After The Storm (A Hunger Games Fanfic)

Hunter and Prey - 17

The shadow isn’t worried. Not about the Careers anyway. It doesn’t need to be scared of them; on the slim chance that they come this way, she’s fairly safe. She’s got a knife and a tiny backpack containing a pouch of water and some kind of nut paste. She screws her face up at the look of it; that’ll be no good. She’s allergic to nuts. She throws it into the grass. Someone else can find it later. Maybe she should try and track down the Careers and tag back along with them. They’ll have stuff. Or instead, she could go to the Cornucopia and take what the Careers can’t be bothered to carry with them.

She grins to herself, proud of that idea. That’ll show them when – if – they come back to the Cornucopia, which they inevitably will otherwise they’ll run out of supplies. Oh, she can sit there and butter them up quite happily, but the truth is that, like the rest of her district, she hates them. She has never been sad to see a Career die. Anything that annoys them, especially either of the girls, is a good thing. Girls are harder to manipulate, you see. Boys are easy. The right kind of smile, the right kind of look, and they’re in the palm of your hand. Well, they are for Moora, anyway.

Her own death has never crossed Moora’s mind, except for the brief moment as she heard her name called out. She has nothing in particular to go back to; a manipulative mother, an alcoholic father. Perhaps it’s worth getting back for Janine, but the poor girl is as good as doomed anyway. She said goodbye in the Justice Building like she meant it; she did. It aches, the thought of not seeing Janine again, but it balances out with the pain of suffering her parents, the poverty of District Twelve, the effort of keeping up her sly and seductive reputation. But still. She’ll play the game, of course. She’s no rebel and that’s all you can do in this situation.

She whirls around to track back to the Cornucopia and finds herself looking straight at the creep from Ten.

Automatically, her best smile slides across her face and she assumes a more flattering stance, one knee slightly bent, hips tilted.

Niccolo expects it and doesn’t even flinch. He knows how to deal with this; just think of the trouble she is. She’s armed, for a start. That immediately puts him off her.

“You’ve been following me,” she drawls, her voice husky and taking a sliding step towards him. She smiles slightly, like she’s actually kind of happy about this idea. The grass hisses gently in the breeze, like somebody shushing them. She lifts her eyes to his and glances away again; he’s dealing with an expert. An expert with teasing eyes. He mentally shakes the thought away and thinks; if I stay still and don’t speak, she’s got nothing to work with. She’ll have to get close to me. And that’s when I can strike.

“You’re quiet,” she remarks, “Don’t know what to make of me? Am I that interesting?” She laughs to herself. He doesn’t know what to do. He’s stood dead still, towering above her, his eyes still dark and cold. She’s confused him. He won’t be liking that, if his interview is anything to go by. He thinks that he’s got the better of all of them, but obviously not. If she could make him blush, that would be an achievement.

She shouldn’t. This is the Hunger Games, and she needs to get back to the Cornucopia before the Careers finish hunting. She doesn’t have time to stand around and toy with him. Besides, this one is tricky.

“I’ve met more interesting people,” he points out. This is a carefully calculated response; Moora relies on people feeling like they’re beneath her. So if he can put both himself and other people above her, he has the advantage. Her teasing smile doesn’t even flicker and she’s close enough to run a hand down his bare arm, making him shiver. This is his personal space that she’s invading. His thinking space. He’s never been in physical contact with a girl, not even accidentally pushing past one in the street. He tries to drag his brain back into focus; she has a knife, Niccolo, for crying out loud! She looks up at him with a small smile, enjoying her moment of power.