Masked Enemies

Chapter 31

Katniss

When I wake, I am still buried in Finnick's chest. I feel something sharp resting on top of my head, and I look up. Finnick's chin was on my head, and his arm over me. We hadn't moved an inch the entire night, probably because it was too frozen to move.

I rouse Finnick. "Let's go." He yawns and stretches, rising slowly.

"Fine." Finnick moans, swinging the pack over his shoulder. "To the Cornucopia."

"To the Cornucopia." I say, and he takes my hand gently, and we head off into the woods. I am uncomfortable with this, because being so close to him, so soon after Peeta and Annie's deaths, felt traitorous. Surely he felt the same. He doesn't though, he just walks with me, smiling. In his eyes, though, there is pain. So much pain, agony. I know it hurts him to do this, so I let go of his hand. He raises his eyebrows as he looks at me, and it fits him. Even without the makeup and the hairstyles, he's still the best-looking guy I've ever seen.

"There. What's that?" says Finnick, pointing to a disturbance in the foliage.

"I don't know." I say, loading my bow. "Let's find out." Finnick nods and readies his trident. As we creep through the wilderness, I notice that the arrows that my bow was loaded with were the nightlock-tipped ones. The ones I used to kill.

"Are you sure?" Finnick asks me, eyeing the nightlock arrows warily. I nod, and he shrugs and walks forward slowly.

Something burst out of the bushes, a red blur that I recognized. "Foxface." I gasp.

"No, Katniss." says Finnick, pointing to the blur. "Faust."

Without thinking, I shoot in the direction of Faust, Foxface's younger brother. The arrow misses its mark, and hits Faust in the calf instead. "He's dead." says Finnick as Faust stumbles to the ground. I look at him, puzzled.

"The arrows." Finnick explains, taking my arrows. "They're nightlock tipped."

Now I felt bad for shooting him. That would kill him, and he would die just like his sister did. Not by eating nightlock, but still by nightlock. Like sister, like brother.

"Oops." I say, unloading my bow. I walk over to Faust, who is on the ground. He twitches occasionally, froth collecting at the corners of his mouth. His body breaks out in random spasms, and he yells in pain.

"Nightlock... " he manages to get out. "Katniss....avenge..."

"What?" I ask Faust's dying body.

"Avenge her..." He whispers, his eyes wet and glistening.

"I will. I'll avenge your sister. I'll end these stupid games. I promise." I whisper to him, and he nods, smiling.

Boom.

I turn from the scene, trying to hold back tears. I barely knew Faust, but what I knew was that he was a kid thrown into these games by the Capitol, who sat back and watched people die for their pleasure. I smolder with rage, taking an arrow from my quiver and throwing it in the air. As it sails out of sight, Finnick grabs my shoulders and leads me away from the scene as the hovercraft arrives. Before I go, though, I press the three middle fingers of my left hand to my lips and hold them up.

I'm sorry, District Five, I think as I do it.

Four left. Me, Finnick, Diem, and Cabe. Two girls. Two boys.

And only two victors.

Two of us dead. Two of us living. Two of us forever bound to these Games by guilt, because now that we were so far into the Games, we were destined to murder each other.