kill for your love - the hunger games

(015) she had failed

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KILL FOR YOUR LOVE.

act one.

(chapter fifteen, she had failed)

tribute centre, 72 ADD.

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"YOU DID GOOD, MISSY."

Juniper Hale opened her eyes slowly, raising a brow at the familiar voice that echoed around. A soft, yellow light invaded her sight and the figure of Brent Higgins, who looked all smug with his arms crossed.

"What...?" Juniper asked, her voice croaky and rough as she looked around the room. There were no windows or doors and the area smelt sharp with disinfectant. "Where am I?"

"You're in the Capitol." Brent sighed. "You kinda lost it back in the arena."

"Arena?" Juniper asked absentmindedly. She was lying in a bed with only a thick blanket covering her, a paper robe attached to her flesh. But everything felt... clean.

She lifted up her arms to inspect them and she was shocked when wasn't met with sweaty, muddy, bloody skin. There was no dirt caked underneath her fingernails, which were all clean and filed in uniform shapes. Her hair was down in soft, gentle waves and not thick with mud. 

"When you killed the kid from Eight, you lost it." Brent raised a brow at her looniness. "Didn't make it better when Claudius announced you Victor, so—"

"What?" Juniper bolted up in the bed, all droopiness wearing off. 

"What what?" 

"You said Victor. What did you mean by that?"

Brent raised his brows and cocked his head as he slowly said, "I don't know how much drugs they gave you, but... lord, Missy, you won. You're a Victor. You won the Hunger Games."

Juniper stared at Brent. She didn't blinked. She just stared. But soon, that same anger, that same rage she had felt in the arena all came washing back. She had won. She was a Victor. Juniper Hale had won the Seventy-Second Hunger Games. But no, it wasn't supposed to be that way. She couldn't have won. There had to have been another tribute after Dallas. Someone else that could kill Juniper because there was no way she had won. 

But she had and even Brent started to back away when fire started to burn in her eyes. 

"No!" Juniper screamed as she jumped out of her bed, pushing Brent so hard in the chest, he nearly toppled over. But she didn't punch or kick him. Instead, she just grabbed onto his shirt and started shaking him. "I wanted to die! I have to die! I need to die!"

"Oi, calm down!" Brent started to say, but Juniper's screams and yells drowned out his words. 

Juniper couldn't have won because there was no possible way she had. She couldn't win anyway because there was simply no way she could live without Justice. Justice. Justice. Cedar. Ash. 

She had killed Cedar. She had killed Ash. Why did she kill Cedar and Ash? Was it for some petty excuse to showcase her anger? Or to make it seem like she was the victim? Or because she was convinced they had killed her brother like she thought Wing and Hermes had? It didn't matter because Juniper just knew that she had killed Cedar. She had killed Ash. She had killed Wing. She had killed Hermes. She had killed Leona. She had killed Rayon. She had killed Dallas. She had killed Justice. 

And so whatever anger and rage she had felt suddenly disappeared as she dropped to the ground, letting out a strangled sob. Brent didn't even do anything, frozen by shock as he watched the girl sob on the ground, tears running freely down her clean cheeks. 

"What is going on in here?"

Lucy Stevens came rushing into the room, entering through a portion of the wall that slid open. Her eyes seemed exhausted and rightly concerned, even more so when she noticed Juniper sobbing and whimpering on the floor. 

"What did you do, Brent?" Lucy hissed as she raised one slender finger at him. Brent didn't know what to do. He had never seen Lucy so harshly before. 

"I-I didn't do anything, I swear!" Brent raised his hands in defence. "I was just telling her how she won and then she just started attacking me! And now... she's sobbing on the floor."

Lucy dropped her finger as her brows creased up in a pathetic attempt of sympathy. She eyed Juniper, who was hiccuping from her cries, and muttered, "Poor girl..."

"Please!" Juniper managed to cry out. "Lucy... you have to... please!"

"Please what?" Even Lucy seemed cautious about Juniper. 

"I have to die..." Juniper croaked. "Please... I can't... not without... please."

But no-one listened to Juniper Hale's wishes. Lucy and Brent just stood near the walls of the room as they watched Juniper wear herself out. And even as a dark-haired doctor with glasses came in to sedate her, the girl was still muttering to herself. 

Juniper Hale was deemed crazy. She was deemed unstable. There was no post-Games interview nor any Victory Tour because Juniper Hale was, as some say, psychotic, the girl who just snapped. But there was one thing, despite the rumours that would float around, that Juniper Hale was sure about:

She had failed.