Flooding Panem: The Hunger Games

Chapter Eighteen Part Two: Celebrating

"Who died?"  

The girl runs over to the TV screen that shows Lilia's depressed, worrisome face. Hell, that girl needs to get over herself.  

"Who?" Elizy asks, fumbling with the remote.  

"I recorded it darling, I'm going out." The woman picks up the glass case the protects the pair of bronze and ruby earrings. She examines it carefully, her mouth twisted in concern.

"Are you sure I shouldn't've used gold instead?"  

"Mother, no one uses gold for crossbow bolts. They're authentic if they're bronze." Elizy selects '4th Place Fight' from the menu and the screen reveals a soft, silent woodland. Shots switch between different trees. Finally, a spot of black shifts next to a tree. The sound of footfalls is heard, moving closer and closer to the screen  

And suddenly, the swords clash. Marvel presses down on Laurel's blade, but she's putting up a hell of a fight. With a great shove the swords fly up towards Marvel's face- he falls backwards before they can do any damage, but his back whacks into a tree. Laurel jumps at him, but he ducks out of the way and kicks her legs out from under her.   

"YES!" Elizy yells, earning herself a disapproving glance from her mother.   

But before he can slash her throat or stab her heart, Marvel overbalances and falls onto his shoulder with a loud grunt. Both tributes scramble away from each other, not taking their eyes off their opponent. Both of them still clutch their blades.   

The camera view switches to blood staining the snow; it glides over the spotted scarlet ground, and the burnt, blistered head comes into view. Marvel's blade has ripped across her left shoulder. But she doesn't scream. She does something odd.  

She begins to cry.  

She grabs her sword and pushes herself to her feet, hurling herself at Marvel. But she aims too high, and her blade sinks into the bark, and he's on his feet before she can take another swing.  

But they're both up, and on equal footing now. Left, right, left, left, right. Their blades crash, the camera circling them as they duel. Up, down, right, right, left, down-  

And Laurel screams. "STOP!"  

Marvel's sword slashes across her legs. She falls to the ground, blooding flowing and tears frosting over her face. She throws her sword weakly; it catches Marvel's sleeve and cuts his hand, but compared with everything else- it's not much.  

"It hurts," she moans softly, her sobs stopping her from saying more.    Marvel only looks at her in slight shock. It takes a few seconds for him to regain his composure. "That's your fault."  

Laurel sneers at him through the pain. Get over yourself bitch, Elizy thinks.   

"No it's not," she says. "No… I'll see Satin in hell."  

Marvel drives his blade through her throat, and the cannon sounds.   Elizy sits back on the couch as the screen fades to black- and squeals.   

"YES!" she yells, laughing, as she practically rolls off the couch from excitement. Three left. How can it not be Marvel? She pulls herself onto her feet, and in under five minutes she's out the door, running down the crystal stairwell that leads from her penthouse down to the Capitol Diamond, ignoring the lift. On her left a huge northern billboard, the odds for the remaining tributes are blazing out for the world to see- below them, three smaller screens show each tribute sitting in their little corners of the Arena. Marvel's odds read 5-1, Parox's 9-1 and Lilia's 17-1. How they got that low, Snow knows. Directly across from Elizy's block of flats, she can see a group of Avoxes setting up the stage outside the Snow Mansion in preparation for the Victor's interviews.   

As she descends onto the ruby veined walkway that skirts along the edges of the Diamond, she finds herself staring at the gaping hole where the bombs once fell during the rebellion. Instead of filling it in, the Capitol decided to cover it with a sheet of glass and molten gems. No one is actually sure how far down it goes, only that the glass serves to hide the bones of the dead. Children died that day, and all because the Districts got too high for their heels. No: the Victors did. Then the Districts.  

But Marvel won't be like that, Elizy thinks. A smug smile spreads across her face as she continues across the walk to the floating market that stretches over the Capitol Middle Park. Beneath her, the silver dusted streets shine gold in the high summer sun. The buildings arond the Diamond are stacked up, the lowest at five hundred feet and the highest- the two towers that stand shoulder to shoulder with the Snow Mansion- reaching two thousand.

Elizy stops as she reaches the centre of the walkway, where there aren't any buildings for fifty metres either side of her. She leans over the platinum bannisters, her lilac hair drifting in the breeze. She closes her eyes and exhales contentedly. Even through her eyelids, she can sense the glinting  of the city around her.  

After a few minutes, the purpila straightens up and carries on across the walkway. Elizy walks past the rows of shops and over the streets until she comes to a pastel pink building specced with neon violet bricks.   

"Elizy, sweetie!" A flamboiently dressed man with lemon yellow hair and a sparkling lime green suit comes over and gives Elizy a kiss on the back of her hand. "What happened? I thought you were coming yesterday!"  

"Sorry Onris, I fell asleep in front of the Games, nothing happened yesterday!" she says, dropping into an orange seat next to the window. "Ecstappy about the fight?"  

"Ah!" Onris' eyes gleam. "So that's why you came?"  

Elizy rolls her eyes. "I'm not walking around with purple hair one day more. Don't you have something... new? Oh, and I need a new hairpiece."  

Onris clicks his fingers and a panel in the wall slides across, revealing a stack of shelves. "Take your pick!  

Elizy grins. There's no way I'm going to go to Marvel's Victor interview looking like this. I'm gonna be the girl of his dreams when the time comes. She sits down in front of the mirror screen as the camera darts around the winter wonderland.   "So Claudius, how much longer do you think the Games will last?"  

"Oh, well, I think that these people only have a couple days left Caesar. If I were betting, I'd get down to the booths asap!"  

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Happy Holidays! Hope everyone is haing a great time, whether you celebrate Christmas or not!  

The usual, please comment, vote or fan, whether you liked it or not (by which I mean if you didn't, comment why)! Can I get at least two votes before the next chapter goes up? Pwease?