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︳𝐆𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄 ︳
𝐀𝐂𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄 ━ 𝐕𝐈𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒
𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞
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FIVE KNIVES ARE CLUTCHED between nimble fingers. Every last one will hit its target.
There are bodies all around her. Taunting her. Angering her.
Anger can often be a double-edged sword harming those in its path but ripping apart those who wield it from the inside out.
She's slow to rage. Not easily provoked. Patience is her greatest weapon. She wields her anger, aiming it like a fine tipped dagger, only one path of destruction in its wake.
Her enemies.
Blaze Bancroft lets the first knife fly and her aim rings true. The first dummy would not be seeing ever again, a knife lodged into its eye. The second knife stabbed itself in the other permanently eliminating Blaze from its sight.
Four enemies left.
Her third knife pierces the jugular of the dummy to her left, the fourth flying to her right and stabbing the unfortunate soul in the center of its head. Her wrist flicks upwards and the fifth knife flips through the air before landing back in her firm grip. Her smile is deadly as she turns, lightning quick, and sends the blade into the heart of the dummy who attempted to sneak up on her.
One enemy left.
She has no more knives and her katana lays on the ground between her and her final opponent. She runs, grabbing the sword from the ground, as she slides on her knees towards her victory.
Her opponent has no leg, the sword slicing clean through the bottom half of his leg. He falls and she pivots slicing down towards the back of his head, splitting it in half.
Blaze stands and tilts her head up towards what she imagines will be a sunny sky. Rays of light shining down on the newest victor that has once again brought glory and honor to their district. Her smile is wide, her bloody sword raised above her head. The cries and cheers of district two ring in her head.
Their bloody warrior. Their hero.
"What an amazing show!"
Blaze drops her arm and groans as loud claps echo throughout the empty training room. There goes her peace and quiet that she had cherished ever since school let out for the day.
"If you're done with your roleplaying or whatever that last part was, I would really like to get home for dinner soon."
Blaze opened her eyes and tilted her head down towards where her intruder stood, a deadpan expression on her face. The shit-eating grin he returned did nothing to reduce her annoyance, but she didn't let it show as she started cleaning up the mess she had made in her hours of practice.
A spear stuck out of a target near the far wall of the room and a long sword laid discarded near the head of a dummy, clearly not being favored. Heavier swords did not mesh well with speed.
"How long have you been here anyway? You know you can take breaks right?"
Blaze put back her weapons and turned with her arms crossed to see that the boy had moved and was now discarding the damaged dummies into the already large pile that laid near the door. "I have to train if I want to go into the games this year. And honestly Ryker you should be too."
Ryker's jaw slackened, his thumb coming up to rub his brow, as he looked to the floor briefly before meeting her stare. "You're already a shoo-in for volunteer this year, Blaze. You deserve to take a break."
"We're gonna be up against every eligible junior and senior in the academy tomorrow, Ryker. There's no time for breaks."
On any normal day, Blaze would gladly head home after her evening training session. But today called for more extensive practice. Every year, there were evaluations at the Career Academy to determine who would be chosen to volunteer for the annual Hunger Games. Normally, only seniors were invited to evaluations, it being their last year eligible to be in the games. However, with the immense amount of talent in this year's group some juniors and even sophomores were invited for the final exam.
In District Two, it was an honor to fight in the Hunger Games. Every family wants the chance to bring glory to their district. This year, that spot would be Blaze's. She was only sixteen, but was better than all of the seniors at the academy. Her father made sure of that.
Ryker had always been naturally gifted. Training came easier to him than it did to others, which explained why he was one of the only sixteen year old boys going into evaluations tomorrow. While he never verbally expressed his love of the games, Blaze always assumed he enjoyed them just as much as her.
Ryker rolled his eyes, watching as Blaze strolled over to her backpack and pulled it over her shoulder. In the time Blaze had been dedicating to training, she had been neglecting him. While years ago they would rush away from school the moment the clock struck four, recently Ryker found himself heading out alone to waist away in his bedroom until she would call him to hang out. Obviously, that wasn't often either. He missed his best friend.
"Your mom sent me here to bring you home for dinner." He turns on his heel to leave, but before he gets too far he looks over his shoulder and yells "I would suggest you hurry up, she's making spaghetti!" Then he was gone.
Blaze snorted knowing that Ryker was the more excited out of the two for her mom's cooking. At least she could count on him to always come get her instead of taking her serving for himself.
When she gets to the lobby Ryker is standing at the door with a smirk. His muscular arms are crossed over his chest and he leans his head against the frame as he looks down his nose at her with a crooked smile. " I knew you couldn't resist Mama Bancroft's saucy goodness." She rolls her eyes but isn't able to keep the smile from appearing on her face when he wraps his arms around her shoulder pulling her into his side.
