.
26. 151D7F
Despite the situation, Heather felt almost lucky.
Her tears at the Reaping hadn't stopped her district partner, Ochre, from sticking with her. Neither had her fear, her incompetence, her abysmal training score.
He made up for it in spades: he was strong. He was skilled with an axe. Most importantly, though, he was kind.
He'd even gathered help in the form of District Ten.
Heather couldn't exactly say she trusted Palomina and Lucio, but she could tell they were just as scared as her.
Something about Ochre made them all feel it a little less.
So she'd offered them a cautious smile during training. The four of them kept to themselves for the most part, away from the weapons, the tributes, the Careers.
Until they couldn't.
Until death was staring Heather in the face as the drum beat in tandem with her heart.
She couldn't see them. Not the Tens, not Ochre. Only the small girl from Twelve one pedestal over, the wicked grin from the Career girl right across the way.
The drum beat faster. Heather felt sick.
Ochre had told her to runβ "Run fast, don't look back. Whatever happens, I'll find you." But she couldn't see him now. If she ran, she knew she'd never see him again.
She could be brave. She could find him first.
The gong went off.
She ranβright towards the center. She'd always been fast, always been nimble. This was no different than weaving through trees, around bushes, pack thumping on her back as she raced her friends to school. She could do this; they were just on the other sideβ
Somehow, that Career girl was already there.
And somehow, her sword had already plunged deep into Heather's chest.
For all her fleet-footedness, she couldn't run. She couldn't fight. She couldn't move.
The blade ripped freeβ the noise that spilled from Heather's lips couldn't possibly be real. She sank to the ground in a haze of pain, but already the Career girl's eyes were elsewhere.
In all her life, she's never felt more useless than now. The monster soaked in Heather's blood prowled forward.
(And still, Ochre was nowhere to be found.)
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A/N: Hello ! What you're seeing here is a little side project - the main story for these Games is True Vengeance (which is complete). I started writing this because.. clearly I miss it ;-; I wanted to get the chance to write at least a little bit from the rest of the tributes' povs, though, so that's what this will be! I haven't done that for a story yet, and I figure these guys deserve it, I spent a long time writing the original, after all. I'm not sure how often I'll update this fic, I have a few "chapters" written out already, and they're pretty short, so this is not allowed to be a stressful project for me LOL. I don't really expect these chapters to get longer despite the fact that the rest of the tributes will have survived for much longer, but we'll see how it goes! It will probably not be necessary to read TrV to understand this fic, but also. It's my baby, I recommend it ;-; But hopefully this will maybe eventually serve as a summary of sorts for anyone who wants to poke their nose into my stuff without starting with a 300k fic :D This will have spoilers for True Vengeance, though. Obviously vbhjvbfhd.
At the same time, I have also posted the epilogue story for True Vengeance called cicatrix, so check that out if you've already read TrV !
- Nell