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VOL. ONE; CH. TWELVE ༄ ————isn't it poetic?
The two Creole's come to a stop along the bank of one of the smaller streams. Kalen clutches at the tree in front of him, dry heaves leaving his mouth as he tries to catch his breath. His eyes flicker along the ground in front of him as if trying to find answers to questions he doesn't even know how to start asking. Elodie stands beside him, hands on her hips as she tries to regain control of her own breathing. Her gaze is moving around the forest around them, scanning the trees for even the slightest indication of danger.
Elodie recovers rather quickly and flicks a section of her ponytail over her shoulder as she turns to see her brother raise a hand to his face, shuddering fingers prominent. He touches his face gently but retracts his hand quickly as if it had burnt him, Sylvia's blood coating his fingertips. He stumbles backward, leaning back against the tree as a shaky breath passes his lips.
His eyes flash around quickly, not taking anything in. Elodie huffs in disbelief. They'd been in the games for almost two weeks and now he's deciding he can't handle death? With a shake of her head, she drops the packs from her shoulders and approaches Kalen, taking his hand in her own and wiping the blood onto her pant leg. Elodie then starts smearing the blood off of his face in an attempt to clean it off when, in reality, she was just mixing it with the blood that was on her own hands.
Her swipes are rough, however, and Kalen's head ends up jerking slightly with the movement, causing Elodie to mutter a 'hold still'. A combination of the two things seems to snap him out of his trance. Kalen moves his gaze to Elodie's, eyes clouded with confusion and something Elodie can only describe as guilt.
"I-I," Kalen stutters around the start of his sentence. Elodie looks at him expectantly, hands still gripping his face. He breaks their eye contact, shaking his head as if to rustle his thoughts into organization. "We-we just left her."
Elodie doesn't know what he's talking about for a second, then Tessa's screams echo in her head again. Elodie's face hardens, lips in a straight line, "yeah."
"'Yeah'?" Kalen scoffs, eyes snapping back to hers and breathing picking up again, "that's it? 'yeah'?"
"What do you want me to say, Kalen? If it wasn't for that we'd both be dead right now. These games aren't about saving lives."
"But-"
"My only goal in these games is to protect you, no if's and's or but's about it." Elodie's eyes are dark as she says it, her hold on her brother's face tightening.
"We left her there to die," Kalen whispers, eyes teary, "What they did-what he did-"
"That's the game, Kalen," Elodie grits out through clenched teeth. Though, her eyes soften as she said it, "but don't you worry your pretty little head, I'll make sure he pays for it." Even if the words were meant to lighten the mood, you'd have to be stupid to miss the pure conviction in her tone.
