The Hunger Games has been proven to test everyone's virtue, not just the young and unfortunate kids plucked from their districts and thrown into the arena. Venus Hummingstill has never cracked under pressure. Regardless of everything being stripped...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Venus took off into a sprint, pushing past stunned audience members and throwing off her Academy blazer top and leather backpack to the ground.
"Is there a doctor? Please, someone help!" Coriolanus cried as he eased her to the ground.
Venus dropped to her knees, sitting next to the scared boy as she pressed her manicured hands into his. Together they placed pressure over the wound to stop the bleeding. The pair instantly recoiling upon hearing a choking sound. "Jesus." She whispered to herself.
"All of these people here and no one can help?!" Venus fumed, ready to lose her temper at an instant. "Don't just stare! Do something!"
A couple of Peacekeepers were shouldering their way towards them, but much, much too slowly for their liking. The chewing of the District 10 girl could be heard as she took a furious bite of her sandwich. The Peacekeepers aimed their guns in her direction and Venus sprung onto her feet.
"No!" She screamed, mere inches from the bullets as she tried to save another life.
Coriolanus snatched her by the arm, pulling her into his chest and restraining her. Together they watched as the District blood commingled with Arachne's. Both red, both the same to the naked eye. Bits of half-chewed food fell from her mouth and floated into the pool. In horror, Venus buried her head into Coriolanus's chest. His arms wrapped around her small body as he tried protecting her from the gruesome sight. The crowed resumed panic as people tried to flee the area.
Venus refused to look up. She grasped onto Coriolanus's shirt with her bloodied hands, trembling while he held her close. She heard the soundless words of Arachne, the gurgling signifying her last rough breaths were being taken. Venus and Coriolanus knew it was pointless to try and resuscitate her. If anyone forced air into her mouth, surely it would escape from the gash in her neck.
The girl saw Festus staring at her in shock. To hide the tears streaming from her cheeks, she dug her head into Coriolanus's body and allowed her body to rock in agony. Weakness was furthest from her mind as she just watched two lives be taken. The Hunger Games was already bringing out the worst in people and she knew for certain that she would not survive the week.
Even if Dill won the Games, everything she would have done to get to that point will stay with her forever.
It will scar them both for a lifetime.
Coriolanus maintained his hands on her back, rubbing them up and down until the redness was down her body. He flinched at the shiny stuff coating his hands. He turned and found Lucy Gray huddled against the bars of the cage, her face hidden in her ruffled skirt, her body shaking, and realized he was shaking as well.
The blood, the whizzing of bullets, the screams in the crowd all caused flashback to the worst moments of his childhood. He could hear rebel boots pounding through the streets, he and the Grandma'am pinned down by gunfire, dying bodies twitching around them ... his mother on the bloodstained bed, the loss of his unborn sister and mother in one moment ... the stampedes during the food riots, the smashed faces, the moaning people...
