Finnick's Games - The 65th Hunger Games

Chapter Fourteen

My trident lifts, the prongs aimed at her face. Erratically, my head swivels around on my neck, searching for the others. Where are they? Crouched in the foliage, waiting to jump me? Or has Adella instructed them to stay back while she personally delivers the fatal blow?

She moves and I almost let the trident fly. But her sword stays level at her side, while her free hand cups her hip. She hisses in pain, and that's when I see the blood - the bottom half of her shirt is stained with it, as well as the hip of her pants. "Where are they?" I ask.

"I'd like to know myself," she responds through gritted teeth. "When we got back to the Cornucopia, Tiberius said the hovercraft took Jem's body up. And you were nowhere to be found."

"Then what happened?"

"I tried to make a run for it. But Elasis chased me down in the water. He gave me this as a farewell gift," she lifts the bottom of her shirt, revealing a tapestry of blood-soaked gauze on her hip. "And this," she turns her head and lifts the underside of her curly hair up, revealing a bald and raw chunk of her scalp. Like Elasis grabbed a fistful and tugged so hard not just her hair but her skin ripped out. "During all this Tiberius made off with Elasis' backpack. It made him mad enough that I made a run for it again. And now here I am, reaping the rewards of my choice."

"And Tocara?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. Last thing I remember she was at the Cornucopia with Elasis. I thought he would have killed her by now, or vice versa. But maybe she ended up running too. Either way, the Cornucopia's abandoned. There's no way they stayed there with Tiberius, me, and you on the loose."

"What about me? Is Elasis mad at me? Is he hunting me?"

She almost laughs, but it causes her so much pain she winces instead. "When has he ever not been mad and hunting you?" I guess it was a silly question. Given our history, and the fact that I killed his district partner, I'm definitely the first on his kill list. Of course, I already knew this. 

"You killed Jem with that?" she asks, nodding at my trident which is still poised to strike. I nod. "You're gonna use it to kill me too, then?"

"Not if I don't have to," I say. I realize that sometime while we were talking, she put her sword down. It rests, untouched, on the earth at her side. Shame causes me to lower my trident.

"How'd you get it, anyways?"

"Sponsor."

"Obviously it was a sponsor. I mean what did you have to do to get them to send it to you?"

"Nothing," I say. It's true. I didn't actively seek out this gift. I didn't beg the cameras for it. It just showed up.

She squints her eyes at me. "It's never nothing, Finnick." I don't really know what she's implying, but she sounds annoyed with me. "Anyways, what do we do now? Duel?"

It's a joke. But also entirely within the realm of expectation. Adella, though, knows she wouldn't win a duel with me. Not with that wound.

"We can go our separate ways," I suggest.

"Alright," she agrees, "but you're going to have to do all the walking. All I can contribute is dragging myself from here to there." She points to a thicket roughly five yards from the streambank. I guess that's where she slept last night. As I begin to move away, I hear her dragging herself in the mud. I know she's heavily restraining herself, but still, she's full of painful groans and labored breathing.

"You're gonna kill yourself," I say, turning back to her.

"Yes," she says, "but I hope I outlast the rest of you before I do."