The 130th Hunger Games

Chapter Thirty

I stumble backward in shock, tears flowing down my face. I stagger as far away from Xavier's area as I can, until I'm on the edge of my own block, and there I stand, broken, alone, having lost another friend, another member of my alliance, another person I was willing to die for.

I see out of the corner of my eye Damian beside me, the tears in his eyes, the look of endless pain on his face as he tries to hold in the tears but can't, just can't.

His sobs are hard to listen to. I've never heard Damian cry. I never wanted to.

It tears me apart.

Jane, the young, shy girl from District 3 with curly brown hair and dark eyes. Jane, the brave, daring girl who defeated me in sword fighting during training and stabbed a Career in the leg. Jane, the hopeful girl, who kept a group of four other people going although they believed they had no chance against skilled Careers.

Jane, the warrior, who was chosen for the Hunger Games, was in the final 5, and went down fighting.

The way she would have wanted it.

I crumple to the ground, because all I can think is that she didn't deserve to die, that she out of all people didn't deserve to be hunted, to be stabbed, to be tossed into a sea of deadly liquid. And yet, those killers, those horrible, soulless humans who killed an innocent twelve-year-old, still live on.

They still live on.

I look up. Xavier is standing at the edge of his block, looking down into the lava where Jane just fell. A hovercraft never comes. They don't need it. Her body has disintegrated.

Xavier still has a grimace on his face from all the pain in his leg wound. But I can see an expression through it, an upturn of the lips, a squinting of the eyes. A smile.

A smile.

And Daniel is shouting from his block, congratulating and praising Xavier for killing another human being. Daniel, however, does not see me yet, does not notice that the person he wants to kill more than anything is right in front of his eyes.

But he will see me. He will.

I run up to the other side of the small piece of land I am on, the side nearest to Xavier, and I start to shout.

"HOW COULD YOU?!"

Xavier slowly turns his head towards me in shock. I wonder how I look to him right now. A puny girl with a tear stained face, red blotchy eyes, screaming angrily at him as loud as she can.

Pathetic.

But I don't stop.

"DO YOU HAVE A HEART INSIDE OF YOU? DO YOU REALIZE THAT YOU JUST KILLED AN INNOCENT, TWELVE YEAR OLD GIRL WHO HAS DONE NOTHING BUT TRY TO STAY ALIVE AND LIVE HER LIFE IN PEACE?" I stop speaking and breathe heavily, my eyes shooting daggers at Xavier. "If you do have a heart inside of you, you disgusting monster of a person," I say, rage filling me up inside, taking over my mind, my body, my everything. "Then tell me. I DARE YOU TO TELL ME! I DARE YOU TO TELL ME WHERE YOUR GODDAMN HEART IS!"

Xavier doesn't say anything. Just stares at me, speechless. And Daniel, standing behind him, has his eyes narrowed in anger. I expected much more rage from him, but I suppose my speech has startled him, too.

I continue to glare at Xavier, my eyes not leaving his. And Xavier stares back, dazed, and for once, his eyes don't contain something evil.

And then Xavier opens his mouth to speak-

When all of a sudden, the ground under me jerks to the side, and I fall onto my stomach, clutching onto the grass for my life.

Then I remember that Damian must be somewhere behind me.