Against the Odds (A Crossmare Fanfiction)

Caught in a Net

❤️💜I hit my goal lmao what the hell 15k
New goal of 25kkkkkk💜❤️

And I finally watched Spider-Man far from home, that shit was gud 👌

Cross' knees buckled and he grunted, slapping his hands over his non-existent ears as he fell to the floor. He could feel the waves of heat given off by the explosion singing the leaves all around him and making his body sting.

The ground physically shook beneath him, tremors uprooting the earth's normal formation and sending clumps up into his face. The birds were sent into a frenzy, all flying from the shaking trees and into the air with loud screeches and cries.

He could hear the confused yells of Geno and Reaper as they rushed back to the centre, the fire decoys being forgotten. Pushing himself to his feet, Cross shook his head rapidly, non-existent ears ringing.

The two teens from District Two stumbled over in shock, their eyes wide as they caught sight of all their precious supplies blown up into ashes. "What happened?!"

The poor girl looked so scared, her words barely able to escape her mouth as she fell to her knees in front of the two furious skeletons. "I-I don't know! It j-just happened suddenly I s-swear!"

Reaper yelled out in anger and gripped onto the front of her shirt before roughly pulling her up to his level. "You're fucking useless!"

"N-Nonono! This w-was a mistake! I-It won't happen again I promise!" She gasped, already on the verge of sobbing.

"You're right, it won't." He growled before stabbing the tip of his scythe through her chest.

She let out an agonised scream before coughing up blood and being thrown roughly onto the floor.

Cross gagged, forcing himself not to throw up as he quickly turned on his heels and ran back in the direction he'd originally came from. The sound of a cannon shot rang out behind him and he sped up, shaking his head. She'd died because of him. For a reason that wasn't her fault.

Her scream kept echoing in his mind as he ran, his legs already starting to ache. But he didn't slow as he got to the first pile of ash that remained from his and Blue's decoys. He continued onwards, his eyes flickering over his surroundings to check that one, he was going the right way, and two, that no other Tributes were lying somewhere in wait for him.

He made it to the second ash pile without any problems, his pace slowing ever-so-slightly to let his non-existent lungs gulp down a bit more much needed air.

Counting as he went, he tried to assess which Tributes were left now. Him, Blue, Nightmare, Dream, Abi, Geno, Reaper, Error, Killer, Ink, Girl from District Seven, Finn and Dust. So thirteen left. Almost alf of the original number still. He wasn't particularly worried about Ink, the girl or Dust. It looked like Ink would be more the kind of guy that would hide in the shadows and watch. The girl hopefully wouldn't be as good with her partner now. And he prayed that Dust wouldn't hurt him if he saw he was teamed up with Blue. That was the idea anyway. All the rest of them? God he was hoping so badly that he didn't run into any of them. Except for Nightmare of course, he could really use his help right now.

After around fifteen minutes of jogging and deep thinking, Cross finally made it to their final decoy. But something wasn't right.

It hadn't been lit.

The pile of sticks, twigs and leaves were still stood up in their teepee formation, not a single disturbance having touched them.

Cross frowned, looking about the trees and bushes around him. "Blue?"

No answer.

He tried whistling the little tune, all the birds immediately carrying it on through the forest and hopefully to wherever Blue was hiding. Maybe he'd heard the explosion and assumed that he didn't need to light the third one. Or maybe he'd been in a rush and thought he'd lit it when in reality, he hadn't. Or maybe he'd been caught.