REVENGE, catching fire ✔️

𝐱. 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐬

CHAPTER TEN!

LOSS.

EMORI'S BODY STAYS CURLED AGAINST REED as the minutes tick by in the evening. Katniss was left on watch and yet, she was asleep herself. If anybody were to walk by now, they'd kill a few of them before anybody could do anything. Emori groans softly and opens her eyes moving slightly to get some feeling back in her limbs. The area around her is rather blurry due to the fact she's just woken up but she can still see ahead of her.

"Everdeen," She hisses and the girl snaps her head over to her, the brunette's fingers still up in the air as a mysterious fog rolls towards them. "What is it?"

Katniss shakes her head as she has no clue herself, the substance moving at a rather slow pace. However, the minute it touches the girl's skin, she makes a painful noise. Emori's eyes widen and before she can even comprehend her actions, she's shaking Reed awake and they're running away. Finnick has picked up Mags and they're running behind the two young tributes, Katniss and Peeta following.

Reed's hand is clasped around her wrist, pulling her along behind him as quick as he can — he doesn't want for her to get caught up in something that will more than likely cause her death. He doesn't even spare a glance at the rest of their allies, his care for their well-being seemingly non existent in comparison. He hears her gasp and can only assume some of it has grazed her skin.

She can hear them struggling behind them and slows down so that she can turn her head and see what's going on, her eyes spotting Everdeen struggling to carry Peeta along — the blonde feels herself a little hesitant to turn back around, the idea of Peeta dying seemingly causing her a little distress.

"Mags! Please come on!" Finnick exclaims to the older woman as Emori begins to grow exhausted, the small amount of fog having effected her more than it should. Her hand burns and she is breathing heavily, the fog closing in on them.

"Peeta!" Katniss yells as the boy collapses.

"Help them, Reed," Emori mumbles as he tries to get her to safety. The boy looks back and he breathes in heavily as he watches the older woman walk into the fog. The blonde has turned her attention back to them as well. "Mags," she breathes.

"Mags? Mags!" Finnick screams as he tries to go after her, Katniss pulling him away so that he does not suffer the same fate. "Mags!" He calls again.

"Finnick we have to go! We have to get out of here," Katniss comments and Emori gently grabs his arm, pulling him along with her and her friend from District Ten.

They all stumble away from the woman who deserved a better fate than she was given. Finnick has now pulled from Emori's grip so he can help lift up Peeta and flee the danger. They're all now moving as fast as they can, and before long they're stumbling down a hill. Emori is sprawled out with Reed beside her, the two close so that he is able to check she's ok.

Emori looks at the fog as it looks closer and then her eyebrows raise in shock but also in disbelief, it hits what must be like the rest of the forcefield and disintegrates.

"It's stopped, Reed. It's done," Emori croaks to the brunette who nods his head with a sigh of relief. "I-it hurts,"

"I know Mori. We will see what we can do about the pain," He tries to assure as his gaze moves to the girl from District Twelve who has started to crawl towards the lake. He watches as she dips her arm in and gasps, the pain seemingly being taken away by the water — she rubs her skin gently as well. "Come to the water,"

Reed is able to get up and help her over, guiding her effected limb into the awaiting water. She gasps but it seems as if it's almost in relief. He smiles and rubs the skin of her hand as Peeta follows his District partner into the water. The blonde looks at them and then a severely hurt Finnick and nods in his direction.

"Come on," Reed mumbles to her and they help the older man into the water, his screeches making her cringe slightly but she knows that he'll feel better as a result of this.

"Better?" Emori asks as Finnick sits up and nods slowly. "I'm sorry about Mags," She speaks as Katniss brings their weapons over.

"She was never going to make it," He replies softly.

"Maybe so but you cared about her. It's ok to feel grief," the girl says and he manages a small smile, kissing her forehead in gratitude before turning his attention to his weapon.

Emori looks back over to Reed when her eyes catch something behind him — a monkey of some sort? The others, minus Peeta, seem to have taken notice as well.

"Peeta?" Katniss says quietly.

"Yeah?" Peeta turns his head to look at her.

"Walk over here slowly," She instructs.

Unfortunately as he turns back again, the boy makes direct eye contact with one of the monkeys and it spooks the animal. As he slowly backs up towards his fellow tributes, the animals surrounding them. They lunge towards the group who all have their weapons ready, Emori has several knives at her disposal.

The blonde stabs her knife into the first animal that attacks, the metal embedding itself into it's head. She is quick to pull another, throwing it towards one that is going for Peeta.

"We need to get to the beach!" Peeta yells and the others agree, all five of them trying to run off. Emori and Reed manage to make it there first and when they turn back around, they notice Peeta and Katniss pulling the woman from Six with them.

Reed, Emori and Finnick stand guard as Katniss and Peeta take the woman into the water.

"Hey, hey. It's okay. It's okay. Shh. Shh. Shh. Hey do you wanna see something? Look up. Look. Look at that," Peeta speaks soothingly.  "It's incredible, isn't it? All those colours. Don't worry about anything else. I'll be right here with you. It's okay,"

Emori takes a moment to watch the scene as the Monkeys back off, her eyes watering slightly. She cannot help but have a newfound respect for Peeta as he stays with the woman until she dies, the hovercraft coming to pick her up moments later. These games have barely started and yet, they've already lost so much.

Emori feels Reed slip his hand into hers and she looks at him, offering some sort of smile to try and assure she's ok. As they watch the woman be carried away by the hovercraft, she squeezes a little tighter — ready for all of it to just be over.