Midnight Azalea-A Story of the 34th Hunger Games

Chapter 20-Death

The impact of the Penelope Blossom is almost inregisterable. My body flings upwards, then I'm floating, then I'm back down on the surface of the mushroom. I call out for Pisces and Aris, but I hear no other voices.

Then suddenly I see Aqua, the shining girl from district 4, with Athena., walking under the brush of woods and to the Penelope Blossoms.

I almost scream Aris name when Athena lodges a knife in her knee. Her scream is almost note breaking. Pisces is crouched down on the shaft of his mushroom. Yet Aris is down below being tortured by the Careers.

My legs are already running because I don't want to see my only friend in the arena in the night sky. For a second I catch the green eyes of Aqua, and she readies her trident that is two times the size of her.

Then...earth.

Breath escapes me in such a way my back flexes and my entire body starts to breakdown. Aqua notices my weakness and steps in to finish the job, she has just raised her trident when Pisces has knocked her over. I can't help but divert my attention towards Aris, who is luckily avoiding the knife attacks of Athena. Aris grips her knife and once Athena is near she stabs her in the face. Immediately her reaction is falling, but Aris can't move. Then I notice Athena had her chained to the ground the entire time. "Aris!" I scream, but she's already knocked out.

Meanwhile, Aqua and Pisces are down, and my side is bloody, my vision blue. I can't do anything but wait for the cannon to fire. Aquas already kicking at a down Pisces, and Athenas face is blood. Aris is crying for help because I know she needs it, but I can't, neither Pisces nor I can help her.

I turn back to Aqua, my vision becoming hazy. For a second I see Hazel deliver te blow to Athena that ends her life, hence the cannon. Then she flees. The moments are a blur, then I see Pisces stab Aqua in the stomach with her own trident. She falls but her cannon waits to fire.

Pisces is hovering over me, but my vision is spotty and out of place. "Where's Aris?" I ask, barely hearing my own words. But he doesn't answer.

I don't understand when a cannon fires, but I realize my vision has gone white.

My eyes open with the anthem.

The Fallen:

Luxor, District 1

Athena, District 2

Aqua, District 4

Jasper, District 5

Four died today. The anthem ends and the outro signals sleep. I was so tired I slept and now I've awoken with my side in excruciating pain. Pisces has his trident, and he's talking with Hazel about his plans to take down the Careers' camp.

I stand up and join them. Pisces has acquired what he most needed, his trident. Aris is playing with a pair of sais that Athena once carried. I'm not sure how we got out alive, but sure enough my side is deeply wounded by it.

"By the edge of the deep woods lies a meadow," says Pisces. "I only know because Maximus went there. Now he should know his group is dead and who killed them. He's probably teaming with somebody heavy." He sticks his trident in the soft wet ground. Dirt piles up over the edges as the trident sinks deeper. "Their supplies are over there."

"Are you sure it's safe?" says Hazel. She carries an extra bow I once saw Aqua carry. "Oh, hey sleepyhead." Hazel comes over to me and grabs me with one of her spare wires. "You woke up late guess where we're going?"

"The Career camp," I say. "I heard your whole conversation." I grab my bow and aim aside Hazels body. My arrow catches a squirrel. We decide to skin it and eat it, because who knows how long it will be until we eat again. So we eat it raw and head out through the forest.

"By nightfall we all meet back here." Hazel stops in her tracks and points to this grotto in the woods. "Understand?"

We all drop our stuff and dig it under the earth. What's left is my trusty bow, extra sheath of arrows due to Hazels kind donation, and my belt of knives. We dig the rest and fly away.

Hours later we catch Mazimus and Grant out by the edge of the meadow. They're together...

Two of the biggest and strongest tributes are out in alliance. Earlier, Grant and Jasper had been allies since the Corncucpia Bloodbath. Now what?

Showing by their expressions and hand gestures they were splitting up. Maximus pointed to the ground and then off they were running. Their supplies were neatly stacked up upon a rock, which was pretty high but smart in order to counter the floodwaters. Speaking of floodwaters it was afternoon, and water was already gathering at my boots. Aris was well behind us, and she suggests we escape the floodwaters by getting up the hybrid oaks. I say that would eat up too much time and the whole day would be swallowed up, and the only thing left would be us four stuck up in a tree while the pair of brutes tried to claw us down. And Grant was a good climber, too.

Aris rubs her head as if in thought. "Then what now? Take the stuff and carry it down with us as we drift downstream? Aren't you smarter than that?" Yes, me and Aris have been friends since the start, but her inclusion is right. We all decide to take a few things and we'll be off in five minutes.

I grab some bags and food, utilizing said bags to place whatever I can. I end up with a few cans of beef, cold leftovers, a few canteens of water and an extra bow and a second belt of knives. A sheath of neat arrows sits drifting in the waters but it'll only get dragged down with the rest of its stockpile. The mountain almost looks halved. Water is at my hips and it only rises from here. Boxes of stuff and weapons drift around, and Aris is calling me to go up a tree with her. I'm only grabbing the arrows when lighting hits the tree Aris is leaned on and she gets thrown afar. I scream, and I dash over to her crippled body. Blood, and burns cover her. She's gasping and I know I can't help her. Hazel is up a tree a few yards away, and that's when lightning starts to bounce around. "Aris! Aris!"

I can't protect her. Her limbs are fragile and the burns cover her too much. She blinks a few times, gasping for her last bits of air. "You..." My only friend in the enimtire arena gulps, frantically trying to get the words out over her boiling insides. The water piles up and lighting crashes in the water, electrocuting me mildly. I scream. Aris continues to speak. "You have to..." A stab of pain hits her at her last words where she chokes up on the last one.

"Win."

Aris' last word hangs in the air as her cannon fires. Rain infuriates the tide and I drop everything, the flood is tightening its grip on me, and now I am one with the flood. I let myself go, only to have Pisces pluck me from the water. All I can do is look down at the edge of the waters as Aris, my only friend in the arena drifts down. Dead.