"Because there's always going to be another page for things to turn to shit" - Nothing Girl (RascalRobin)
***
TW: murder, beheading
Aria didn't know whether she should go and grab her tray already or just keep staring, waiting for the careers to leave. But at the moment, she was stuck, frozen in place. She'd just witnessed her District partner being brutally killed by those beasts, helpless, just too far away.
The young girl was walking by the forest, slowly and proficiently, making her way through the trees, avoiding each and every camera she had knowledge about. She had just made it to sight line - where she could see the cornucopia from the edge of the forest - when she heard an ear piercing scream coming from somewhere to her left.
Looking over, the youngest tribute wished she hadn't, as the first thing that caught the girl's attention was Gian being eaten alive by some unrecognizable mutts, they were too far away to see clearly. The tribute only recognized her partner by his voice, having become familiar with it during the time they trained and lived together.
She was too far away to be of any help, and between going on a desperate run to try and save the boy, getting there by the time he was already long past dead, or staying put and not risking her disguise, she had to go for the second option. So that was exactly what she did, even though it crushed her heart to do so.
Aria faintly smiled as the boy rose three fingers in the air in a goodbye motion, and did the same, not even caring that no one would see.
The girl's smile got bigger as Royce did so as well, shoving his salute right in the camera's direction, as a protest to the Capitol, who didn't even had the decency to tell their mutts to go for the fast kill.
Sighing, the tribute climbed the nearest tree, feeling way safer up there, deciding to wait the other tributes out, not wanting to risk being killed for being careless.
***
Royce was sad, but he shrugged it off right after saluting the younger boy, paying his respects. He knew they would all - but one - die in the end anyway.
Turning to the District One boy, he took a deep breath, examining the whole situation, tired of death for the day.
"We'll meet again in the final, Two." The boy stated, motioning at his partner and turning his back, leaving the other boy.
"May we meet again, One." Royce replied, leaving to the opposite side, back to his camp site at the mountains, planning to go after them soon enough, hoping he wouldn't have to witness Aria's death.
***
As the three tributes left, the youngest girl stayed put, knowing the last remaining tribute was yet to go in.
She was right, as the boy from District Ten made a run for it, coming out of his hiding place and right back in, as quickly as he could muster.
'My turn.' She thought, climbing down, finally appearing to the cameras after so long avoiding them, alerting the Capitol of the girl's successful plan, as they thought she was all the way across the Arena, far from the cornucopia, being chased by some other type of crazy invention.
Quickly opening both trays marked as Five, the youngest tribute rolled her eyes, decided to grab what was inside Gian's instead.
His tray contained a dagger, for him to use in case he lost his spear, she guessed. Meanwhile, her tray contained a piece of paper with the word 'LUCK' scribbled on it with permanent marker in a sloppy handwriting.
'Ha, ha, very funny.' She thought, as the girl put the sentence together. They had said that the tray contained what the tribute most needed to win the Games. And, according to the Game Makers - actually, Snow probably did it, that had his name written all over it - she needed luck.
So, giving the camera the finger, the young tribute grabbed the dagger intended for her late District partner and ran off to the woods, planning on stalking the other tributes, while still avoiding all cameras. After all, the Capitol knew she didn't have her tracker on, but that didn't mean they could track her without cameras now.
Her first victim would be the boy from Ten, knowing he'd probably be the least lethal one, in case she was discovered. It's not like she would kill the tribute, but she would certainly be a pain in his behind, determined to steal his food and annoy him to no end, making him think he'd gone insane.
The girl was against killing, not against a little bit of harmless maiming. She was still young after all, a few pranks couldn't hurt.
***
Royce trailed back through the mountains, entering his camp - a hidden cave - and making himself a nice meal, planning to go stalk the careers some more in the morning. Knowing it wouldn't be long until the end at that point, the boy wasn't so careful in leaving a bunch of food in his stock, needing his strength for the final days.
The tribute watched sorrowfully as the sky showed four fallen tributes that day. The boys from Seven and Eleven were accompanied be the girl from Three and Gian, silence reigning in the Arena as the anthem stopped playing and the sky went dark once more.
***
Aria climbed a tree near the boy's camp, deciding to turn in for the day and sleep, ready for a long day of stalking and annoying in the morning.
As the sun came up, the youngest tribute opened her eyes, silently yawning and rubbing the sleep off of them. She then, sat up and untied herself, shoving the rope and sleeping bag back into her backpack.
Taking a peek down the tree, she saw that the tribute she was following was still asleep and decided to mess with him a little, taking some of his weapons - only leaving four of his throwing knifes - and burying them in the floor a few feet away from where they were, smiling evilly at herself, laughing silently. She had surely missed messing with people, after all, Aria was a prankster.
The girl used to mess with Royce during and after training, always grinning maniacally after she'd done it, which alerted the older boy that something was up. He just took it to rolling his eyes and trying to hold in a smile of his own, most of the times failing. The tribute was just happy that the young girl was having fun, knowing she didn't have a lot of that back home, from what she'd told him.
