CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
four's a crowd
" brutality is in your blood "
For the first time in the games, I felt alone. Truly alone. Things were a lot quieter without Piper, I didn't have anyone to talk to, there was no one watching my back. I pushed away the snow that she had used to cover up our food and other belongings, I threw everything into my backpack. I couldn't stay here forever, hiding away.
It was still early in the morning, the sun only just rising up above the horizon, meaning it was still dark and I could move around easily. I twirled the sword around in my hands, swinging it around to get used to the feeling of it. Blood still caked the tip of the blade, the blood of innocent people, it wasn't a good feeling.
It took every bit of will power inside of me not to run back to the camp, hidden away from everyone. I'd be lying to myself if I said I wasn't scared, my hands were a shaking mess that I couldn't control, the smallest sound was enough to send my heart jumping out of my chest.
But in the games, I soon learned that fear was weakness. I wasn't going to last if I was scared, I needed to be strong.
I trudged through the forest, I had two priorities, clean myself up and then find Adon. Scratch that, tree — don't die. If what Piper was saying was right, there would be eight people left alive, I thought. There were no easy opponents anymore.
The day seemed to drag on, minutes turned to hours and hours felt like days, and still, no sight of Adon. Or any tribute for that matter. I glanced up at the sky, the sun was directly above me, it's rays shining through the trees and burning into my back. I took another swig of water and downed a couple crackers to keep me busy.
It was going to be a long day.
.
It was another two days before I got to the river, thankfully, no one had died during those two days. A smile crept up onto my face as I gazed at the rushing water. It was far from clear, but to me it didn't really matter. The water was clear enough to see the small fish swimming around, if they were even real fish.
I slipped my bag off of my shoulders, letting it fall onto the rocks as I rolled my tired shoulders around. I slowly stepped into the creek, wading into the cool water. The rushing water tickled my exposed midriff, I sighed in relief, scrubbing the blood and dirt off my hands and out of my nails.
The water around me became a muddy-red colour the more I scrubbed. Taking a gasp of air I dunked down under the surface of the water, ripping my hair out of a knotted ponytail and letting my scalp breath. Even though it was nothing like the Capitol, with their expensive shampoos, I forgot how good it felt to bathe.
I glanced back at the rocks, my bag and sword were still there thankfully. My eyes trailed up the side of the creek, frowning as I looked up at the rushing water. It was where I first found Piper, where I held a machete to her throat, only I didn't kill her that time. Tears began to build up but I hastily wiped them away. She wouldn't have wanted me to sit and sulk, I reminded myself, I needed to survive.
I made my way towards my bag again, taking my sword and bringing it under the water. I took a rock from the bottom of the river and used it to scrape off the dirt and dried blood and sharpening the edge of the blade. If there were any tributes around, they would have definitely heard me, the scraping noise coming from the sword was enough to scare the birds away.
"I know you can see me," I announced, cupping the murky water in my hand and splashing it, "Stop hiding."
Truth be told, I had no idea if anyone was there or not. But I had my suspicions. I continued to splash the water angrily, flicking it up in the air and letting it rain down on me.
"You've got a good eye, Nine."
A voice surprised me from behind, my stomach dropped inside of me. I gripped the sword tightly in my hand as I looked behind my shoulder. Lana, from Four stood at the edge of the river, slowly stalking out of the bushes. Her clothes were mostly intact, if you ignored the blood stains all over. She held a trident in her hand, loosely spinning it around. The tips of it dark red.
She must've noticed my staring, her evil glare turning into a proud smile, "Never seen a little blood before?"
"That doesn't look like a little blood to me," I said, turning to face her.
Her eyes trailed down my body, "You look a little beat up there, having some tough fights? Or did big brother do all the work?" She cackled, "He still alive?"
"Yes, he's alive," I said through gritted teeth, my gaze hardening on her as I slowly inched out of the water.
She pouted, "Shame, well when I see him I'll have to apologise for murdering his baby sister."
"I don't see your partner anywhere, he must be dead," I raised an eyebrow at her silence, "That's what I thought."
"I'm going to shove this trident right through your chest," she spat, storming towards me with her trident. I backed up, letting her jump into the water.
"Have you forgotten what district I'm from?," she laughed, brushing water past her as she walked towards me. I ignored her taunts, raising the sword above my shoulders, ready to attack.
"Just fight me already," I demanded impatiently, my hands itching around my blade.
Lana flipped the trident around in the water and leant forward, thrusting the trident towards my chest. The jagged prongs of the trident just scraped past my side as I launched myself to the right. She swung again from above, missing my body by a few centimetres and burying the prongs into the rocks.
I wasted no time in grabbing the handle of her trident and tugging it towards me, I maneuvered around her rapidly and dragging my foot up from underneath the water and sending a powerful kick to her back. She collided with the rocks on the shore, her teeth making a loud crack as they met with the rocks.
She turned her neck towards me and spat the blood pooling in her mouth all over my shirt. I curled up a fist and pulled my arm back, punching her in the face and sending her back down onto the rocks. I held my sword against her neck, hard enough to draw blood out.
"Thought you'd put up more of a fight," I whispered into her ear, pressing down harder.
"You're so naive," she laughed through the pain, blood dribbled out of her mouth as she spoke, the smile on her face soon fell, "We've got company."
AUTHOR NOTE
Sorry for the lack of updates, I was on a streak and then ruined it. Lacking motivation right now and I'm really struggling even though this isn't even the main part of the fanfiction? Crazy. Sorry about the short chapter, I'll probably edit it soon because I'm not too proud of it. Thanks for 9k!
sabrina? out
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GLORY AND GORE ━━ F. ODAIR
Фанфик"I used to think that humanity was worth saving, that there were good people in this world. But as time went on, the idea of humanity being perfect slowly slipped away from my mind and was replaced by what it truly was - cruel." The odds were nev...
