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Days have passed, and the two have yet to run into the careers yet. Kekoa had a feeling that they would be in the middle, but didn't want to risk Liu's life. Only one cannon had gone off that morning.
Liu was finally sponsored some food by her mentor, while Kekoa was sponsored some bread and fresh water by Finnick, who she thanked in a whisper, hoping he was watching. Liu eyed Kekoa with a small smile on her face.
"What are you looking at?" Kekoa asked, looking back at Liu after catching the smaller girl looking at her, but Liu just shrugged.
"Your mentor was the winner of the 65th games, right? My mom told me about him." Liu said, continuing to eat her newly sponsored food. Kekoa slowly nodded. "You two are cute." Liu smirked and Kekoa furrowed her eyebrows, not knowing what she was on about.
"Uh, I don't know."
"You don't know?" Liu asked, and Kekoa just shrugged and continued eating, making Liu roll her eyes in annoyance. "You don't have a crush on him or anything?" Kekoa eyed Liu suspiciously.
"Crush?"
"It's when you like someone a lot and your heart gets happy when they're around." Liu smiled, explaining the word to Kekoa, who hadn't really heard it before. She was guessing it was related to relationships and marriages, at least the aftermath of a crush.
"Do you have a crush?" Kekoa asked Liu, and after a moment of silence, Liu nodded smiling.
"Yeah, he's back at home. He's fourteen, year older than me." Liu explained and Koa listened, slightly interested in knowing more.
"What's his name?"
"I can't say it, they are watching us." Liu whispered and she smiled. Kekoa knew Liu liked him, just from talking about crushes for a short time, Liu's mood had gone up, and her face had a smile plastered on it, and it didn't seem to want to go away thinking about the boy.
"It's just us two left, then the other four right?" Liu asked and Kekoa nodded. "One of them is your brother?"
"Yeah, he's always been out for me." Kekoa shrugged. "We don't exactly get along, he think's I'm a monster of some kind."
Kekoa and Liu packed up their stuff and decided to get a move on. After the two almost ran into the careers, they needed to go back to Kekoa's rocky beach spot, since the cave the two were saying at was located on the north side, which is where the careers went.
As the two traveled, Liu kept talking about Finnick and Koa just listened, not saying much. Eventually she moved topics and started talking about their home districts.
Kekoa stopped moving for a second, leaving a confused Liu to stare at her, until she noticed it as well. The volcano on the island had a ton of smoke coming from the top of it, and the ground was shaking.
"We need to get out of here, now!" The two were right under it, and Kekoa grabbed Liu's hand and started running.
"It's erupting? Right now?!" Liu kept her pace steady with Kekoa's, and continued running south.
"Any minute now it will!"
As soon as the phrase left her mouth, an explosion sounded all over the arena, the two girls looked back to see black smoke shooting from the sides and the top of the mountain, and seeing red hot magma along with it.
Rocks flew into the air from the explosion and rained down on some parts of the island. After all the running the two eventually could see the cornucopia, which made Kekoa hold back Liu.
"Found you, Kekoa!" Aamon shouted, the four tributes slowly walking towards Liu and her.
"Liu, you have to get away from here, find somewhere safe." Kekoa whispered to her.
"No, I can't leave you!" Liu's voice sounded broken, but Kekoa shook her head.
"Don't worry about me. You have to win, I can take care of them, but you have to get out of here!"
"I don't know where to go!" Kekoa and Liu locked eyes, and Liu had tears in hers. Soon after, Liu started running another direction, away from the cornucopia and the volcano. Magma slowly made it's way down the mountain towards the tributes.
Kekoa turned to the careers, and only saw two of them. She saw the other two running for Liu, her entire demeanor changed to fear and anger. When she went to run after them, she heard yelling.
"This bitch killed my partner!" The District 1 female, Shimmer, ran at Kekoa, but she held her spear out, ready to attack if they ran forward. Aamon held up his machete, and Shimmer held up her small sword.
"Careful, she's killed a lot of people."
"You told me she couldn't fight." Shimmer yelled in disapproval.
"Don't worry, just as soon as Ajax and Valentina get the other girl, she'll be easy to take care of."
Suddenly, Kekoa heard a little girl screaming and her heart sunk as the two people that were missing from the careers came into view, dragging Liu with them as she tried pulling back from their grips. The male had a knife in hand, ready to attack Liu at any second.
