❝ it is sometimes an
appropriate response to
reality to go insane ❞
──⭒─⭑─⭒──
In which an innocent girl finds herself
trapped in an arena with monsters and
her only hope is to claw her way out.
──...
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ℑ had never truly been a patient woman.
Ever since I was small, my father had been on my back about staying calm and waiting. Especially when it came to things like waiting for a calf to be born, or learning how to milk a cow, or waiting to train the dogs. It was a flaw of mine.
I hoped that he was proud of me now, of how I waited for thirty minutes, to allow Katniss to get into place before setting fire to the first pyre that we had built. From there, I was quick to run towards the next fire, setting it alight, before finally heading for the third. As the last caught light, I sighed in relief.
I had done my job, in a mere thirty minutes, and now I could leave and hope that Katniss would do hers.
I was only able to walk two steps before an explosion rocked the ground, sending me forward as the ground rocked. A gasp left my mouth, turning to peer up through the space between the trees as I watched dark plumes of smoke in the direction of the Cornucopia.
Katniss had done it.
I could have laughed at the feeling, though the growing tightness of the trees around me, reminded me that there would be people hunting both of us now for one of us set the trap and the other followed it through.
There was a further two explosions before I deemed it safe to hurry away once more. I had decided to double back, towards the first fire, knowing that the careers would most likely think that I would run from that place. It was a double bluff, and hopefully a good one.
The path is not well worn, and I'm light on my feet but every shadow and flicker of movement looks like a person, no matter how much I try to ignore it. Night falls quickly, and I clamber a tree to look at the deaths. There are only two; the boy from District Three and the boy from District 10. I try to count how many are left; the boy from One, Cato, the girl from Two, the fox-faced girl, me and Thresh, Katniss and Peeta.
Eight. Eight left.
I had made it to the final eight, and that on it's own was an achievement. To have both District partners living, especially from an outlying district was one that was nothing short of a miracle. By now, they would be interviewing my parents, Rue and my other friends from school, asking them if they knew that I would live this long.
That night, I fall asleep clinging to my mother's wedding ring, thinking of what I would do if I won and if I made it back to her.
So far through these games, I had refused to give myself any hope that I might last long enough to make it home. But now, now I was allowing myself that hope. I was allowing myself the thought of seeing my parents, Rue, my cows and my dogs again.
