𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳ 𝐧𝐜𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 - 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐮

⇛ 𝐂𝐇. 𝟐𝟐

jihyun followed the hallucination of three of her younger siblings through the forest, her legs aching as she tried to keep up with them.

"iseul, yeun, yejun, don't run so fast!" she yelled.

"we're taking you to miyoung!" iseul, the eldest out of the three, yelled back.

miyoung was the eldest sister in the family who hana reminded jihyun of. at the sound of her name, she picked up the pace and managed to latch onto the hands of yeun and yejun, the twins.

"she's over there!" yeun said as he let go of her hand and pushed her forwards.

jihyun stared ahead at the pile of sticks and random resources on the floor, her forehead wrinkled from confusion.

"where?" she asked, turning around only to find that her siblings had disappeared. "where did you guys go?! iseul? miyoung? what's going on?"

the effects of the stings were beginning to wear off and she was left utterly disoriented. she kept calling out to her siblings, spinning around to find them. tears gathered in her eyes from frustration and she stayed in place, bringing her shaking fingers to rub her eyes.

"night. night." she heard a voice say from behind and then felt a harsh impact on her head, knocking her out.

when jihyun next awoke, she was met with an unfamiliar sight. everything was upside down because she was hung from a tree with a rope tied around her ankles. there was no one in sight but there was a fire nearby so clearly whoever had tied her up had left expecting her to be unconscious for a while.

so for an hour, jihyun strained her entire body trying to get herself untied. she didn't have her knives on her so the only thing she could do was reach for the knot on the branch and undo it.

"wasn't expecting you to be awake so soon." the voice of the district two girl could be heard as she stepped into view, dropping a bunch of logs into the dying embers.

"you. why am i not dead yet? what is the point of tying me up?" jihyun said, her arms giving up on reaching for the rope.

"so feisty for the situation you're in. i'd keep your mouth shut if i were you." she said, twirling a dagger between her fingers.

"well you're not me." jihyun retorted.

"i wonder how your leg is doing? healed, is it?" she placed the hilt of the dagger against her wound that had begun to heal and pressed down on it, eliciting screams from jihyun. "not anymore i suppose."

"you bitch." she hissed once the dagger was removed.

"this is fun. i get why copper wanted to torture you first." the girl said, taking a stick and hovering it over the fire.

"psychos."

"speaking of copper..." she turned around, showing the stick that was on fire. "she was my friend but because of you, she's dead."

"she'd have died anyway." jihyun scoffed.

"well, yeah... i sort of want to thank you for that because she probably would have killed me instead. you made my job easier and now i just have to kill you and the rest of your friends. that kid from my district seems weak enough or maybe the district three or twelve boys."

"stay the hell away from them!" jihyun shouted, her hands lunging out to hit the girl.

"ah. i see now." she laughed, waving the stick closer to her. "that's your weakness. them. maybe i should go kill them first then finish you off later. how does that sound?"

"you're wasting your time."

"oh, don't worry. i'm still going to torture you." the girl said, bringing the stick so close to jihyun's neck she could feel the fire slightly burning her.