To Kill A Mockingjay

chapter 8

"Something's not right," mumbles Finch for the millionth time.

Timmer died more than two days ago, and the audience must be awfully bored already, yet we've heard not a peep from the gamemakers.

"Should we try contacting Thresh?" I ask, although I'm not sure how to.

"He'll be here if he needs to..." She says, almost to herself.

"How do you know?"

"Just a feeling I have."

I don't know why Finch is still with us at these late stages of the games, with only us and Cato left. I want to go home, but I don't want to kill her. And I want to break up the alliance, but I don't want her to die at all.

Then she's dropping all the berries she's gathered and pushing me towards a tree.

"Climb, Now!" she's scared. probably heard something.

And just as I was about to pull her up, I heard it too. Someone is running towards us. but not from the grasslands, where Thresh is, but from the direction of the stream. Then Cato jumps into our clearing and charges at Finch. I have no time to pull her up, but a plan is forming in my head. I fling her to the side instead. She tumbles into the dirt, and in the short time it takes for Cato to change his objective, I throw my knife with all my strength down at him. It opens a gash in his cheek, but as soon as it reaches his shoulder, it bounces away. Finch is on her feet now, stumbling for the nearest tree, but Cato cuts her off and pushes her to the ground. That's when Thresh arrives.

I barely register the sound of metal against metal as I approach Finch. I think she's unconscious, but otherwise she seems to be okay.

I'm such an idiot! How could I have risked her life for my stupid plan?! I thought I could kill Cato while he was momentarily distracted, but at what cost? Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Cato fleeing and so much blood.

"Rue! Snap out of it! Foxface needs help!" Thresh's voice snaps me out of my thoughts.

He's turning her around, and I see it. A horrible wound on the back of her head. The ground under her is already dyed red.

"She must've hit a rock when Cato pushed her." I realize, feeling worse by the second.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get her a bandage."I practically fly back up to our tree, and I'm back before even a minute has passed. Thresh carefully wraps her head and looks at the result. Finch looks like she's wearing a white turban.

"good enough" sighs thresh

He gently picks her up and carries her the short walk to our Rendezvous Rock. That's as long as I can bear before the tears start spilling out.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt too??" He asks, worry creasing his face.

No, I'm fine. I'm just worried I lie; I can't afford for Thresh or the audience to see me as a fragile little girl.

It's already afternoon when Finch wakes up. I expect her to be furious and to shout at me. But she just embraces me and goes on about how glad she is that we're all okay. We feast on Finch's second capitol dish when night falls. The tension between Finch and Thresh has vanished as if it never existed. Maybe I'm going crazy, or maybe Thresh is falling for her. He insists on giving her half his meal (a delicious chicken with some rice, chunks of orange, and onions), and she giggles, which I've never heard her do.

As we collect some berries for dessert, Finch wanders a little bit farther away. I smirk at Thresh knowingly, and he blushes. then, as if for some unspoken agreement, we start laughing our heads off.

"Hey yo, whatcha talking about?" Finch asks, suddenly popping into our clearing, although by the sly grin in her face, I suspect she's been spying on us all along. "Also, you guys realize you're harvesting poison, right?"

"Oh no," I tell her, "these aren't nightlock; they're azula berries, slightly bigger and bluer than nightlock." I put one in my mouth to prove it to her.

"I know what an azula berry is, but that right there, that's nightlock," she points to a bush of deadly nightlock, cleverly hidden in the azula berries. "That one too," a single branch of the poison berry.

"I vote we ditch the Azula berries, I say, spotting more night lock.

"Agreed," says Thresh, dropping the fistful of azula berries he had gathered.

"I think we have enough for dessert anyway." Finch pipes in, showing the armful of berries she has. We check, but all of them are edible.

"You have nightlock at 5 too? I ask Finch when we settle down to eat our dessert.

"Yeah, electrocutions aren't a rare occurrence in the power plants, and the medics give them to the hopeless cases to "end their suffering.""

We eat the rest of our meal in silence; then something bizarre happens. The moon, the stars, even the fireflies go out. engulfing us in complete darkness. and I hear it—a scream and a Canon. Then, as quickly as it comes, the darkness fades, and the two first things I register are a Linx-like mutt, disappearing into a hole on the ground, and Thresh, lying dead on the ground.

***

Bam! now that's a plot twist AND a cliffhanger. 

Bet u didn't see that one coming huh?

And now, to torture u further, i shall never post the next chapter, and u will never know what happens next. MUAHAHAHAHA! (Jk, i'm evil, but not that evil)

Although i have an upcoming test so u may have to wait a while. ty for ur patience and im so sorry for the delay.

luv u all!

Kelz->Out