain is overwhelming. Raine keeps blinking, but it doesn't do much. Gracyn is holding something over her head. Her vision won't clear enough for her to figure out what it is.
"Is District Three nice in the summer?" Gracyn asks, voice wavering. Raine wonders how Gracyn knows what district she's from. "District Nine is quiet in the summer. Harvest season doesn't start until September."
Another horrible noise tears out of Raine's chest when she tries to answer. District Three is never pretty, she wants to say. It's all gray. Everyone stays inside and works. I wish I could work outside.
Raine never had the mind for the heavy hitting stuff in Three. She wasn't going to be an inventor or a developer or an engineer. She was going to spend her life in the factories, producing all of the stuff that the smart people invented. It wasn't that she wanted to do the heavy hitting jobs. It was just that they were less taxing. Really, what Raine wanted was to never have to work at all.
"Raine?" Gracyn says. "That's your name, right? Raine?"
Somehow, Raine is able to nod. Her hands are still pressed against the hole in her side, blood still dripping past her fingers, breaths still coming in clipped gasps. Is she dying? Is this what dying is like?
"Just look at the sky, Raine," Gracyn says. "Look at the birds."
The birds are beautiful. But the pain is so horrible. Raine can't think about anything else. She watches the multicolored birds flying overhead, for once not attacking anybody. She wants to go home. No, she wants to not be in pain anymore.
"It's going to be okay," says Gracyn.
Raine moans. She believes Gracyn. Everything is going to be okay.
There's pain at her throat, but it's nothing compared to the agony in her stomach. Her hands slip off of the hole, dropping to the ground beside her. She wants the pain to end. She doesn't care what has to happen. It just needs to end.
"It's going to be okay," Gracyn says again.
Raine watches the birds until the pain is gone.