Jeopardy: The Fourth Quarter Quell

Calm - Adrienne

Adrienne

Again I watch the sunrise from the top of the Cornucopia. That's about the only thing that's the same. The ground ahead no longer looks peaceful. Instead, it's churned up in dark, turbulent waves splattered with grass and blood. The trees don't move. The air feels different. Heavy, like the pressure before a storm, even though it won't rain again. It's just going to keep building and building until something gives. That first crack of lightning, flash of a weapon. The roll of thunder or the boom of a cannon.

We need to prepare for that, today.

Crispin mutters something. That's another thing that's different; he's up here with me, safe, rather than down in the simmering tension of what used to be the Career pack. Without them I feel like there's much more space. It's almost a weight off my shoulders.

I turn to ask him to repeat whatever, but his eyes are closed, the sleeping bag curled up in an embryo shape. I have to smile. I’ll tease him about it later and he won’t believe that he talks in his sleep. On principle, even if I give him proof.

Nothing can ever stop Crispin from sleeping. Not Luxury and Diamond arguing, not Venus' constant chatter, not being outside on the roof of the Cornucopia. When he sleeps he looks like he's seven years old again, his hair a mess that I want to pat into place, thumbnail pressed to his lower lip in a shadow of when he used to suck his thumb. He looks so unworried that my spirit soars a little.

Should he be worried? No, of course not. We're a team and if I'm not worried, he shouldn't be either. Me with the net and him with the spear, we can take on anyone. We've proved that here already: the girl from Three, Elton, the girl from Thirteen. Bets must be running sky high on us, especially with the final four the way it is. Granted, some will still be from those pathetic sorts who insist that we're more than just friends even in face of all the evidence against it, but most will be people who know that we can win. And some of those will be sponsors.

But still...what if? I don't like to think what if, it's too defeatist, like giving in before you've even begun. But I could never have imagined Lux dying and yet I saw it with my own eyes. Even in the dark there was no mistaking her. The whole time I'd wanted to scream; less talking, more fighting! It was the talking that did it for Lux. It gave the other two time to get themselves sorted.

 If Claymore and I meet, there will be no talking. It will be straight for the throat. No time for Portia to get involved.

No time for Crispin to, either.

The tip of the sun breaks over the top of the trees.

We are both going to survive. There is no other way. But the fights now will be stronger. We're down to the best of the best, the strongest, the luckiest, the fittest. Not that there's any luck involved in us. Crispin trained, of course, but his heart was never fully in it. He just wanted somewhere to go to be with friends and ended up with me instead. This was never his dream.

It couldn't have been anybody else. I've been saying that since I got here. And that's not only because as soon as the Quell was announced, his smug grin was instantly plastered across my mind. It's because, well. Crispin is the strongest person I know. Not in terms of physical strength, but in that elusive quality that's what makes me happy to see him even when he's in the most annoying of moods. He's the only one who might even be vaguely happy that their life is in my hands. I'd rather have Crispin here with me now than a stranger, and one who didn't like me at that. Look at Diamond and Lux.

I admired Lux, I'll admit that. There was a girl who knew where her salt was. Like the darling of District Four, Sylvia Pike; intelligent, beautiful and always with that thread of ruthlessness. She should have been a sure-fire candidate even in my mind. But by bringing Diamond with her, that's where she went wrong. You don't bring your worst enemy to a fire-fight. You bring somebody who you know is with you all the way. And the only person who could ever guarantee that for me has always been Crispin.