THE HUNGER GAMES. BTS ✓

chapter forty one - unedited

chapter forty-one: the monster
UNEDITED—

KANG Y/N

Jihal was laughing and continuously kicking me in the stomach, obviously enjoying how I couldn't really do anything to defend myself.

In the end, you really are one of the weak ones, Y/n.

My face was bloody and my hand's barely managed to cover my face.

It was pathetic, here I was letting myself get beaten up by someone.

Someone who only wanted to win for themselves, how come she was still better than me?

I had the motivation and yet I was the one whose body was littered with bruises by now.

Jisung's face full of disappointment and sadness as he slid down a wall and cried into his sleeve.

Mark's heartbroken but determined face as he forced Jiso to look away from my oncoming death.

Sehun shaking his head sadly, probably thinking that things could have ended differently.

Tzuyu unnie running around the capital trying to find sponsors but coming out empty-handed as it turned out that no one had faith in me.

Kai Oppa smiling sadly, pretending to laugh along with the other citizens of the capital at my death.

Amber unnie shaking her head and telling her friends that she was wrong about me after all.

JB agreeing with Amber and looking at the screen with only an ounce of sadness.

BamBam shaking his head in sadness and disappointment, probably wondering why he had even bothered teaching me hand to hand combat.

These were the people watching me and the people who would witness my death.

"This is really too easy. I know that I'm not going to win against them, but I will make your death so painful that not even the people in the fucking capital will laugh." Jihal snarled, bending down to grab a fist of my hair to pull me closer to her.

She smirked as soon as my drowsy eyes connected with hers.

"I hate you Kang Y/n. Why do people like you? Why are you a golden girl? You're pathetic!" She screeched, dragging her long fingernails into my already painful head wound.

"Please..." I whispered quietly and Jihal responded with an upward twist of her blood-red lips.

I realized then that all I had been able to do in the arena was beg. The reason for my continued survival was that I could beg and that those boys had opted to protect me.

But I wasn't weak, I had never really been weak. Deep down I knew that I was actually a very strong person, but I was afraid.

Afraid of everything.

But today, now, I wouldn't let that fear take root and eliminate my chances of survival.

Nothing would ruin my chances of seeing Jisung, my lovable brother again.

So, when I raised my foot to kick Jihal away with a force that was quite surprising, her smirk vanished into thin air.

"I can't die today. Not today." I whispered hoarsely, defiantly staring into Jihal's eyes.

Her expression hardened and she quickly sprung up while I slowly and shakily managed to stand on my own two feet again.

My body was in a horrible condition and the ground on which I had been lying on was soaked in my blood.

Either from my head wound, from one of the many kicks I had received from Jihal, or from an old wound opening up again.

Not that it really mattered anyway.

"You think that just because you can stand up, you can beat me? Sweetie, I was trained in combat my entire life." Jihal laughed with an arrogant smile, twirling her dagger around her fingers.

She noticed me eyeing her weapons worriedly, "Actually, I won't be needing these, I can take you any day without any weapons."

Well, her arrogance would be the death of her in the end. (Hopefully)

Stop thinking evilly Y/n, you're not going to become a monster today.

"That's just going to make it embarrassing when you lose, Jihal unnie," I said to her with a small smile on my face which immediately caused Jihal to snarl once again.

While Jihal was discarding her weapons, I noticed something rather odd on the tree behind her.

It was burning and emitting smoke? But at the same time, not really?

It looked like someone was burning through the tree from the inside.

Due to my rather timely (as always) distraction, I failed to notice Jihal's attack until it was too late.

She had already pounced on me... but at the same time, I was able to make out the words that were burned into the tree.

ＰＵＳＨ ＨＥＲ! ｈｅｌｐ ｉｓ ｃｏｍｉｎｇ

And so I did what the message told me to do. As soon as Jihal was successfully on top of me with one of her battle cries stuck in her throat, I stealthy managed to situate my legs beneath her stomach.

For a minute or so, everything stopped for both Jihal and me.

We locked eyes and it seemed like she knew what I was going to do. But the thought barely had time to register in her brain before I acted.

With one big push Jihal was flying backward into... a forcefield.

The canon sounded immediately, signaling Jihal's death.

I had just killed my first tribute.

There was a certain emptiness in my chest and I couldn't quite describe what it was.

All I could tell was that it wanted me to stop, it wanted me to stop with everything and just give up.

My silent tears turned into full-on sobs as I slid to the floor again, gripping my hair tightly.

I didn't care about the pain that my grip caused because of my wound, no, I welcomed that pain.

Why? Because I deserved that and more. I needed more pain because I deserved to be punished.

Guess you were wrong Y/n, it seems like you really did turn into a monster today.

Jihal's torch on the ground was also slowly extinguishing, causing the light to slowly fade from my surroundings.

The only light I could clearly make out was scattered across the trees.

It wasn't just one, no, it seemed to be many different sources of light. Torches in different colors.

Some of them closer and some of them farther away.