Lethal Charm - THG [1]

12

Peeta drank some water then moved so Finnick could drink some too.

Knox gently moved mags from her lap and walked over to the spile. Finnick moved so she could get some too.

"I'm gonna get a leaf," he said, finding a large leaf. Knox got some water in her hands and rubbed it over her face. "Here get some for Mags," she said, moving so Finnick could collect some water in a leaf for the older woman.

A short while later there was a loud clanging noise like someone was hitting a gong repeatedly. Knox listened and counted 12 individual chimes. "I counted 12.".

"Midnight?" suggested Finnick.

"Or the number of districts." Said Katniss. In the distance, a huge tree was struck by lightning.

"You two should get some sleep," said Knox, "I'll take watch."

Katniss shook her head.

"We'll... if you're not gonna sleep, I will." Finnick told her. He and Knox switched places.

"Okay."

Knox sat down on the rock beside Katniss in silence. After a few minutes, Katniss broke the silence, "I went back and watched your games," she said, "I was nine when you went into the arena so I couldn't remember them that well."

"Why would it matter?" Knox asked.

"I wanted to know what was so special about you, everyone loves you," said Katniss making Knox scoff, "I'm not special, I'm just good at pretending,"

"How did you know how to fight? In your games you seemed like you knew what you were doing," Katniss asked, from what she had seen Knox was an incredible fighter but it didn't make sense as she was from District 10.

"My dad taught me to defend myself when I was a kid, he's very protective because I'm all he has- had." Knox explained, "My mom died when I was a kid so after that it was mostly just two of us,"

"Mostly?"

"You already know the answer to that question, Everdeen, don't make me answer it," Knox said coldly, she did not like letting people know much about her private life, nor did she like reliving her past. Katniss nodded and didn't speak again.

⚔️

A while later Katniss had dozed off but Knox stayed awake. The jungle was eerily silent and she was the only one of the group that was awake. It was too quiet. Knox anxiously checked her surroundings, noticing a thick white cloud of fog that had not been there earlier rolling down towards them. She nudged Katniss awake before standing up.

It may be just normal fog but Knox knew better than to underestimate anything in the games, everything was put there for a reason and the entire arena was built to kill them, so she wasn't taking any chances.

The fog was moving quickly towards them, Knox cautiously stepped forward and extended her arm so that the tips of her fingers touched the fog. The second she did she groaned loudly in pain, her hand felt like it had been shoved into a vat of corrosive acid and her fingers were covered in small painful blisters.

"Wake up!" she yelled to the others who all shot up in a panic, "we've got to go now!"

"Run!" yelled Katniss, "Run! The fog is poison!"

The others scrambled to their feet, Finnick hoisted mags onto his back and they all ran down the sloping jungle landscape away from the fog. They ran as fast as they could but the fog was getting closer by the second. 

Knox's lungs burned as she pushed herself to keep going. The fog seemed to be coming from all sides as they ran through twists and turns of the dense jungle.