The Capital Games

Chapter 19 {THE SIXTH NIGHT}

    As night descended onto the the arena, so did the cold of the ongoing blizzard. As Serenity Moore and her uncanny ally, Kaden Woods, huddled together in the corner of a dark closet like room, the chill pierced through their skin and into the pale of their bones. Their fingers were numb, even when buried deep into each others jackets. As they lied together sharing their warmth with one another, the doubt of survival began to settle down upon them. They had made it this far, through the snow, the fear, the starving and even the violence. They pondered if their demises would come at the hand of the cold. “Exposure can kill as easily a knife,” as their trainers had once said whilst at the Capital.

    “Serenity,” Kaden muttered with a soft steamy breath. He crooked his head to look up at Serenity who currently had her arms and legs wrapped around him from behind. They had been taking turns for the past few hours like this, trying their best to keep eachother warm. I

    “Yeah?” Serenity had responded, taken slightly off guard. She looked down at him, at his unusually pale face- which was normally a smooth almond color-, the redness of his battered nose and at the dryness of his lips.

    “We...We might die here,” he continued, his words slurred together as if he had something in his mouth.  He looked into her ocean blue eyes as he shivered into her. She looked back at him in sympathy and shock. He had said exactly what she was thinking, he had the courage to confront the reality of their deaths, something Serenity couldn’t yet face.

    “Yeah..” she started, not looking away from him. “We might. But we can’t think like that, were survivors man we-” she was interrupted

    “Why can’t we think like that?” he asked her, his eyelids evidently heavy. He looked down at his legs, which he had tucked up to his chest, before looking back at Serenity, who’s gaze was still set upon him.  “What's wrong with death? It's gonna happen eventually- why not now?”

    “No. No, we can’t think like that!” she yelled at him in a horse voice. “We won't die in this closet due to some fucking cold air. We won't ! I won’t let that happen.” She whispered the last part, seemingly doubting herself. Before he could respond she continued. “We’re both fighters who frankly don’t deserve this bullshit! We are going to make it through the night!” There was a pause as he looked at her.

    “Do we deserve it?”

    “What?” She napped back in confusion, her blood rushing.

    “We near killed each other not even forty-eight hours ago-”

    “Well that’s different,”

    “Why so?”

“Because we didn’t Kaden. We’re not killers- were fighters, just trying to survive,”

“I wasn’t just surviving when I hurt that young girl, Ruby,” he sighed closing his eyes. Silence filled the air for a few short awkward moments.

“What are you talking about?” Serenity asked him in a confused yet cautionary tone.

Another pause, this one longer than the last. Kaden took in slow yet shallow breaths, before Serenity gently shook him, his eyes shooting open.

“ I mean… The night-the day of feast I had pushed Ruby, the little girl, into a table thing… She clipped her leg on it, lots of blood,” he said, giving no more details with his slurred and chattered speech.

“Oh Kaden… Its okay. She's alive, right?” she narrowly responded, not much of an idea on how to respond. The girl’s photo never showed up in the sky and it wasn’t like she was gonna die from infection… Right?