Nothing Personal

Fatalis - 12

Crete didn't know that anyone was there until Amber hissed.

It was a strange sound, almost gutteral, and though he'd never seen a snake he would have betted it was accurate too.

"I know you're there!" she snapped, her body tense and ready to strike. For a moment he thought that she was talking about him and opened his mouth to protest, but then he saw that her face, milky in the moonlight, was turned towards the trees. Carefully, he slipped behind the frame so that he could see too. A pale face framed by black hair peered out at him curiously.

"I can see you!" Amber continued, when the face didn't even twitch. Klaus began to stir, rubbing his eyes and muttering about Rian. Now it was three against one, Crete noted.

The face didn't even look vaguely worried.

"I know you can. I can see all three of you," it said.

Crete felt a chill down his back. Everyone was scared of the Careers, weren't they? Or maybe he had allies around somewhere, backing him up. He wheeled to face the houses, but nothing even flickered.

"What, are you just going to sit there?" Klaus bellowed. Rian was on the swing, urging him to sort this cocky idiot out, his eyes dancing in amusement. Even though it was night and everything was different shades of grey, he was in colour, in his usual grimy red shirt with the hole in the shoulder and light blue jeans. His hair was untamed around his ears, like he'd been running his hand through it. That had been a habit of his.

"I don't need to move," the voice said back, smugly.

"You think you're clever; can't you count?" Crete chipped in, "There's three of us and one of you." He'd felt like he had to say something otherwise it looked like he was just tagging on to the Careers.

The face smirked wryly. "Really? You know, I could have sworn there was a whole army of people over my shoulder who looked just like me a second ago!"

Crete felt his face burn. He hated being patronised; he wasn't a little kid anymore. "I'm not the one with the ego!" he retorted.

"If you were as intelligent as you think you are, you'd know that it's not the numerical advantage. Like in chess. When some of the pieces are just pawns, they may as well not be there at all."

It took Amber a moment to work out that she was maybe being insulted. She leapt gracefully from the frame and landed almost silently. "Maybe so, but do we look like your pathetic little Eleven and Twelve tributes?"

"Both tributes from both of those districts are still alive."

Silence.

Sebastian was, peversely, starting to enjoy himself. "So where's Dark? Couldn't make it? And what about Tile? I was sure I saw her around last night..."

Amber had had enough of the stupid little smartass. She took a threatening step towards him, brandishing the spear. Klaus shuffled into step behind her, with another glance at Rian on the swing. He was nodding his head in time to the beat of a hammer on metal. Crete stumbled along behind, ready to grab the spear if Amber fell. Three on one. Easy. Especially if this guy wasn't overly physical, like he reckoned.

"You the one that got Tile?" Klaus grunted. He waved the sword a few times, the blade flashing in the moonlight. Crete was starting to get a little bit scared and he was behind them. How the guy was holding his nerve, he had no idea. He would have run for the hills by now.

"What do you think?" Sebastian challenged.

Nobody had ever told Klaus to think before.

"I think we should kill you anyway," he said eventually, glancing over at Rian on the swing. Sebastian's sharp eyes noticed the look with curiosity; something was clearly not quite right about the District Two boy.