𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐍 𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐒 | hunger games ✓

chapter 24

━━･❪ 🌸 ❫ ･━━

Azalea yanked the knife from Rye's neck, blood splattering up her arms.

Daphne's mouth was agape with horror. Her brain seemed to have short circuited. No coherent thought was able to form. Instead, it was a mass of screaming. It was a mass of silence.

Azalea's golden eyes seemed to glow in the moonlight. Fear seized Daphne as Azalea stumbled towards her, knife outstretched.

Azalea was going to kill her.

She just got Rye out of the way first.

Without a second to spare, Daphne bolted.

Tears streamed down her face as she ran like the Furies were on her tail. Adrenaline sang through her veins. She didn't know where she was going as she tore through the endless alleyways. All she knew was that she had to get far, far away.

Before, she'd known she was safe with Rye and Azalea. Safe with Makani and the alliance.

Now, the alliance had pretty much disbanded. Makani was dead. Rye was dead. Azalea had killed him, and she was after Daphne next.

Sobs wracked Daphne's body as she fled. She could hear Azalea's footsteps dashing after her, never more than an alley away.

Nobody was safe anymore. Nowhere Daphne could hide. She had no allies. Not anymore.

She was all by herself now.

And she had to lose Azalea, or she'd be dead.

Daphne skidded to a halt, throwing open the door to one of the adobe towers. She charged inside, flying up the stairs, not stopping until she hit the top floor. Her legs burned, but she was inwardly grateful that she'd always been better in gym class than Azalea.

She sprinted down the wide hallway, bordered on either side with doors to multiple rooms. She threw herself into the room at the end of the hallway, easing the door closed as quietly as possible.

Azalea thundered up the stairs. Daphne pressed her back against the wall, next to the door. She palmed her knife, still slick with blood from the battle. With her other hand, she pulled her plum blossom pendant from beneath her shirt and clutched it so tightly her knuckles turned white.

Her heart was thumping so fast she was afraid it would burst. Burst, and leak tears. Leak all the sorrows and trauma of the past week in the arena to seep into her body, to poison her from the inside.

"You want to know why, Daphne?" Azalea's voice echoed through the walls. She sounded delirious, as if she'd lost a piece of her sanity. Maybe she had.

There was a violent bang, causing Daphne to flinch. Azalea must've been busting every door open in succession until she found the room Daphne was in. Thankfully Daphne was in the very last one.

"Why I severed our friendship last year? Why I picked you to die in the arena with me? Why I agreed to Theron's plan?"

There was another bang as Azalea threw open the second door. Daphne's breath hitched in her throat. Theron's plan? What plan?

"You get everything you want, Daphne. Handed to you on a silver platter. You have a perfect family, a simple life herding sheep. You know what I get? Parents whom I can never please. Three younger sisters who hate me, despite everything I ever do for them."

Bang.

"You've never once fought with Lysa or Tobe, who seemed to adore you more than they could ever adore me. You say we're all best friends, we love each other equally, but if given a choice-"