Playing With Fire (A Hunger Games fanfic)

Chapter 9: The First Night

Electra's POV:
By nightfall, the arena has fallen silent as the Capitol seal appears in the sky.

Each time a tribute dies, a cannon fires and at the end of the day, the Capitol projects the faces of the dead into the sky.

I count the tributes that are dead. 11 dead. 13 left to play. I look at the faces of the dead tributes, seeing who's left to face.

The girl from 3.

The boy from 4.

The boy from 5.

Both tributes from 6.

Both tributes from 7.

The boy from 8.

Both tributes from 9.

And the girl from 10.

That leaves the careers, the girl from 5, the boy from 3, the boy from 10, both tributes from 11, the girl from 4, and the girl from 8.

I stay in my tree, hearing the footsteps and voices of the other tributes below.

"The boy will lead us right to her. She'll be dead by morning." I recognize the voice that belongs to Cato, the boy from District 2. I wonder if he's talking about me.

Then I hear one voice I didn't expect to hear. "I think she took off deeper into the woods!" Peeta.

It angers me to know that Peeta has teamed up with the careers. It was as if he'd forgotten everything we learned in training. How could he do this?

But if the careers were looking for me, then wouldn't that mean that Peeta was trying to protect me by leading them in the wrong direction?

Maybe Peeta wasn't a traitor after all. Maybe he was only doing this to protect me. Maybe everything I'd told him about my being in love with Cinna had changed his opinion of me. Perhaps he was fighting to keep me alive.

As he leads the careers in the opposite direction, I feel this overwhelming sense of security. But I know this is only a trick to throw me off my game.

I know I can't let this false sense of security distract me from my mission. I have to focus on winning, on getting back to the safety of Cinna's arms.

And I know I can't win by staying in this tree for the remainder of the Games. Eventually I'll have to get back on my feet and fight.

But that's a challenge for another time. Right now, I try my best to focus on getting sleep. I'm useless without my rest.

The arena falls into silence as I close my eyes, letting sleep take over my body. I pull a sheet of leaves from a nearby branch and cover my body, settling in for the night.

Peeta's POV:
I lead the careers deeper into the wood, hoping and praying that Electra was nowhere near us.

I made myself a promise that I'd get her out of here alive. I've always believed in true love, and I knew what she and Cinna had was something special.

She deserved the chance to have her happy ending, even if that meant I'd having to give up my own.

I hadn't known Electra very long, but I knew that she had a better chance of winning than I ever did.

She possessed both the combat and survival skills I'd always lacked. And if either of us were going to win the Games, I was certain it would be her.