The blood on these hands (Clove Kentwell)

Chapter 15

Iris was walking but Gabe was nowhere to be found but she knew she must be on the right track when she found blood on a leaf or on the bark of a tree. Well she didn't know if it was his blood or not so she just hope he was still alive and that this was his blood trail.

As she was walking on a rock near a river she decided to get a drink, the water was very refreshing and cold as it touched her mouth. She got up and kept walking when she found a huge puddle of blood on the rock. She knelt down next to it to make sure it was blood, then she was back on her feet. Iris heard a grunt come from under her foot. She looked down to be met with a persons pleading eyes and they were covered in rocks trying to hide. Iris started taking the rocks off of this person but was still ready to knock them out when needed. The boy didn't get up he just sat there waiting to be killed. "Well hurry up." The boy said. "No, I'm not going to kill unless I have to." Iris said holding her hand out to the boy. The boy grabbed it gratefully and tried to stand up, but he fell back down when his leg gave out. Iris quickly caught him and put his arm around her shoulder. "Why are you helping me?" The boy asked. "Because I'm not going to just let someone die like that." There was a second of silence after Iris's statement so she decided to introduce herself. "Iris" "Peeta" the boy said looking at the ground trying to keep his balance and not bring both of them down. Iris brought him to the river and sat him down right next to it. She cupped some water in her hands then poured it on his exposed wound. He flinched back from the pain. "I know I'm sorry." Iris said never making eye contact with Peeta.

Once Iris felt the wound was clean enough not to get infected she put his arm back around her shoulder and walked towards the tree line. As they were walking a booming voice echoed through the entire area. "There has been a change in plans, two tributes from the same district can be crowned, this will be the only announcement." Iris thought about Gabe not knowing if he was alive or not. Peeta looked at Iris with tears in his eyes. "Do you know where Katniss is?" Iris could barely look at him without breaking. She looked back at the ground with tears threatening to spill. "Katniss didn't make it." Was all Iris could get out. She felt Peeta go limp so it took all of her strength just to keep him standing. She took him to a tree and sat him down. She stood up not being able to even look at him. "She saved my life." Iris heard Peeta say behind her. "Yeah she saved mine too in many ways." "Just leave me here there's no way I am winning like this." Iris turned around with tears in her eyes, "No I'm not gonna do that, your going to stay alive for as long as I am around." Iris said almost angrily. "I'm going to go get us some food. Don't you even think about dying." Iris said as she walked off into the trees.

Once she got far enough away so Peeta couldn't see her she dropped down to her knees and started crying. She tried to rub off the blood on her hands even though there was none. She felt so guilty for Katniss's death, for Rue's death, for everyone she watched die or she killed. She wanted to scream and punch things, so she did, she got up and started punching the tree in front of her until her knuckles were bleeding. Then put her head against the tree while still crying and the guilt of everyone's death weighing on her.

Once she calmed down she went and handmade a trap that hopefully would catch something her and Peeta could eat. After she set it up she went and knelt down by a bush and waited. It was almost night so Iris finally just laid down. She laid there for a few minutes looking at the stars when she heard her trap go off. She shot up and saw a rabbit struggling to get out. Iris jumped up and ran over to the rabbit and took her knife that she got from Foxface and killed it. Once she made sure it was dead she untangled it from the trap and carried back to where Peeta was. When she got there she saw Peeta still laying against the tree asleep. She walked over as quiet as she could and made sure not to wake him up as she set the rabbit on a rock nearby. Iris went and gathered some sticks and put them in a pile to start a fire once she had it going, she started cooking the rabbit. Once the rabbit was cooked Iris stomped out the fire and started eating some of the rabbit but made sure to leave most of it for Peeta. There was no telling how long it had been since he had eaten. She didn't wake him up to eat instead she just watched him as he shivered. Iris walked over to him and put her hand on his forehead. He woke up then and just looked at Iris. "Your forehead is hot. You must have a fever." Iris said taking her hand off of him. "Oh, here eat up." "Wait there is a lot here aren't you going to eat to." "I already did I just wasn't very hungry." Peeta just looked at Iris then looked back down at the rabbit. He slowly bit into the rabbit trying to savor every bite. "Man this is amazing how did you cook it." Peeta asked looking at Iris. "I made a small fire while you were asleep and cooked it on that." "Well this is really-" Peeta stopped mid sentence as he looked down at her bloody hands. "What happened, are you okay?" Peeta asked worried. "Don't worry I'm fine it was just the blood from the rabbit." Iris covered up her hands as she lied to Peeta. He just gave her a questioning look. "When your done we should move it's not good to stay in one place for to long." Iris said avoiding eye contact with him.

Once he was done with his rabbit Iris went over and picked up his arm helping him up. They walked for a little bit until they got to the tree line. "This is a good spot to stop." Iris said leaning Peeta against a tree. Peeta slowly sat down and breathed out in pain. "Hey you okay." Iris asked as she looked at him stupidly knowing it was a stupid question. "Yeah I'm okay." He said with a small smile. Iris returned his smile as she sat down next to a tree beside him to where she could see the cornucopia. Iris looked over at Peeta and saw that he was already asleep. She chuckled to herself and was jealous that he could fall asleep so easily. She leaned her head against the tree behind her and closed her eyes.

She woke up but she wasn't next to Peeta and she wasn't at the tree she fell asleep at. She was back at the place where she killed Foxface. She saw Foxface laying in front of her in the grass dead, and out of the corner of Iris's eye she saw Katniss on the ground. But when she turned to look at her she saw so many more people than just Katniss. She looked at some of the kids and recognized them, she saw Rue, Peeta, Gabe, and Clove. She ran over to Clove and tried to wake her up. She was pushing her but Clove was not moving. Iris put her head on Cloves back and cried but then she heard a voice behind her. She jumped up and turned around just to see a person walking towards her. "You did this." Iris didn't respond but looked at the persons face. She was shocked was she saw who it was and stared scooting backwards as far away from them as possible. The person came towards her with a knife then Iris hit her back on something. She turned around and looked to see what she ran into but she just saw the same person she jumped up and then was surrounded by all these people. They were all her.

Iris woke up breathing heavy but tried to control her breathing so she wouldn't wake Peeta up. She looked over at Peeta but saw that he was already awake. "You know you don't look like the most peaceful sleeper." Peeta said as he smiled at Iris. Iris just chuckled at his statement then looked at the ground. "You okay?" Peeta asked genuinely looking at Iris. "Yeah I'm fine it was just a nightmare." Peeta smiled at Iris again then looked away. The loud booming voice came back and echoed through the arena. "All of you are in desperate need for something, so we plan to be.... Generous hosts and give you something. This will be the last announcement." Iris looked at the cornucopia shocked as she saw a table with bags on them, they were numbered with the remaining tributes district numbers. "It's medicine." Iris said as she was getting up. Peeta grabbed her arm, "no I'm not letting you go." "Peeta look at yourself, your sick you need something." Iris said shrugging his hand off of her. He just looked at her, she looked back at him and gave him a reassuring smile, then ran off towards the cornucopia. As she was running to get the medicine she saw Clove throwing a knife at someone behind the cornucopia.

(I don't really know if this made sense but I read over it and it made sense in my head so i hope it made sense to you too. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it. :)