possession of the president•coriolanus snow

7|career exile

Pearl gripped her trident hard. She would have stabbed him right now, but he could easily slice her throat if she tried. Pearl wanted to be able to go home. She couldn't imagine Marie watching her beheading on live television.

"I honestly think he might have a little crush on you, which is honestly adorable. But here's the thing Pearl; I couldn't care less how pretty you are. All that matters is me winning these games."

That was a backhanded compliment if Pearl ever heard one. Did Apollo really like her? She thought of the Career's overly friendly actions towards her.

Pearl tried to look away from Hunter and think of her next move. Why hadn't he killed her yet? He was just taunting her.

Hunter lowered his knife and suddenly grabbed her by the throat with his open hand. Pearl was immediately spun to face him as she felt her body lift off the ground.

She reached for the strong hands that were clasped around her throat, but she came to the realization that she was choking.

Pearl tried to force out Hunter's name in a beg for mercy, but she couldn't speak. She felt her body begin to shut down.

Her trident had already fallen to the ground.

Pearl suddenly used all of her strength to kick Hunter straight in the chest. He yelled and then let her go. Pearl fell to the ground. She considered running, but had a much better idea in mind.

She crawled towards her trident and then sprung to her feet. Pearl was quickly knocked back onto the ground by Hunter landing practically on top of her.

Pearl had really underestimated Hunter's strength. She had no clue how he only got a score of 7 in the training evaluation. Her smaller body was struggling. Her hand still had a hold on the trident.

So, she lifted it up towards him. Pearl plunged it into Hunter's chest. His mouth widened as he became limp on top of her. Not the best move. Pearl had to fight to push his larger body weight off her.

She got up with her trident in her hand and stared at what she believed to be a dead Hunter Gibon.

Before Pearl could even process what she did, Hunter got back on his feet weakly. "You think you can kill me?"

"I mean, yeah."

Pearl threw the trident at his bloodied body and he fell to the ground harder this time. Hunter was really gone this time.

Pearl had killed Hunter.

The cannon boomed.

A pool of blood began to swarm Hunter's body, and she felt bad looking at his lifeless face and completely messed up dark hair. She hated Hunter from the beginning, but she didn't really mean it when she thought about killing him.

But Pearl truly had no reason to feel bad. Hunter attacked her and tried to kill her first. She was just defending herself.

It was now that she knew she was in Career exile. As soon as they found out she killed Hunter, they would try and hunt down Pearl.

There was a chance that Hunter told them before he died. They could be searching for her right now, and Pearl knew that she had to get far away from the Career base. It wasn't worth the risk of going back to get supplies, even though she would be loosing important resources. Pearl had her trident, and that was what mattered.

She had to find Opal.

Pearl had figured out that there were nine turned remaining, including herself. All of the Careers aside from Hunter were alive, which once included her but also four others. Both District 3 tributes were gone, and she was the only one who remained from District 4.