The Reaper | F. Odair

Twelve

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Aaron
-—-

I throw myself onto the girl, my scythe slipping from my fingers before I do. There's a burst of laughter slipping out of her mouth as she drops her own axe and spins me around. "Aaron!"

"Where the hell have you been?!" I shout as she puts me down, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me.

"HELL!" she screams, "That's where!"

I slowly scan her and blink. "When did you bathe in blood?" I ask, the metallic stench now filling my nose.

"Where's Blight?" Finnick asks, hugging Johanna next.

My eyes snap over to the man behind Johanna. It's dad -- there's a look of anger on his face. "He's dead."

"Dead?" Finnick blinks.

"It's this bitch's fault." Dad snaps, pointing his scythe at Johanna.

Johanna scoffs, "I didn't kill him!"

"YOU DIDN'T SAVE HIM!"

"I COULDN'T SAVE HIM YOU--"

"STOP IT!" Finnick shouts.

"What..." We all look back around at Katniss and Peeta, Peeta's slowly looking back at Katniss and the rest of us. He gulps, "what... what happened?"

Johanna's head snaps towards dad's as she reaches for her axe. "Alex was leading us through the jungle with Blight." she seethes, looking back at Katniss and Peeta, "Then the rain started! I thought it was water, but it turned out to be blood! Hot. Thick. Blood. It was coming down and it was choking us--!"

"Tick Tock!" Wiress (next to dad) suddenly says, walking up to Johanna. Johanna rolls her eyes and pushes past her.

"We were walking around and gagging on it blind!" she cries, walking around and stopping in her tracks after a moment. Her head drops and she takes in a deep breath before looking back up at the sky, her nostrils flaring. "And then, Blight hit the forcefield... he wasn't much, but he was from home."

"He was my friend!" Dad shouts, "we could've saved him, but you said to leave him!"

"Tick tock--"

"How could we have saved him if we couldn't even breathe ourselves!?" Johanna shouts back, ignoring Wiress. "He's dead, Alex!"

"Tick tock!"

"What's wrong with her?" Katniss asks quietly.

"She's in shock." a voice says, we all look over at Beetee who's now coming out of the water, no longer soaked in blood. "Dehydration isn't helping her. Do you have fresh water?" he asks, pushing his glasses up onto his face.

Katniss nods and fiddles with her shirt, "we can get some--"

"Tick tock!" Wiress cries, weakly smiling and now grabbing at Johanna.

The blood soaked brunette blinks, her mouth dropping. "Hey -- H-hey!! HEY, STOP IT!" Johanna screams, grabbing the womens collar with one hand and shoving her to the ground. Johanna becoming physical wasn't exactly uncommon when she was angry.

Katniss immediately comes between the two, shoving past me and immediately shoving at Johanna. "Stop that!"

"What?!" Johanna snaps, grabbing at the girl. "I never wanted to get her! I only got her for you! I got them out!"

"Johanna!" Finnick shouts, grabbing at the girl and pulling her away.

"The hell are you on about?" Katniss shouts, shoving her just as Finnick grabs her. I grab her next and immediately she starts kicking at me as Johanna fights against Finnick.