THE SIREN'S SONG 𓇼 F. ODAIR

35 ~ the second day

"That's Nightlock," Charlie said. "It's a poisonous berry that can kill a person before it even reaches their stomach. It's found on the outskirts of District 12 and what used to be District 13, so I don't think it was taught at the edible plants station in the training center."

Carolina watched carefully as Charlie spoke to the girl from District 5. They had become allies on the first day, so Carolina assumed they had spoken before during training, and Charlie had just failed to mention it. Carolina didn't like that Charlie had chosen her as an ally, but the boy seemed to trust her.

The District 5 girl nodded and began to walk away. Charlie didn't follow her right away. Instead, he continued to stare at the bush for a moment before taking a handful of the berries and shoving them in his pocket.

"What did he do that for?" Carolina asked. She turned around to face the other victors in the room, though only the District 4 mentors paid attention to her. "Why did he take the berries? He knows they could kill him."

Reef stood up from where he was sitting and walked toward Carolina.

"I don't know, Lina," he said, "but Charlie's a smart kid. He probably has a plan."

Carolina turned back to the screens and crossed her arms. She followed her brother closely for the next day, walking around the front of the mentor room as Charlie traveled from screen to screen.

She wasn't a mentor that year, but none of the other mentors bothered to kick her out for the same reason that they didn't bother to kick out Augustus Braun, who was micromanaging Gloss at the District 1 desk. The man had put on a brave front in front of the entire Capitol and acted like he was happy that his brother had volunteered for the games, but the moment he was in a room with other victors, he dropped the act.

Charlie had survived the first night by finding shelter in a tree by the lake. He climbed to the highest branch that could support him and tied himself to it with his belt. His partner stayed on the ground, going through the bag she had managed to snatch from the bloodbath.

They remained in the area the second day. Charlie spent the day walking around the area, collecting plants that they could eat, while his district partner filtered the water from the lake with iodine tablets.

That night, Charlie climbed back up to his spot in the tree and fell asleep, using his jacket as a blanket. The girl from District 5 agreed to keep the first watch that night. 

That was when she made the most fatal mistake a tribute could in the arena.

She lit a fire.

"What the hell is she doing!" Carolina screamed. Nothing happened for a few moments, but then the nearby bushes began to rustle. The District 5 girl took that as a signal to run, leaving Charlie alone. Asleep and vulnerable. "You bitch! You dumb, stupid, fucking bitch!"

"Lina, calm down," Reef said. "We don't know if—"

He stopped mid-sentence when the screen Charlie was on moved to the largest screen in the room. That only happened if the gamemakers believed something interesting was about to occur.

Seconds later, the career pack walked into the clearing and scouted out the area around the small fire. They looted what the District 5 girl left behind on her quick escape and looked around the camp.

Carolina held her breath, praying the pack wouldn't see Charlie nestled in the tree.

"Well, would you look at that," the District 2 girl said, pointing up to where Charlie was still fast asleep.

"Aww, how cute," the girl from District 1 cooed.

"Lina," Reef said from behind her. "You should leave."