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VOL. ONE; CH. SIXTEEN ༄ ————helter skelter
Water is rushing. Elodie looks around, confused. Where's the water coming from? Then she sees it, a waterfall. Not just any waterfall, the waterfall. From the arena. Elodie whips her head around and takes in the branches, the streams, the undergrowth. She's back, she's in the arena. Suddenly a cry sounds from behind her, "Elodie!" It's Kalen.
Elodie whips around to face him and it's only then she realizes there's a knife in her hand. Elodie releases the knife as she fully faces the figure behind her. She was expecting to see Alister take the knife's hit, like what had happened before. However, as she comes to a complete stop she sees who her knife is really sticking out of: Kalen.
Elodie's gasp and Kalen's grunt seem to harmonize as they echo in the arena around them. Elodie rushes forward and applies pressure to the wound, mutters of 'no' leaving her lips repeatedly. As her hands make contact with the inflicted area, however, there's no blood. In fact, the whole body's gone now. Another voice sounds from behind her again, "Elodie!"
She whips around again and sees Kalen standing there, knife still sticking out of his torso.
"This is all your fault," Kalen states, taking a step towards her. Elodie shakes her head, jumping to her feet quickly. Her shoulders are squared defensively, even though she knows she wouldn't be able to do anything to him. "Imagine what dad thinks, imagine what the district thinks."
Elodie's still shaking her head, taking a step backward for every step he takes forward. "You're just another failure." The word failure continues to echo as the two of them take synonymous steps before suddenly, Kalen comes to a stop.
"You're no better than Maddyn-" at that there's a sound that's a mix of a groan and a scream from behind her. Elodie turns, making sure to keep Kalen in her peripheral vision, and sees a girl's body trapped in a net with a knife Eloide distinctly recognizes as her own sticking out of her stomach. The body thrashes around a few times before the net drops. As they both hit the ground, the body stills enough for Elodie to make out her face: it's Maddyn. Her blue eyes look exactly like Kalen's as they stare up, unmoving at the sky.
"Mads," Elodie whispers. As if the mutter of her name caught her attention, Maddyn's eyes snap to Elodie. The cool blue holds a level of fury that Elodie had only ever seen a few other times in her life, and it had never been directed at her. Elodie's stomach fills with a feeling of pure dread and suddenly she feels a wave of empathy for the tributes that Maddyn had faced down in the arena. Maddyn starts to rise to her feet and Elodie stumbles further back.
