JACK THE RIPPER

32- Someday you wont remember the pain, that was gonna last forever

Sunrise was the first thing on my mind; when I manage to open my eyes, I was bundled up in the friendliness of the skinny blanket. I could feel the soft air on my skin, I felt like I was a home indeed. I felt like Annie was next to me, the two of us drinking hot tea as she sowed and I managed to take care of the family.

But when I opened my eyes, I was back into the arena with the scorching sun pounding down on my easy skin. Hollie was asleep next to me; she had fallen into a deep sleep with her head resting on my arm when she bundled up next to me. the three dead bodies had been removed from the arena. It was just me and her in the silent woods.

I'd be in this arena nearly six days now and so far I had killed over five people, I had taken their lives away from them. the guiltiness was gradually catching up to me but not in the way you'd expect; the way millions of people had watched me assassinate and inhumanely mutilate these people and have no remorse about it. to see me as an emotionless, cold blooded killer when I was nothing like one.

Still, I was taking care of Hollie. Taking care of the person I loved most in the arena when she slept beside me, I wanted to keep her safe above all else. Today, I didn't want to kill anyone, I wanted to stay alive more than anything else. I left the blanket on her whilst I made breakfast out of berries and crackers.

Hollie woke up in around twenty minutes, I had already brought the two of us water as well as slipping down to the stream, in clear view of Hollie to wash all the blood off of me, as I had slept in the blood of my once allies, now turned kills. We had water now and we should be stocked for the day.

"What's the plan today?" Hollie had asked me through a gurgle of water and a mouthful of berries. The two of us had perched ourselves in the woods and were eating. I was starving.

"Stay alive?" I raised an eyebrow, Hollie giggled. We had become so close now, fighting for one another's lives.

"What about the other tributes? I mean we took on the career pack!" Hollie tried to justify, but that wasn't enough.

We had gotten lucky on the career pack, Apollo was brutally injured when he smashed his head on a rock but he put up a good fight, Melody was out for the count and she never woke up and I got lucky on Brax. He was going to fucking end me if I didn't have the knife in my pocket.

"No we took on the half out of it career pack. Apollo, Brax and Melody would have killed me if I had taken on all three of them, Brax probably could have killed me if I didn't have the knife or if he wasn't badly injured or sleep deprived. We got lucky with the careers."

"oh, right." Hollie mumbled, I held her hand. I didn't want her getting caught up in all of this. she was far too young.

I took a bite into one of the delicious berries as the flavour exploded into my mouth. I looked over at Hollie, who was digging into her stale crackers. "And no more killing people unless we have to. I wanna get out of these games but killing people isn't the answer."

"Why did you kill the careers?"

"Because they killed Saron. And because they were going to hunt me down and kill me if I wasn't careful" I explained, Hollie shrugged it off.

Then I felt it on my skin.

That abundant feeling of rain. Pure slushy stony stream of water from the sky.

Except this wasn't rain.

It was acid.

Enflamed searing acid.

"Hollie" I mouth to her, feeling the blistering feeling on my clothes. We needed to dash the fuck out of here and fast.

"What the hell...?" Hollie placed her hand out to feel the rain but I smacked her hand away. It would erupt her skin.

We needed to run.

"Get the bags" I demanded, placing my axe on my back, getting the backpack and the hunting knives. I held onto the spear. "Now!"

"What do we do?" Hollie cried out, she grabbed her bags and her hunting knives.

"We run!"

I had never run so fast, feeling the abundant thing as I tried to cover my head with my sack, Hollie doing the same. But it we were treading on it, the critical acid rain had fallen down onto the grass, almost sweltering it into some kind of dust. The acid was burning hot and I could feel it radiating onto my fingertips when I held my bag over my head and the sweltering sensation that overwhelmed me.

Hollie was steps behind me; she was trying to hold back her waterworks as the acid cooked her fingertips. She wanted it to stop, so did I. I flinched in pain when it hit my skin. that was horrible, as if it was biting down hard and onto my bones.

I noticed something in the neighbouring distance. It was impenetrable, evergreen, emerald and most of all, fresh and shielded trees that should cover the flood.

But it felt miles away and I was so exhausted, from massacring the careers last night and because I think this acid was actually trying to kill my entire body. but I noticed if we got to the trees, then maybe we could camp underneath the trees and actually start living again.

My fingers were absolutely suppurated and in excruciating soreness. I had only a couple yards to go,

"Get to the trees!" I finally screamed out, Hollie was barely behind me, her knees and legs must be in throbbing pain.

"What?" She croaked, we could barely talk with distress that the acid would get onto our tongues and slice them clean off.

"Those trees!" I pointed in a straight line at the massive timeless trees, Hollie realised and she inhaled in delight. We had a chance of living through this natural disaster. "Their massive, they will cover the rain for us."

My legs had never run so fast towards these trees, we had hit the darker, deeper part of the forest, these weren't silent.

And it gave me hope.

"Hope. The only thing stronger than fear" I said that to Finnick, the two of us on the rooftop as we had nearly kissed. "Hope that we will live. Fear that we will die."

"Where did you hear that?" I remembered Finnick asking me, I was blushing like I was one of his irritating ass-fan girls.

"The president." I snicker, and he snickers too. the laughter is reciprocated and I feel myself having a good time, the thing I hated most.

That I was actually crushing on Finnick.

I was going to get back to him. to my siblings, to my family.

I did it.

I dashed under the trees, breathing an exhalation of liberation. Parts of my trousers had been charbroiled off, they were pretty badly burnt in fact. But they should do for the rest of the games. But apart from that and my fingers blistered, but the swelling would go down in about a day. I was okay.

Hollie slid down next to me, she had brought her medical supplies bag. We sew up her leg together, both of us out of breath underneath the colossal oak tree that covered our heads, the acid was gone. It was raining acid in front of our eyes but we were okay. We held hands.

After around ten minutes, I got the biggest sign of hope.

It began pouring. Not acid rain, actual rain.

Actual sub-zero rain that made me feel astonishing, that I splashed myself in the rain, soaking my hair and pulsating it all around. Hollie did the same, the rain was the best thing that had happened in these games so far. I washed my hair in the rain, I don't think I had ever felt so good.

Oh that would be short lived.

But at least it felt marvellous then.

I actually felt hope. That I could win the games.

That's exactly what I was going to do.