BOOM
Lukah? .... Lukah Norme?
Questions upon questions wrap around my head. Was it not Lukah, the kid who helped me in training?. Of course, I hardly knew him, but this death stokes me by surprise. Of course, death is always a surprise, but this was truly random.
His body hanged like mistletoe over us, his long dangling legs swing backward and forward upon our bodies. My eyes widen more and more at the sight of a hanged human. Penelope, Penelope is still dead asleep... shes. Going. To. Freak. her hand moves a bit, and she stretches her arms and says, "Haymitch?..." Her eyes closed as she continues, "Haymitch, did you call me?"
Penelope scratches her curly hair and rubs her eyes; then, her head tilts upwards. An enormous gasp comes out of her mouth. Penelope's eyes filled with guilt and maybe, well, hate. Her eyes do the same thing as me, and her nose turns as red as Faunas did. The wind breezes, and his body moves over Penelope's legs. Penelope confused, frightened and furious. She looks up at his body as it swings over her, and I can see her eyes being filled with confusion.
Here it comes.
Penelope turns to me and says, "you," I reply, "synanoum for me," she says, staring out of the cave, "you, you killed Lukah" what is she thinking? Nobody killed him. I reply, "the nose killed Lukah," she says back as her voice grows in volume "you killed Lukah! You killed him" her eyes lock with mine in a way she has never done before. Sweat drips down my head. I didn't kill him. It was her nose set up that killed him, not mines. She says, "you, haymitch. You killed Lukah," I reply, trying to ease her down.
"Penelope, your overreacting just a bit," she replies "a friend of mine died, you call this overreacting," I answer, instantly defending myself, "well yes Penelope I do because you are blame me for a death that was on your side" her eyes lose control and move side to side almost as if they were shaking like what my hand continually does. I say, "penelope calm down it was just a death, theres less then twenty, some of us have to die," she replies, "not like that haymitch! HE WAS MY FRIEND," I reply. "Sure he was your friend, where was he when you were cold in the snow, where was the great Lukah when you had nobody to talk to in the interviews where was Lukah? Maybe that should become our new slogan, where was Lukas. I bet it would be all the rage in the capitol" her body towers over mine as she stands up, "so you can mock somebody after they died, lets see if you want to play that game. What happened to Fauna... I never recalled you dwelling on her and telling her your problems?" I reply "now your actually overreacting and assuming because you didn't know fauna" her eyes become dangerously black. Her pupils become smaller by sight, she says, "well gues what" she pulls out a knife I never noticed she carried in her pocket, she screams "YOU KILLED LUKAH NOW I KILL YOU"... "DO US ALL A BIG FAVOR HERE" she reaches to the back of her. Pocket and attempts to bring it close to me, but Penelope frankly doesn't know what she is saying and tries to intimidate me. She couldn't kill me. She's too different, not an actual reason.
I grab her forearm, twist into her back, and lean her body in front of mine. She screams at the Pain from her arm, tears run down her cheek, and I say to her, "well well well isn't this a pretty picture." I stop for a second. Tears run down her eyes as I point her body direct to Lukas purposely. I can't kill Penelope. My only option is to knock her out, maybe for a while, so that I can leave. Penelope has the idea that she can kill me and will find any excuse from now till the end to do so. I can't let her. Tears flood through her cheeks, and her body shakes. I turn her around, and she grabs my forearms and tuns to pull me down for some reason. Penelope has no muscle and is half my size. She is doing it from anger. She scratches my forearms with her long fingernails, and she screams at me, cursing at me, but I have no voice but to zone her out. I am left with Penelope screaming in the background, but I think of doing something controversial to the capital and that they will hate, and my family will be ashamed of.
Penelope attempts to smack my stomach, and she pushes me around, but she is small. I grab her by the shoulders, lifting her off the ground. I throw her frail body into the air and smack her. She lands hard on the floor. Her head makes a crack sound. She looks at me with pain in her eyes. Soon enough, she gives me a final look, and she falls asleep... I think...
No canon is fired because I didn't kill her. I couldn't; I just gave her a push so that the thought of killing me could teach her a lesson to not mess with that. She wouldn't, but she had the idea.
I look at her, her curls become drenched in the snow, her lips have turned purple... like grapes, but I leave her be.
I leave our hut area and head straight ahead. Not knowing what to expect, I do the only thing I could do in these games. Walk. Walking seems to calm everyone in fun, or just we have nothing to do, walk, run, jog, kill, think, occasionally eat. We aren't granted many options.. oh, I forgot to mention dying, but we try not to keep that on the list.