While Kekoa was caught off guard, her brother ran to her attempting to stab her with a knife in his hand. However, he didn't have a chance to. Kekoa grabbed his wrist where he held his knife, she jumped and slid down in between his legs, instantly flipping him onto his back.
Kekoa didn't even think of killing him, her top priority at the moment was Liu, but running towards her, Shimmer, the District 1 female threw a knife right at Kekoa's head, just barely missing her skull.
"Kekoa! Help!" Kekoa looked to Liu for a split second to see the female tribute holding her down and the male tribute dragging the knife across her skin, and Liu screamed and cried at the top of her lungs when he began cutting her skin.
She squirmed in their grip, but the female holding her back was much stronger and much older, she stood no chance.
"Please stop!" Willow screamed and the male took out a knife, slowly dragging it across her skin and blood spilled from her arms as she let out a louder scream, followed by tears rolling down her face.
Kekoa's head instantly filled with anger, she ran towards Shimmer, not giving her a second thought before running with her spear up, stabbing her in the stomach, Shimmer had no time to react. Another cannon went off.
Twelve.
She ripped the spear from Shimmer's body and ran forward towards Liu. Liu's head raised to look for Kekoa.
"Behind you, Koa! He's there!"
Kekoa turned her head and saw her brother running up behind her, she didn't have time.
She threw her spear directly at the male tribute cutting into Liu, shooting right through his neck, he instantly died. A second cannon went off.
Thirteen.
Liu looked in front of her to see the boy now dead, and the female tribute holding her down looked disgusted at the sight.
Kekoa was tackled by her brother from behind. Liu kicked her legs up and rolled over, kicking the District 2 female in the face, making her stumble back a bit. Liu took the knife Kekoa gave her and hesitated, but as soon as the District 2 female went to grab her knife on the floor, Liu stabbed her in the stomach, gasping at what she had just done.
The female laid on the floor, and Liu ran over to Kekoa who was being strangled by her brother.
"You haven't beaten me before, you won't ever beat me. You're just a small girl." Aamon smirked, but looked up and saw Liu running towards him, he lost all his focus. Kekoa wrapped her legs around his torso, flipping him over so his back was on the floor.
"Liu! My spear!" Liu noticed what Kekoa needed and ran back to the spear, she pulled it out of the boys neck, cringing at the sight of a dead body, and she ran back towards Kekoa, who was struggling to stay a top of her brother.
Liu collapsed.
Eleanor, the District 2 female, was standing up, a knife wound in her stomach, but it didn't kill her, but the female once again fell, and a cannon went off. Kekoa turned and looked at Liu, who laid hurt on the ground with a knife to the back.
"NO!" Kekoa shouted, and her brother kicked her off of him, and he stood up. Kekoa standing as well.
He lunged at her, but she quickly moved to the side and ran to Liu, who was laying on her side, with Koa's spear next to her. She took the spear, throwing it at her brother, but it missed.
"Liu! Hang in there, I just need to take him and I-"
"Koa, I can't win."
"No, I can kill him and I can have you win, you can kill me." Kekoa looked at Liu's wounds, knowing deep down she couldn't survive. She had multiple stab wounds in her legs, and slash wounds all over her arms, not mentioning the stab wound bleeding from her back.
Tears washed over Koa's face.
"Kill him, hurry!" Liu whispered, and Kekoa looked to see a spear coming towards her, making her duck. "For me please, for Willow."
Kekoa stood up and saw her brother walking over to her, machete in hand. Kekoa picked up her spear, walking towards him.
"What would be a fair fight, dear sister?" Aamon laughed. "Either way I'll end up beating you."
"Even with your four friends against me, I still killed them all." Kekoa said, readying her spear.
The area was now all smoky due to the rubble from the mountain making it's way down to them. Another explosion sounded, and hot rocks rained around them both.
"You're a monster, a coward! How many times do I need to remind you?" Aamon raised the machete above his head and ran towards her, Kekoa put her spear ahead of her, holding onto the wooden pieces. The machete made contact with the metal handle of the spear.
Kekoa kicked her brother in the stomach, making him stumble backwards, but still held onto the weapon in his hand. Kekoa stayed put, not wanting to get to cocky since her brother could regain stamina fast.
"You can't win!" Aamon swung the sword, but Kekoa jumped backwards, the sword tip just grazing her stomach. She wrapped her left arm around the wound instinctively, taking it off soon after to see her arm full of blood. Looking back at her brother, he had began to charge at her again.
