Writer's Games Entries

Task 6: "My Battle Cry" (SF)

A/N: This is the Semi-Final task, which is famously known as the reflection task. Here, we were supposed to use the song from the tribute-form and base the landscape of the tribute's mind, on that song. Mine being "Battle Cry" from Imagine Dragons, earned my task the title, 'My Battle Cry'. I'm not gonna say it was easy. I actually deleted an entire draft before I ended up with the task below. It was harder than I thought and it challenged me regarding thinking abstractly. If it is good enough, it can give me a bye to finals, if not, I am up for votes about whether or not I will make it.

"Just one more time before I go, I'll let you know
That all this time I've been afraid wouldn't let it show
Nobody can save me now, no...
Nobody can save me now"

My insides are about to force themselves out. I swear seeing that arrow penetrate that boy's skull and have Jem's lifeless eyes aimed at me from the other side just...it stirred something up in me. I am just exhausted. I can't do this anymore. I've said it so many times, but I always find a way to survive. What's the point? Why can't I just let destiny have its way with me and die?

It's instinct, I suppose. I keep running. I keep surviving. I don't know for much longer I can do that though. For every second that passes, my knees are turning weaker. For every breath I take, my chest burns a little more. All my life it's been that way, but right now, I wonder what the actual point is. I have never really thought of myself as a strong character...at least not strong enough for this.

I lean more and more against the walls as my running turns into limping, and then fast walking. I'm doing everything I can just to get away from that stage-set where I found myself at a completely different arrangement than the actual Arena. That's where I found myself at a battlefield, which for some reason had some familiarity to it. My entire life has been at a battlefield. I have never really been living. I have just fought to survive.

I stop. I can't keep running. For once, I have run out of whatever strength my legs have as I gasp for air. I see this disturbing red stain on my clothing and it immediately makes me gulp loudly. My breath turns shaky as I slide down the wall and end up on the floor. I try to catch my breath as my chest go up and down, up and...down. My entire body is finally at its breaking point. This is not out of fear though...no, if only fear could describe it.

I turn my head back and forth a couple of times. I see nobody. I am in the middle of a hallway stretching out equally long in both directions and I have no escape route. My breaths are echoing through the hallways. Someone must be hearing me. I'm not that quiet. You know, I am actually begging someone to just hear it and get me out of this...just kill me so I can get out of this existence that I call a life.

I place my bow down on my lap and manage to calm down. It is then that I hear this sound of something coming through the vents. I breathe it in before I even manage to find out where it's coming from. Please, let this kill me. Please end this miserable existence of mine. I don't care anymore. I just want to get out of this. I have nobody fighting for me so why should I keep fighting to win? Why should I when all I will be is more of a ghost than I already am?

It doesn't suffocate me though. The gas, it only makes me dizzy and after a while nauseas. It's just the last brink of what it takes before I throw up on national television. District 2 must be so disappointed in me now. I can't imagine the faces...I actually can, but I don't care. That's not even the first thing to come to mind when I open my eyes again.

There's nothing new in the terrain. The hallways are just the same, but it's a little more...crowded. My breath turns shaky and I go into my defensive mode right away as I pull an arrow and put it on my bowstring. I am surrounded by tributes. The ones on my left are the ones that intimidate me the most. They are holding weapons. Their grips are tightening around them as I aim the arrow at them.