The Hunger Games: The Cry of Temperance

The Second Night

Kiana's machete lodged right in the wall as she carelessly swung, her blade grazing right past Cotton as he had dropped his bag, the cut completely tearing it open as she left it in the wall.

"Why don't you just drop it already?" Cotton huffed, wiping the side of his mouth as he stood upright.

"Not until I get one more," Kiana outstretched her fingers as they cracked all simultaneously, bloodied from what looked like Chip's blood, and perhaps even Cotton's as he was bleeding from underneath his left arm.

Though she suffered the same expense too, blood had been dripping down her leg– a limp created from how she had moved about.

"What are you, an animal? You get one kill, and suddenly you're on top of the world? Give me a goddamn break!" He brandished the knife in his hand as he applied pressure onto his wound with the other.

"Talk all you want, that'll help you mighty when you're in the ground!" She lunged forward, as the machete ripped out from the building, the rubble dropping beside her as she allowed the blade to flick upwards.

Cotton backed up, watching as she continued to slash horizontally, the tip of blade becoming aligned with his body as he kept on going– he could feel slashes across the rim of his clothes, as crimson had drawn very slightly– but not enough to act as a deepened wound. It was off the tip of his skin.

While she continued to slash, they could hear something from afar. But that didn't stop her from continuously slashing across, her hands switching whenever needed.

But as he noticed, her slashing started to become less and less abundant. They were starting to become reckless, but not less out of desperation. It was more out of bloodlust, the look in her eyes was almost replicated off the Careers. The look in their eyes had been much more docile compared to hers, however.

Cotton took the opportunity to jab at her– but as he did so, she manuevered well, completely negating the strike as she jabbed her fingers into the center of his throat, hitting his Adam's apple with her index and thumb, trying to slam it down as he started to sputter. He gasped as she eventually straddled on top of him, placing both of her hands down onto his neck as reddened markings started to shadow her fingers.

He gasped, trying to get the girl off of him. But she was surprisingly tough, the more she exerted her weight, the harder it was to get off. She looked downwards, looking at the blade that he had left behind as she reached over to it– but as she did, he jabbed her side with his finger, causing her to recoil back before he smacked her square in the face, kicking her off of him. Cotton looked back at the blade as she had been closest to it, before making a split decision to run away from her, jumping out from the window before taking a double take backwards.

The skies had become darker, the clouds had shadowed the area and it had become almost blackened. It was almost as if they were right down in the middle of a storm. He watched as the moon had barely been seen, it was almost pitch black outside as he remained where he had stood.

"Cotton! You bastard, get back here!" She called out from behind him as he could see her, despite how dark it had been– the machete in one hand, and the knife sheathed poorly in one of her pockets as its blade had been lodged out of its fabric. Judging by the look on her face, he could tell that she was focused right on him.

He huffed and puffed, his chest heaving in and out as he continued to trek along the tumultuous path. Despite how it plateaued towards the horizon, he could barely see the bumps and the cracks in the ground that made it quite difficult to even navigate. But for some odd reason, Kiana was right on his tail.