Swing after swing with his weapon, she kept taking step after step back, avoiding him completely. If she tired him out, it would be an easy kill for her to do and get back to Liu, but it didn't seem like she had that kind of time.
Aamon swung again, and Kekoa held her spear out in front of her with both hands, blocking it.
All the times he beat her down at the beach, all the times her father said she'd never be good enough.
Kekoa and Aamon put weight on both their weapons, Aamon had more strength physically, though. His machete was getting closer and closer to her shoulder, ready to slash through her chest down to her hip at any moment if she gave him any more room.
"I love you, Koa!" Willow's voice rang through her head.
Instead of focusing her strength on the top hand of her spear, she focused it on the bottom hand, making her spear spin onto the other side of his weapon, but also lifting the machete completely, missing her.
Aamon, caught off guard, dug his blade into the ground, giving Kekoa an opening. She pushed the spear forward, plunging it into his stomach. Aamon looked down at the wound and at his sister, then completely collapsed.
"I am a monster, but so are you."
Kekoa pulled the spear from his stomach, then stabbed him again in his chest, finishing him off completely. As soon as the cannon went off, she was pulled from her head space.
Fourteen.
Kekoa immediately ran towards the younger girl who laid still on her side, not moving, but the side of her stomach slowly moved up and down, signaling she was still alive and none of the cannons that had gone of were signaled for her.
She tried fanning away the smoke that was around her face so Liu could breathe some fresh air, but it didn't prove effective at all.
Kekoa worked quickly, ripping off parts of her own shirt, covering her leg wounds, she glanced around the arena for her bag, but noticed it was pretty far away, she didn't have time to make it there.
Kekoa took the knife out of Liu's back before folding a cloth and putting it on the wound, then rolling Liu over fully to face the sky. She put pressure over Liu's wound on her stomach.
"Koa."
"Liu, don't worry. When the bleeding stops I can get the medicine and you can win-"
"Koa, can you tell me about your sister?" Koa paused, tears in her eyes, not knowing why she was asking that. "You said she was like me." Koa hesitated, looking down at the girl. She didn't know what to say first, but she looked at the flowers on Liu's head.
"She liked making me flower crowns." Koa smiled down at Liu. "She always made sure I was okay and she was quiet and kind and..."
"I like making flower crowns. I like making them from lavender flowers." Liu started coughing, and small amounts of blood came from her mouth. Kekoa knew she couldn't do anything except talk to Liu before her time was up. "When you get home, can you make one from lavender for me?" Liu looked to Kekoa, and she nodded, and Koa smiled.
"The sky looks pretty." Koa looked up at the sky, and Liu directed her eyes to the sky, hoping she would get a nice sight before she died. "The colors. They're from the sunset, it's becoming night soon."
"My favorite color is violet." Liu said. "My mom likes the color too."
"Mine is green, but a light green. Like sea-green." Kekoa said, and Liu smiled.
"His eyes are sea-green." Koa gave her a questioning look, and Liu looked at her smirking. "He sent you a lot of sponsors." She whispered this time, and Kekoa just smiled, shaking her head.
Liu looked back at the sky. "Live for me please. You're not a monster, Koa." Liu put her hand atop of Koa's, and both examined the sunset.
The tears spilling from Kekoa's face finally came rushing down when the cannon went off. She looked down at Liu's body, her eyes directed up at the sky, and her hand felt light on top of Koa's.
"You're not a monster, Koa."
Koa laid her free hand on top of Liu's face, closing her eyes. Koa tried her hardest not to cry, but she did, and she couldn't stop the tears.
Kekoa and Liu only knew each other for a few days, but Liu reminded her of so many things. Life just might be worth living, if she looked at it the right way.
A shadow came over the arena, and Koa looked up to see a hovercraft. She stood up, looking at Liu's body one last time before turning her back to it. The magma from the volcano was now dried up, like it was a simulation of some kind, it was just turned off. Koa only noticed just now that the magma made it's way fully down the mountain, and it was only about 30 or 40 feet from them.
Koa forgot about the wound on her stomach that her brother had given her. Although it was only a slash across the stomach, it had been spilling blood, her body instantly fell weak and collapsed onto the ground. Her body grew limp completely, and she felt extremely dizzy.
Everything went dark.
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im so sorry