THE SIREN'S SONG 𓇼 F. ODAIR

8 ~ the first kill

Carolina threw another fish into the pile she had created throughout the night. It had been two, maybe three, hours since everyone had fallen asleep. No one had died during that period, and the only thing she saw was the two tributes from 11 take a boat from the island with the mountain to the one with tall grass. She thought about waking up the others to track them down but decided against it.

Instead, Carolina slowly walked back to the pack, snapping her fingers at the tributes to see how lightly they were sleeping. Marsh was the only one who moved. His eyes jolted open at her snaps and he sat up, but when he realized it was just Carolina, he slowly laid his head back down to go to sleep.

When no one else one woke up, she knelt down by Nessa, dug through her bag, and took out the pearly white knife that she was so proud of. Carolina then walked back to her pile of fish, cut the head off of one, and hid the knife underneath them.

She walked back to the group, this time grabbing Ryker's water bottle. Carolina thought back to his reaction to her meal on the first day of training and dropped the fish head into his water.

Kicking Nessa's side lightly to wake her up, Carolina said, "Your turn."

The District 2 girl nodded and got up. Carolina closed her eyes, but she didn't sleep at all the entire night.

"Get up, everyone," Nessa said at sunrise. "Let's start moving. Maybe we'll find tributes that are still asleep. They're easier to kill."

"Not as fun, though," Sicily groaned, rubbing her eyes.

Marsh started packing up his things like Carolina had told him to do the night before. Carolina walked over to the pile of fish, picked two up, and cleaned them. She threw one to Marsh and started eating the other. 

"I caught some fish last night. Eat up."

Sicily walked over to the pile, picked one up by the fin, and stared at it with a disgusted face.

Ryker was the last to get up. The first thing he did was take a big sip of water. He immediately spit it out, coughing and scratching at his throat. Sicily dropped the fish that was still in her hand and screamed, and Carolina ran up to Ryker and started hitting his back while Nessa and Marsh were frozen to their spots.

"What's wrong with him?" Sicily screamed. The boy's face was red and swollen, and his lips were turning blue. "Is he choking?"

"It looks like he's having an allergic reaction!" Carolina shouted back.

A cannon sounded. Ryker was dead.

Marsh walked slowly to where the boy's body was and picked up the water bottle that was still in his hand. He opened it and looked up. 

"There's a fish head in here."

Sicily quickly pulled a sword out of her waistband. 

"You!" She yelled, pointing it at Carolina. "You're the one who caught all of the fish last night!"

"I caught them for all of us to eat," Carolina said back. She picked up her spear and pointed it at Nessa. "Besides, how would I know that Ryker had a fish allergy? That is something a district partner would know."

"I- I," Nessa stuttered. "I wouldn't kill my own partner. You were the one who killed a career already!"

"I killed Savour for a reason!" Carolina yelled. "Aren't District 2 tributes known for being ruthless?"

"Wait!" Sicily screamed. She crouched down by the pile of fish and dug through it. Her head shot up at Nessa. The knife Carolina had planted was in her hand. "You did it, Nessa! Admit it! You are the only one who could have known about Ryker's allergy, you were the last one awake, and this is your knife!"