☞︎ℍ𝕦𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕣 𝔾𝕒𝕞𝕖𝕤 ~ 𝔸𝕞𝕖𝕥𝕙𝕪𝕤𝕥'𝕤 𝕤𝕥𝕠𝕣𝕪 ☜︎

~Goodbye Victor~

I spin as the knife makes contact, embedding itself deep into Victor's skull. 

A cannon sounds, the boom softening to background noise in my mind.

Her eyes go wide for a second, surprised at this new, deadly development, and then she screams once, a horrible, bloodcurdling sound, and collapses to the ground. 

I rush towards her, with Aegis rooted to the spot behind me. 

He seems to freeze when anything dangerous happens. Wow, great survival instincts. 

I speak her name quietly, starting at a whisper and getting louder when she doesn't respond. I slap her face. I pour what remaining water we have on her, willing her to wake up. 

But she just lies there, still and unmoving. She doesn't blink, and I don't see her chest moving. I can't wake her. 

I check her pulse for good measure. She's dead. And so I close her eyes gently, wiping away my tears, and then slowly turn towards her attackers, brandishing my ax. 

But there're more people than I thought before. 

There are about six. SIX. Six tributes out of the ten remaining are here, here to kill me and Aegis. Here to kill Victor, which they have done already. 

And one has Aegis pinned to him, and he's holding a knife to his throat. 

I think on this. On the good side, I don't want to kill Aegis and this would be easier. Then I could run and hide away, possibly until everyone else kills each other. That'd be good. 

But on the bad side, then Aegis is dead. And if he survives, he'd never forgive me. Plus there's such a small chance I could outrun six strong tributes in a desert, or at least not for long. If I run, I'd be dead and so would he. 

So I'll try to fight. Can't be that hard, can it? Fighting six careers with only an ax? I've got better chances than many other tributes had. I can do this. 

I raise my ax, ready to strike, and sunlight glints off the blade. It still has some dried blood on it I never bothered to wipe off. 

Maybe this makes me look scarier or maybe Aegis thinks we're not friends, which maybe we're not, but he blanches and mouths no silently. The guy holding him either doesn't notice or ignores him. 

"Come on and fight, little girl!" Another tribute squeals. She has olive skin and black hair that's shoulder-length. Half of it is tied up behind her head in a ponytail, which complements her dark-blue eyes nicely. So she must be Oceania, from district four.

I get a good look at the other tributes. 

There's the girl I mentioned, Oceania, and a boy that looks so pampered and well-fed he must be from Victor's district, so he must be Gleam. He's the one holding Aegis. 

There's another boy holding some sort of wicked-looking knife, but not the same kind embedded in Victor's head. It looks like it's used for cutting up animals. I've seen the butcher in our district using one like it before. So he must be that boy from ten, Magret.

There's another girl, who looks extremely underfed and like she might die at any moment. She looks like she hasn't been getting enough to eat, in the arena and out. I've heard they don't have much food in 12, so she might be Etta.

There's one from five, the girl, so Dahlia, talking to herself about home. It's creepy and maybe she's gone insane, but I've seen much worse in fourteen years of watching the hunger games. 

Another girl shoots her a glare, as if Dahlia's annoying her and she just wants to get this over with.

"She's not going to fight, Oceania. She's not stupid. And she looks good with that ax, too, and brave. Say, girl, what's your name?" She asks. I don't know if it's a good thing she's noticed my proficiency with my ax.

"Amethyst. District 7. Yours?" I respond, trying to sounds brave and confident. I can't tell if it works, but if it doesn't I can just imagine all the kids back home laughing at me making a fool of myself. 

"Cassia. District 2. And you've already met my district partner." Cassia gestures to Aegis. I let out a squeak that I quickly replace with a growl. 

No. Cassia's dead, that's what Victor told me and that's what I'll believe. Maybe this girl is lying. Maybe she's one of those tributes from eight- Lea. Maybe she's Lea. Because the dead can't just come back to life! It's impossible!

"You're dead! You're dead, how are you-" My voice trails off. Cassia smiles. 

"Yes, I am dead. That's how, seven."