The 70th Hunger Games: A Little Love

Chapter Fifteen

I sigh, moving as far from the entrance of the cornucopia as I can and eating my apple. Cicero sits down beside me, pulling me in close to him. "To keep warm?" he asks. Even though I wasn't sure about his true intentions, I needed to warm up. I could feel my fingers going numb from cold. And as we sat there and ate, cuddling to try and stay warm, the storm blew on outside. Occasional gusts flew in to the cornucopia, making us all shake and push further away from the opening.

Sparkle looks over at me, a sad look on her face. "Guys, I think we have to try and look for warmer ground soon," she mumbles.

Instantly, Dez and Cicero turn their attention to her. "Why?"

"How do you know it's not like this all over the arena?"

"Well," she paused, holding out her hand that had turned a pale blue color instead of the normal fair skin she had. "My hand is blue..." she mumbled out. I quickly check my hands, and let out a sigh when I realize they were fine. Going to fix my hair, I find that part of it feels solid. Oh my god! My hair had frozen over.

"Guys!" I exclaim, pulling my hair to the front of my chest and away from Cicero. "The bottom of my hair is freezing!" Dez feels her own hair, the tight bun on top of her head, and then her eyes bulge out of her head.

"Let's go. Let's all run out at once, okay?" She instructs. We nod, and everyone gets a weapon from the walls inside the cornucopia. Sparkle picks up an axe, that must be her weapon of choice, because I've seen her use it before. Cicero grabs a sword, and Dez grabs a few knives. Unsure of what to use or grab, I take what I can do best—the only thing I can do—a small knife to throw. Although I doubt I'd ever use it, each and every one of them would kill someone ten times before I thought about it once.

Finally, we all set up by the edge of the cornucopia. Cicero counts down out loud, mentally preparing us for our excursion into the freezing weather outside. The count down, the anxiety, the tributes lined up to run:  this feels oddly familiar, like the start of the games. Squinting out into the storm-ridden arena, I can barely see a couple feet ahead of me, and the snow pours down harder by the second.

"Go!" Cicero shouts, and we all run out of the cornucopia, stumbling blindly through the snowstorm with weapons in hand.

I bet we look pretty funny to the people of the capital, running blindly through the snow with weapons in tow.

It doesn't feel funny to me, though. It feels like my life is in my legs. Like, instead of my life is in my hands, it's in how fast my legs can carry me... Get it? Now that's funny. That's something concrete, something I can focus on. Jokes. Laughter. When Alex was born, the way he cried for less than a minute, before his tears turned into laughter. I have to get home. I have to get home to that laughter.

I push harder through the snow.

I feel the blood coursing through my body turning cold, pumping cold adrenaline through my body and down to my legs. I squint, turning to the right and narrowly missing a tall thicket of bushes that would have most likely cut open my legs under my tribute uniform. I hear a loud oof, and guess that someone must have not seen the bushes. I take a deep breath, and push harder, running faster.

All around me is white. Blinding white. I can barely see the footprints that I'm leaving in the snow, until, it suddenly begins to let up.

"Guys, come on, it's getting lighter!" I shout, or speak, as loud as I could muster. As soon as I opened my mouth, I felt like it was getting filled with snow. I swallow the freezing substance, feeling a shiver run down my spine and to my toes. I knew snow was safe to eat, it was just frozen water, but I guess the low temperature just completely shocked me, making my body instantly feel sick.

No, I can't give up now. I'll freeze in this snowstorm. Just keep pushing Annie. Just keep running. Think of the future. Think of getting out of here. Of finding Percy. You can do this. You can do this. You can do this.

As I keep running, I find the snow getting lighter and lighter, until it is mere flurries around my head. I keep walking forward nonetheless, afraid of staying in the cold for too long. My hands, now numb from the sudden change in temperature, are shaking slightly. Looking ahead of me, I see Cicero continuing to run forward, rounding a tree to loop back around and catch up with the rest of us.

Panting heavily, I look to my right, taking a deep breath and seeing who else was following in suit of Cicero and I. I knew I heard someone trip over the bush, but I wasn't sure if they were trailing far behind, or if they had gotten back in line. If I squint my eyes hard enough, I can make out both Dez and Sparkle coming through the snow, jogging forward together, their steps in time.

I wave out to them, smiling large, glad that we had made it out of the monstrous blizzard. My green eyes light up as I make eye contact with Sparkle, her hair and eyes still sparkling, as always. Suddenly, her face contorts into one of fear, pointing past me warningly.

"Annie!"

An arrow whizzes past my head, the wind created by the arrow blowing my bangs back away from my forehead. In slow motion, I turn to my left and see Cicero stab the male from district eleven with a sword. I watch him fall forward onto his knees, dark blood leaking out of his chest and slowly sinking onto the red snow, tinting the ground nearby a dark color. I can't take my eyes away as I see the ground turn from white—pure, clean, innocent—to red—sinful, angry, painful—as time elapses. I continue to watch the blood soak through the snow, the hue turning darker and darker.

Then, I hear another thump.

I turn back to Sparkle and Dez and find Sparkle on the ground, or more so in Dez's arms, an arrow lodged in her neck. Her eyes stared up at the sky, a small tear trailing down her porcelain skin and landing on the snow beneath her. I rush to her side, dropping down to my knees beside her.

Tears leak over my eyes as I lean over her body, holding her close. I stay there, my body curled up over her chest for a few minutes. After I recollected myself, or at least tried to, I looked up at her face. She wouldn't want to be remembered like this, staring fearfully up at the sky, her eyes blank. I close her eyes slowly, flattening her hair out under her head. As I take a look at her, and the snow melting around her, around us, I let out a small gasp-like cry. It was as if when that arrow took the life out of her, it sucked the life out of this whole arena. Without her sparkly personality, without her joyous smile, without her infectious laughter, I felt the arena grow cold and grey.

Just an hour ago we were sleeping, we were waking up and freezing in the snow. Just ten minutes ago we were running, trying to get out of the snow. Just five minutes ago, she was breathing. One of the few friends I made in these games, gone. I cover my mouth as I sob, curling back down to her and grabbing her hand. She was the one who defended me. She was the one who stuck with me. Who thought of me and helped me out when I felt uncomfortable. And now she was gone. Now I was left with Cicero and Dez, who could easily overcome me.

I continue to cry, holding her hand and curling over her body. I hear Cicero and Dez talk over me, and I can't discern anything they're saying. And I don't want to. Maybe they're deciding to kill me. Maybe they're deciding to leave me there. I don't care. She was the closest friend I had in these games.

How am I supposed to make it through the rest of these games without her?

I feel strong arms picking me up, and Cicero hoists me over his shoulder. "No! No I can't leave her!" I cry, pounding on his shoulder and reaching out for her body over his shoulder.

"Cicero, please!" I plead, tears streaming down my face and dropping onto my tribute uniform. "Please," I whisper again, unable to muster any more words through my tears. But he just keeps on walking. Calm, cool, collected. How could he act so put together at the death of his tribute partner? He must be a master of suppressing his emotions. I sniffle, rubbing my nose and trying to stop my crying.

I hear two cannons go off.

Their cannons.

I begin crying once more, my body weak in Cicero's arms.

Thank you for listening,
Annie