kill for your love - the hunger games

(049) the seventy-second hunger games

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KILL FOR YOUR LOVE.

act three.

(chapter forty-nine, the seventy-second hunger games)

tribute centre, 72 ADD.

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THE SILENCE WAS DEAFENING. The hall was so quiet that seventeen-year-old Juniper Hale could hear both her and Lucy Stevens's hearts beat. There was, of course, the odd slam of a door down the next corridor or the hushed whispers of doctors, but other than that, it was quiet. 

Everyone made sure to look at Juniper. It was like people were too scared to let her out of their sight. Whatever happened in the room with no windows or doors, the room that was filled with a soft, yellow light, it frightened people. But Juniper wouldn't know. The doctors had quickly sedated her after it happened and she couldn't remember anything. She didn't want to remember. 

"Where is that doctor?" Lucy Stevens whispered to herself, craning her neck to look down the hallway. She had a frown dancing upon her lips and she kept fidgeting with her fingers. 

But Juniper didn't answer. She couldn't seem to answer. Tears were streaming gently down her cheeks. Justice was dead. Her brother was dead. And she had killed him. And Cedar. And Ash. And Leona. And Rayon. And Dallas. And Wing. And Hermes. 

Whatever the doctors gave the Hale girl, whether it was a sedative or another drug, it had stopped Juniper from sobbing, from going into complete hysterics. It softened the emotions within her. It made her numb. Juniper supposed the doctors in the Capitol didn't want a sobbing, depressed Victor. 

Victor.

Juniper had won. Juniper Hale, the measly girl from District Ten, had won the Seventy-Second Hunger Games. How? How could she have won? She wasn't supposed to. She shouldn't have. No, Juniper should be dead. It was the original plan, the deal she made with Justice. They were both supposed to die so they didn't have to live without the other. But Justice broke that arrangement.

("And so, it's agreed." Justice nodded. He put his hand behind his back. "If you die, I die—")

("You were always supposed to live, not die. It's you, June. You have to win. You have to live, not me—")

Her heart rate should have increased, should have been pounding more than it ever should. But it didn't. The drugs they gave Juniper were too strong. They made her feel like she was on a cloud, drifting away from her emotions. They numbed her. They made her feel loopy. She didn't like it. She didn't like this. Juniper just wanted to go home.

"Ah, Miss Stevens?" 

Lucy snapped her head up whilst Juniper looked down at her boots. The doctors forced her to get redressed in her arena attire. The tight, sleeveless shirt was clean of any blood. The baggy trousers were dry of any swamp water. The jacket was forgotten about. And the thick, hard boots were wiped of any mud. It looked as if Juniper hadn't even set foot in the swampy arena. But she did. Justice was dead. Twenty-three kids were dead and yet, Juniper Hale was the sole survivor. The winner.