𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳ 𝐧𝐜𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 - 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐮

⇛ 𝐂𝐇. 𝟓𝟎

"aya, what are you...?" jihyun trailed off as her eyes moved down to her arms that were being held behind her by another tribute. the girl from district ten.

"i'm so sorry." aya sobbed and the girl twisted her arm harder, making her cry out in pain.

"let her go!" jihyun yelled.

"you want us to let her go?" the district eight tribute asked as he stepped away from her. "don't you know what she did?"

"what are you talking about?" jeno asked as more tears spilled down aya's red cheeks.

"i'm sorry. i swear i didn't—" she began to defend herself but was cut off as the girl holding her, pushed her to her knees.

"don't touch her!"

"she's the one who led us straight to you." the district eight tribute said.

"what are you talking about?" mark asked.

"she had been following you. it wasn't hard to find her hiding in the trees. all we had to do was wait for the right moment, follow her and find you."

"aya... is that true?" jihyun asked the girl who had her head facing to the floor. she slowly nodded but couldn't bring herself to make eye contact. "why would you..."

jihyun wasn't angry. there was no need to be. it wasn't the girls fault that she had been caught off guard. meanwhile, her friends were beyond annoyed. they had always gotten a strange feeling about aya and this had only strengthened that feeling.

"you're angry, aren't you?" the man said, circling jihyun with a knife in his hand.

"i'm not." she replied, watching his every move.

"you're not? why? she played you like a fool. followed you around and fell straight into our trap. she's going to be the reason you and your friends die. like i said, tallest one first."

"don't fucking touch him."

"then how about you do us all a favour." the man said, stopping in front of her. he held his knife out to her. "kill her. kill aya and we'll let you all go. only for a couple days before we find you again and kill you, of course."

"no." jihyun pushed his hand away.

"do it or i'll kill your boyfriend over there." he hissed and jihyun looked over at jisung who stared at her with conflicted eyes. she wouldn't dare let him die but she couldn't kill aya either. "alright, i guess i will..."

"wait! i'll do it! i'll do it." she exclaimed and snatched the knife when he held it out to her again.

"go on. show us all your anger." he jeered.

jihyun lifted the knife to her ears, aiming at aya. everyone watched her and just as she moved her hand to throw, she spun the knife between her fingers so that it was facing behind her and stabbed the knife into the eye of the tribute holding her. he fell to the floor, screaming in pain and it was only a short time until the canon would fire.

"go!" she yelled and everyone ran to grab their weapons.

haechan's fist connected with the face of the tribute, who had been holding him. he stumbled backwards and when he recovered, charged at haechan, but jaemin intervened. he kicked him in the stomach and before he could kick him again, a spear flew past him, hitting the boy in the neck. jaemin looked over his shoulder at jeno who nodded at him and then ducked one of the arrows that was being shot at them.

two canons had gone off. it was still four against eight and it was clear who was going to win. that didn't mean one of the eight wouldn't have the risk of dying and jihyun was a target. she was so focused on the district eight tribute that she hadn't noticed one of the girls had aimed her bow at her.