HELL FROM THE POWERS TRILOGY | C. HADLEY

CHAPTER 10

She woke up to hear the Panem national anthem playing, probably around the middle of the night. She turned around in her spot and watched as the seal appeared before the list of fallen tributes flashed on the screen.

The tributes included: the boy from eight, both from six and ten, both from nine, the boy from five who Devyn had personally killed, and the most shocking of all was the little boy from four. The careers always get through the bloodbath. But Devyn was relieved that both Cato and Leighton were alive along with sweet Rue.

Once the anthem stopped, she sighed, trying to relax again to drift off, but she heard something from below her. A crackle? Was someone so stupid as to start a fire on the very first night? Yes, it was growing colder by the minute, but surely their mentor had told them specifically what not to do. They were drawing attention right to themselves.

She glanced down, and her eyes widened once she realized there was the girl from District eight settled below her. The impressive fire she made was creating so much noise and light towards the area that Devyn began to panic. She knew the careers would be here any minute once they saw the smoke rising through the pitch-black sky, and she couldn't be here once they killed her. If she was here, it would guarantee her death.

She quickly packed up all her stuff, trying not to be too loud to startle the girl below her and give away her location. She knew it would be much easier to kill her, but she didn't have the energy or motivation to do such a thing at this hour. She was leaving that job to the careers. She jumped a few trees over, trying to be as quiet as possible, which was rather challenging.

A movement of orange light caught her attention as she stopped herself from jumping to the next tree. The careers weren't laughing like she thought they would be, probably wanting to be silent so their prey wouldn't run away. She climbed the highest she could on the current tree without any hesitation.

She then heard a small gasp come from the District eight girl's camp and grit her teeth together. An ear-piercing scream soon followed it, and Devyn clutched onto the branch she was sitting on. The cannon went off immediately, and Devyn took a shaky breath. She only hoped it wasn't Cato who had killed her.

As the careers were distracted, Devyn climbed slightly lower and began jumping again. But once they started laughing, she stopped and went back up. The loud giggling grew closer as they strutted past her tree, their torches giving away their location, not that they cared.

"Wait! Did you see the look on her face? How stupid can you get?" Marvel boasted.

"Oh, no! Please don't kill me! Oh, no!" Glimmer mocked the girl's pleading, and Devyn grimaced as she and Cato stopped to tease their previous victim.

"That's actually a good impression," Cato laughed, looking down at Glimmer with such a playful yet savage look that Devyn quickly became disgusted. Despite how much he denied it, she knew that he was enjoying this. He thought of it as still a fun game where he got to show off his skills and have a laugh with his friends.

"Hey, lover boy!" Cato called, and Peeta emerged from the bushes; Devyn raised an eyebrow. "You sure she went this way?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," Peeta stuttered out. Devyn sighed, knowing two things: that Peeta was much better than this. And Cato had no right to manipulate such a kind boy.

"You better be."

"Yeah, that was her snare we found back there," Peeta stated, pointing behind them, and Devyn's eyes widened. Katniss was near? She had to be. She shot her head in every direction, not expecting to find anything but too much of her surprise, she did.

There sat Katniss across from her, a few trees away tied up the same way she had thought of. She didn't seem to have any weapons but was wrapped in something more than just her black jacket. She must've picked up a backpack on her way out as well. The girl from District twelve hadn't spotted Devyn yet.