Annie Cresta- Beyond the Sea

Chapter 26

Bello refused to move her axe above from my throat. Not any closer though, either. It was just our heavy breathing and the breeze that swept some hair onto my lips.
She wanted to draw this out. She knew there would be people watching. Finnick watching.
The tip of her weapon kissed the dirty skin of my neck. There wasn't a lot of pressure, but I could still feel the sharp sting of the edge of the blade. Then she raised it up high over her head and my eyes grew wide. I couldn't force myself to look away, my last moments alive-
"Wait."
My eyes still bore into the weapon. Dart had a hand on it now. He was gazing at me with a brutal smile. I almost wished he'd let Bello finish the job, I realized. What he had planned could be a deadly substitute.
"What?" Bello growled angrily. They were distracted. I could make a run for my trident while they had their grip slightly loosened, but I'd have to be quick. Well, quick as I could be with this leg, anyway.
"Well, as you said, her little boyfriend who won five years ago disrespected our district. Disrespected all of the careers. So I don't think she should die 'so quickly'. I mean, she's very valuable to him," explained Dart. A memory of gossiping girls from school flashes in the back of my mind. Now's my chance.
I spun around and kicked Astrid right in the forehead with my bad leg. Even with an injury, it was still a worthy blow, and I used my good leg to propel me in the direction of my weapon. I slid across the hard, wet floor, and I was slowing down, but I was also getting closer, closer-
A knife embedded itself less than an inch above my hand into cornucopia wall. I froze when a voice came from behind me.
"One move and the next one goes in your head."
"Maybe we could start that now," sneered Bello to Dart.
Scared and somewhat abashed, I retracted my arm. Honestly, I would've ran, grabbed it, and dove into the water trying to get away. But they had weapons, weapons pointed at my head.
"Good idea," agreed Astrid. The three closed in, surrounding me. I had to do something, oh, I need an idea. What would Finnick do? I guessed anything would work at this point, so I stood up and kicked Astrid in the stomach with all the strength I could muster from the adrenaline surging through my veins.
Although she was very strong, she was also very tiny, and she was sent flying backwards a few feet. She landed with a thud on the floor of the cornucopia. Dart slashed his sword at my leg. I jumped over it like it was a game of jump rope, and dashed to my trident. I needed that more than anything else in the world at that point. My heart felt like a fist hitting me from the inside. Nothing else mattered.
Something like a truck suddenly hit me from the side, crushing my goal and stealing the air from my lungs. Bello. What a bitch. We struggled and wrestled, until it came down to me clawing at her filthy, ugly face and her yanking my knotted hair.
"Hold her still!" yelled Astrid, stealing a knife from her belt. Back up so soon. I should've kicked her harder.
Bello managed to pinned me down with brute force and her nearby axe, but I continued to squirm and move fast enough to dodge most of the knives being hurled at my head. Some of them cut off little chunks of my hair. Those ones helped pin me down and made it more difficult to move.
Astrid was becoming angry at Bello's poor throwing skills. They were all so angry. Like predators doing whatever it takes to kill their prey. She shoved Bello off of me.
"Get off her! You clearly can't do this! She's my kill!" She ripped a knife from the floor and put the blade up to my face. I struggled and tried to move, but she pins way better than Bello, and it's scary to move when there's something sharp pressed against your face. She began to carve, and it wasn't shallow, but it wasn't deep.
"Where's Finnick now?" Bello said with a sinister smile from behind Astrid. She wanted to join, so she pulled a knife from the ground and began to slice shapes into my arms and legs, like I was some sort of art project for them. It was like angry hornets stinging my limbs over and over again. Astrid inches a knife close to my neck. I turned my head to the opening of the cornucopia. Suddenly, I didn't want to see this coming anymore.
Through blurred vision, I see something massive and blue ascending from out of the water, like a silent murderer in the night, and, being from District 4, I know exactly what it is. I don't say anything, I just let a tear dribble down my dirty, cut-up cheek. For happiness or fear, I'm not sure.
A tidal wave.
Finn's warning suddenly makes sense now.
The collassus, thirty-foot wave came smashing into the mouth of the cornucopia. The careers hollered as it washed all of us out. I've never felt so much force from a wave, even from the massive ones back home. I heard someone scream from behind me, and then a 'crack' against the back of the cornucopia. Thankfully, I could swim to my trident and get out of there before another huge wave could crash. I swam further down, down. It began to get very dark, as if going further into a cave. The pressure was like a twenty pound weight on all of my limbs, squeezing my lungs and ears. Everything hurt. I felt like I was gonna combust.
Then, like an angel out of the pits of hell, I swear Finnick Odair appeared in front of my eyes.