There are evergreens all over the arena, covered with snow. I kick him now under and almost sink into it several times. The snow is laid out like a blanket of icing, covering the arena so entirely. To perfect to be true. I whisper to myself countless times, "wow," at just the sight. Maybe the capitol thought, "well since we are tortuing them, and killing them! Why don't we make it pretty" something the capitol would do, making it look fun and fashionable. Somewhere capitol citizens would want to vacation. Pathetic but smart. I zone myself out of everything around me and pay attention to the little sounds, the sounds of birds chirping, wet snow dripping/falling from the trees and onto the —something I had never experienced before. At twelve, snow is considered harmful. For the most part, it is. Kids cant go o school, some can't work because of the weather. Everything becomes chaotic and stressful, but here, a place where my job is to kill, but anyway, here it seems, pretty. Not a word I say much, but it is stunning. I wonder if the snow is chlorine? Like all other water sources here. I have a thermos, so bend down a put some inside. The thermos' inside is warm, so it should melt it, and I can press it against my body for the body heat. i have a couple of salt packets given to me by the capital, but I don't use salt or like it. But you can melt snow with salt, so I pop the two together and shake them in the thermos like what the bar lady would do to arrange the prep team's drinks.
I shake the thermos, but the snow is un-meltable. It seems like this arena is always snow, snow everlasting. Weird but once again, smart. I leave the mixture inside for no reason what so ever and walk some more. The light dims some, and sunset is happening, with colors, I have ever seen before. A mixture of Burgundy, pink and green. I walk some more, kicking the ground, and I a howl in the distance.
Oh, god, no. Wolves, but knowing the capital, these wolves will be genetically altered and diced to kill me this time. I can't tell where they are or how they will look, but all I do is walk. I hear a step in back of me, the sound of snow sinking, and a small animal approaching me. Soon a miniature, seven-pound sits in front of me. The dog looks at me with its wet nose and tilts his or her head and stick their tongue out. I stop looking right back at it. Well, what am I supposed to do? Pet it? It's not like I have food to spare or anything. I walk upward, and it takes a step back, I walk backward, and it takes an effort forward. An odd connection It makes with me as we do things in sync. I chuckle at the sight and walk on.
The dog stops. They look at me and bark. "RUF" the dog doesn't bark. The wolf in the back of me does with its pack of Wolfs of all sizes at the end of me. Big small, they all stay at me with their white coats ad bright blue eyes surrounded by a black outline. The little dog in the back of me makes a small sound, and they all do it. They look at me, turn their heads, and look at me. I walk back, and the pack of wolves looks at me. A second passes, and a tiny one in the front lifts their upper lip and makes a growing noise. The others do as well. And, of course, the capitol couldn't think of anything more creative, but they do what they were made to do. Attack me.
They run, and I run, miles and miles I hear they're growling and panting and long steps approach me, but their our trees everywhere, one thing the capitol managed not to think about, of course, the logical thing to do would be to climb up a tree like a civilized person. I run towards the wolves, and on the tallest of them, I jump to its mouth, kick it, and land myself on the tree. Several wolves bark at me but then leave, oddly weird and nonviolent compared to what the capital has put us through the past weeks or days.
I sit by the body of the stem f the tree, and an albino squirrel looks at me. Red eyes and starts to nibble on my backpack. I tug it away. One More comes, several more. Eating and chewing on my backpack. They come closer and closer to num body. I move. Up and down, I move my body skiing them away, but no, they come back. They oddly look at each other, and their blazing red eyes become more significant, but they do what they always will do. The attack me. Not with their mouths, with their hands. These squirrels have incredibly long fingernails, and they gouache into my skin as they come closer to me, closer and closer. More come, and little holes are formed all over my body. I turn my body and ut my foot back, but my body falls. It falls down the tree and onto the snow. Surrounding me are the wolves, but they are asleep. The squirrels wake them. In such confusion, I don't even know what to do? If I try to run them out, they would kill me. (death doesn't sound bad, though.)
I stand there, and they all look at me, blood dripping from my head and into the snow. I think I'm going mad. Not to forget, my epileptic hand helps the situation.
