Sea Of Secrets [1]

Eighteen

   "Run!" I yell as I drag Katniss along with me. The snarls and barks of the animals are fast on our trail, and I have to resist the urge to look back.

   "Climb!" Katniss is already running up the tree in front of us.

   I try my best to get my body up on at least the first small branch. It snaps under the pressure of my body and I go tumbling down on the ground. The mutts are now almost a few feet away as I try to scramble up the tree again. Katniss tries to pull me up, but before she can successfully, the jaws of the wolf wrap around my leg and clamp shut.

   I try and shake it off of me, but the wolf is much larger then I am. It has piercing green eyes, and long blonde hair.

  "Katniss!" I look up at her with tears in my eyes from the pain. She looks so shocked, so stunned. "Katniss!" She looks so interested and pained by the wolf that she doesn't realize what it's holding onto : me. "Fuck it" I say as I release my grasp on the tree. I take my knife out, and throw it into the eyes of the mutt. It snarls at me, stepping back and releasing me from its god awful grasp. Despite the pain, I crawl up into the tree, trying my best to keep my balance with the pain.

   "Katniss!" I shake her out of her trance, and she stares wide eyed at me. "What is it?"

   "It's them" she whispers

   "Who's them?"

   "Look at the wolves, look at who they resemble. It's the tributes" I look down and scream as I see the real eyes of a human, just planted into the head of the mutts. The one who attacked me has a metal collar attached to it, and one name is on it.

   Glimmer.

She was from District One. She had long blonde hair and green piercing eyes. She died from the tracker jacker stings. Katniss got the bow and arrow from her. I look around at the pack of wolves bellow me, and see that all of them resemble someone else.

   Rue.
   Thresh.
   Clove.
   Foxface.
   Peeta.

   The smallest wolf is in the middle, howling up at me, shooting daggers at me with its blue eyes and blonde curly hair..blue eyes..curly..

   Liam.

   I scream again and cling onto the tree as my body threatens to break down on me. "This can't be happening" I say to myself "this can't be happening, no, no" I cry into Katniss's shoulder. First Snow kills my brother, and then transforms him into a rabid beast. I could no longer bury my brother, or scatter his ashes over the beach.

   A knife flings into my side and I gasp at the impact that it had on me. Katniss grabs me as I almost fall out of the tree. I look around to try and see where the knife came from, only for my eyes to land on Cato who is perched in a nearby tree. I take the knife out, and fling it into the head of a mutt, one that I remember as Sam. Cato jumps out of the tree, and runs up another and only seconds after the mutts realize it. They aren't as fast as they seem to be. They are now at the bottom of Cato's tree, trying to figure out a way to get up. They are growling and barking at each other, as if they are communicating. The tributes who are dead would never be working together this hard, but trying to hunt the others down. Now they are all working together , almost as if wanting to get revenge on those who had killed them.

   I had promised Liam that he would never ever get picked for the games, that he would never step foot into an arena. I swore on my life. I look back on how many promises I had broken, and I realize that I had lied to him over and over again. Maybe the lies I was telling him, were for me too. Saying that he wouldn't get picked, or that I wouldn't get picked was just for me. Maybe I had to say it over and over again until I believed it. The thing is, I never did. He's been living in a sea of lies.

   "Can you shoot an arrow at Cato from here?" I ask Katniss, who is already loading and aiming.

   "I'll try" an arrow flies across to the tree that Cato is in, and hits him right in the upper left arm. He looses his balance and falls with a loud crack. The wolves are upon him in seconds. We watch as they try and tear him apart, but they only scratch the surface of what is protecting his body. "He has a protective suit on, armor"

  The mutts try and try to open and tear apart the suit, but Cato only cries as they do. He screams in pain, as if the suit is plastered onto his skin. Some of the mutts even tear at his hands, his face, trying to rid of his existence.

   The pain in my leg pierces through my body, joining in with the one from my side. I whimper and plead for the cannon to go off, either for me, or for Cato.

   "You aren't dying Coral, you aren't" stay with me. Katniss brings me by her side, balancing both of us on the branch. She takes out my rope from my backpack and wraps it around us, securing us into place.

   "I'm so tired Katniss" I whisper as I rest my head on her shoulder. She slaps my face I jolt up, suddenly energized by the pain.

   "Don't you dare go to sleep on me" she grabs her water bottle and pours it over my leg. I scream in pain as the cold water enters the deep wound making it interact with my muscles and veins that are visibly open. Next she does that same to my side, but it doesn't hurt as much.

   "You need to end his pain" I say as I look over at Cato who is still alive but laying there , looking into the skies. "So we can win"

   "I only have two arrows left"

   "Then you better kill him on the first" I say as I shutter at the pain in my body. The cool wind and rain that has begun to heavy doesn't help. Katniss raises her bow, aims, and then shoots right into Catos forehead. Right in between the eyes.

   A cannon goes of signaling that we have won. Relief washes over me, almost making the pain bearable.

   A hovercraft comes to take the mutts away. "Goodbye my little sea monkey" I cry. I cry and cry into Katniss as the hovercraft gets lifted away. I will never see him again.

   The voice of Claudius Templesmith's has never sounded so sweet as he says his words that erupt across the arena "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victors of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games : Coral Adays from District Four and Katniss Everdeen from District Twelve"

"We did it" I whisper as I slouch back into the tree "we did it"