Could We Burn, Darling?

And From That Boy...

The person sat down completely and crossed their legs. They didn't move any more and neither did I. We spent a few minutes like this, I wanted to look up but my body was stopping me, my thoughts were haunting me. We continued in the silence until night arrived, I blacked out into well-needed slumber.

I awoke to water being splashed over my entire body. I jolted up as everything I was feeling for the past day went straight to my head. I was on my feet and turned to where the water came from and finally saw her.

Lila.

"Wh-" I started walking forward when I fell right back down as pain stabbed at my ankle. I looked down at it to find it had gotten worst. The dry blood had now chipped away, leaving purple blood gushing out. She slowly walked over to me. I raised an arm to block out the sun from behind her and to protect myself from whatever she was planning. "Relax." She said in her lazy, slurred voice. "I'm not going to fucking hurt you, you dibshit." I leaned back, appalled at how much more of a nasty person she was when you started talking to her. "W-what do you want?" I finally managed to choke up. "I don't want anything" she replied defensively. "Why did you bring me here?" I retaliated. "I d- I just.." She stuttered as she looked at the ground. "Why didn't you kill me?" "Oh will you just shut the fuck up, you little ninny. You're so weak and naïve. Just shut up, shut up" I closed my mouth immediately and just stared at her.

After a while, she sighed, and dropped her shoulders. "I was in your state yesterday too." I scoffed. I know she lost her mother but mine had taken her own life and god knows what was happening to my sister. "I know.." she said as if what I had just thought was out loud. "My experience wasn't nearly as bad as yours." My eyes widened as what I heard was sinking in, she was pitying me. "But you know what, it fucking sucks losing people." She looked down then back at me. "I thought you'd want someone who understood." She dampened a bit of cloth that she had and dabbed it on my cut. I tensed as the pain daggered into my entire leg. "Where's.." The pain shot up my spine, I let out a quiet cry then took a deep breath. "Where's Barrone?" she pressed harder on the cut. "OUCH" I exclaimed hitting her hand away. "S-sorry" she said looking down, sounding phased. "I-I.." She stood up and went to go sit by the water. I edged over slowly.

"I lost him." She finally said. "H-how?" I asked, eager to find out. "Like I said." She turned to face me. "I was in your state yesterday. Except i didn't have anyone to dab my cuts or snap me out of it. Barrone left me there." My eyes widened and i looked out into the lake. "He didn't care. He never cared. Hell, I think he even cared more about killing you than helping me survive." She looked away and laughed to herself. "He was so intrigued by you." I looked back at her. "How so?" She laughed as she explained her experience in the training centre. Her and the careers had only spent an hour or two training before Sarah and I arrived. When we did, Barrone completely changed. He became more arrogant. No one knew why; the careers had never seen him act the way he did. But most importantly - he hadn't made contact with a single person out of the careers in months. He had closed himself up and blocked out the real world until i showed up and he began treating everyone differently. "He was a good guy.." Lila explained. "He had a heart, he genuinely cared about people.." She took a deep breath. "But the games changed him." Her voice got more stern. "The games change everyone. They make people do things they never even dreamt of doing before."

Barrone was still out there and for some reason he wanted to find me. I too was intrigued by him, as if he wasn't who he was acting like. I believed Lila when she told me about who he used to be. For some reason, it gave me hope of surviving him and his thoughts of killing me. I needed to find him before he found me.

"Woolnough wake the fuck up!" I was awoken by Lila pushing me over into my back. "What's going on?" I asked discombobulated as my vision focused against the glaring sun. "He's here." I saw Lila's smug face looking down at me. Scares of what I'd see, I just stared at her for what felt like an eternity. "What the fuck are you doing?" She said, standing straight, uncovering the figure stood behind her. I tensed up as I blocked the sun from my eyes once again to see his face - his smug, conceited face - staring down at me. Smile still there, death in his eyes. He had killed, he was going to kill. I gulped as I whispered his name. "Barrone"

After recovering from the shock of seeing him so close again, I stood up and made myself a bit more presentable. "Drew Woolnough." He said as he paced around me, staring me up and down. "Here's the thing, Drew." He continued. "Lila and i are careers. You are a mere tribute." He grabbed my ear and pulled it closer to his mouth where he whispered. "We could kill you in a heartbeat, but we are choosing not to." I gulped quietly. "All I'm saying here is you can trust us." The transparency of the sentence he had uttered made me feel queasy. I gripped my stomach and hunched over. "Hey hey, boy, no time to be queasy, you better be ready." I looked up at Barrone. "Ready for what?" He smiled and looked at Lila.

"We're going to teach you how to kill"