The 55th Hunger Games

Chapter 27

        "You seem surprised, Taslim?" Mahamari jeers in a voice unlike any I have heard from her.

        The quiet, little girl act is gone. This voice I am hearing now is one of a cruel murderer.

        "Well, I am glad," she says. "It means I have played my part well."

        I cannot think. I can barely even breathe. I cannot even help Aponi whose life is draining away in my arms. Am I awake? Is this nothing but a cruel and horrible nightmare that will vanish as soon as I wake up? But no, it is no nightmare. I am in reality now, one which I can neither comprehend nor escape from. 

        "Well, say something Taslim! Do you not agree that I played my part well? That I fooled you into trusting me as easily as if you were a fly and I a Venus fly trap? You yourself sought me as an ally. Now I suppose you see why I turned your generous, heroic offer down."

        She lunges at me, dripping knife in hand. I barely dodge away in time. As she laughs, I gently lay Aponi down and squeeze her trembling hand. Her eyes are closed in pain. I want to stay with her, but I cannot because Mahamari is lunging at me again, her eyes crazed and insane. I must draw her away from Aponi.

        I run off into the thick Heartrees, vaguely aware that I must somehow keep her occupied. My heart pounds inside my chest as I run. I hear her coming after me. A killer she might be, but my legs are longer than hers, so I don't face much difficulty keeping distance from her. But, I can't last forever, and I can't just completely abandon Aponi as she lies inches away from death.

        I launch myself at the slippery trunk of a Heartree and race up it, scrambling for grip on the lowest branch. I throw my arms over it and pull myself up. I am just reaching for the next one when Mahamari appears from the foliage, brandishing the knife. She looks up to meet my gaze.

        In turn she throws herself at the tree, digging the knife blade deep into the branch's soft bark. I scramble up another few branches as she hauls herself up onto the first.

        "So, it will come down to a test of climbing Taslim?" She calls up at me from below. "How fitting. And what is more fitting, I will kill you with your own knife like I killed your mad friend. Or is she a little more to you than just that?"

        Anger gushes through me, but I try to push it aside as I heave myself up onto yet another branch. I have no wish to look down at the horrible monster below me, her eyes mad with malice. It would do little good to reply, to give her satisfaction and fuel to taunt me further.

        "At first, I suspected she was a substitute for me. Another helpless girl who the heroic Taslim needed to save, but now I think otherwise. Do you know how much I watched you when you thought you were alone? You have no idea how many chances I had to finish you, like I did to your district partner!"

        This is too much for me. I freeze on the tree branch and my head whips down towards her. She grins up at me in satisfaction, eyes ablaze with undisguised triumph.

        "You killed Samantha!" I hiss. "You murdered her, just like you did to the District One pair, to Sapphire. You killed them slyly with your poisonous darts before sneaking in and removing them so that we would not suspect!"

        I am sure I am right. The pipe I had found clasped in her hand, and now is clasped in my hand, was not her district token but a weapon! A very sly and powerful one at that. Whether she got it from the Cornucopia or stole it from another tribute, I might never know, but it hardly matters. She killed Samantha with it, and now Aponi lies bleeding to death alone because I was too stupid to figure it out earlier.