Kerina, 14 yrs old, district four. She carries a bow and arrow, pouting it at the wolves. She is in a tree, a much taller tree than the one I was in. She tilts her head to the side and makes eye contact with me. She pulls a rope down, and I latch onto it. She pulls me up and hands me a bow, tilting her glasses down to the bottom of her nose. She says to me, "i've studied them, we kill one they all run away, I got the sqrille you got the wolf." I had never noticed Kerina being she is so young. She looks at me and says, "well are you just going to stand their?" She looks at me puzzled and starts shooting; her bowl hits five squirrels at once like a shishkabob. Kerina looks at me and says, "dinner," I say, "yum?" I hit one wolf, and they all run away. Again, I'm confused because she just lifted me, she could kill me... or maybe that isn't her plan, perhaps she doesn't have a plan. Perhaps she isn't that dumb.
On the tree, she has setups a mini house, a working stove, and food all over the place. She looks at me and says, "you can stay here for now, till you skin heals" she passes me a parachute "this was from my sponsor, it works... put it on your skin," I say, confused "thanks? But why are you helping me" she says sighing "why does everyone say that"... I reply, "because I'm basically your enemy," she replies, lifting her right eyebrow "remeber who the real enemy is haymitch, plus. I dont want to live this thing," I reply "now, why does everyone say that. None of us want to live."
Kerina replies, "the little kids should win, they honestly have caring families" I reply, "true, true".. the thing is, she is like fourteen, that's pretty young like it is still mandatory for her to attend a school. Kerina comes closer to me, and I say, "arent you like fourteen, your pretty young" she replies, "i am, but doesn't mean that I want the life after the games.... Thats why I am giving you this," I reply "giving me what" her body comes closer to mine, almost two inches away... she grabs my hand an I flick backbit I allow her, she grabs my hand buts a knife into it. I say "what are you doing" she replies "you win haymitch, outsmart the capitol you have done it countless times, outsmart them and win." She grans my hands holding her own with them as the knife sets in the middle. She tips toes and kisses me smack on the lips, and then she plugs the knife right in her center.
BOOM! The cannon fires, and her eyes roll back. I knew her for five seconds, and her body lays in my arms. Her blood lays in my arms. Her life lies in my arms.
Her blood drips over mine. She just sacrificed herself for me. She was a good kisser, but I would think that she would kill me. She killed herself. Wow. She had made a bedding area out of leaves in the tree, and I lay her on it. Here she has everything, several sponsored gifts of food and water... not to mention medicine. Placing my hand over her "oven," which is a stick placed on top of a fire, I take the food she had prepared: two carrot sticks and beef jerky. I look at her dead body, I never noticed, but she seemed different then to all the other tributes, physically.
Nobody ever paid attention to her appliance, but she was albino like the squirrels. We don't see many albino tributes or people. It's so different to see a pale person, with very light skin... some people would think that it is not lovely but... looking at Kerina now. It's quite beautiful. It's weird to think about now since I never even paid attention to it in training.
Every year one tribute, at least one commits suicide.. frankly, I almost did. But some do it before the games or as they are about to win the games... never in the middle. The sight is pretty odd, but she continues to eat the meal slowly. The crack of each carrot stick reminds me of the crack of bones I've heard throughout this whole thing. The jerky reminds me of my burnt skin that healed and now is covered in blooding microscopic holes. The little holes around my body get filled in with ice, the weather drops down, and soon I can't feel my hands, my hands feel like old rubber wheels, and my nails look as dark as the sky. I can a=only imagine how my face loos, but my position is horrible. I can feel the temperature change and the hair on my body stick up as if gravity were pulling it up. Blood drips down my nose, and ice trickles on the side of my shoes. I am freezing. I strip away Kerinas's jacket, and even though it is smaller, I wrap it around myself. I take the blankets and skins of animals she has skinned and placed them around me. Using vines she had, I use them to wrap around myself to keep the skins in place. I use fishing needles to make them stay in place. The fishhooks remain well, but they touch into my skin like when gran would sew my clothing on and accidentally tic me. Amy, Amy would be laughing with me right now, she would be in my arms, and we would be freezing together, she would say, "This is nice," her presence was all I needed. And I'll I will ever need. We would most likely drink vegetable broth together and sit near the fire, just us too. Instead, I am sitting in a fireless fire because somebody would see me if I made a fire. I sit on a hard floor, with animal skin around me, blood everywhere, and in complete loneliness.
