You know one day- with all of these people you will have met in this very short chapter of life, whether you hate them, or love them, only one of them will remain. Any happy memories Youve made, or people you've grown attached too, all of it will be destroyed in a matter of seconds.
With one sharp knife.
With one swing of an arm.
A mixture of blood and steel.
Only one will remain.
All the motherly characters
All the stubbornly headstrong characters
Even the sweetest will be tainted
Don't make any friends, they'll only betray you in the end and it will leave you more heartbroken than before you came.
The only way to survive, is to dominate.
So go in and dominate, don't give anyone a chance to even believe they're on your side, strike them hard and quick so they don't see it coming.
You want me to treat you like a man?
Then be a man.
And come back home a victor.
Only then will I be proud of you.
Everything you would have done in the past will become nothing if you loose. You will be nothing but a ridiculous girl who couldn't take her honor seriously.
And paid the ultimate price.
Death.
Victory or death.
Grey snapped awake, spitting out sand from his mouth as he had apparently moved his face in his sleep so that he accidentally inhaled a mouthful of the gravely dust.
He sat up coughing which in turn caught Lark's attention, and he looked towards him in concern. "Is everything okay?" He asked, his bright blue eyes sparking in the dull light.
There hadn't been much of a difference between the nighttime hours or the daytime hours, except now a person could tell that the new day was beginning because the light had started to soften.
Grey sneezed just then because of the sand that had gone up his nose, which for some reason made Lark grin and shake his head, looking away into the arena around them.
"Yeah- it's just a dream I think." Grey waved off the concern, granted, it had been an echo of what his father had told him in the justice building before Grey had come to the arena, though wouldn't let the other part of the subject drop. "Why do you smile at my sneeze?" Grey asked suddenly, wanting to know the answer, because he truly had no clue as to why.
"Because it's adorable, and because of that." Lark said, glancing back at him as Grey lifted his hand.
A spiral of glowing yellow dots like fireflies flew about Grey, and some had scattered the area, all floating in the air, some resting on his face like freckles or on his hair like snowflakes.
Grey froze, his shoulders tensing up as he resisted the urge to sneeze again, and also because a thought sprung up in his mind. "It's not dangerous is it?" He asked, a panicked expression overriding his face.
Lark chuckled, but also shrugged, scooting a bit closer so he could help Grey brush off the yellow sparkles. "They have been on you for a while now, I don't think so." He said with a small smile on his face as though he were disguising something that he thought which was amusing.
"How long- wait did you call me . . ." Grey suddenly flushed red in the cheeks. Part of him wished he could somehow not feel emotions as strongly again. It was almost as though he had lived prior to the games, having all of his emotions shut off, but then Lark had changed that, and made Grey rediscover happiness through laughter. Which then had brought an onslaught of emotions he didn't really know what to do with, other than what his father would want him to do with them.
His father would want him to shut them down again at all costs.
But if Grey was being honest, he liked being able to express what he was feeling openly without having to worry about his father noticing.
Though now that he thought about it, Grey could see only two outcomes that these games would bring. One, he won and would have to go back home and live under his father again who would probably be even more suffocating than before. And Grey would have to shut off his emotions again.
Or two, die in the arena knowing his father was severely angry with him and would refuse to acknowledge him as who he is even if Grey was dead.
And in Grey's opinion, neither option looked that great, though he would much rather go around with his emotions unfiltered for a little bit at the moment and die, than cover them back up now and continue like that for the rest of his life.
"Deep in thought?" Lark whispered, his hand still in Grey's short white hair shaking out the yellow glitter.
Grey's mouth went dry as he realized he had been staring into space, though it had been directly into Lark's eyes.
He closed his mouth, pressing his lips together and nodded, taking in a deep breath through his nose.
"It's about that dream isn't it?" Lark guessed, sitting back and giving Grey room to breathe and stretch his arms.
"Yeah, but it's not as bad as you're probably thinking." Grey said, again trying to shrug it off and call it out as not a big deal. Though in Grey's case, truth be told, he was bloody terrified of his father's voice, it having some sort of hold on him because he knew if he did anything against it, harm would come.
Either to him or his brothers.
"Your eyes say otherwise." Lark simply noted, raising an eyebrow, but he didn't push for it and began to stand up, holding a hand out for Grey to use to help stand.
Given Grey's hands were still sore, he put his wrist into Lark's outstretched hand and got up to his feet.
Before he could do anything about it, he found himself pulled into another embrace which sent his face flaring red. But he still appreciated the gesture, finding that not all physical contact had to be negative, and he still found he enjoyed being almost consumed by another person's warmth, though that wasn't hard given his tiny body.
"Lark?" Grey asked as they started walking again, and the boy's long blonde braid swished as he turned his head to show he was paying attention.
"Why do you hug me so much?" He asked, though it really had only been twice, to Grey, it was a lot.
