Kai From Four

Arena: Day 6

A gasp pulled me out of the depths of sleep. Artemis. That's her voice.

I looked to my right, where Artemis was supposed to be, but she was gone. Blinking, I scanned around and found her with her arms outstretched...three times as long as they should have been. Her shocked expression disappeared immediately, replaced by one of relief, and the edges of her lips curled in a satisfied smile as she grabbed her bag, retracted her arms back to normal size, and turned to me. She nodded, seeing I was awake.

Stretching must be her power, just as a lethal touch is mine. If hers was still there, that meant mine was. I looked down, and curled and uncurled my hands into fists, trying to see if I could sense whatever made my skin so deadly. Nothing. I felt normal.

That was also frightening.

There was no hope of controlling my power if I couldn't feel anything different. But maybe the Capitol saw this as an advantage, and thought that I should, too. It was indeed an ability to be feared, and made me a lot more of a threat than I would have been without it.

A pair of combat boots appeared in my line of vision, causing me to automatically look up at Artemis.

"I think we should try finding some food today," she said.

I nodded, standing up. "Yeah...I don't know if we'll actually get any, though." Snow swirled all around us, blizzards raging in the distance. Not even a single blade of grass could have remained alive in this weather. The Capitol obviously put this arena here to tell us that from that point, all supplies would have to be fought for or given by sponsors. Did we have sponsors? I dearly hoped so. I wasn't in the mood to starve to death.

"Just..." She paused, and sighed. "Take out any tributes you see along the way." Snow crunched under her boots and whipped around her hair as she took her leave.

"Okay," I eventually muttered, but she was long gone. I picked up my backpack and few weapons that I had, and left as well, heading the opposite direction.

Hours passed. I was alone. Cold bit down on me from every side, and each speck of ice burned and froze. My spirits were low, very low, but a faint whisper at the back of my head grew steadily stronger and stronger, repeating the same mantra.

Family. Family. Family.

The warm memories returned, sparking my hollowed heart with a renewed hope. My parents loved and cared for me, and they wouldn't want me to die. Not here. Not now. Hopefully, they were watching and rooting for me from above.

I need to live for them. Family. I can't let their memories die with me. I have to get back to Four. I need to win.

I treasured every little fact I remembered about them. How my mother always loved silver; how my father's handwriting was slanted and loopy; how we lived in a cozy cottage near the cliff face that dropped to the ocean, and had a window facing in that direction with that incredible view of deep, rolling, cerulean waves.

If I get back, I want to visit their house, even if it's just once.

Then a feminine voice spoke, turning my blood cold. "No one will miss you."

What? It wasn't Artemis. I knew that much. I stayed silent, as to not give away my position, though I had a sinking feeling whoever had spoken already was aware.

"Nobody will care if you die!" The voice snarled, and my gaze dropped to my bracelets. I was taken aback when the next words were, "Forget about the bracelets! Forget about everything!"

"Is someone there?" I asked, temper surprisingly getting the best of me. I was normally a calm person, but whoever was speaking was testing my limits. "I'll kill you!" And I meant it. I had a purpose now that the clouds of my past had been lifted. I had to get back, and I would kill to win. After all, I already had. "Show yourself!" I demanded roughly. Enough taunting.