Twenty Four Shades of Blood [A Hunger Games Fanfic]

Stained Glass - 8

The rain pours down in a thick sheet, the drops striking the ground so hard they send little gobbets of mud flying skyward. Overhead in the black sky, crackling bolts of white lightning crackle and flash, splitting the clouds apart. Barely a second after each flash, the thunder rolls around, the booming roars bouncing wildly off the tall buildings that fill the arena.

The whole world has turned to black and white.

Below the tortured skies, Vas squints into the rising wind and dashes a hand across her eyes.  Her hair has come out of its neat braid and lies plastered over her skull like a second skin. Flash; she can see Bas just ahead of her, his sword still clutched in one hand. Is it just her imagination, or can she still see the bloodstain that had dyed the once brilliant silver dark?

Don’t be ridiculous she chides herself.  It’s just Bas. He won’t really hurt her, will he?  That speech at the reaping had just been a ploy to tempt some rich sponsor. You can't show any weakness, not when it comes to the Games. And that was all he was doing, covering what people would see as a weakness. She'd have done the same. Right?

She doesn't know any more. He head aches, her eyes seared every few minutes by the blinding flashes that illuminate the bending branches of the trees around them. She has no idea where they're going and she doubts Bas does either. He may as well lead the way, be the first into unknown territory. After all, he has the sword – her knives wouldn’t be much use in this sort of weather. She can barely see a few feet in front of her.

Her foot catches in a root and she nearly goes sprawling. 

The rain drives into her cold skin as she snaps back to balance, waving away the lurching feeling of the almost-fall. The lightning flashes again, and she can’t see Bas anywhere. A surge of inexplicable panic flares up inside her.

“Bas!  Where are you?”

She can hardly hear her voice over the crash of thunder and the shrieking wind.  Suddenly she feels afraid, although she can’t say why – it’s just a creeping feeling that blankets her mind.  Her fingers dart to the knife belt at her waist, scrambling over the empty loops with growing panic.  There are just three blades left. The last time she remembers throwing one was when she sent one spinning into the arm of that boy from District….she can’t even remember where he was from, or what his name was. She’d aimed for his neck, but he’d moved faster than she’d expected.

She could still swear Bas had smirked then. The thought needles at her, and she stands up straighter again, her shout dying on her lips. She’s a Career – one of the best Two has seen in years. The best. Always the best. She won’t panic. Fear is weakness and weakness is losing and losing is death. 

Wiping the rain out of her eyes, she plunges forward again, feeling the wind punch into her. The trees, clad in their trailing vines, bend and wave, their branches reaching out toward her for a touch, brushing against her skin.

The lightning sears the dark and wet again. In the tiny lull before the thunder, she hears her name called.

“Vas!  Over here!”

She turns toward his voice but the curtains of rain block out her vision and she has to wait for the next flash of lightning. In it she spots him, hunched in the shelter of a massive pair of doors. Swept by sudden relief she nearly runs over, her feet catching at the rough ground, and doesn't see the huge structure until she's directly underneath it. 

The building they’re standing in front of is massive, the facade stretching up into the sky.  She can just make out a spire to one side, and numerous carvings and columns.  The sides are supported by delicate flying buttresses that cradle the high walls like giant fingers. Even in the Capitol she's never seen anything like this, so majestic and eerie and...old.