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SLEEP EVADED ARAUCARIA. No matter which way she turned her pillow, head, or body (she even tried sleeping with her head where her feet went and vice-versa) her mine would not succumb to dreams.
Her eyelids would shut, peace taking over for a moment before violent images flashed through her mind. Treech getting his throat cut. Treech getting his stomach sliced. Treech getting a knife in the back. Over and over she saw him die. Sometimes it was by Coral, sometimes Tanner. Lamina. Lucy Gray. Sol. Teslee. Mizzen— admittedly she found that thought quite humorous, no doubt the boy would aim for sole custody of her attention.
Giving up on sleep, Araucaria made her way to her desk, sliding the drawers open as quietly as she could, so as to not wake her father. She located her fish hook supplies and necklace cord easily.
Her hands and mind remained occupied by the task she set herself. She skillfully bent the wire she had acquired from an old bra underwire, forming it into the very same shape Treech wore tucked into his white tee.
She couldn't protect him in the arena. Her abilities as a mentor extended as far as sending food and water and other small supplies. If someone came at Treech, she would be helpless to save him. Already he felt worlds away.
She ran her fingers over the silver shape of his Midnight Axe. He wouldn't be worlds away, she reminded herself, We'll be under the same stars.
Cari found some comfort in the thought— not that her mind would let her rest for long. Instantly the big brown eyes of Mizzen flashed in her mind, silently begging her to save him.
Grabbing her scissors, Cari grabbed the very same fabric she used for the feathers on Mizzen's fish hook. She cut out the desired shape and frayed the edges, adding the feather to her axe.
Even locked up in the arena, she would keep her boys close by.
≘
When the time came for Cari to get ready, she found herself losing her dinner from the night before.
Bent over the toilet, she was stuck with the realness of everything. Today, those kids would be stuck in an arena to fight to the death. I like many of them, but only one will survive. Her time spent with Treech and the others before had always felt special. They knew why their paths had crossed, yet the occasion everything led up to seemed so far away.
Not anymore. The peacekeepers were probably collecting everyone from the zoo, herding them back into trucks before walking them to their death.
After brushing her teeth and donning her sickly red uniform, Cari made her way to the front of her apartment building, Sejanus waiting for her as usual.
His body was stiff with somber— there had been no update on Marcus.
Neither spoke on the drive over. The sleek Plinth car resembled that used in a funeral procession, both teens grieving behind the privacy of tinted windows for those who weren't dead yet.
