A Blooming Rose (hunger games fan-fic)

Chapter 18 (Day 15: the Victor)

Rose got up early the next day. She knew it was going to be a big day and she would need all the strength she could get. She destroyed the shelter, ate the rest of the food she had, and gathered her things, putting some in her backpack and keeping others, like her weapons, out.

Time to find Sorrel, she thought. Time to end these games.

~

Rose stood near the Cornucopia. She was leaning against a thick tree, her single sai in her hand and her sword from the Feast on her hip along with a knife. She knew that either Sorrel was already here and waiting for her or the Gamemakers were somehow leading him here. Rose covered her nose with her hood and pretended to sneeze quietly. Her nose quickly changed into a dog's nose. She took a quick sniff of the air. Sorrel was near. He was already at the Cornucopia and waiting. Her nose changed back and she removed her hood. Taking a deep breath, Rose stepped towards the Cornucopia. She walked closer and closer, watching the woods the entire time.

"Come on, Sorrel," she said a little loudly, hoping he would hear her. "Come out and end this."

Rose waited a few minutes, trying to listen to the area around her. Suddenly, she heard someone running towards her. She looked over her shoulder and saw Sorrel running her way with a spear in hand and two knives in his belt. He reached for one of these knives and threw it at her. Rose somehow managed to deflect it with her sai. She held her sai ready and Sorrel had one hand on the hilt of his second knife and the other was ready with the spear.

"How are you feeling, Sorrel?" Rose asked with a small smirk. "Better than when I left you a few days back?"

Sorrel laughed.

"You could say that, Eleven," he replied. "Although I was attacked by someone I loved from home."

"Really. When was that?"

"The day Affron died."

Rose stared. Those tigers made people see the thing they loved the most. Rose didn't really love anything a lot; most of her relationships back home were friendships. Even her relationship with her family wasn't very strong since she wasn't really around much at home.

"I was attacked by those too. Maybe they knew we were close to each other and were trying to bring us back to fight each other."

"Looks like that didn't work out."

"Yeah. But now it looks like it's just you and me. The final two tributes in the Hunger Games."

"Let's make this quick. I'm looking forward to going home."

He ran towards her with his spear aimed straight at her stomach. Rose jumped out of the way. She turned and stuck her sai into Sorrel's shoulder blade. She watched she he tried to reach for it to remove the weapon, but it was out of his reach. He turned to face her, his eyes burning. Rose turned on her heel and ran towards the Cornucopia. She tried to climb up the golden horn to gain an advantage over Sorrel. She knew he couldn't climb with a sai in his shoulder.

Rose was halfway up the horn when a sharp pain shot through her lower leg. She gritted her teeth and continued to climb. When she reach the top, she looked at her leg. Sorrel's spear was sticking out of her skin.

No doubt that hit a few muscles.

She snapped off the longer end on the spear and, ripping the sleeve off her jacket, wrapped up the wound the best she could. She looked back down at Sorrel to see him aiming at her with one his knives. He had retrieved the other while Rose was climbing. Rose managed to avoid the first knife. She reached for her own and looked straight at Sorrel. She swung her arm, the knife flying from her hand. A second later, she heard a gasp of pain from Sorrel. The knife had landed straight in his heart. He dropped his weapon and collapsed to the ground. Rose breathed heavily as she waited for the cannon, which came a few minutes later.

She slid off the Cornucopia and staggered away from where Sorrel's body lay. A hovercraft retrieved it and a moment later, Claudius Templesmith's voice rang out.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" he said. "The winner of the 51st Hunger Games!"

Rose tried to smile. A hovercraft appeared above her head and quickly took her on board. She was almost immediately surrounded by doctors and nurses, who were talking rapidly. One injected her with a serum that caused Rose to pass out.

It's all over, she thought as she drifted off.