Love Hurts but Heals

Chapter 5

Jordyn's POV

"I came here with Marvel. He wanted me to be his ally since he knows I'm a good scavenger," Foxface replies.

"And you just did whatever he said?" I ask.

"Not really. He promised me something if I came here with him-"

"What did he promise?"

"You'll have to ask him. I promised I wouldn't tell anyone."

"You know the girls and guys are training seperate. If I try to ask him in the arena, he'll try to kill me like he has before."

"I'll be with him. I won't let him do anything to you."

"Okay." I inhale briefly.

I walk over to the archery station. I pick up the bow and load it with an arrow. I bring the string back to my cheek and stare at the human-shaped target. I move the string away from my cheek and release. A loud noise fills the room when the arrow meets the target, and I hit it in the right shoulder, close to the neck. I'm pretty sure that's a kill, but I'm not really for sure. (What do you guys think??)

"Not too bad, are you?" asks an unfamiliar voice.

I turn around and see that it's that Teresa girl that was taking forever at the tree-climbing station.

"I don't know. You tell me."

"Not too bad, but you could use some work."

She rips the bow out of my hand and loads it with two arrows. She pulls it back to her ear and releases after a quick adjustment of accuracy and steady breath. The sound of the arrow hitting the target fills the room again. She smirks when she sees her kill: the top arrow in the target's forehead and the bottom in the ribs. I am shocked to see what skill she has, but I'm not revealing my own.

"Try again. You could use some practice," she says as she hands me back the bow.

When I reach for it, she drops it and kicks it with her foot, making it slide across the floor.

"Oops," she smiles.

I close my eyes to help keep my anger in. I exhale through my nose and pick it up. I step back on the pedestal and load the bow again. I release and not even look where I hit the target.

I take the unloaded bow and hit her in the stomach. With her bending down holding her stomach, I jump up and kick her face. I fall on my back on the pedestal again, and she jumps on top of me. She gets her long nails and digs them into my face, and I notice that her nose and the skin above her right eyebrow begins to bleed. She punches me repeatedly in the face.

"Who-do-you-think-you-are?!" She says in between punches.

I bring my fist off the side of the pedestal and hit the side of her temple. She falls beside me and I jump on top of her, putting my hands around her throat.

"The girl that is going to kill you in the arena," I snarl.

I let go of her throat, and I turn to see two strong men coming my way. I turn around and get a spear from the closest stand of weapons.

"Stop!" I shout, and the men stop, dead in their tracks.

"Ms. Samuels," says Ashton as he steps out of the glass room, "what's going on?"

I put the spear back in its original place and reply, "Nothing. Just... training."

"Are you sure?" He steps a foot closer.

"Yes. Just messing around."

"We got a liar on us!" shouts Teresa, and she laughs.

She laughs...

"Get her, and follow me," replies Ashton.

The men pick me up by my elbows and shoulders and carry me to Ashton's destination. It's a steel room like the training center, but to my left is a glass wall. I can see into the next room though.

One of the men get a long strip of leather on a table to my right and tie my wrists together.

"Need anything before we leave?" asks one of the men.

I scowl at them.

"Okay," Ashton turns to the man who spoke. "If she wants to be like that when we're trying to help, she can suffer harder. Bring him in."

Who is him?

They exit in a single file line. Everything is so organized and classified that everything that comes out of somebody's mouth confuses me.

I fall back against the tile floor in distress, and I stare at the ceiling. Half the ceiling is dark, and the other is lighter grey that shines because of the sunshine in the chained window. It reminds me of how the world is. The darker grey is the people who've been through many things and have made them monsters. The other half is the rest of the world. People that have been through nothing to get what they want, and that sickens me. The lighter grey needs light up in fire. Before I killed Greg, I was part of the lighter gray, but since then, I've been apart of the darker gray, and I have a feeling that that's never going to change again.

The door next to me, the one that I can see through the glass wall, they throw someone inside. I can't tell whether him or her is alive until I hear a wince.

It's a boy. A very familiar boy...

"What do you want with me?! He should have kept his mouth shut!" he sits up from the ground steadily.

"We said before that there is not going to be any fighting until..."

Ashton's words are trailed off by my thoughts. Is he a tribute?

"Carl! Carl!" I start crying.

He jerks his head toward the glass the I've pressed my palms against.

"Jordyn!" he slams his hands against the glass as well.

The tip of his hair touches the glass. His hat is not on his head like usual; that's probably why I didn't recognize him at first.

"Are you okay?!" I ask.

Ashton interuppts, "He won't be for long."

Ashton grabs his collar and drags him to the center of the room and starts beating him with a piece of metal.

"No! Leave him alone!" I shout as I pound on the glass.

He doesn't.

I rise from the ground and try to kick the glass open. My foot doesn't even make a crack it. Bulletproof glass.

I just sit there and watch him get beat. I hear screams, and those screams are not only his, but mine as well.