❝𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐎𝐒❞ | k. everdeen

chapter 10: treason.

—At least that's more than we knew yesterday and this morning —Peeta interjected, clearly intending to lighten the mood. That was something.

There was something in the air that wasn't right, and Katniss was the first to notice. "Silence," was all she muttered, and even Johanna, who seemed particularly annoyed by the situation, noticed that Wiress had stopped singing as they refilled their clock. They all stood up instantly, Finnick and Katniss leading the group, as they worked best at long range with their weapons.

It was too late, for they turned and Gloss's drenched figure was dropping the body of Wiress, who had a huge red smile plastered on her neck, to the ground. Katniss quickly opened fire, driving the tip of the arrow into his temple, and Gloss immediately fell to the ground. Nola came out of hiding, running face-first into Cashmere, but she didn't have time to swing her sword as Johanna drove the blade of one of her axes into the District 1 girl's chest, and she momentarily opened her eyes wide, her blue gaze fixed on Nola, who had blood splattered right in the face. Cashmere fell to the ground, and Nola with her.

Nola was speechless at that moment. Cashmere's blood was warm on her face and also on her hands, for she had unconsciously brought them to her wound, as if trying to cover it. But the axe had been accurately driven in by Johanna, who was an expert, and Nola knew there was no turning back. She cursed herself for not being able to fight alongside her allies, but Gloss and Wiress's cannons soon fired, reminding them that there was nothing more they could do to help.

—So that's where you were, huh? —Brutus' voice reached her ears soon after, as if he was laughing at her, but deep down, Nola knew he was furious—. Traitorous bitch —and so he left the way he had come, but, this time alone.

Nola turned around again, her knees still digging into the sand next to Cashmere, who seemed to be breathing the last of the oxygen she had left in this life—. We were... looking for you. I thought—

—It's all right. It's all right.

—You have to... come back. I don't... Promise me.

—I promise. I'll come back, I promise.

Cashmere squeezed the hand that Nola still had on her chest, useless in her attempt to stop the bleeding. But Nola didn't even know why she was trying, because Cashmere had to die if she wanted to live. Deep down it was a blessing that Johanna had been the one to swing the axe, because Nola would have preferred not to. Nola nodded, as if to indicate that she could leave now. And so she did, for the cannon firing moments later, ending the girl's short life.

—We have to go, quickly! —Finnick shouted behind her back, and it was then that Nola realised that the ground was shaking beneath her feet.

Someone had grabbed her by her uniform, so she didn't even have time to see Cashmere's body fly away, propelled by the centrifugal force that pulls them all into the water. Still a little dazed, Nola managed to hold on to the metal walls of the Cornucopia, but the person holding on to her was not so lucky, because Nola felt the grip disappear.

Nola stood up when she stopped feeling the earth spinning, and walked over to the shore to check on her companions. Finnick, Johanna, Katniss and Peeta had done a good job of holding on to what they could to avoid flying away, but Beetee and the three corpses hadn't suffered the same fate. Nola ran to where Katniss had killed Gloss, because she instantly recognised the backpack on the ground: it was the one she'd picked up the day before at the Cornucopia, when the siblings from District 1 were still alive.

—Let's get off this shitty island —Johanna said at last, when they had saved Beetee from drowning after that sudden storm. Nola was still somewhat dazed, both by Cashmere's death in her own arms and by the earthquake that had shaken the island. In a fit of lucidity, she thought that the gamemakers might have stirred up the arena to make things more difficult for them, now that they knew it was a clock.