𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐍 𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐒 | hunger games ✓

chapter 20

━━･❪ 🌸 ❫ ･━━

The coming morning, the world began to shake.

Daphne was out fiddling with a water hose in Rye's backyard when it started. She'd been wondering if it connected to anything, whether or not she could get water out of it and not have to walk all the way down to the canal for a refill. Spoiler alert, it was pointless. The hose was as useful as a dead slug.

Then the ground gave a heave beneath her feet.

Daphne yelped in surprise, nearly losing her balance. The earth did not stop. It rumbled and jostled as vibrations pulsed down below, tossing Daphne this way and that. She yelled for Rye and Azalea to hurry outside, for the frail wooden houses were creaking and shifting all around.

Daphne eventually fell to her knees onto the grass, the entire arena bouncing as if some god had decided to use the world as a football. There were terrible crashing noises everywhere, and she barely heard Rye and Azalea stumble out of the house beside her.

Daphne used her hands to cover the back of her head and neck as she curled in on herself. Something hard slammed against her spine, but her exclamation of pain was drowned out by an earsplitting groan. The world was then filled with a deafening crash.

And the shaking stopped.

Daphne held still for several long seconds. Her heart was racing like a jackrabbit, her entire body still feeling as if it were jostling back and forth. Slowly, she eased her head up from beneath her hands. Her eyes widened with horror at what she saw.

The top floor of the house was in ruins. Where a functional roof once stood was now replaced by a mess of rubble, dust and splintered wood. The ground floor was relatively intact, though Daphne was afraid it would buckle under the weight of the collapsed roof at any moment.

Daphne hastily pushed to her feet, her core still rattling with phantom vibrations. All around her, the surrounding houses were in similar conditions. None were completely wrecked, but most suffered from likewise roof damage or leaning precariously to the side. Most of the fences had been knocked over, blurring the lines between house yards.

Rye gave a groan from beside Daphne, and Daphne snapped back to attention and helped tug him to his feet. Together, they lifted Azalea, who was visibly trembling.

"Are you two alright?" Daphne asked.

"Yep, we're all intact." Rye replied, then paled as he took in the sight of their ruined shelter. "That's more than we can say for our poor house, though."

Daphne noticed that Rye was carrying Azalea's backpack full of their supplies, as well as his crossbow. She silently thanked whoever was listening that he had thought to bring them before they could be destroyed alongside their room.

The base of Daphne's spine throbbed where she'd been struck by a piece of debris. It took countless more heartbeats to pass before one of them recovered enough to speak again.

"I guess the Gamemakers thought the arena was getting a bit boring." Rye muttered bitterly.

Azalea's brows furrowed, but she said nothing. Four cannon shots echoed across the arena, each one sending a fresh wave of panic through Daphne's system. Four casualties in the earthquake. Daphne found herself mumbling prayers.

Oh please, please don't let one of them be Caelum. Please let Caelum be alright.

Please.

Daphne dragged a palm down her face, pausing halfway as a flicker of movement caught her eye from down the path.

She stiffened, alerting Rye and Azalea. The three of them stared as figures, several figures, melted into view under the morning sun, picking their way through the scattered debris from the wrecked houses.