The young tribute smiled fondly at the memory of her limited time with her only friend, who was now a killer fighting for his life. Sighing at the thought, she lightly shook her head and went back to messing with the boy from Ten, wishing she could do it playfully with Royce once again, cursing the Capitol senseless inside her head.
As she finished with the weapons, the tribute went back up the tree, deciding to eat something, hungry after all that burying.
***
The boy didn't wake up for another couple of hours, during which she made herself a bracelet with a thin piece of rope she had left from the traps, not daring to even touch her sleeping rope, keeping it intact.
As the older tribute looked for his missing weapons, the girl smirked to herself, throwing one of her boomerangs at another tree nearby, messing up the leaves, making the snow fall off to the ground, catching the weapon before the boy could turn at the noise. His face was priceless as she silenced her laughs, happy about having some fun again.
Why didn't she had the idea to mess with someone earlier? She thought it to be completely worth it, having a good laugh after all that time of being so serious, deciding to leave the whole life and death situation for later, as she had her fun.
***
Royce was alert and awake, watching as the careers talked and laughed between themselves, eating their breakfast unsuspectingly. It wasn't like he was planning to kill them right then and there. He'd give it time, see if they killed anyone else first.
The boy now had no problem killing, having already killed seven other tributes, including his own District partner, but it still wasn't something he liked doing. It was simply necessary. For him to live, he had to kill. And he had long past accepted it.
He was surprised when the boy from Ten started making his way towards the two careers, looking right at them. Would he go for the kill? No, he couldn't! It'd be stupid of him to do it, seeing he was smaller and weaker then both of them.
Royce couldn't believe his eyes as he saw the younger boy going for the attack, throwing a knife right at the girl's back, making her drop down instantly, dead.
That was when the career boy - the only one left - noticed him, turning around to face the stupid tribute. His eyes narrowed at his dead District partner, his former friend, and he gave the younger boy the death glare, picking up his sword.
"Shit." Royce whispered, looking at the career's eyes, set with determination to avenge his partner.
'This boy has a death wish, there's no way.' He thought, watching as the younger tribute was decimated by the boy from One.
He turned away when the career went for the kill, decapitating the other boy with an animalistic growl, showing him no mercy.
And then there were three.
The District Two boy went back to his camp hurriedly, knowing it was only a matter of time before the Capitol made the tributes find each other. Whether they wanted it or not.
He could've battled the other boy right there, but he wasn't stupid, he'd seen the look on his face, the madness. He would have no chance at that moment, deciding to let the other tribute cool off instead.
***
Aria face-palmed as she witnessed her tribute of choice marching up to the careers. She knew she had annoyed him, but not that much. The girl simply played a few pranks on him. But she guessed he was ticked, itching to kill something, and somehow deciding that the careers were the best option.
Yes, she was completely against murder, but there was nothing the girl could do if the older boy wanted to die so badly. It wasn't her fault that he had chosen to go after two tributes instead of one, and two careers, at that.
So, she simply watched as the boy from One avenged the dead girl by chopping the boy from Ten's head off. The girl didn't even flinch as the - now dead - boy's head hit the ground, being used to the violence at that point.
'Idiot.' She thought, rolling her eyes, climbing the closest tree to spend the night.
It was risky all right, but the girl wanted to be able to keep an eye on her biggest threat.
That night, there were two faces in the sky. The girl from One and the boy from Ten.
***
Aria was woken up by a strong wind, ruffling the frozen treetops, snow dropping directly on her face, making the girl shiver and open her eyes.
She looked up at the sky and realized that she had slept in, seeing that the sun was way past its peak, roughly determining that it was probably sometime in the afternoon and deciding to eat something.
Knowing the Capitol, the young tribute was sure that someone would die that same day and the Games would be over by the next sunset.
Staying put would be her best bet, away from the cameras and the Capitol's view, hoping they hadn't found a different way to track her and would simply go for the two remaining boys instead.
***
They did go for the boys, as a few hours later, the youngest tribute heard a cannon blast through the air, not knowing rather she'd be facing Royce or Kopre at the final, nervous about killing either one of them, especially the first.
The tree was still her safest hideout. That was, until the Capitol was done and decided to burn the whole Arena to the ground, forcing them together. But until that happened, she would stay right there.
___
Hey y'all, how're you doing?? This chapter was mostly Aria, since she didn't appear much in the last one. It was also kind of a filler, although we do discover Royce's kill count as well as Aria's more playful side. Who do you think will go to the final with our girl?
Today's song recommendation is 'Love The Way You Lie', by Rihanna and Eminem, I don't know, it's just good and I felt like it. So, today was pretty crazy, as I had ballet and jazz in the morning and then went on to write this chapter and an essay for school in the afternoon. I also finished (okay, almost finished, I'm still missing the last part of the epilogue) reading this really great book here on Wattpad, it's called 'Nothing Girl', and its by RascalRobin if you want to give it a read (fyi, it's an HP fanfic). Anyways... see you tomorrow. I love you all ;)
And may the odds be ever in your favor. Bye!