I look around, and Kerina had a watch, a pocket watch like mine. A pocket watch sits there on the ground with a long bronze chain that is thin and delicate, every hook attached correctly—the watch similar to mine, with a white face and each numbered black. I compare the two watches, almost identical but different chains and colors. My watch is charcoal gray and has a black look with white letters and is engraved in purple. In the back, "stay Alice." I turn Kerinas to the end, and her's says, "what's done is done"... she seemed to have that attuned when I met her, very calm but to the point—expecting everything that happens. She probably believed in fate, but I shouldn't assume. My fingers Gide tough the chains like a slithering snake, but I notice, both watches have different times. Kerins watch says 6:30 am, mine says 8:30 pm... odd. It is obviously-- well, maybe not it isn't eight, and it is six, what time is it. Another factor the capitol It has sed to confuse us and make us miserable. Nothing new. I look around more, placing the watches in my pocket but leaving kerinas on hand. My fingers press against the mahogany, and there is another watch. It lays in a darker older gold chain, thinker and wiser looking. If a watch could be personalized into an old man in the hob, this would be it.
I turn It and blood is inside the white face of the watch, in little letters in the face of the back it says, "dean curuso" another life that Is dead. Dean was around with-teen again, something only fourteen years old.... weird. Was she keeping the watches of people she has killed? My mind goes blank at the sight—a parachute.
This one is black. The comes down in a leather box and key, the key is placed in a minute bag in front of it. I set aside my things and open the sponsored gift. A note on the top says "not a sponsored gift, something you have earned- President Snow" only enough to see his name in print. Watches. Eight watches. All different metallics, I look closely into each of the watches, and there are Mathis, Jack, Mykella and Kerina... all my deaths but then there are Zemira, Lydia, Reigh, Timothy, felicity, and Fauna. Fauna was killed by jack. So... if Faunas watch is here, that means once you killed the person, you get a hold o that person's murders.
I killed jack, so that means the death of Fauna lies on me. How. Faunas rose golden watch so delicate and tiny slips right out of my hand and into the box. Now, as a tribute, I am personally responsible for the death of Fauna. I can't because I was responsible for four deaths and now, well, now I am responsible for ten. My head turns in fifty different directions. And now to add all this, I have to carry ten watches plus forty-seven of them at the end—a plot twist. The capital must be intrigued by this. I have pockets all over y body. I lay the tributes watch who I doubt know them personally in my back pockets and lay Faunas tied around my hand.
I sit down down and the night dims more, and a dark cloud comes to me. I am high up, so I would figure that would happen. Approaches me, coming closer, I stay in place, only a cloud, I think. It does to be and pushes me. This cloud? Is a rock. A cloud as hard as a rock. It pushes me off the tree, and I land straight down. As I am falling branches, hit me, and leaves crack with me down and down, probably the height of a capitol building. My body lands into the soft snow, but this wall pushes me. It pushes me and pushes me it chips, but it appears to be clouded ice, something I have never ever seen or thought of before. The "wall" pushes my body agate the tree and smacks my body into the evergreens. I hover over the trees, and there in front of me, another clouded wall, another wall in my perimeter. I am coming straight at me. The walls are caving in, clastopbhia, another fear, something I had never thought I was afraid of, but here it is right in front of me.
The wall pushes me directly. My feet point up, trying to attempt to slow this down. Could this get any worse... it can.
Ayden wright. Almost as big as Nickolai, he's almost twice my size and has had his life served to him on a silver platter. He is on the other side of the wall doing the same thing that I am. He makes eye contact with me. A good fifty years are between us. He shows no mercy. The snow flys Behind his feet, the wind breezes and becomes heavy. I do the only thing that I know. I take out the most giant knife that I have from one of my pockets, and there he is, hr stops and says, "lets hope that odds aren't in your favor blondie" he has nothing, no knife, no trident no arrows, hs big self. He circles me almost and checks me out, giving me stares as if I were modeling clothing for him. He says to me, "well at least we have something to work with here," he places his left leg back and bends himself like if he were about to do a squatting position. He chargers at me to my stomach, and my back forms against the evergreen, he des the same thing I did ih Mykella and does it over and over again. I climb over his shoulder, slamming my body assist the snow and grab his right leg and push it's up, causing him to fly up, I roll my body to the side. His body slams against the snow, p place my body right onto of his chest and he says early breathing "well, isn't this a sight I never dreamed of being in" I reply "you only live once" he grabs my shoulders and flips me over, placing all his body weight on me, he weighs three hundred pounds, and he says "how does this feel" I reply "womderuf;" with my legs, I tie them together and wrap them around his neck and smack his head to the snow. The walls are closing even more, and we have a 2fr circumference, he says "scared" our bodies become compressed as it the walls, and we is here almost crushed Like bugs, and he says to me "i cant breath" I reply "cool, Maes the job easier" I slide my body through the side. We have now one foot between us, and I climb myself over his body and place my hands over his shoulder like If I were doing a handstand, I use his neck as my support, and as the walls closed in, so do my hands on his neck. They got closer and closer, his muscular neck deflates, and his eyes closed, and BOOM! The cannon blows. I reach into his pocket in between the little space we have, and there it is, three, no four watches, Liona, Logan, Alabi, and.. ivy? Ivy died out of a natural cause. Again "strang things did happen here not stanger would it be"... something strange is going on.
