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Seizing the chance without considering the danger it might bring her, Estella signaled for Thresh to get ready, piecing together the girl's intentions. Despite his injury, Thresh braced himself to run. With her whip tangled on a branch above, Estella took a deep breath, steadying her heart before swinging off. She extended both legs and slammed her boots directly into Cato's head, the force of the impact knocking him backward as he grunted in pain and crashed to the ground.
Estella landed squarely above Clover, pinning the girl beneath her with her weight. In the same motion, she yanked back the whip—nearly hitting Clover's face in the process, had the girl not turned her head in time. Estella pulled a knife from the buckle on her boot, smirking down at the startled girl while Cato groaned, still trying to regain his vision. "Nice meeting you again," Estella chuckled darkly, plunging the knife downward.
Clover screamed and shut her eyes, bracing for pain that never came. When she opened them again, she found Estella laughing at her, the blade embedded deeply in the ground through her clothes without touching her skin.
"Who knew Clover could scream like a scaredy-cat too," Estella taunted with a laugh, before glancing up and spotting Cato trying to get back on his feet.
Quickly rising, she turned to Thresh and urged him to move—but then her eyes fell on his ankle, which was now bleeding heavily. "Shit," she muttered. She hadn't realized just how much the injury was affecting his leg.
They didn't have time to worry about it now. Cato and Clover were already close behind them, their angry shouts echoing through the trees. Estella threw Thresh's arm over her shoulder, supporting his weight on one side so he could limp faster. They tried their best to keep moving, to put more distance between them and the pair from District 2, but Estella knew they couldn't keep this pace for long. It would only worsen Thresh's condition and dramatically increase their chances of being caught—and killed.
"We need to hide," she murmured to herself, struggling to keep steady under Thresh's weight as blades whistled through the air around them. Dodging attacks was twice as hard with a person twice her size leaning heavily on her.
Thresh searched their surroundings desperately, eyes landing on a large burrow beneath the base of a massive tree. It looked just wide enough to fit him, and certainly Estella could manage to squeeze in. "There! Estella, the tree!" he cried, pointing urgently.
Estella's eyes followed his direction, and without another thought, her legs were moving faster than her brain could process. As they neared the burrow, a dagger came whistling toward them. Estella's sharpened instincts picked up the sound instantly. Without hesitation, she shoved Thresh's body into the hole, taking the full brunt of the blade into her bare back.
She bit down hard on her lips, refusing to cry out, terrified the sound would give them away. Pain seared through her, but she didn't stop. Instead, she pulled out her whip and, through blurred vision, spotted a low-hanging tree branch thick with leaves.
Lashing the whip around it, she slid herself into the burrow behind Thresh, the knife digging deeper into her flesh with the movement. Gritting her teeth, she used her weight to pull the leafy branch down, hoping it would camouflage the entrance and hide them from view.
Thresh sat beside her in tense silence, his injured ankle throbbing, but his concern was fixed on Estella. She held tightly onto the whip, her body trembling as she bit her shoulder to muffle her agony. The knife was buried so deeply into her back that only the handle was visible, and blood poured from the wound at an alarming rate, more than his own injury by far. He felt a pang of guilt settle deep in his chest.
"Where the heck are they?!" Clover's voice rang out, shrill and furious.
"Keep looking!" Cato barked back, his rage seething.
The two tributes above stomped through the area, voices booming in their fury. Estella and Thresh held their breath, daring not to move or make a sound. One minute passed. Then five. Estella kept her ears focused, straining to hear anything that would indicate they had left. When the forest around them finally quieted, she let go of the branch and the whip, her body collapsing with a thud into the dirt as she finally released the scream she had been holding in.
Thresh stared, still unsure how to help. Estella breathed deeply, forcing herself to calm her nerves. When she stood, her legs were shaking, but her eyes burned with fierce determination. She bit down on her shirt, gritting her teeth as she reached behind her with both hands.
Thresh blinked—and then in one swift, agonizing movement, Estella yanked the knife out of her own back. The sound of flesh tearing made Thresh wince, but what shocked him more was the way she endured it—like she'd done this before, like she was used to pain.
She tossed the blade far from them and exhaled sharply, fresh blood spilling freely from the wound. Cursing under her breath, she shrugged off her jacket and removed her tank top, leaving her in just a sports bra as she used the cloth to bind the injury as tightly as she could.
"How are you holding up?" she asked, attempting to start a conversation while tying the makeshift bandage with practiced hands. Thresh looked at her, hesitant, then asked in a low voice, "Are you talking about this injury... or Rue?"
Her fingers paused. Estella hadn't been expecting to hear that name—Rue. She blinked, forcing back the tears that threatened to fall. Silently, she reached into one of the pockets of her cargo pants and pulled out the small Mockingjay pin. Walking over to Thresh, she sat beside him and handed it to him with care. "Katniss gave her the most beautiful goodbye. You should've seen her..."
Thresh turned the pin in his fingers, trying to imagine what Estella was describing. "Flowers surrounded her like a blooming meadow," she whispered. "No sign of blood. She was as clean as a whistle. She looked like she was having the most peaceful sleep of her life. No pain. No fear. Just... peace. I'm glad she's free now."
The two of them sat there, eyes fixed on the little token, both wrapped in their own thoughts. Thresh didn't cry, not outright—but massive tears rolled silently down his cheeks, revealing the depth of his grief. The loss of Rue weighed on him more than words could say.
"W-Who?" he finally croaked, voice trembling. "Who did this... to her?"
Estella looked at him, reading the fury growing in his expression. She knew that if she told him, he'd go looking for vengeance. But she couldn't lie to him. He deserved the truth. "One of the Careers," she said quietly. "My bet is on Marvel... since he died the same day."
