Jeopardy: The Fourth Quarter Quell

No - Adrienne

Adrienne

The girl's eyes close, and the cannon goes. At Crispin's feet the boy stops struggling, his eyes still open but empty now. Crispin laughs but it sounds edgy.

"What just happened?"

I know what happened, of course I do. The girl saw that she couldn't win and swallowed some sort of poisonous thing. She took things on her own terms, the coward's way out. And now it's one more danger out of the way and one closer to home.

The spear quivers in my hand. It's just because I'm not used to it. I can't have been affected by the girl's death. I don't even know her name. Looking at her, she must have been surprised to even get this far. She looks like she should have gone in the bloodbath, along with her district partner. Lover boy. Maybe he thought that would help him a bit, get the Capitol onside, the saps. Another reason to win; to prove that they were wrong.

"He told her to," Crispin says, looking down at the body of the boy, "He told her to eat it."

He's unnaturally still and in the starlight his eyes are dull. The urge to put my arms around him tugs at my insides, to hold him close again just to reassure him that everything's fine. He's here and I'm here and everything is well. Everything will be fine. I can't go wrong, can't fail.

But it will have to wait.

We have to focus. Forget about the shouting, the cannons. Somewhere out there, one of the pair from Two is waiting. Coming this way, probably, because my father always said that Two teaches its tributes to go for the throat. Not that I've seen any evidence of that yet. I hope it's Venus. She won't be able to focus long enough, brother or not, to cause any kind of damage. If it's Venus, we're assured of this.

"Ade?"

Cold runs down my spine. I know what this is; I don't even have to look to see what he's pointing at. There's only one thing it can be.

Crispin confirms it for me anyway.

"Claymore."

Not Venus. The worst of the two. The pair with the same odds as us, the ones who ran away.

I am not scared.

Two pale shapes peer out of the trees, too far away for me to make out any individual features, but I don't need to because I know what they look like and it doesn't matter anyway. They're just faces, just names. That's all they think of us.

I grab Crispin's arm just to reassure myself that he's here. The arena feels very small now it's down to just this area. He's not even trembling, muscles tense and eyes focused on the only obstacle in my way. Our way. Once they're gone, I've won and I've proved everything I ever said. There will be no more thinking that Four is weak. I will have proved what can be done.

Nothing moves.

Without the breeze, it's hard to know how long we stand like that, like statues. Every second I think he's about to come out, to run straight at us, and I steel myself for the fight, but it doesn't come. They stay as frozen as we are. I'm not moving. This is our ground, our advantage, and I'm not giving it away.

Someone has to do something.

"Just sitting there won't do you much good!" I shout. The two faces turn to each other, then back to watching me. I suppose they think this is probably creepy, but it won't creep me out. I know they're only human.

"Careful," Crispin whispers. The boy's body is still at his feet, still warm, staring into nothing. Big deal. It was him or us, and both of us will take us any day. But I can see why he's cautious. Claymore and Portia took long-range weapons with them; they'll be able to hit us before we can get close to them.