Hunt and Chase

Sickening Peace

"Please just stay here. Hunt nearby," I begged Chase.
"No, let me go with you. I'm not letting you die alone."
"You think so highly of me," I responded in sarcasm.
I kissed Chase on the forehead, "I'll be back before you can blink."
She rolled her eyes at me and I set off.

We were down to the final seven, tributes could be anywhere. The Careers were still in the Cornucopia to the best of my knowledge. Atlas, Silver, and Belladona made up the last of them. Then there was Quill who I hadn't seen the entire time we had been here. Then there was Leonardo, I didn't know what to think of him. I was losing track of how many days had passed. Who knew what was going on in the outside world, another rebellion could have started for all we knew.

Those thoughts washed from my mind as a stalked my way down the mountain, kicking a pebble down the way towards the forest.
I instead thought of what twisted trick the Gamemakers were to throw our way next muttations, poisonous fog, fires, flooding? Who knew what was next.

My feet crunched their way through the fallen pine, getting closer to the stream I had crossed to get to Chase. I lept along the rocky bed and over the convenient stepping stones. I made my way close to the inland of the Cornucopia. I stopped in my tracks as I heard crunching to my left. I pivoted on my heel to see Quill Penn.

I motioned for him to keep going the way he was before I killed him, putting my finger to my throat in a slicing motion. He didn't see through my bluff and hurried on. I wasn't about to kill another innocent soul.

I kept on before there was a yell. I clambered up a tree, looking around to see the commotion before I spotted Quill and Belladona on the ground, something was sticking out of his shoulder, a dagger perhaps.

"Bella, please, don't do this," he begged.
"I have to go home," she said, taking a swing at him with her sword.
"I won't fight you. We can escape this together," he pleaded.
"I have to go home," she repeated, stabbing him through the stomach, just as he was reaching for an arrow. Quill let out a cry of agony, his face going paler than before.
"Please," he said reaching to cup Belladona's face.
"I have to go home," she insisted, pulling her blade from his stomach and swinging hard at his neck, his head rolled from his body, the latter collapsing.

I gagged, looking away from the scene in an attempt not to vomit. I wouldn't have told him to go if I knew that was going to happen. "You couldn't have," the rationale in my head reasoned. An agonizing cry broke me out of thought.

The scream came again from Belladona, she was sobbing and hiccuping, saying something unintelligible. She picked up her sword, dripping with Quill's fresh blood. She dug the hilt into the ground, closed her eyes, and fell, letting the sword pierce through her body. She went peacefully, it was peace, in the sickest way I could imagine. Two cannons boomed through the arena.

I climbed down from the tree, my head heavy. Their bodies had been taken in the next few minutes after they saw I wasn't going to loot their pockets. I tried my best to complete my quest, bringing back a groosling for supper, the lake I had crossed just this morning not seeming so peaceful anymore.

I trecked up the mountain, over snares, into the cave. Chase was still gone, probably further than I had told her to go. I rested my back against the cave wall, having a sip of water and a long breath.

"Rooftop," Chase said as she entered the cave. "I'm glad you're still alive, I thought it was you," she said enveloping me with a hug, I stayed silent.

I stayed in from the fallen that night. Savoring my groosling and bread, like I was having a last meal for those who had died and that I had killed.
"The boy from Seven, girl from Nine, and the boy from Ten. That leaves us and the two from Eight," Chase said as she came back into the cave.
"I didn't expect Leonardo to be gone," I commented.
"He probably tried to fight the rest of the Careers and lost," she said in a tone as if she was calling Leonardo an idiot.

I did not sleep that night, I stayed on watch as Chase slept beside me, huddling to my leg. I watched the moon and the starlit sky, wondering if they were somewhere better now. A tear rolled down my cheek.

This had to end.

​

_________
Ok, this is kinda shit. We're getting close to the end though friends, get ready for emotions.