❛ IT IS KILL OR BE KILLED
- and the destroyer isn't planning
on being the lamb ; not when
she's a lioness.
*✧･ﾟ:* book one of the destroyer series
pre seventy-fourth / oc...
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═════ fifteen. 「 CLOSE CALL 」
A strangled gasp leaves her lips as she's pulled to the ground, her airway blocked. Dalia struggles to breathe as her adrenaline starts to pump, her fingers instinctively going out to the sides to grasp a weapon that isn't there. She can't see her attacker, but he's strong, crushing her windpipe as he lays underneath her and continues to choke her. Her eyes feel like they'll pop out of her eye sockets and her face is pulsing as her breaths become shorter.
For a second, she feels nothing but despair. Her life flashes before her eyes; growing up with Edel, falling in love with Eros, getting told off by Atticus, volunteering for the games. She's only seventeen and she's about to die. Her life has been so short, every tribute in the games – their lives are a blip in the timeline. She wonders if Eros is watching her die, if her parents have taken the weeks off only to watch their last child die an insignificant death.
But as dark spots start to encompass her vision, there's a fire that ignites from the sparks floating around her gut. She's been in this position before and she knows that she knows how to get out of it; all the training has led up to this moment, she can practically hear Atticus telling her to get out of this hold. Lowering her head, she wraps her mouth around her attacker's forearm and bites down as hard as she can, drawing blood and a chunk of flesh. He lets out a loud scream of pain as she spits out the piece of her attacker and lets her go immediately, giving her the opportunity to roll to the side to catch her breath. As he tries to cope with the pain, she's on all fours heaving empty breaths as her eyes continue to water. A few tears fall from her eyes onto the ground beneath her while she tries to breathe normally again.
"Hurley!" She yells, voice raspy and barely above a cracked shout as she weakly gets onto her legs. Her voice echoes into the forest surrounding them as she tries to find her attacker in the dark.
She can hear his footsteps even if she can't see him in the darkness of the night. Her training kicks in, remembering all the times she's had to fight blindfolded. She's listening to him start to circle her loudly. He's breathing heavy and from the sound of his feet hitting the sharp stones, she knows he's massive. Birch is the biggest tribute this year and she knows this isn't him, he wouldn't be so loud and careless as this tribute. Silently, Dalia moves away from her spot as she continues to listen to him walk around, trying to remember the size of the tributes and who's left.
"I bet Johanna told you to use your size to your advantage," she says as she finally puts the pieces together. She doesn't remember his name, but the boy from seven is as tall as Aegis and as muscular as Birch. A deadly combination, but based on what she saw in training, he can't do much except wrestle. "Your mentor should've told you to use your brain."
She's behind him now and she launches herself onto his back, clinging onto him like a monkey. It's a dangerous move, since he can easily back into a tree or fall on his back, but she catches him surprise and she gets the advantage. Nimbly climbing so she's atop his shoulders, she wraps her legs around his neck in a chokehold and starts to elbow the top of his head. They're causing a commotion, hopefully attracting her allies and sending away any other tributes.
