Sharp Objects

chapter twenty six

It is almost two nights later when we finally get any acknowledgement from anyone,and then we notice him.

He almost bypasses my vision,but I catch the end of his heel hobbling of into the forest,and stop dead "cato!" I hiss,placing my finger to my lips to tell him to shut up.i take one of my knives out my vest,
clutching it between my fingers.

It feels good to have it back: I haven't had to use my knives in a few days,and,to be frank,it's been boring. To finally have another tribute to steal the life from deals great.

Hey, call me morbid and mad,but I've been trained to do this since I was six years old. Who would blame me?well, nobody at home would, because we're all like that.

I thread lightning through the forest, trying to make the least possible as I watch the crippled boy from district 10 from afar, he stumbles around, almost as he was drunk, and is startled by a small bird taking flight out of the trees.

The sun is setting above us, the bright and beautiful red colour blending the gaps between the tree canopy,almost like blood itself.

Soon enough, there will be blood on the floor once again. There hasn't been near enough of that recently.

I edge closer to him,watching him struggle to scale one of the nearby trees. I have to stop myself from laughing at his misfortune: to end up as a cripple and a tribute is a pretty bad life. Hell, he must be just waiting for someone to end it for him.

Here I am,my friend,here I am.

Without any warning, I run forwards and leap up towards the boy. I slam straight into him, struggling to climb,and he crashes to the ground, myself beside him. "Hey 10." I say, slowly dragging one knife from my belt, curling my lips into a menacing smile that I'm pretty sure is working. The guy looks terrified. Good enough, that's exactly what I want.

I signal to cato, and he arrives by my side in second, kneeling down beside the boy, struggling under the grip I have on his torso. He tries to kick me off balance,but his good leg is pinned under my foot,and his crippled one is practically useless: he can't bend it far enough to reach me and unseat me from my spot.

Looks like I'm stuck here for a while.

Well,at least until you're dead.

The boy sighs,defeated, and feebly lifts one hand,painting for breath.

"Ok, if you are going to do this,make it quick." He says,his arms falling back to his side as he find it more and more difficult to breathe,my whole bodyweight pressing down on his chest as I pin him to the ground.

I contemplate his wish for a moment, giving it extra thought through my actions, before curling my lips into a smirk again, and shaking my head slowly, winding my eyes in the scariest way I possibly can. I  look behind me, towards cato,and, as soon as he sees my twisted smile, my disturbing eyes, he laughs like a madman,and joins me. I'm still not entirely sure whether his is an act, or something real, but I have to convince myself that it is just acting, for my own sake at least, because I can't face the fact probably: cato cannot be turning insane.

Well, more insane then he was before, anyway. I cannot let that happen. We will both make it home.Alive.

And I'm about to get one step closer.

The boy begs and begs for mercy, but I don't give it up to him. I select one of my smallest knives, take the arm closest to me into my lap, and begin to carve patterns into his skin.like a morbid tattoo, the blood seeps from the patterns and colours the forest floor crimson, tinting my jacket and my hands,but I don't stop.

After both arms, I pock the smallest knife from my belt, and carve and Intricate design into his left cheek, ignoring his screams and moans of pain.

I don't care. I am an artist. And this boy, and this crippled boy from district 10,is my canvas. When he is picked up by the hovercraft, after he has bled out so much that his face becomes pale and colourless, the wounds and scars that make up my piece of art will remain.

At long last,when his screams have faded into whimpers, dying whimpers of his life,I select my biggest knife,and plunge it into his chest. The crimson liquid dribbles from his wound, and his eyes roll back into his head. I push both lids down with my fingertips, before slashing across both eyes with one knife.

And finally,as a message to my father, I rip the boys shirt, and carve the words 'darw me a picture my dear' across his chest. I was something he used to say to me, because he liked it when he could show off his career/ artist daughter to the district.

Well,father, you have both at once here: a display of my career skills,and my art.

I hope you're not scared by the way I have changed.

After the boy's death, cato doesn't talk much. I think he might have been a little scared by the way of killing the guy. After alll, I think I have managed to scare myself: turning the boy into a human block of marble wasn't my original idea.

But,I think the games are changing me. I don't know what it is, but sometimes I get these moments where all I want to do is kill.

Kill.

Kill.

Anything that comes my way will die at the hands of me and my knives. We are an unstoppable team.

We reach a clearing, and cato dumps his pack to the floor and declares it to be our camp for the night. I haul myself into the nearest tree, and I'm just about to prepare myself to go to sleep, when the Capitol anthem begins to play. The face of the district 10 guy appears In the sky,unmarked by my morbid tattoos and I shudder, remembering his awful end. The end that I caused.

And then,there is another voice. The voice of caesar flickerman. " Attention tributes. There will be a feast tomorrow morning, at the cornucopia. Something will be waiting there for you, something that you need ,desperately.fine dining available, if you want to risk it. I would if I was you." Career voice cuts out, and the sky becomes dark again.

There is a weight pulling my branch down as cato resets his arms across it, standing up and poking his head over the top. "So,are we going to dine with death?" He asks, a mischievous glint in his eye. I know what he's thinking: if everyone comes to that feast, we could take them all out. We could be home by tomorrow evening.

Home.just the thought of it makes me feel normal inside. Like I'm not in a fight to the death with the guy I still have a crush on and a load of other people from different districts that want to murder me.

That thought enough make me smile and reply " Of course, I think we deserve a four course meal. Starter, Alyssa, easy going if we can catch her. Fish course, loverboy-"

"Because killing him will be like spearing fish in a barrel." Laughs Cato.

"Yes, exactly!" I continue, my genuine smile growing bigger every second " Thresh for main, because, even though he is the biggest, I think we could tear him apart once we've got hold of him...." I trail off for a moment, waiting for my planned finale,waiting for him to ask the question.

"And why is fire girl desert?" He asks, turning his head to the side,his blue eyes sparkling in the starlight. I smirk  evilly without even thinking.

"Because I want revenge. And revenge is sweet."