Scarred | The Hunger Games

7.

There's a red light that wakes me up from my sleep, as well as Otto's soft shaking. I'm kind of disorientated, sleeping in lightly moving water making me feel slightly sick, but I see it clearly. It's a sponsor gift. Instead of its usual parachute, this is arriving in almost a mini submarine model. Inside was a paste of some sort, medicine I'm assuming.

'They're calling you the pricking needle of Eight. Don't die so fast yeah? - CeCe'

"It's medicine. Maybe antibiotics or a disinfectant of some sort? Either way, it'll have to work." I say to Otto and I slather the paste onto my hip  and chest, and rub it into my wound. I don't wince, or cringe at the pain, just shoving more paste in there until it hurts so much it takes away the pain of knowing I killed five children and am still stuck in this fucking nightmare.

"It's been almost 38 hours. We need to get another tank, otherwise one of us will die without air." Otto states.

I grab the other tank, moving towards Otto. "Here, let's get you set up with this first."

"No, Nora, what about you-" He complains moving away.

"Hey. I might die of a disinfection, but you're fine right now. Plus, we can figure it out as we go. Besides, if you get the air first, we can worry about the other tank later, not to mention the dehydration." I convince him. He lets me unlatch his empty tank and put in the new one.

The most cruel thing about this stadium is that you don't feel the dehydration creeping on you. Your lips are wet from the saliva of your mouth clinging onto the mouth gear. You don't feel hot and sweaty, in fact it's a little cold with the cool water.

"Otto, we should-"

I'm cut off by the movement from the side of my eyes. It's Twelve swimming right towards us, terrified, with Alora right behind her.

The girl from twelve is tiny, and although I know she is 16, her frame is small enough that I would have thought she was 12 or 13.

I'm not sure what takes over me. Maybe it was the guilt for killing five kids. Or the pity for a girl with basically no hope at this point. Maybe she also remined me of Ottiline like Otto did. But I swim up, holding my knife like I was defending Twelve from Alora.

"Nova, no!" Otto cries out, also swimming up to catch up to me.

But what I didn't expect was that Alora wasn't what Twelve was running from.

"Pricking needle, I'm not the fucking enemy-"

Alora's words and final scream haunt me, as a shark bit right into her body, cutting her in half. The top half of her body floated in the water, her guts and organs slowly spilling out, and suddenly I felt the intense need to vomit.

Boom.

"Fuck, I should have known they would release a shark mutt-" I mutter to myself. Otto must have seen what happened next, since a sharp inhale was heard as Twelve's small body was also bit into, this time, the shark taking multiple bites into her, almost as if it was chewing her like gum.

"Eight, please-" Her voice slowly disintegrates into the water, as she looses herself to the mutt, to the games. To death. Boom.

"Otto, run- FUCK, SWIM GODDAMMIT."

Otto begins to turn, kicking his legs, but it must have caught the shark's attention since it charges towards Otto. It's fucking quick, and I know sharks are quick in water, but it must have been altered to be faster.

"OTTO-"

I never reach him, as his small body is crushed in the mouth of the shark. It wasn't the largest shark I had ever seen, but it was big enough that it's teeth could envelop his entire torso easily. Boom.