Beauty in Darkness

Chapter Sixteen

I sprinted off of my plate and to the cornucopia. I grabbed the knife just as the girl from One did as well.

"Velle-" I started, but she dived at me. I jumped out of the way, grabbed the knife, and threw it at her. By the squish and thump, I knew it had hit its target.

I pulled the knife out then turned and saw Cason running at me with a trident poised. "Duck!" He called. I dropped to the ground and the trident went soaring over my head.

I looked behind me and saw Noah ducked down on the ground as well, an axe in his hand and an insane smile on his face.

I grabbed the two backpacks and Cason's hand then sprinted away from the cornucopia. I hadn't noticed what direction we were going in, but I realized it by the bitter wind that whipped around me.

"Stop. Stop." Cason gasped, leaning against a tree. I looked behind us and saw that we were still in perfect view of the cornucopia, so I grabbed his hand again and dragged him forward.

We ran about a half-mile then stopped. I looked around me, closed my eyes, and focused. I heard the distant sound of snow crunching then quickly dropped to the ground and buried the backpacks in the snow.

"What are you doing?" Cason gasped. "You need to climb a tree. Now." He raised an eyebrow. "What are you going to do?

"Do you trust me?" I stared at him hard, willing for him to do what I said. "Of course." "Then climb the damn tree." He glanced up.

"I...don't know how." I refrained from rolling my eyes then held out my hands in front of me for a foothold. "Trust me." I said. He nodded and put a foot in my hand and started climbing.

I gave him a boost then whispered, "Climb as high as you can. I'll be back." He looked back at me. "Where are you-" Before he could finish the sentence I was gone.

I kept running, hoping that whomever was following us would see that our footprints had continued and not just suddenly stopped. I hoped that they wouldn't think that the lack of another pair was suspicious.

I heard a low growl in front of me and stopped dead in my tracks. A large wolf stood in front of me, hackles raised an teeth barred.

I heard the footprints behind me then quickly scaled the nearest tree, the wolf trying to jump up to catch me but failing. I had always been good at climbing and I knew it would definitely come in handy in this arena.

I looked down through the snow-covered branches and saw Karlo's figure on the ground. "Come out Eleven. Come out and play." She said in a sing song voice.

I looked to the left and saw that the wolf was crouched behind a large rock, ready to pounce. I closed my eyes and turned away when I heard a snarl and a scream.

After a few minutes of silence, I looked down at the ground and saw a bloody trail running through the snow. It must have dragged her off.

I stayed still for a few more moments before climbing back down. I worried there may be more than one wolf. After all, they travel in packs.

Once I was back on the ground, I followed my footprints back to the place I had left Cason. "Cason!" I hissed up. I saw his face poke through the branches then watched in amusement as his form tumbled down and landed in the snow.

"Akemi?" He asked as he sat up. I smiled then offered him a hand up. "In the flesh." He wrapped me in a hug.

"I didn't hear anything and it scared me. Hey, have you heard any cannons yet?" I shook my head.

"They don't go off until the fighting at the cornucopia is done." Cason nodded. "Right. I forgot. Wait, where are the backpacks?" I walked over to the base of the tree and dug them out.

"I had to hide them somewhere, didn't I?" Cason grinned as I handed him one. "Let's keep moving. The person who was chasing us was Karlo. If she could follow our footprints, anyone can." Cason nodded then followed me through the forest.

After a bit I noticed that the snow was getting deeper. "The trees." I said, pointing up. Cason looked at me in confusion. "What about them?"

"We go through the trees. Then we won't leave footprints and we'll be harder to follow." Cason nodded, but didn't look sure.

"Don't worry. I won't let you fall." He smiled at me and watched as I scaled the nearest one, then followed behind me.

I showed him how to hop from branch to branch, just like I had done at home. It felt nice to be climbing trees again. Familiar.

"Don't look down." I instructed. "I'm not afraid of heights." Cason said, his voice getting higher at the end.

"Sure you're not. I said that for me." I lied then rolled my eyes when my back was to him. Boys and their pride...

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We hopped from branch to branch for over an hour. I was determined to keep going. We stopped when we heard the first cannon though and became still.

Boom. Boom. Boom. I counted on my fingers then turned to Cason. "Twelve." He nodded. "We better keep going. If the fighting's stopped, people will be moving out." Cason nodded again and we kept moving.

As the sky darkened, I kept my eyes peeled for a large tree and luckily found one within a few minutes.

"There." I said, pointing. Cason followed my finger with a questioning look. "We can't very well sleep in the snow, can we? We'd freeze!" We both hopped over to the tree and sat down on a very large branch.

"Better see what we've got." Cason said and I nodded. We slipped the backpacks off of our shoulders and rummaged through them.

In mine was a pack of knives, a piece of cheese, a small loaf of bread, and a coil of wire. In Cason's was a collapsible spear, a very long roll of gauze, oitment, and a small blanket.

"Let's pack it up, but keep the blanket." He nodded and we curled up close and draped the blanket over ourselves.

My head was right above his heart and I heard how fast it was beating. Mine was probably going just as fast.

I looked up through a break in the branches when I heard the Capital theme. The faces of the dead tributes lit up the night sky and I counted them on my fingers.

Velle, Karlo, the boy from Three, both from Five, Six, Eight, the girl from Nine, and both from Ten.

As the girl from Ten's face disappeared and the music faded, Cason ran a hand through my hair. "We survived the first day." I let out a weak chuckle.

"I guess so." I said softly. Cason lifted my head up so I was looking him in the eye.

"I promised to keep you safe and I intend to keep it. I'll keep you safe. You will get out of here and back to your family, I promise. I'll do whatever it takes." I laid my head back on his chest.

"Thank you Cason." I whispered. I watched the stars until my eyelids grew heavy and felt myself falling asleep.