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Blaze sat quietly at the dinner table as Ryker talked animatedly to her mother. She stabbed the noodles on her plate with her fork as she watched them giggle like old friends. Her nose scrunched up as she looked back at her plate and swirled the food around it. Her mom had never been that talkative with her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her father staring at her intensely from where he sat across the table. The only evidence that he had actually existed during this dinner was the layer of sauce still left on his dish.
She glanced up at him and his stern face. Careful you might get wrinkles if your eyebrows stay joined together like that.
"Eat your food," he said gruffly, letting her know that he would make her eat, if she didn't comply. Rolling her eyes she picked up her fork and proceeded to clean her plate knowing there would be consequences if she disobeyed. She understood why he was forcing her though, strong victors needed to eat to maintain their strength and muscle. You couldn't win the games if you were weak.
She noticed Ryker give her a concerned look as she stood up from her seat, ready to head to bed. Just like normal, she ignored him. Whenever he would try and show just a little bit of concern where her father was involved, she shut down on him.
"Sit down. Just because you're done eating doesn't mean you get to leave the table. Show some respect." Her father's glare was enough for her to take her seat again, keeping her eyes down and on the table. Her mother, who was now acting very interested in the liquid in her glass, never disagreed with him when he got angry with her.
With her father being a peacekeeper, he was big on respect and loyalty especially when it came to the Capitol. He usually stayed there year round only getting leave during select times of the month to come home and make sure his daughter was performing to the best of her abilities. Of course he made sure he was here now with the reaping being so close.
Her mother could never bring herself to intervene during moments like this, in fear that she might accidentally say something he didn't like. What a coward.
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Dinner did not get any better for Blaze. All she wanted to do was take a bath, get into her warm bed, and get away from everything that irritated her—that being having to listen to the ridiculous conversation between her mother and Ryker and her father's stupid face glaring daggers into the side of her head. She wished she could put a dagger in him.
Naturally, as the family cleaned up the table and retreated to their rooms, Ryker followed her upstairs to disturb her peace. She took a book off her bookshelf, sat on her bed, and twirled one of her knives between her fingers, choosing to ignore him. The book was an old one, written long before the first war about two lovers who both ended up dying in the end.
Ryker closed the door softly and sat on the bed beside her, so close that she could feel the heat radiating off his body. She could see him smiling from the corner of her eyes, his knee bouncing up and down from his criss-crossed position. She attempted to ignore him some more, but she could no longer stand his attitude, so she slammed her book down and turned to scowl at him.
"What are you so happy about?"
He let out a loud squeal, as if that was the exact moment he had been waiting for, and then collapsed onto one of her pillows. "I met someone, Blaze." His cheeks had reddened to the shade of tomatoes and he dramatically brought his hand to his forehead as if he was on the verge of fainting.
"What do you mean you met someone?" Blaze had never had a crush on anyone. It was stupid and careless to ever jeopardize yourself that way. It made you vulnerable and weak, two things she was never allowed to be. She would have to knock some sense into Ryker, literally, if he had allowed himself to be sidetracked by stupid boys. She couldn't afford for him not to be at his best when they got into the arena.
"Well, his name is Mason and I really like him, Blaze. Obviously, we haven't gotten to the love stage yet, but I think we're close." His smile slowly started to drop after he saw the look on her face. She was angry with him that much was clear and he wondered if he made a mistake telling her in the first place. "I wouldn't tell him now. It's only been a few months and I wouldn't wanna get too serious when I'll be going into the games soon."
Blaze's jaw clenched and she took a deep breath before speaking to him in the calmest tone she could muster. "You shouldn't be with him at all, Ryker. How do you know he's not trying to throw you off your game so he can steal your spot in the reaping? I thought you would be smarter than this."
Ryker was furious now. He couldn't believe her audacity.. "He's not trying to do anything. I thought you would be happy for me. You know how hard it is to have any kind of social life here?" He stood up from the bed and stormed towards the door before whipping around, pointing a finger at her. "And have you ever thought of what happens when we both get chosen to volunteer? Only one of us can come out of that arena alive, Blaze. Don't you care about that? Don't you care about me?"
She got to her feet and moved towards him, letting his finger stab her in the chest. "I'm telling you this right now Ryker because I do care. I care too much. Drop him before you lose everything you've worked for your entire life. If you let him come between you and that victor title, you won't have a chance of ever making it past the bloodbath."
With that Blaze turned around and went back to reading her book, not bothering to notice the sag in Ryker's shoulders and the glossy look that appeared in his eyes before he left her room, slamming the door behind him.