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THE PURE SILENCE AT NIGHT could be argued as being more terrifying than the Games themselves. Avalon felt as if she had to turn and look around her shoulder every few seconds, although she didn't hear any footsteps.
It had been almost five days in the arena, and she and Oliver were going strong. They always returned to the creek at night, and Oliver's fishing kept them from going hungry.
Oliver had fallen asleep beside her. She figured since the boy was so young, he needed rest more than she did, and she didn't particularly trust him to handle a situation in which a tribute might come along to kill the two, so she decided to take watch. She wasn't sure if she'd get sleep until the Games ended anyway; there was too much danger.
Oliver held his spear tightly in his fist as he slept, his knuckles becoming whiter by the second. Avalon reaches out to put a comforting hand on his shoulder, his hand relaxing at the touch. Looking back up towards the sky, she sighed as she leaned her head against the tree she was sitting against.
Morning came all too early. The sun started to rise, and Oliver began to stir, slowly opening his eyes and sitting up. "Did you sleep at all?" Avalon shook her head, assuring the boy that she was fine. "No, you need sleep. I can't believe you let me sleep through the entire night," he told her, gesturing for her to lie down.
"Oli, I'm fine," she assured him. "If I need sleep, I'll tell you." Oliver just shook his head, reaching for the canteen and heading towards the creek. As he bent down, he slowly came to a stop, and he stood up quietly. "What are you-" she was cut off by the boy shushing her, putting a finger to his lips. He pointed downstream, and held up 5 fingers. District 5 tribute.
Avalon nodded, grabbing a hold of her knives and gesturing for the boy to come with her. She took a few steps into the forest, before stopping in front of a tree with relatively low branches. "Think you can climb this?" She asked in a hushed voice, and Oliver nodded in response. She made him go first, and followed after. Soon they were high up in the tree, and Avalon put a finger to her lips as she peered down.
The tribute came running past the tree, chasing after what looked like a squirrel, but she couldn't tell from how high up she was. After a few minutes of sitting in silence, she figured they were safe, so she informed Oliver and they started down the tree.
Avalon had made it safely down, and she looked up to where Oliver was, only a few feet above her. She moved out of the way to give him space, but his foot slipped and he fell from the tree, landing on his ankle. Before he could stop himself, he let out a small shriek from the pain, and Avalon was sent into fight or flight mode.
She ran and crouched in front of the boy, placing a hand over his mouth in attempt to muffle his screams. Her hands quivered as she tried to figure out what was wrong with his ankle, but nothing she was doing was helping with the pain- only making it worse.
She heard footsteps from ahead of her, and her first reaction was to pick up the boy and run; so she did. She ran without looking behind her, although she could hear the tribute's footsteps.
"Might as well give up now, 4," the tribute said, hatred lining her words. "A broken ankle is a death sentence." Avalon ignored her words, continuing on running. She looked down to Oliver from time to time and assured him that it was okay.
When she reached the creek, she wasn't sure of what to do. She had trouble walking through the creek on her own, let alone with someone else in her arms. The rocks were slippery, and she was bound to drop the boy and hurt his ankle even more.
She slowed to a stop as she tried to make a decision on what to do, but somebody pushed her over, and she dropped Oliver and she fell to the ground. She looked up to see the District 5 tribute that had run past the tree they were in earlier towering over her with a knife in her hands. Avalon reached for her knife, but it wasn't there; she had left it behind when she went to help Oliver.
The District 5 tribute brought her knife down, and barely missed Avalon as she rolled away. Avalon grabbed the girl's wrist, forcing the knife out of her hands and into the creek. She went to stand up, but she was pushed over into the creek, where the tides were so bad she was struggling to get back to the surface. When she finally did, she met eyes with the girl, who now was standing over Oliver as she kicked him in the ribs.
"Leave him alone!" Avalon screamed. Fear was taking over, and she ran over and pushed the girl away from Oliver, and she hit her head on a tree. Avalon saw this as an opportunity to run, so she grabbed Oliver and started across the river. However, the other girl was faster than her, and pushed Avalon and Oliver over into the water.
Avalon resurfaced quickly, pushing the District 5 tribute back, but the other girl was stronger, and she soon found herself being shoved to the ground, and her head hit a rock. She wailed out in pain as she rubbed her head, a sticky substance meeting her fingertips. She grew extremely dizzy, and though she tried to stand up, she was unable.
She turned her head to see the girl heading over to Oliver, kicking him once more in the ribs, then pushing him under the water, the boy kicking and squirming, but unable to fight back. Avalon screamed out with all that she had for the girl to stop, but her calls were ignored. She attempted once more to stand up, and very shakily, she did.
Slowly, due to the dizzy ness that grew worse second by second, she made her way over to the two, pulling the girl off of Oliver, but was only pushed back once more, and that's all it took for her to be thrown to the ground.
Her breath became shaky as she tried to stand up, but as soon as she did, a canon sounded.
No.
She turned back around to see the District 5 tribute standing up from the water, wiping her hands on her wetsuit in pride. A sudden anger overcame Avalon, and she charged towards the girl, pushing her into the water and holding her there. The girl struggled, but Avalon only pushed her down harder, forcing the girl's head to hit a rock repeatedly until another canon sounded.
She stood up slowly and shakily. The dizziness from before had grown much, much worse. She made her way over to Oliver's body, crouching before it as she let out a shaky breath.
"Why?" She asked. She stood up from her spot and looked up towards the sky. "What did he ever do to you?" She screamed. "An innocent child!" She directed her anger not towards the District 5 girl, but towards the game makers and President Snow. She was asking the question every other tribute wanted to ask, but was too afraid to.
She fell to her knees in front of the boy as she wept. He was supposed to go home. He was supposed to watch another sunset with his mom. I wasn't supposed to live to see another sunset outside of the arena.
And Avalon didn't move from her spot for what felt alike days.
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a/n: IM SORRY I LITERALLY WANNA CRY I LOVE MY BBY OLI