"Because— I can tell when someone needs one— they have a hollow aching look to their eyes, and you my friend- have the largest crater I've ever seen." Lark said simply. "Think about it this way, when a puppy wants something, you can see them begging for it- while I'm not saying you beg for it, but I can tell it's what you need more than anything else, at least, at the moment."
His response made sense, but it still made gratitude swell up inside of Grey. "But why do you choose to make me happy? One, if not both of us, are going to die, so what's the point in the long run?"
"Why do something only according to long term? If that were the case, then why would anyone even consider life if they were just going to die anyway. What I'm saying is, even if we had little moments where we are happy, it makes up for the long aching ones in between. So I try to go about my life making sure any contact I have with anyone, is worthwhile. That even if it doesn't mean anything to me, it could still mean the world to someone else." Lark explained, every once and awhile looking over his shoulder to glance at Grey.
"Besides, I like it when you smile."
"You-" Grey stammered, which of course brought on a smile, making Grey want to hide his face in his hands, but he merely turned to look off in the distance.
At the moment, they were about halfway up the wall of the pyramid, with the small ledge separating them from falling to their doom, a waterfall had started to trickle down alongside the path.
"We should probably clean your hands while we can." Lark noted, putting down his weapon and bag so he could help Grey unwrap the cloth from around Grey's hands that they had put on before they had gone to sleep.
"Might as well- and I'm going to rinse off too." Grey agreed, and considering the fact that he had been sweating and walking through a lava heated arena, a rinse off sounded refreshing.
"That sounds pretty good right about now actually." Lark nodded, taking the bandages off of Grey's hands and carefully folding them before putting them on the bag before taking off his shirt so it wouldn't get wet.
Grey did the same, bending down to take off his soft shoes as well, though left the somewhat tight bandages around his chest considering he wasn't about to take those off even though it wasn't good to leave them on for very long.
His skin felt really exposed in the muggy air as he joined Lark in the waterfall.
Part of him expected for him to say something about them, though it was probably his self consciousness about his body getting to him, because Lark didn't say anything.
In fact, Lark had begun to tell of one time when he and his twin Briar were swimming in a lake slightly outside of twelve, when he suddenly splashed water in Grey's face.
Grey sputtered and rubbed at his eyes before dropping his mouth and smirking evilly at Lark. "Oh you are so on."
The two spent the next half hour or so skipping around in the water, chasing each other and falling. At one point, Grey was sliding down the water trying to tackle Lark, but considering he was a lot smaller, and very off balance, it wasn't difficult for him to grasp his wrist and have them both fall into the stream, which was hardly an inch deep there.
The two lay there panting for a moment, Lark grinning down triumphantly at Grey and Grey pretending to be irritated, but was hardly able to suppress a smile.
For a moment, the two started at each other, and right before Grey could break the growing awkward silence, Lark pressed his lips against Grey's.
At first Grey was extremely startled, and didn't move at all until Lark pulled back, sitting back on his heels, his eyes studiously scanning Grey's face for any sign of anything than the blank expression on his face.
When Grey silently pushed himself upright, his eyes glued wide, touching his bottom lip with his fingertips, the slightly tingled sensation in his lips still.
"I shouldn't have-" Lark began to apologize before Grey finally looked him in the eyes.
"Don't- you said we have to make even the smallest moments as we can, be the best- and that-" Grey said connecting a few moments ago to their earlier conversation. "Was exactly that."
"You think so?" Lark asked, his face lighting up with something Grey could only describe as relief and hope.
"Yeah dumbass- it was." Grey grinned, rising up on his knees so he could level his face with Lark's and reconnecting their lips.
Maybe it was a little premature, but in the games, there really wasn't that much time left. So Grey chose from then on, that he was going to live in the moment, and make every moment his own.
He should've guessed that the gamemakers wouldn't let anything last for long, after all, happiness is here one moment, and gone the next.
And what sent Grey into a panic, scrambling to his feet, eyes wide and body trembling, was when he heard his nightmare's words repeated out loud, his father's voice breaking into his skull.
You know one day- with all of these people you will have met in this very short chapter of life, whether you hate them, or love them, only one of them will remain. Any happy memories Youve made, or people you've grown attached too, all of it will be destroyed in a matter of seconds.
With one sharp knife.
With one swing of an arm.
A mixture of blood and steel.
Only one will remain.
All the motherly characters
All the stubbornly headstrong characters
Even the sweetest will be tainted
Don't make any friends, they'll only betray you in the end and it will leave you more heartbroken than before you came.
The only way to survive, is to dominate.
So go in and dominate, don't give anyone a chance to even believe they're on your side, strike them hard and quick so they don't see it coming.
You want me to treat you like a man?
Then be a man.
And come back home a victor.
Only then will I be proud of you.
Everything you would have done in the past will become nothing if you loose. You will be nothing but a ridiculous girl who couldn't take her honor seriously.
And paid the ultimate price.
Death.
Victory or death.
—Agent Bay.
So some of you may have seen, but I do have a vote going on on Instagram to determine which characters y'all want to win, and I'll say I a, a bit surprised on some of those who are the current favorites lol