MARVEL POV
"Marvel!"
Glimmer is looking in my direction, calling my name.
"You have to come with me," she calls.
I nod, following her. Her hair is loose, and it's blowing in the wind. She's careless, laughing happily as strands of blonde frame her face. She's so beautiful.
"What are you waiting for? You know I'll never leave you in your dreams," she whispers.
"What about reality?" I gasp. "You'll never leave me then, either?"
Glimmer giggles and skips off into a bright light shining down as if from the heavens. As soon as she touches the light, she's gone.
"Glim?" I call.
"Come on, Marvel. You know you need to follow," I hear the strains of her voice carried along with the wind. What does she mean? Will we die?
"Glimmer?" I call, but she has faded away, and now I'm fading, further and further away from her...
I wake up in the arena. Glimmer's still sleeping, her head resting on my chest. Clove is standing over me, shaking me awake. It's still dark.
"Wake up," she hisses. "It's your turn to watch."
"Oh," I mumble, shaking off the dream.
"Am I safe to get some sleep now?"
I nod, smiling, and prop myself up on my hands. Choosing an uncomfortable position on purpose makes it easier to not go to sleep, although I wouldn't put it past myself. I sit facing the woods. They look like a great black monster, looming out in the night. The only sound that comes from them is the chirping of birds. It's almost peaceful. If I came across this scenery somewhere else, I would never have guessed that the inhabitants of those woods are teenagers out to kill us for entertainment. They should keep the arenas for housing endangered animals, or something. Perfect setting.
I'm lost in a little trance when the parachute drifts down from the sky. So Gloss hasn't forgotten I exist! This has been the first parachute any of us have had, throughout the Games. I reach for it, being careful not to jolt Glimmer's head off my lap so that she doesn't wake up, and grab it. Clove and Cato are fast asleep, about a mile away from each other. I open the parachute.
It's a little glass bottle, filled with a clear liquid. I uncork it, and sniff the top. It doesn't smell of anything, and I don't want to drink it until I'm sure what it is. It can't be water, it's way too small. Gloss wouldn't give us a tiny vial of water when we're sleeping next to a whole lake. It could be medicine, I think, and then I notice the note.
Gloss has rolled up a piece of paper and pushed it inside the bottle. I have no idea if that's legal, sending notes to your tributes in the Games, but he seems to have gotten away with it. I pour a little water over my dirt-caked hands to clean them, and stick my fingers into the bottle and slide the paper out. Corking it up, I unroll it quietly, and squint my eyes to make the words out in the dark.
THIS IS FOR YOU AND GLIMMER. DO NOT DRINK. IF YOU HAVEN'T GUESSED ALREADY, THIS IS POISON. GIVE TO C AND C AND GET OUT OF ALLIANCE. WILL KILL INSTANTLY. LOVE GLOSS AND MELANIE, it says.
Melanie. Glimmer's mentor. Her and Gloss must have saved together for this. Poison. They want us to poison Cato and Clove, or C and C. My head fills with questions. Obviously they want us out of the alliance as soon as possible, but why do we have to kill them?
No, that's stupid. Obviously we have to kill them, this is the Hunger Games. A horrible thought flashes through my mind: when will Gloss be instructing me to kill Glimmer? Cato and Clove first, but what then? I leave with Glimmer, and what? Hope she dies? Leave her for someone else to kill, or kill myself so she can live? No, she'd never let me.
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Careers Have Feelings Too | CLATO | GLARVEL |
Fanfiction"The thing is, I didn't expect to be like this," he says. The sunlight bounces off his golden hair, and it seems as if it's glowing. "Didn't expect what?" He smiles coyly, and all at once he seems more sure of himself than ever before. "I went wro...