Drive for these watches is weird. I am in the airtight space, I can hardly breathe, but all the different clocks tick at t=differnt times, causing the misophonia that I have to irritate. The walls decompress us, and Ayden's body lyres flat casino the earth almost to shake. The watches all ticking at different times and paces annoys me. Still, the glacial temperature irritates me becomes I have become an ice man, icicles form on the tips of my hair, my hair has grown throughout this whole process, and so has my hate for ice and nighttime. The knife that always lies between my fingers has frozen. My hand used to be the only thing that shook in my body, but now my whole body moves forward and backward, and my hairs tick up, my body is covered in little bumps, and purples bruises circle my body.
All the watches tik tik tik tik, tok tok tok tok tok, I say to myself 'ding ding ding ding" and a voice replies "dong dong dong dong dong"
Carson. Carson Rascon, ten yrs old and a career, a jerk to some it up. Carson says to me "what is harmless but can kill you?!"... I reply "you," he says sarcastically "hahahha no. Time! And it seems to me that you are in a pick with time are you not?" I reply, "ding dong Sherlock no," he laughs at me, as I am freezing and he contemplates my misery say to him,
"When is 1600 plus 25 and 1700 minus 35 the same thing?" He counts his fingers, and I say to him, "oh sorry did pass your elemteray graduation?" His eyes fuel with anger, and he says to me, "i dont know haymitch what is it haymitch" I reply, "time, tik tok" he rolls his eyes at me, and I say, "what are you waiting for?" He zones out, and his eyes blank out. His eyes lose trace from mine.
Penelope in the background. Her cheeks were red, and her hair curlier than ever. She looks at me with bow and arrow in her hand. I shake my head so that she wouldn't kill me and retrace my steps a little bit. Boom. Penelope's arrow glides right through Carson's heart. His body falls onto the ground, and I scream at her, "I WASNT FOUND OF HIM EITHER". She runs to me and smacks me across the face. She looks down, and her eyes are puzzled. She says, "i just killed Carson. I thought it was Ayden" I reply, "dude Ayden died a while ago" she says, "ive been awake for five minutes haymitch what do you ecpact" awkward silence approaches us. She says, "i just killed a ten yr old," her eyes tear up "i have cousin this age" her knees fall from to the ground and I payback to her.
"well isn't it the consequences of our own action Ms.Dramatic."
She looks at me, and her arched eyebrows come closer together, and her lips and eyes sell up. I say to her, "check his pocket" she replies, "why," I say, "check it" she unzips his burgundy puffer jacket, she pulls out a silver watch with a gray face and a medium linked chain "a watch" she says, I reply "you have one-two?" She says, "well yeah, it was in the backpack" I reply, "every time you kill somebody, you get their watch, and their murders watch" she replies, "you could make a fortune from the ones you have" I really "only 15" she replies "so the winner gets all forty-seven watches?" I reply, "ye! And to add to that, they also get all responsibility" she replies, looking down at Carson's watch and gliding her thumb over the face "isnt that lovely" she stands up and smacks me again. Another parachute comes, a black one like the one I received... it comes closer to us, and I say, "this is from snow, most likely Lukahs" she replies, "what?" I reply, "you killed Lukas Penelope. You get his watch, and the people he has killed watches..." she looks at me with an awful face and says, "you killed him" oi reply, "penelope, face the facts you killed him" I open the box and take out the several watches and hand the, to Penelope, her eyes fill with tears as usual and her hand's lip though the chains like that I did several times, she says to me "i am responsible for, Drax, Jasper, Carson, and Lukas" I reply "thats reality sweetheart" she says "funny how you have confused this living with reality" I reply "WELL GUESS WHAT THIS IS REALITY! THIS IS OUR REALITY AND WILL FOREVER BE OUT REALITY BECAUSE FRANKLY PENELOPE THIS IS WHERE WE LIVE, AND THIS IS THE AIR WE BREATH" she looks at me and says "i killed four people'.